Batman/Phantom Stranger
Jun. 9th, 2008 05:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieI still remember the day I bought this book.
I was with my friends, Care and Harlan; both had read comics, especially Harlan, and so we got sandwiches after hours in a comic store talking about Batman. Mostly about Batman being crazy. Then I sat in the back seat for the ride home and read this.
This is what prompted me to buy almost the full run of The Phantom Stranger from the 60's and 70's, a collection I'm still working on. You know, if anyone out there has some laying around and feels like trading...
Anyway, this.
A kid is smoking pot and playing with a Ouija board in a graveyard at night with his friends; the same graveyard that bad guys are doing bad things in that night, and the same graveyard that Batman is in. The kid is found alone with a body; and he has a rap sheet, so Batman assumes the worst.
Then the Stranger appears, with a different opinion. And a call for help. Lots of Stranger fanart based on this book can be found a markers in my comic book boxes. I like it the art style, but I didn't at first.
Alright, I'll admit it: The Phantom Stranger is my favourite DC character ever. Before Flash, or even Superman, it was this guy I fell in love with. I love how he can work his way into every part of the DCU, on a grand scale or down to a small, simple thing. Although he talks about everything as if it's terribly important in the grand scheme of things. He speaks in riddles, or bluntly, but in the end, he speaks the truth.
He has a place everywhere and nowhere, drifting to where he should be.
Batman has stronger distrust of the mystical than of anything else, I think. Until he knows it well, and can quantify it somehow. I think with the Stranger, he only ever made it halfway.
So, he goes to visit the kid, and hopes to make a difference. Like an aging elementary school basketball coach tries to make a difference. Watch for the ensuing "Dude, WTF?" look.
I love Alfred. "Oh, Master Bruce is talking to himself again. He does get a touch odd without enough sleep." ::pretends nothing happened::
The bad guys abduct the kid to use to their own nefarious ends and Batman is still suspicious. So the Stranger shows up and this time, he sticks around and spouts flowery descriptions until Batman does something.
I love that panel. :D
It's amyl nitrite. Amyl nitrate is a diesel additive I doubt anyone snorts for fun.
Anyway, here's the awesome part.
All ends well. The ancient song of a dead race is heard, the bad guys get what they had coming, and everyone else goes home happy.
Batman has warmed up to the Stranger.
There's a lot more of Batman kicking butt in the book; and a lot more of the kid and all that plot-stuff that's actually pretty decent. And at least imaginative.
I was with my friends, Care and Harlan; both had read comics, especially Harlan, and so we got sandwiches after hours in a comic store talking about Batman. Mostly about Batman being crazy. Then I sat in the back seat for the ride home and read this.
This is what prompted me to buy almost the full run of The Phantom Stranger from the 60's and 70's, a collection I'm still working on. You know, if anyone out there has some laying around and feels like trading...
Anyway, this.
A kid is smoking pot and playing with a Ouija board in a graveyard at night with his friends; the same graveyard that bad guys are doing bad things in that night, and the same graveyard that Batman is in. The kid is found alone with a body; and he has a rap sheet, so Batman assumes the worst.
Then the Stranger appears, with a different opinion. And a call for help. Lots of Stranger fanart based on this book can be found a markers in my comic book boxes. I like it the art style, but I didn't at first.
Alright, I'll admit it: The Phantom Stranger is my favourite DC character ever. Before Flash, or even Superman, it was this guy I fell in love with. I love how he can work his way into every part of the DCU, on a grand scale or down to a small, simple thing. Although he talks about everything as if it's terribly important in the grand scheme of things. He speaks in riddles, or bluntly, but in the end, he speaks the truth.
He has a place everywhere and nowhere, drifting to where he should be.
Batman has stronger distrust of the mystical than of anything else, I think. Until he knows it well, and can quantify it somehow. I think with the Stranger, he only ever made it halfway.
So, he goes to visit the kid, and hopes to make a difference. Like an aging elementary school basketball coach tries to make a difference. Watch for the ensuing "Dude, WTF?" look.
I love Alfred. "Oh, Master Bruce is talking to himself again. He does get a touch odd without enough sleep." ::pretends nothing happened::
The bad guys abduct the kid to use to their own nefarious ends and Batman is still suspicious. So the Stranger shows up and this time, he sticks around and spouts flowery descriptions until Batman does something.
I love that panel. :D
It's amyl nitrite. Amyl nitrate is a diesel additive I doubt anyone snorts for fun.
Anyway, here's the awesome part.
All ends well. The ancient song of a dead race is heard, the bad guys get what they had coming, and everyone else goes home happy.
Batman has warmed up to the Stranger.
There's a lot more of Batman kicking butt in the book; and a lot more of the kid and all that plot-stuff that's actually pretty decent. And at least imaginative.