The Phantom (2003 Series) #16

May 4, 2007

The Phantom #16 (Moonstone)
By Mike Bullock, Silvestre Szilagyi, Bret Blevins

Mike Bullock takes his first journey into the jungle since taking over this title full-time. The Phantom encounters a woman who works for an animal conservation organization, a woman who has come under fire by a group of trappers who feel she’s encroaching on their business. What they don’t know, though, is that for the past 150 years, her family has been marked by the rarely-used Goodmark of the Phantom’s left ring, the stamp that indicates they are under the protection of the Ghost Who Walks. As I’ve come to expect from Bullock, the book gives us a lot of strong action and stronger characterization. Angela Carlyle is a bit of a sterotype as a character — the activist who rebels against her family — but she works nonetheless. Silvestre Szilagyi‘s artwork is just great — clean and effective. Moonstone is really treating this classic character right.

Rating: 8/10

Somebody’s First Comic Book: Batman Annual #19

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: Year One: Scarecrow-Masters of Fear

CREDITS:

Writer: Doug Moench
Artists: Bret Blevins & Mike Manley
Computer Colorist: Stu Chaifetz
Letterer: Albert DeGuzman
Associate Editor: Jordan B. Gorfinkel
Editor: Dennis O’Neil
Publisher: DC Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Hey, it’s Batman. Somebody I’ve heard of. But why’s he making like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz?

IMPRESSIONS: Captain Gordon calls in Batman to investigate some weird deaths – people who died of heart attacks with no clue but a piece of straw. It’s strange, these two don’t seem to know each other very well yet… I guess that Year One banner on the cover means this story is set in Batman’s first year in operation? Better that than a Michael Cera/Jack Black movie.

Anyway, we see Batman begin to track down the killer, while at the same time, the killer tells us his story. Seems Jonathan Crane was a spindly little guy who was sick and tired of being picked on as a kid, so he grew up and got a fetish for Washington Irving and Halloween costumes. Even developed a gas that can cause people to have hallucinations that will scare them, literally, to death.

The bonuses to this story. First of all, it’s Batman, and everybody in the English-speaking world (and most of the rest of it) already knows the basics of the Batman story, certainly enough to get by. Second, this is the bad guy’s origin story, so we don’t need to rely on the backstory very much. And third, it’s a complete story in one issue, no “to be continued,” no last minute escape, just a solid story about Batman tracking down a bad guy and throwing him in the Asylum with the rest of his goons. In fact, the last page seems to include all three of the bad guys from The Dark Knight. And this comic was made way back in 1995. Wow, how’s that for farsightedness?

GRADE: A-