The Phantom: Death in the Deep Woods
Written by Ben Raab; Illustrated by Pat Quinn and Nick Derington
Published by Moonstone
$14.95

I was talking to my local comics retailer one time about Phantom comics and we agreed that the value of the stories varies greatly based on a hard-to-define quality. Basically, either the creators “get” the Phantom, or they don’t.

I don’t say that as some sort of Phantom scholar. ‘Cause as I’ve said before, I’m not. But I do know pulp adventure and the creators who get the Phantom are the ones who best tap into that aspect of him. I mean, the guy’s Batman and Tarzan rolled together in one, beautiful, purple package for crying out loud. He’s supposed to be exciting and adventurous.

Ben Raab, Pat Quinn, and Nick Derington totally get the Phantom.

Death in the Deep Woods collects the first eight issues of Moonstone’s Phantom and what a way to start the series. The first four issues have the Phantom’s wife getting shot and then blown up by terrorists and the Phantom trying to get to the bottom of the plot. It sounds a bit contemporary and serious, but it’s played in a spirit of high adventure with lots of big panels and splash pages of the Phantom leaping into action on his horse or jumping the bad guys and smashing them in the face with his skull ring. The fact that he’s super-pissed off about his wife simply heightens the emotion and makes the whole thing more powerful and exciting.

In the second story arc, Raab introduces a nemesis for the Phantom that I’m surprised no one had ever thought of before. If the Phantom is a legacy hero whose title and costume are passed down from generation to generation, why not give him a similar, legacy villain to fight from generation to generation? That’s what we get here and it’s as brilliantly executed as it was conceived. Raab has the current Phantom discover this legacy enemy and eventually wraps up the story in a way that permanently adds to the mythos without forcing future writers to work it in every other story. It’s really well done.

Both Quinn and Derington have gorgeous, exciting styles and both draw the Phantom with nice, clean lines that hearken back to the newspaper strips. But Quinn’s tight, cinematic approach is especially appropriate for the big action required by the terrorist story, while Derington’s looser inks create the moodier, more mysterious atmosphere appropriate to the legacy villain tale.  

Like I said, this was an excellent start to Moonstone’s ongoing Phantom series and are tales that encourage readers to revisit them again and again, whether long-time Phantom fans or those who are just curious about the character.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Comic Books, Fringe Benefits, Graphic Novels, Independent, News & Views, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.