The Phantom returns in The Phantom vs. The Red Dragons #1, written by Ray Fawkes with art by Lynne Yoshii and colors by Juancho!. I’ve always considered The Phantom (AKA Kit Walker) a combination of Batman and Tarzan. Living in the deepest wilds of Africa with his wife Diana, he protects the local populace from the outside world (and the underworld) who continually encroach on the peaceful local villages.
Though he doesn’t have any superpowers, The Phantom is a master martial artist and has trained his body to perfection, just like that Bruce Wayne guy. Unlike Bruce, The Phantom carries a pistol and he’s an expert marksman. Also, he has a sense of humor (Lighten up, Bruce!).
Those skills come in handy here as an insidious crime organization called The Singh Brotherhood wages war on the Phantom with an army of impostors who all have the same fighting skills and physical prowess, spreading death and destruction across Africa while destroying The Phantom’s reputation.
The issue’s action-packed as The Phantom hits the impostors head-on, jumping from battle to battle in a flurry of gunfire and fists.
Mad Cave Studios
The best Phantom tales have a pulpy feel, like you’ve cracked open an old copy of Weird Tales Magazine or stumbled across a new Robert E. Howard tale, and this book feels much like that. Though set in modern day, it feels timeless and could easily be set in the 1940s if not for the current-era technology and the copious amounts of blood from the hundreds of bullets that fly throughout the story.
There’s lots of two-fisted action, some great His Girl Friday-style repartee between The Phantom and Diana (who’s a pretty formidable person herself), and the mysterious villainess Princess Sin. Ah, Princess Sin. She looks like she walked straight out of a classic Fu Manchu film, oozing sensuality and malevolence, and whenever she appears she instantly dominates the book.
Artist Lynne Yoshii and colorist Juancho! give her an incredibly striking presence. With her sharp dark bangs and her form-fitting dress (with a golden serpentine dragon stretching down the front of it), she perpetually looks like a snake that’s coiled and ready to strike. I’d love to see Mad Cave do a one-shot book or a miniseries detailing her backstory and her rise to power. I imagine it’d be a tale filled with horror and sadness, but one worth telling.
Though this is technically a one-shot book, the story continues in a follow-up book coming this August. If you’re a fan of The Phantom or pulp-style adventure, pick this book up!
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