Probably one of the coolest, most under utilized and talked about characters in DC... discuss

>DC starts a Secret Origins book to help explain and provide backstory for most of their major characters
>Phantom Stranger comes along
>nah fuck you all, here's four possible origin stories but we're not disclosing which is canon

One of the best single issues in comics. Shame they demystified him for the Nu52 shittery. I much preferred when he was a bit player who seemed to walk between planes of existence, i.e. Kingdom Come, Morrison's Animal Man, Hellblazer etc.

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>Where did his powers come from again?
God. So it makes sense he can beat the Specrtre

Millar and Morrison had a pitch for him.

>Turtleneck-wearing, occult crime-fighting in the swinging mod sixties. One of a number of proposals Morrison presented to Karen Berger in his first meeting with DC during their UK talent search in 1988. Though his pitches for Animal Man and Arkham Asylum were both commisioned, Morrison's Phantom Stranger - along with another proposal for the character by Neil Gaiman - was flatly rejected.

>Morrison would try again alongside Mark Millar in the mid nineties. An anonymous user posted in the Comic Book Resources forums, “Mark Millar and Grant Morrison once pitched a book where the Phantom Stranger was sort of a cool '60s dad who was charged with watching powerful children in a sitcom-ish way. It was immediately shot down, but The Phantom Uncle probably would have been a great name for it.". Art would have been provided by Morrison's Filth collaborator Chris Weston, as revealed in a column Millar wrote for Comic Book Resources in 2002. I asked Chris about the pitch -

>"I think it was to Stuart Moore. Our take was to do it as a James Coburn/Our Man Flint pastiche. Opening shot: a grinning Phantom Stranger and gal-pals zooming down the Pacific Highway in an open top sports car. I'm not sure our pitch went beyond that one line and a few drawings (which I can't find). Can't recall any plot."

The Alan Moore one is official post-crisis canon though because it's part of his Swamp Thing run (it also involves Etrigan while he was still an angel siding with Lucifer).

It's also by far the best of the four so that's good I guess, although the time loop one was neat as well.

Books of magic

This series keeps popping up, do I really need to read it?

Those dubs don't lie. Got to love that 70's / 80's Bronze Age of comics and Paul Levitz was the man. José Luis García-López would again draw him for Action Comics #641. Funny how this Secret Origin issue was part of the Legends crossover. Len Wein was part of that and the guy wrote a great story arc for the Stranger in issues #20-24 of the Phantom Stranger series known as, The Dark Circle Saga but you can start reading it at issue 17 and also Justice League of America #103. I really like Jim Aparo's version of the character. You can find him in the Brave and the Bold titled, that's #89, 98, and 145

and there's Books of Magic which is great!

other worthwhile appearances
Action Comics #585
Batman and the Outsiders #8
House of Secrets #150
Showcase #80 would lead into his regular series with Dr. 13

youtube.com/watch?v=QcKxMoJB4L0

I've read vol. 1 & 2 and it's k

Perhaps I shall see what it's about.

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I think we should also mention that time in Hellblazer #63 when John Constantine pees on the Stranger.

But user, where do you think Spectre gets his power from?

Righteous indignation.

Why does god like to see The Spectre get BTFO'd?

Because Spectre is a stick-in-the-mud.

>He is Judas Iscariot (The only theory that made sense) and somehow he could beat The Spectre which is impressive to me because the bible didn't tell me he could do that.
nah fuck off. His name is the fucking stranger. Giving him an origin defeats the purpose. His origin is meant to be multiple choice like the joker. Except for him it either all happened or didn't happened. He is a mysterious man who works in mysterious ways.
New 52 giving him a fucking origin removed anything cool or good about the character whatsoever.

If you ever want to get into a dark DC character, read Books of Magic, cause it basically introduces all of them in brilliantly written ways, and you can pick your favourites to follow.

I liked his new 52 stuff. It was goofy and made no sense but it was a fun concept

Also supported by books of magic so as far as I'm concerned that is his offical origin.Yes

>under utilized

No, user. He was meant to be enigmatic. What they did with the character in the nu52 was obscene.

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He's best when not so much a character as much as plot kickstarter, "Superman...you are needed!" or a narrator who sometimes gets involved. A character who is connected to higher powers but not one of them and Moore's origin is still arguably the best but unneeded since like user said he works best as a stranger.

He also used to be a lot more normal looking in the silver age.

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DC's obscure characters like Phantom Stranger and Immortal man have so much potential. They should give one of them to a novelist instead of bringing them to write straight up capeshit.

>coolest, most under utilized

There is a correlation, user.

Spectre is the Wrath of God.
The Phantom Stranger must wander to seek God's forgiveness, which he desires above all else.

So it's God's forgiveness versus God's wrath.
If we're going by Old Testament rules, the Stranger wins.

Maybe he is the embodiment of All Who Feel Lost And Wander In Search For Hope.

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Can't it be argued though that a character who's entire gimmick is to be vague/mysterious and nothing else boils down to a pretty shit character? This is like The Sphinx from Mystery Men.

Yes, because being able to write books means they know how to make good comic scripts.

He's cool. That issue in his solo book where Spectre goes apeshit on the Stranger and saying he's the cancer who eats away scum was pretty Kino.,

Wasn’t that Radiant’s job? Or am I confusing Mercy with Forgiveness.

Oh, it's not that outspoken, and Radiant was created and destroyed in the same event (Notice she never appeared again after Final Crisis. I guess Mandrakk really killed her).

I love his classic look. Just a dude in a black coat. It's the perfect design for a mysterious character.

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Yes, that's how it works.

Yes, just look at the many examples we have that prove this!
Like...

Huh, I always wondered about that.

99.99% of comic writers can't write either. Geoff Johns, Snyder, Venditti and Tomasi are the superstars of today.

who the fuck is radiant?

Exactly.

She featured in a Final Crisis-related Spectre story - IIRC, a nun who died hopeless, but was resurrected as the embodiment of mercy to offset the Spectre's aspect as the Spirit of Vengeance.

After that pointless mini, she was seen exactly one more time - as a drained body in the pages of 'Final Crisis'#8, after Mandrakk fed on her.

From what I remember, don't Spectre and Phantom Stranger hate each other?

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Yea but his character didn't start that way. It just was leaned into heavily later on. But i don't see it as 'lazy', it's more 'freeing' it lets multiple authors and writers do and create stories without being chained to continuity

I love how the Spectre ticks magic folks off like his duals with Dr Fate are great. What do you all make of Spectre and Anti-Monitor relation?

He looks like Marvel's Stranger there both with unknown origins as well. Speaking of Marvel, >He was meant to be enigmatic.
>He's best when not so much a character as much as plot kickstarter
I really like these posts and hearing this makes the Phantom Stranger sound like DC magic version of Uatu the Watcher.

for more Constantine and Phantom see Trenchcoat Brigade. Fucking Mister E is crazy especially in Books of Magic.

Yes, user and Matt Wagner is usually very consistent. For more of DC dark, his Demon run splits people's opinion but I think the four issue mini was good but the ongoing series wasn't all that great.

He appears once in Ennis' Hellblazer

These three

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I've always loved the Phantom Stranger, but he's a difficult character to write, because by very nature, he's meant to be at least enigmatic. Even if you accept that his Alan Moore origin is canon, pretty much the entirety of his life otherwise is still completely unknown. What are his goals, what does he do, and so on? Why does he never seem to directly interfere with shit the vast majority of the time? And you can't have him show up all the damn time, because he's supposed to be incredibly powerful and one of DC's strongest magic users who puts all but the Spectre and a few other threats to shame.

>I really like these posts and hearing this makes the Phantom Stranger sound like DC magic version of Uatu the Watcher.
Didn't JLA/Avengers imply that they both fulfilled a similar purpose to one another in their own respective universes?

Also, I need to read all the Vertigo magic stuff already. Shit.

But in a lot of ways they're chained by anto-continuity where they can't do anything lasting because fans only see the mystery.
Either way status quo rules.

>For more of DC dark, his Demon run splits people's opinion but I think the four issue mini was good but the ongoing series wasn't all that great.
Didn't Wagner just write the miniseries and a few fill in issuea of the ongoing? Alan Grant wrote the bulk of that series (with MacDuffie doing the election issues)

This, he practically uses his origin as parable, my headcanon is that Judas is just his favorite because the questions it brings up about Mercy and the nature of service to god...(that gods mercy is given to everyone and that service to god is a gift not a curse.)

who's the writer who split Jason and Etrigan into two distinct beings?

Has anyone read Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame? Stranger was working for Order and Eclipso for Chaos.
>Jason and Etrigan into two distinct beings
John Byrne. Look into Blood of the Demon.
I don't remember that issue.

>John Byrne
>The living paragon of the uncultured neckbeard

Why am I not surprised he fucked up Kirby's occult book?

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They were two distinct beings in the Zero Hour issue of that 1990s series by Ennis.

Byrne HATED the idea that they were two beings. He spent a chunk of his Wonder Woman run autistically retconning everything that Wagner, Grant, and Ennis did to Etrigan.
And then hyped his new series up years later by shitting on his artist in an interview

He dated TTGO Raven

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wow, seriously? Is this from the actual show?? what episode was this?

Great timing for this post. Just got him in the post.

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And Hal jordan's little niece when Hal was the Spectre

It's from the comics

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Oh yea is G.L still the Spectre? or did he give up the mantle? what happened with that story line?

>He is Judas Iscariot (The only theory that made sense)
He makes much more sense as the Wandering Jew t b h