The Phantom Stranger!

The Phantom Stranger has always fascinated me. He was a true enigma, a "hero" who existed in that strange nexus between DC's superhero books and its burgeoning horror comics line-up. Often teamed with others such as Dr. Thirteen in his own title and later Deadman in that same title, he also joined forces with Batman, Superman and the entire Justice League of America. But in all his appearances, the white-haired mystery man never revealed his truest nature. He just showed up where needed and stood up for the innocent who were confronted with supernatural menaces. The Phantom Stranger Omnibus offers up over three decades of adventures. 

The Phantom Stranger first debuted in the 1950's in stories written by John Broome and drawn for the most part by Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia. The Stranger here is a somberly dressed mysterious figure who suddenly appears to those needing help and giving them that help. 

The character was revived under the editorial control of Joe Orlando during DC's horror boom in the pages of Showcase. This is a vintage 50's tale with a frame by writer Mike Friedrich and artists Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut under a provocative Neal Adams cover. Kids being under threat was a thing on these early DC horror covers. 

The Phantom Stranger quickly gets his own title again, and again we have more unpublished 50's material with new stuff by the Friedrich and Draut team. Draut offers up a tasty cover. 

The next few issues keep up this format with more great Bill Draut art under some Neal Adams covers. Otto Binder writes the frame stories. 

The fourth issue shakes up the format as apparently DC has run through their cache of vintage Broome-Infantino stories and give us a completely new comic with fab interior art by Neal Adams. Robert Kanigher becomes the writer for a time. This issue also sees the addition of Dr. Thirteen to the story mix and he will stay around in the book in some way for much of its run. A new nemesis named Tala is introduced and she too will be a common enemy for Phantom Stranger to battle. The book gets downright crowded as four teenagers are also added to the cast. Their names are Spartacus, Attila, Wild Rose and Mister Square. The stories for a time are the teens find a menace, Phantom Stranger shows up to save them and Thirteen is on hand to debunk the whole affair. 

Mike Sekowsky joins Kanigher on the book for a few issues, while Adams stays to offer up fantastic covers. 

Bob Haney and the Ross Andru / Mike Esposito team hook up to give Phantom Stranger some higher profile when he teams up with Batman in the pages of The Brave and the Bold. 

The big breakthrough for the series is in issue seven when Jim Aparo becomes the regular artist on the series. He will help define the character for DC and give the mysterious figure a more heroic aspect. Adams will keep on making some amazing covers for the book. Gerry Conway will step in with Kanigher to write a few stories as well.  

The four teenagers are eventually faded out and Dr. Thirteen becomes a back-up feature in the book, allowing more room for The Phantom Stranger to build his own world fighting Tala and her agents as well as an alchemist named Tannarak. The great cover for issue fourteen is actually a reference to the Thirteen back-up story. 

It works out great for Phantom Stranger when he next guest-stars in The Brave and the Bold because Aparo is the regular artist on that series as well under a creamy Nick Cardy cover. 

With the twentieth issue Aparo takes over the cover art chores from Adams, and the series had even progressed to the point where the enigmatic Stranger could even have a romantic interest as well in the form of the gorgeous Cassandra Cross, though it would be a few issues before that became a regular thing. 

The Phantom Stranger becomes a member (of sorts) of The Justice League of America in a great story by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, Dick Giordano and cover artist Nick Cardy which put the characters as well as creators in the thick of things in Rutland, Vermont. This was my first introduction to the character, and I loved him from the get-go. Wein was the regular writer of The Stranger's own book by this time as well. 

The Dr. Thirteen back-up stories were phased out and The Spawn of Frankenstein took over in the back pages of the book with great stories stuff by Marv Wolfman and Mike Kaluta. 

The Spawn of Frankenstein met The Phantom Stranger in a wild full-issue yarn that brought both series to turning points. This was my very first Phantom Stranger issue. Dr. Thirteen returns in this story as well and his wife plays a key role. 

The Phantom Stranger series gets a jolt when writer Arnold Drake joins artist Gerry Talaoc as the regular team under Nick Cardy covers. The Spawn of Frankenstein is taken over by different talents as well. 

I like the Drake-Talaoc material fine, but it lacks the verve of the stuff that Aparo was producing. Aparo for his part does become the regular cover artist on the series. The Black Orchid becomes the new back-up feature. 

Bill Draut returns for a single issue on the interior artwork. I really like his clean lines. 

Mike Grell joins Drake on a story which co-stars Deadman, a character DC was desperately trying to find a place for. 

Drake and Talaoc wrap up their run with this mummy story. The series is still quite good but has seen its best days behind it. 

Paul Levitz writes and Fred Carrillo takes on the art as Phantom Stranger battles a new villain named Dr. Seine, a chap who hates the Stranger from a previous encounter. 

Deadman becomes a regular co-star in the series as it reaches its end with issue forty-one. We leave the Phantom Stranger having found some love in Cassandra Cross and the Deadman abandoned as usual with the story's end. 

The two mystical stars hook-up again in an issue of DC Super-Stars battling gargoyles and demons in Rutland Vermont. Terry Thirteen is on hand yet again as well as the creators of this wandering mess of a story which captures more than a smidgeon of its plot from the great TV movie Gargoyles. 

The Phantom Stranger joins Dr. Thirteen and Abel to celebrate the one hundred fiftieth issue of House of Secrets. 

The Stranger then becomes relegated to the back pages of the DCU showing up as a partner in The Brave and the Bold and DC Presents with Batman and Superman respectively. It's good to see Aparo draw him again and I've always liked how Dick Dillin represented the hero as well. 

Though completely unheralded on the covers, The Phantom Stranger becomes the regular back-up feature in the revived The Saga of the Swamp Thing comic book. Bruce Jones writes the first story but Mike Barr becomes the regular writer. Dan Spiegle offers up some lovely artwork for the series as well. Tony DeZuniga and Fred Carrillo will also draw installments of the run. Joey Cavalieri and Nicola Cuti write some for the character as well. 

Eventually the Stranger joins Swamp Thing in the series and gets his only cover appearance in the first of a two-part tale by Dan Mishkin and artists Bo and Scott Hampton. 

The Stranger next is drawn by Jim Aparo again in the pages of Batman and The Outsiders in a Christmas story. 

He joins Superman and the Joker of all people in a story by Paul Kupperberg and artist Alex Saviuk in the pages of DC Comics Presents. 

The final new comic reprinted in this massive twelve hundred and more volume is the issue of Secret Origins featuring the Phantom Stranger. And in a brilliant move to maintain the enigmatic nature of the mysterious hero, he is given four different possible origin stories talents such as Alan Moore, Joe Orlando, Dan Mishkin, Ernie Colon, Paul Levitz, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Mike Barr and Jim Aparo. 

I want to caution everyone who might have actually read down this far that only the Phantom Stranger stories are reprinted in the omnibus edition in all its glorious color. To read the Dr. Thirteen and Spawn of Frankenstein stories, I needed to fish out my two copies of Showcase Presents. The Black Orchid back-ups are not reprinted in those, and I've ever read them. 

The Phantom Stranger is one of my favorite DC characters. His absolute mystery is fascinating and I'm very happy that DC never sought to undermine that core enigma. If they have in the decades since, I've remained blissfully unaware. 

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