The Phantom Stranger #8 Review

The past two issues of Phantom Stranger have been clear high points for the series. Unfortunately, issue #8 is bogged down by two unwelcome changes. The first and most significant is that Gene Ha and Zander Cannon are no longer handling the visuals (aside from the cover). Though expected, it's disappointing to see the series sink back into the muddy visuals that characterized the first arc.

Philip Tan relies too much on head shots and unnecessarily zoomed-in panels, with very little sequential flow to the pages. His work also suffers now that Brent Anderson is no longer on board to provide his heavily textured finishes to the pencils.

The other annoying change is the fact that The Question is nowhere to be seen in this issue, despite the previous chapter ending with Phantom Stranger being stabbed by his fellow Trinity of Sin member. Dan DiDio and J.M. DeMatteis instead introduce the Justice League Dark into the mix as they fight to keep the Stranger from dying in the physical realm. Metaphysically, Stranger has a confrontation with a new villain called the Sin Eater.

The JL Dark material feels pretty superfluous -- merely one more attempt to inject guest stars into a book that has had more than its fair share. But the showdown between Stranger and Sin Eater is much more interesting. The writers shed more light on how exactly the former took on his current human guise and how that relates to the search for his missing family.

If a bit melodramatic at times, DeMatteis' dialogue does a great job of capturing the larger-than-life nature of these characters. By the end of this issue, the stage is set for a memorable climax leading into Trinity War. But is there any hope the art quality will improve again?

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com