Phantom Stranger

The Phantom Stranger is a fictional character of unspecified paranormal origins who battles mysterious and occult forces in various titles published by DC Comics, sometimes under their Vertigo imprint. He first appeared in his own series, on August/September of 1952, by John Broome and Carmine Infantino. It lasted six issues.

He received another series on May/June, 1969 that lasted until Feb-Mar, 1976. At first it consisted of reprints, but soon new stories were produced by Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Tony Dezuñiga and others. In these stories, while the Stranger's past remained a mystery, he was given a semi-regular cast of characters of his own. A blind psychic named Cassandra Craft would assist him, as would an alchemist/sorcerer named Tannarak (who would go on to become his enemy) and a demonic sorceress named Tala would become his major personal enemy. A romantic attraction was hinted at between the Stranger and Craft, but he eventually left her, deciding she could not be part of his life.

The Stranger is better known, however, for his role as a supernatural assistant to other heroes, such as the Justice League, who offered him membership, though he initially left before accepting, leaving the actual date of his admission unclear. He was not, as some accounts have reported, a mere honorary member. He twice asserted his membership status when other Leaguers challenged his input, particularly during the vote on the League's re-admission of Wonder Woman, who would later, in turn, confirm his membership status in a subsequent League adventure. Indeed, the League's longstanding limiation to twelve active members, which had to be removed to admit Hawkwoman, would not have acted as such a limitation without including the Phantom Stranger to achieve of a membership of twelve. At the time of Hawkwoman's honorary membership was converted to active membership to break the twelve-member limit, Adam Strange was an honorary member, Zatanna was an ally (officially the fourteenth member), and the Martian Manhunter had long since resigned.

The Stranger also starred in a miniseries in 1987. In this series, he was portrayed as an agent of the Lords of Order, and refused to help them in their war against the Lords of Chaos, and was temporarily stripped of his powers as a result. This series also featured Eclipso as an agent of Chaos. These events have not been referenced since, however, and might no longer be in continuity due to the reality-alterations during Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis.

Character biography

Origin

The most striking aspect of the Phantom Stranger is that neither his name, nor his true nature, nor his origin have ever been revealed. DC produced a special issue of Secret Origins that gave him four different possible origins:

One tale (written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Joe Orlando) postulated that the Stranger was a fallen angel that sided with neither Heaven nor Hell during Lucifer's rebellion and thus was condemned to walk the Earth alone for all time.
Another proposes that the Stranger was originally a private citizen during biblical times that was spared God's wrath. An angel was sent to deliver him from divine wrath. After questioning God's actions, he commits suicide. The angel forbids his spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condems him to walk the world forever to be a part of humanity but also forever separated from it. He is charged with turning humanity away from evil, one soul at a time.
A variation of the Wandering Jew story. He was an adult family man named Isaac with a wife (Rebecca) and boy at the time when Jesus was a small child. When King Herod sent his army to kill all small male children (in an effort to slay Jesus, too) the army slew his son and wife. Blind with anger, he spent the next 30 years in a rage against Jesus. As Jesus was being tortured, Isaac bribed a guard to assume his role in whipping Jesus. Jesus then sentenced him to walk away from his home and country; to be errant until Doomsday. Eventually, his misplaced rage was expunged and he spent the rest of his time helping society.
The last was a proposal that the stranger is a remnant of the previous universe. At the end of the universe, a group of scientists studying the event are approached by the Phantom Stranger, warning them not to interfere in the universe's natural conclusion. The story concludes with the Phantom Stranger passing a portion of himself to a scientist, the universe is reborn, and the scientist from the previous universe is the Phantom Stranger in the new universe (a recursive origin?). This origin shares similarities with that of Galactus.

It is interesting that three out of four of these origins rely specifically on Judeo-Christian concepts (thus acknowledging them as reality-based within the DC Universe), which rarely figure into the origins of most comic book characters. In the comic book Miniseries, "The Trenchcoat Brigade" John Constantine sees that the first origin story is essentially correct. Note however that the continuity between DC's mainstream books and Vertigo has never been very clear, and that the 1987 miniseries points to a different origin for the Stranger.

Another possible origin was revealed in The Kingdom (the sequel to Kingdom Come) in which it was shown that Jonathan Kent, the future son of Superman and Wonder Woman, would grow up to be the Phantom Stranger. This also tied some of his abilities into the Hypertime concept, saying that he had the innate ability to enter other alternate timelines and to exist in the spaces between them.

A stranger...

In his earliest appearances, the Phantom Stranger would prove supernatural events to be hoaxes. In later stories, the supernatural events were real and the Phantom Stranger was given unspecified superhuman powers to defeat them. He later appeared in various other DC Universe titles, sometimes as a major participant; in others, the Phantom Stranger just appears and gives advice or warning to the featured heroes. Occasionally he serves simply as narrator. In some stories he seems to be answerable to a mysterious Voice, implied to be God, although within the DC Universe mysterious benign Voices (such as the one responsible for Hawk and Dove's origin) are usually identified as the Lords of Order (albeit not always at the time of their original introduction).

The Phantom Stranger played a major part in Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic, taking protagonist Tim Hunter through time to show him the history and nature of magic. He has assisted the Justice League on numerous occasions, even being formally elected to the group in Justice League of America #103 (although he did not acknowledge his membership until Justice League of America #143).

He also attempted to prevent Hal Jordan from uniting the resurrected Oliver Queen with Queen's soul in Heaven in Kevin Smith's relaunch of Green Arrow, which earned him the Spectre's wrath (as Jordan was the Spectre's human anchor at the time). Nonetheless, the Phantom Stranger has assissted Hal Jordan during his tenure as the Spectre on numerous occasions as well, most notably in a short stint babysitting Hal's niece, Helen.

In 2005's Day of Vengeance, the Stranger had been turned into a small rodent by the Spectre (who was without a human aspect at the time, and was under the control of the new Eclipso) and had been advising Detective Chimp, in whose pocket he resided while recovering his powers. He changed back using recovered energies in Day of Vengeance #6 and joined the Shadowpact, allowing his teammates to see the battle between the Spectre and Shazam. The series makes a point of the fact that the Phantom Stranger is generally regarded as invincible by the supernatural community, since the first reaction that some characters have to the Spectre's assault on magic is to simply presume that the Stranger will take care of it. Indeed, he changed himself back. The Stranger has been shown either as on par with, or as more powerful than, the Spectre. This a recent interpretation, however; while the Stranger has never been an easy foe to combat, given his unknown abilities, he was never considered invincible either.

In the Day of Vengeance special, The Phantom Stranger worked with Nabu, Zatanna, the Shadowpact and other mystics to re-form the Rock of Eternity and help defeat the maddened Spectre.

The Phantom Stranger's relationships with the other mystic heroes is usually a bit tense. The Stranger has no qualms gathering various forces in order to combat a certain evil (the Sentinels of Magic, but also other loose outfits), often invading those people's personal lives. However, he does not usually extend them that same courtesy. The Phantom Stranger has resisted such people as Doctor Fate (notably Hector Hall) in this, although Fate is in almost any incarnation an ally of the Stranger. Despite this, he does get along with people like Zatanna; in her Seven Soldiers mini-series, he appears at the end of #2 with groceries and has breakfast with her, Cassandra Craft, and Zatanna's apprentice Misty.

This has caused for the Phantom Stranger's appearance to often be met with distrust, for he is ultimately an unpredictable force. Nonetheless, most heroes will follow him, seeing not only his immense power, but also knowing that the Stranger is in the end, a force for good. Notable though is Madame Xanadu, who has refused to join the Stranger on a few occasions, although she is a member of his Sentinels of Magic.

The Stranger also holds an unique relationship with the Spectre, as the two forces often come into conflict. He was responsible for gathering a group of mystic heroes in order to combat the Spectre, when its human host, Jim Corrigan seemingly lost control of the Spectre (during which they destroyed the country of Vlatava), and the Spectre was eventually possessed by Eclipso.

The Phantom Stranger was also a participant in the funeral of Jim Corrigan, where Corrigan's soul was finally laid to rest and left the Spectre. The Stranger was then again one of the forces that stood against the Spectre when it went on a rampage without its human host, until the soul of Hal Jordan bonded with it. He occasionally took on an advisory role for this new Spectre.

The new role that the Stranger will have with this new Spectre, bonded with the soul of Crispus Allen, remains to be seen, but the two will undoubtedly meet in the future.

In Infinite Crisis #6, aware that the Spectre now has a new host, the Phantom Stranger gathered a large group of magical beings in an effort to call forth the Spectre, so that he could assist them in the Crisis. However as soon as Zatanna called him forth, the Spectre immediately attacked and killed Star Sapphire, before leaving again.

Powers and abilities

The nature of these are as mysterious as the character himself. The Phantom Stranger has demonstrated enormous powers and capabilities, the exact origin of which is undetermined. He can travel enormous distances in a very short period of time, such as to the JLA Watchtower and Apokolips, as well as to mystical dimensions, such as Heaven, Hell and the realm occupied by the Quintessence. He can fire energy bolts of great force, dispel magic, reveal illusions, and survive in space without earthly life-support systems. His power seems to be limited by unspecified parameters, since in many cases, despite his obvious capabilities, he claims he is not allowed to end a crisis directly, only to guide others to take the necessary actions (a restriction that allows the Stranger to guest-star in virtually any title without becoming a deus ex machina whose actions would immediately end the story). He claims that "nothing remains hidden to ^*."

In Day of Vengeance #2 the Spectre transforms the Stranger into a rodent, rather than killing him outright, because even the Spectre's near-omnipotent power would be insufficient to kill the Stranger.

Contrary to some trick-of-the-light impressions, the Phantom Stranger does not wear a mask; instead, his eyes are almost constantly cloaked by the shadow of his hat.

Appearances in other forms

The Phantom Stranger appears in his animated form in the following comics:

Batman Gotham Adventures #33 (Wherein he shows Bruce how Gotham City would be without Batman.)
Justice League Adventures #31 (He shows three possible fates about a boy who is mourning his family.)
Justice League Unlimited #14 (Helps Deadman and some other leaguers against a magical threat.)

References