I admit that amongst all of the Blackest Night madness, the forefront of my mind wasn't exactly concerned about what the magical members of the DC Universe were up to within this massive line-wide event. I love me someRagman , but I've long since accepted that he'll never get the star treatment he deserves, so in general I'm not too concerned with picking up any book where he could potentially make an appearance (FYI - no Ragman here). So what sold me on picking up DC's resurrected Phantom Stranger #42?
A few months back, Phantom Stranger #42's creative force, writer Peter Tomasi and artist Ardian Syaf quite literally blew me away with Blackest Night: Batman (read our review of Blackest Night: Batman #1). That potential, coupled with the relative coolness factor of The Phantom Stranger as a character, lead to the decision to shell out the $3 for a final issue of a series that was cancelled back in 1976. What I found was a decent comic that wasn't quite up to snuff withTomasi and Syaf's previous collaboration, but at the very least offered a few hints as to the DCU beyond Blackest Night.
Phantom Stranger #42 picks up as the Stranger arrives mid-fight between Blue Devil and a Black Lantern Spectre. Tomasi writes the Stranger as you'd expect him to be, speaking in riddles like "you have seen everything and you have seen nothing", but also manages to throw in a bit of character here and there. A standout moment comes when the Stranger makes a brief wisecrack and immediately denies it when Blue Devil calls him out on it. It's a simple but amusing moment that adds just a smidgen of personality to a character that's been relatively stagnant since '76.
While most of the dialog here is a bit clunky and exposition heavy aside from a few jokes from guest-starrers Deadman and Blue Devil, Tomasi does manage to raise some interesting questions about a post-Blackest Night DC Universe. Specifically, whilst in Nanda Parabat, the Stranger begins spewing things about the "white light" and Deadman's role in what I can only assume is the recently announced Brightest Day. These clues are the saving grace of this issue, as without them Phantom Stranger #42 likely would have been a pointless "check in" with some of the magic folk of the DCU that contributes nothing to the overall story.
Syaf's artwork is adequate, but nothing nearly as impressive as Blackest Night: Batman. For the most part, it's standard superhero comic book fare. Syaf seems to excel more in smaller panels than he does large ones or splash pages; many of the larger images lack a punch, which is unfortunate considering most of these contain battles that should be epic in proportion.
The one glaring inadequacy of this issue is Syaf's layouts. Most pages are standard and work fine, but there is the occasional mind-numbingly horrible page design that made me scratch my head. One example comes early on in the book, with only two panels on a page - and only a small amount of overlap into the gutter space from the larger panel - yet the gutters are massive and white, leaving an awkward amount of blank page on both the top and middle of the page. While that's certainly the worst of it, it left an amateurish taste in my mouth for the next couple of pages.
Despite the varying degrees of quality amongst the resurrected DC titles this month, I can't deny that I'm not enjoying this little marketing stunt that DC has constructed. Phantom Stranger #42, while it's not the best of the bunch, is an enjoyable trip to DC's magic community that leaves a lingering sense of excitement for what is to come after Blackest Night wraps.
