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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The Eternals And The Dreaming Celestial!

With the advent of the direct-sales market in the 1980's, comic book companies were able to offer up limited series which came in the three, four, or sometimes twelve issue versions. These were remarkable because it allowed for some characters to get a peak at an audience without a full-blown commitment to a series which might need canceling after only a few issues of poor sales. Among the most famous of the limited series of course was Crisis on Infinite Earths for DC and for Marvel there was Secret Wars. But there was also at Marvel a twelve issue series for The Eternals. This one was one written by Peter B. Gillis and drawn by Sal Buscema with inks in the early issues by Al Gordon. But before the limited could kick off there was some necessary housecleaning concerning the Eternals. But it didn't really start there. 

In the sixth Iron Man Annual the spanking new Iron Man Rhodey Rhoades discovers the Eternals and the Deviants and finds the former enslaved by the latter due to pernicious mind mines which render the Eternals powerless. There is just one problem with this story, and that's there are not enough Eternals. They are rescued right enough, but only in the final pages where they clean up on the Deviants. Zuras, the leader of the Eternals has been murdered though and that will have consequences. 

Next the Eternals show up in a trio of Avengers issues by Roger Stern and Al Milgrom, in which for the first time Eros of Titan learns of his heritage and its connection to the Eternals and Inhumans of Earth. It all begins with a party thrown by Sersi (a common event in Eternals stories) and before you know it the Avengers are part of a scheme by the bizarre villain Maelstrom (who is part Deviant and part Inhuman) to gain power when the Eternals are within the Uni-Mind. The upshot of this story is that with the demise of Zuras, most of the Eternal population decide to leave the planet Earth and seek their fortunes among the stars. 

The Gillis-Buscema story picks up at this point and we find the remaining Eteranals are Ikarus, Thena, Makkari, Sprite, and Sersi alongside new Eternals Phastos, Korphyos, and Kingo. These seem to be Eternals who have done an especially effective job of blending into human society or have found singular purpose in the world. Thena seeks to become their leader and assume the power of Zuras and the others accept her but not with the respect she feels she deserves. Also on hand are the Deviant mutates Karkus and Reject (who is now called "Sweet Prince"). Also on hand is Margo Damian. 

The main villain of this story is High-Priest Ghaur a priest of the Deviant culture and despite some shenangians by Kro who eventually assumes the leadership role in Lemuria, it is Ghaur and his Deviant cultists who have a plan to give them immense power over not only Deviants, but also humans and Eternals, and perhaps even the Celestials themselves. 

We meet Phastos who is something of a recluse but is of great benefit to the Eternals in that he manufactures many of their primary weapons. In keeping with the Eternals conceit that they resemble in many ways the classic Greek Gods, Phastos of course evokes Hephaestus from that pantheon. 

Kingo on the other hand is a Samurai who just so happens to also be an actor in Samurai movies. He has taken "Sweet Prince" under his wing and is attempting to cool the ferocious mutate's temper and make him an even more effective warrior. 

Much of the story in the early episodes concerns itself with Thena and her troubles as leader of the Eternals. Two things prey on her mind, one is a perception that she is not respected by her peers as was Zuras and her heartfelt affection for the Deviant Kro. The latter might go to explain the former. 

On the other hand Ikaris is proving to be a warrior of a relentless nature pressing always for the few remaining Eternals to go on the offensive against perceived Deviant threats. When the Deviants breach the Pyramid of the Winds which had been guarded by the Polar Eternals for untold ages, Ikaris is convinced they are up to dastardly deeds and he would be right. Their plot concerns the "Dreaming Celestial" a member of the Celestials' Second Host, this renegade was put down by his peers and entombed beneath the Pyramid of the Winds. 

With Thena and Kro on the run from both the Deviants and the Eternals, as both are understood to be traitors to their kind, Ghaur gains access to the tools to revive the Dreaming Celestial and seemingly bend the mighty being to his will. 

My favorite single story in this entire run (with the debut issue a close second) is issue nine which showcases one of Sersi's wildly entertaining parties. Many familiar faces and costumes show up as this is essentially a raucous comedy issue. So well done by both Gillis and Buscema, it's a damn shame that this is their final issue in the series. 

With the ninth issue Walt Simonson takes over the writing and Keith Pollard steps into the penciling chair. All I can find out about the change is that seemingly Jim Shooter did not particularly like Gillis's scripts so I guess that moved him on. Why Sal Buscema left with him is unknown, at least to me. 

The story beings to wind up to its finale with the Eternals infiltrate the city of the Deviants in an effort to stop Ghaur's schemes. Thena and Kro as well as Margo Damien are in the city as well. 

Spoiler Alert: Sadly, this story sees fit to kill off Margo Damien, though the plot device is used to send an attack out on Ikaris. The death of Margo was unexpected and really didn't add up to much given how long she'd been in this storyline, from the very beginning in the original series. It left a sour tasted for certain. End of Spoiler Alert. 

Paul Ryan takes over the pencils in the finale with Ghaur having gotten the power of the Dreaming Celestial and seemingly having become him to some degree. How it all ends I'll leave out of this review, but I will note that weirdly the Eternals seems to fade from this final chapter and the newly organized West Coast Avengers handle a bit more of the fight that I'd have imagined. This is a series that begins with a great deal of energy and does a fine job of freshening the Eternals concept for the 80's Marvel Universe. It's a shame that Gillis and Buscema were not allowed to complete their work as I suspect the finale would've been a bit better. Still and all it's a rousing read for Eternals fans. 

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All-Star Comics - Omega And Alpha!

And then it came to an end. With the Crisis On Infinite Earths (much more on that later) the woeful decision had been made that the Justice Society of America was redundant and so could properly be disposed of so that comics could march forward stalwartly into a new age. Dopes!

Roy Thomas seeking to control the demise since he could not prevent it concocted a wild story which served as something of an oddball bookend to 1979's DC Presents special which had related the previously unrevealed origin of the JSofA. In this wild tale drawn by the talented David Ross and inked by Mike Gustovich the Justice Society finds itself again confronting head on the might of the Third Reich and the devious Adolph Hitler.

To forestall defeat, they allow themselves to be transformed into avatars for the Norse Gods who then enter into an eternal conflict with the great demons of Nordic myth. Thus they are locked away in this version of Valhalla, neither really dead nor really alive, apart from the larger DCU but forever  (in the imagination at least) fighting the good fight.

It was a noble effort, but alas an unsatisfying one, at least for this reader.

Years passed.

Eventually though DC decided to bring them back. It takes place as part of one of the more woeful crossovers called Armageddon. In one of the off-shoots of that story line called Armageddon: Inferno sundry heroes are assembled to battle an other-dimensional threat called Abraxis across four time periods. The battle goes poorly and the Spectre decides to call out some heroes who already exist outside time, the Justice Society of America. They are brought in and battle the villain on his home turf and defeat him. They are then rewarded by being brought back into the DC Universe with the henchmen of Abraxis himself taking their places battling the Nordic gods.

Though the artwork on this storyline is spotty in places, the  JSofA chapter is drawn nicely by Dick Giordano though the story is terribly wonky.

So knocking off the Justice Society was proven a bad idea. That didn't mean DC wasn't done trying to do it though. More later. 

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When Logos Attack!

What do you do when logos attack?


You fight back!


Or you'll just have a problem with all sorts of lettering later on. It's best to nip these things in the bud.

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