The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume Three!

The third volume of The Phantom -The Complete DC Comics wraps up the relatively short run on the classic Lee Falk character by writer Mark Verheiden and artist Luke McDonnell. 

"Trains" from the ninth issue showcases just what Verheiden wanted to do with his Phantoms stories, and that is to confront the grim realities of Africa and somehow find a place for the Phantom's justice. The grinding poverty creates strange and dangerous games for children to play.

"Blind!" is perhaps the most tragic of the stories in the run. It speaks of people robbed of their sight by contamination and then into rice fields as slaves. The Phantom can possibly give them back their freedom, but they have lost something even beyond the powers of the Ghost Who Walks. He gets involved though when Dr. Axel, the man who delivered the current Phantom many years before is attacked. This is McDonnell's most powerful cover in the series. 

The story "Famine" is yet another brutal reminder of how this world is so powerfully indifferent to the suffering of the helpless. The Phantom rushes to save a Nun and her companion when they are captured by a warlord who is stealing food supplies. We also meet Rex, a young boy the Phantom adopted some years before. The impending marriage of the Phantom to Diana has given him some qualms. 

Verheiden and McDonnell wrap up this fascinating run of Phantom stories with a potent two-parter in which the Phantom himself is set up to look like a murderer. "Framed" introduces us to a noble leader who is assassinated, and the police believe the Phantom is involved when a mysterious skull is found on the victim's forehead. Sadly, the Ghost Who Walks must leave the Deep Woods just as his wedding to Diana Palmer is getting planned. We all know he will prevail. The wedding goes off without a hitch and includes a few guests we know. Though he's not namechecked a man in a top hat and tails, and his ally introduced as Prince Lothar shows up to celebrate the union. We are treated to a wonderful last page for this saga. 

I have always liked the Verheiden and McDonnell run on the character. Mark Verheiden is a fantastic writer and McDonnell's work is shown in its finest form in this series which presents the material in a slightly larger format. They brought more depth and a wonderful characterization to a hero who all too often is presented as invulnerable. And truth told, sometimes I like that juggernaut of justice, but it's great to see him as just a man, a man who has chosen a difficult path for honorable reasons, but sometimes struggles with the cost. 

And that wraps up my long look at The Phantom comics. I have one more glance at a classic Avon novel tomorrow. 

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The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume Two!

This second volume of The Phantom -The Complete DC Comics puts its focus on the creators, especially artist Luke McDonnell. We are treated to a short interview with him conducted by Hermes head honcho Dave Herman. Included are pages of original art by McDonnell from various projects for Marvel and DC. 

"Pirates" from the third issue takes the Ghost Who Walks right back to his roots and has him confront piracy, but a modern and especially brutal kind. Needless to say, that with a little help from members of the Jungle Patrol he is able to get a little justice. It's not perfect, but this is a somewhat harsher universe than that of Lee Falk's comic strip. 

The Phantom returns to America and specifically the town of Clarksville in a two-part story beginning with "HATE in the U.S.A." and wrapping up in "Unleashed" when a friend from school is set upon by racists trying to stop his newspaper and to run him out of town. His black skin is all that is required for "The Order" to hate him and mark him for death. Given the nature of the modern world today, it was nice to see some racist assholes get their butts handed to them. While he's in America he proposes to Diana Palmer. 

"Waste" from the sixth issue is a heartbreaker, and much of the story is told from the point of view of a father just trying to make life better for his family and only finding he's brought death to them. Modern society has never confronted out necessity to do away with the toxic chemicals our world requires. This story speaks to that dilemma in a most wrenching way. 

The story "Gold" has Diana Palmer learn of the Phantom's trip to South America to confront the villains who prey on the miners drawn there by a desire for wealth that consumes them. In many ways this mission is a failure for the Phantom and Diana learns much about the man she is planning to marry. 

"Apes" wraps up this second tome and tells the story of a researcher who grew up in the jungle studying gorillas. She has seen both her parents die, both researchers like herself. Now she continues their work in the face of killers who want to poach these precious animals. The Phantom steps in. 

These stories hold up exceptionally well. Despite attempting to being topical and relate to the problems of the time over three decades ago, they still resonate. Much to our shame, these problems seem to be still with us. 

The Verheiden-McDonnell Phantom returns in the third and final Hermes volume next time. 

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The Phantom - The Complete DC Comics Volume One!

The tale of The Phantom in comic books is a tattered one indeed. The Phantom was created by Lee Falk for the comic strip pages in 1936 and is the first of the costumed heroes which would fill the imaginations of youngsters and others in the decades to come. The comic strip is immensely popular and still appears today with new stories. The Phantom has proven to be wildly popular around the globe and many countries produce comics starring "The Ghost Who Walks". But for some strange reason the Phantom has never had great success in comics in the U.S. There were reprints of the strips for decades until Gold Key initiated a series of fresh stories in the early 60's. This was taken over by King Features briefly before Charlton Comics got hold of the hero and produced some very interesting comics with the character in the 70's. Then it went silent for many years. And then DC showed up at the door. 

Hermes Press has reprinted the DC Comics Phantoms in three volumes. The first begins with the original 1987 four-part limited series by writer Peter David and veteran artist Joe Orlando and Dennis Janke. We are treated to parallel stories about Phantoms of different eras. Despite the fact that he carries two automatic pistols, the Phantom has always been a relatively bloodless adventure series. That changes here. When a Jungle Patrol officer is murdered the Phantom is off to the streets of the modern city to find the culprits. It is a powerful businessman named Chessman, who it turns out is a friend of the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer. He's also the descendant of a family of pirates who fought against the thirteenth Phantom centuries before. We follow that long ago saga as related in the Phantom's Chronicles at the same time as we follow the modern Phantom on his quest for justice. 

I am of two minds on its success at what it sets out to do. David seems to have wanted to make the Phantom a bit less of a cypher when it comes to his emotions and that seems a good idea, but in practice I'm not sure I like seeing his cool exterior cracked by rage. Joe Orlando's art is lively and Dennis Janke's inks it well and in keeping with the styles of the time. But it seems off to me somehow, and that could my problem. I've always thought that the franchise didn't mine its rich history enough and that we needed to see the adventures of long-ago Phantoms, and this certainly delivers on that score. But the thirteenth Phantom actually comes across early on as a bit too weak for my tastes.

Above are the action-filled covers for the limited series by Joe Orlando and inker Dave Gibbons. 

The volume then shifts its focus to the next series with new creators Mark Verheiden and Luke McDonnell. Verheiden was a writer who a time was fresh from the Indy market where he raised eyebrows with The American series. He brings that same toughness to this new project. Luke McDonnell was an artist I knew well from his tenure on Iron Man. McDonnell had a style which wasn't that fan-friendly, but not unlike Herb Trimpe found a way to warm you to his work. 

We get the first two issues which together tell the story titled merely "Guns". A ruthless run runner kills three members of the Jungle Patrol, and the Phantom has him in his sights from that point on. The spar with each gaining an advantage in the struggle, but we all know the inevitable outcome. It's a nice yarn told with vigor and power.

Overall, a nice beginning. The second volume by Verheiden and McDonnell will be reviewed next time. 

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