If Released On Schedule, Could Be Good!
The Phantom has been rebooted...AGAIN! Well, actually only the second time by their current U.S. publisher, Moonstone comics. Why? Who knows, perhaps they wanted a new number one issue to try and get Phans to jump on?
Apparently writer this is something writer Mike Bullock wanted so whatever, it doesn't look like it's going to be anything super different from the stories that Mr. Bullock has been doing for the past Moonstone Phantom issues.
I have really loved Mike Bullocks writing in the past series. Mike is updating the Phantom to make him relevant to readers in this day and age. Let's get this straight though... the reason I like the Phantom is that he's in the 'squeaky clean' era of the U.S when all Americans say 'Golly Gee Mrs. Robinson, I promise not be be late delivering your milk to your doorstep tomorrow! Thank you very much nice lady for the nickel!'
I hope he doesn't lose too much innocence but of course aged cheesiness probably has to go to be relevant don't you think?
In the updated Phantom, he takes on serious issues in Africa which is the killer aspect of this series' stories. Bullock apparently will continue to develop that type of line.
This issue is a retelling of the Phantom's origin. Yes, I know how many times can I look upon young Walker's bend over body holding up a skull and promising to fight evil? It does start to make me cringe these days actually. It's issue 00 though so hopefully we are DONE with THAT for a while. I mean, that's what Moonstone's The Phantom: Legacy was all about wasn't it?
What I really thought was neat was at the end of the book their are write ups on major characters in the stories so far. There's of course The Phantom, his kids, wife, Guran, and even a character that hasn't been introduced yet. That appears to be a strength of Bullock's in this series. Who is the Phantom's arch nemesis? Kabai Singh of course! But it's not cool to JUST have stories about the Singh Bortherhood ALL the DANGED time! SO what is Bullock doing to remedy that? He's created so great characters for The Phantom's own Rogues Gallery. Ali Gataale, Temur Singh, and personal fave Manuel Ortega are a few majors. I hope he continues to revist these folks even though there was a big conclusion at the end of the past Moonstone series involving virtually all of them!
I am excited to see what happens with this series and will continue to follow it. The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks will still top my comic pull list but one thing Moonstone HAS to fix is it's release schedule. I don't know if it was because the last series was coming to a close so they took their dang time releasing the last few issues but holy mackeral they were late with EVERYTHING. It almost got t the point where I was ready to abandon the bloody thing. Still, if they can release this series in a timely basis, it looks like this will be a great one.
Did I mention I have no idea why they had to reboot the thing?
