It’s Fight Night!
In true Pulp style, The Phantom #5 features the titular hero and the Big Bad engage mano a mano in fisticuffs, with lives on the line!
Welcome to the Jungle
The Phantom is wounded, possibly dead. His ally Guran is wounded. Asif Singh has threatened the lives of every child in the Bandar Village if the Ghost Who Walks doesn’t show himself in an hour—if he exists at all. Things look about as dark as possible.
But wait, this is an old-school pulp tale! Weak and wounded, the Phantom arrives just in the nick of time, ready to fight until his last breath. There’s only one way this can end: the Phantom versus Singh, man to man.
In the Days of High Adventure
This issue serves as the conclusion to the first story arc for the latest Phantom title, meaning it’s responsible for both the climax and the denouement of all the events to date. As such, the issue itself doesn’t have a lot of new ground to cover. Much of the book is devoted to the Phantom versus Asif Singh, leader of the Singh Brotherhood, with a surprising amount of pages dedicated to the epilogue. For an action-heavy issue with some necessary wrap-up, it’s enjoyable enough, even if it leaves the reader with a light thematic load.
Looking at the story arc as a whole, this was a classic pulp tale, fitting for the time and place the Phantom inhabits. Although the stakes are raised throughout the story, there is no real concern that the hero won't make it out alive—even when he’s shot and mortally wounded. The villains are awful people doing awful things simply because they can, and redemption isn’t on the table for them—only a skull-ring-wearing fist to the face.
The narrator changed from issue to issue throughout the arc; the majority of the first few issues were told by the Phantom himself, but once he was wounded, the perspective shifted to Guran. Here at the end, it alternates between the Phantom, Guran, and Asif Singh. This helped change the pace, as the Phantom’s internal monologue is a little too wry and doesn’t take much seriously, which can occasionally undercut the stakes.
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to say that, in the end, good triumphs over evil—but in the shadow of their victory, a new threat looms…
Chiefs of the Tribe
Our creative team for this concluding issue is the same as the four preceding: Ray Fawkes and Russell Olson. This means, in a rare feat for modern comics, the same team handled the entire story arc! That will look great in the trade paperback, for sure. Fawkes has improved from issue to issue; in the early chapters, his Phantom’s internal monologue was far too dense. Once he began rotating narrators or utilizing regular narration boxes, the pacing improved significantly. There were even a few passages in this issue that were so striking I had to stop and read them twice.
Olson’s art, on the other hand, has been inconsistent throughout the run, with this finale being his weakest work in several ways. Some of the faces are a bit off, and there are panels where the proportions are completely out of whack. Furthermore, while the choreography was solid in previous issues, much of the action here was difficult to follow—starting with an over-reliance on close-ups. In one specific scene, the Phantom has to escape being choked by a vine, and it is honestly unclear how he actually gets free. It’s a disappointing visual hiccup, and perhaps that’s the price to pay for maintaining a consistent creative team on a tight schedule.
Knife to a Gun Fight
The Phantom #5 is by no means a bad comic, but it brings the first story arc to a close with more of a bang than a whimper. The writing has improved from issue to issue, and there’s some really strong narration to be found here. However, some inconsistent and confusing art hurts the action—which makes up the majority of the issue—bringing the experience down a bit.
I feel like I’m making it sound like this book is bad. It’s not. On the whole, it’s a solid and fun title. This issue is rough, for sure, but the overall arc is still pretty good. Some of the issues are just the nature of the pulp genre, while others are due to the output of the creative team. If you don’t expect too much and just look to have some fun with it, you’ll probably enjoy it.
In the end, you won’t find any surprises in the pages of The Phantom #5, but if you like old-school pulp stories, you’ll find something to enjoy in what the creative team is laying down here.