Comic Vine Review

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The Phantom Stranger #2 - Visitations Review

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The Phantom Stranger finds out what Pandora is really up to, and meets the descendant of Dr Thirteen.

The Good

Phantom Stranger and Pandora meet up, as Pandora needs his help with something. The son of Trigon, Belial, intrudes on Phantom Stranger's home life in order to give him a warning, and Phantom Stranger comes face-to-face with The Haunted Highwayman.

On the story side of things, I really like this book, and I really like where this is heading. Most of all, I like the incorporation of Haunted Highwayman, from the book ALL STAR WESTERN, into THE PHANTOM STRANGER. The character has to deal with many facets in his life. Aside from his family, Phantom Stranger has dealing with Trigon and kin, he's part of the Trinity, and now he has dealings with Terence Thirteen, a direct descendant of Dr Thirteen, whom was cursed by the Haunted Highwayman.

While there is a lot going on in this book, it doesn't feel like it. At times, the transition between the scenes is a tad clunky, but I truly enjoy how this book is turning out. There's tons of set-up here from some great characters and stories, and hopefully, the book will focus in more on one of these things rather than all of them at the same time. However, that's one of the things I like. His "life" is hectic because of who he is and his powers. He doesn't get downtime.

The Bad

There is one page, in this issue, where the art is incredibly hard to read. Simply, it does not look good at all. Belial, the son of Trigon, goes over recent events, which involve Raven, on a very hard to read page featuring a few small scenes. These scenes are not in panels, and they all flow into each other. It's a common technique in comic book storytelling, but it simply does not work here because the art is muddled and in a few cases, pretty sloppy.

After this point, the art has numerous moments where the art is a bit weird. In a few panels, There's a lot of wavy lines in the background of Phantom Stranger's house. A couple pages later, we gets a close-up of Phantom Stranger that looks incredibly awkward. While I ultimately like style of the art in this book with Brent Anderson, Philip Tan, and Ulises Arreola working together to create this mixture of the old and new, It is pretty rough in this issue.

The Verdict

THE PHANTOM STRANGER is a book I really like. It's a book I now look forward to every month. However, PHANTOM STRANGER is not everyone's cup of tea. The art, can be rough, at times, even thought I find it a unique mixture of the old and new. It's the weakest aspect of this book.

This can be a tough character for readers to latch onto; however, it's a character and book people should give a shot. It features some incredibly cool and interesting characters from the DCU that you may or may not know, and the events that happen here may eventually lead to some answers of what happened after Flashpoint.

This issue isn't as strong as the first one, but it's still pretty good. I give this issue a mild recommendation.

10 Comments
Posted by The Stegman

Ugh, I don't know, on the one hand, this may be the single most important title in the New 52, considering that Pandora's in it...however, A mild recommendation isn't enough to make me add this to my already overflowing pull list.

Posted by Grey56

Thank you for taking the time to review, sir.

Posted by ccraft

I wish artist Carlos D'ana and colorist Gabe Eltaeb wo do Pantom Strange. Loved the art for Pandora back story from Justice League. That what got me interested in Phantom Strange, but I havent read #2 yet, order was delayed..

Posted by inferiorego

@The Stegman said:

Ugh, I don't know, on the one hand, this may be the single most important title in the New 52, considering that Pandora's in it...however, A mild recommendation isn't enough to make me add this to my already overflowing pull list.

It's a tough call. On one hand, I love this story, but there are a lot of problems with it and the art.I guess this is my number one guilty pleasure.

@Grey56 said:

Thank you for taking the time to review, sir.

Thanks for reading!

Staff
Posted by Juandicimo_Magnifico45

I love the story in this series so far. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that there is a lot happening in his life, but you do not feel rushed or overwhelmed. Yes, the art is terrible. I had a hard time reading the art myself. However, I feel that the story makes up for the bad art and makes picking this up worth it.

Posted by Outside_85

I thought it was interesting as well, but it has its flaws. But I wonder, is this Belial the same as the old one? And does that mean Etrigan is related to Trigon?

Posted by longbowhunter

As much as I like the Phantom Stranger I can't get behind it. I've yet to read a good review for any issue.

Posted by The Black Hood

I actually have a love/hate relationship with the art in this book. On one hand, the art is pretty horrendous. On the other hand, it really gives a Vertigo vibe to the book because with the exception of the Steve Dillon years, I have always found most of the art on books like Sandman and Hellblazer to pretty terrible. So while it sucks, I think it strangely fits.

Posted by jointron33

This series is actually pretty decent. There was a lot in the issue (like the plots with Pandora and Belial) that at first seemed irrelevant, but are probably set up. It's good that the series is evolving quickly from the "good deed of the week" format, and hopefully it will maintain quality

Posted by tomtomiii

I didn't mind the first couple of issues. I haven't picked this one up yet (though it is in my box to get tomorrow when I go by my local shop), but I'm hopeful it will grow on me.

Not sure how after a few thousand years he's not out of silver coins, but whatever.

My ultimate wish is that his last coin will fall off after he undoes Flashpoint and "fixes" the DC Universe ... but I suppose it too much to hope for.

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