"Checkmate" (part 1)

Tragedy befalls the Phantom. A long-serving cast member seems to have been assassinated by terrorists, but I don't believe it. It has nothing to do with permissions. The Phantom and his cast are after all licensed characters. I simply do not believe Mike Bullock would be so stupid to snuff out such a valuable asset to the Phantom legend. DC or Marvel would have done it in a callous heartbeat, but Bullock writes The Phantom too well to rely on such a ploy.

Bullock draws upon real life terrorist practices, such as using surface to air missiles to down passenger planes. He mingles into his story the sad fact of tribal cleansing that ignites in various parts of Africa to add a nuance of desperation in the Phantom's quest for justice.

Blindly devoted to leaders that are two sides of one coin, the UAFM and the BFA bear the same uniforms, fire the same weapons and operate the same equipment. They also have the same philosophies in one respect. They believe the other hasn't a right to exist.

These organizations based upon reality combine with fiction. The octopoid Singh Brotherhood of Phantom lore backs the UAFM, and a woman claiming to be the wife of Him, the human monster who exploited the Phantom legend to force children to fight in an army, leads the BFA. Both will be systematically destroyed in future issues, for they have enraged the Phantom.

I can see several directions where this story may go, but all of them involve the Phantom exacting payback in exciting confrontations against evil men and women. It doesn't matter if the character is actually alive or dead. The Phantom believes the character to be dead. This crusade will be personal.

Bullock and Szilagyi show the Phantom and in a nice turn Devil, the Phantom's wolf, grieving. For these scenes, Szilagyi pulls the drama from the shadows and Pedroza, whose colors have been up to now positively vivid, draws down the shades through warm browns and darker purples. The last panel expresses the Phantom's fury. Swathed in jet black shadow, what amounts to a crescent of his costume blazing like righteous violet fire, the Phantom symbolically raises his fist which bears the skull ring. The Phantom has been around since 1936, and this scene must be considered a quintessential moment for the Ghost Who Walks.

If you're a careful observer, you can see the back door. Bullock has placed it in plain sight. If you look at the last page, there's a second, subliminal clue depicted by Szilagyi in the Phantom's memories, which are bared to the reader. This issue of The Phantom is a highly recommended catalyst to the next four. Everybody is playing fair in a story that appears to be woven from threads of historical complexity that will simply be burned away by the Phantom's wrath.

---

What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!

---