![]() ![]() ![]() The medallion is a nice accessory to have, though. Plus, the black and blue don’t mix well here in contrast with the Bruckner figure’s faithfulness to Jim Aparo’s classic Stranger of the 70’s and 80’s. The head on the 4H sculpt reminds me more of DC Direct’s version of the Question: His hat is kinda small for the Stranger and that face looks more like Vic Sage’s old mask. It’s on my curio even as I write this along with the DC direct version of Uncle Sam and that same wave’s Phantom Lady. Huge Phantom Stranger fan here! I now have both figures and I gotta go with the Bruckner sculpt. On paper, this figure looks like it should be awesome. Also included is the medallion as a removable piece and all the chains are real metal. We’ve got the new turtle neck upper torso, new hands, the cape, and the head. In that regard, Mattel didn’t skimp here. It’s the same suited body we’ve seen a couple times with a handful of new pieces to get the details right. The figure is what any longtime DCUC collector would’ve come to expect. And I should be happy to finally have him in the line… but, much like the new 52 Stranger, he just doesn’t quite scratch the itch I need him to. ![]() Nuance has been replaced with “kewl!”.īut, hey none of that really applies to this figure right? This is the classic Phantom Stranger that I know and love. I’m just not interested in the new version, his definitive origin, and the need to replace his medallion with a necklace made from the thirty pieces of silver. I’ll be honest, I haven’t read the new solo title, but the changes made to the Stranger represent what I don’t much like about the relaunch. One of the first things they set out to do in the new universe was given the Stranger an origin (he’s Judas Iscariot – hey, I didn’t say it was original) and more or less torpedo what made him cool or unique. His mysteriousness, his lack of origin was what made the character interesting. DC traded on his unknown origins, even publishing an issue of Secret Origins that featured four different possible origins for the Stranger. Readers only knew that he was cursed to wander the Earth in penance of something. And while he would play his part, who he was was always in question. ![]() In the 70s & 80s, he was pulled from those origins into the mainstream of the DCU where he’d assist the Justice League or foster along a sequence of events in the large crossovers. Stranger originally appeared in the 1950s as a horror character, either disproving or combating supernatural threats. The original (dare I say “real”), pre-nU52 version of the Phantom Stranger is a great example of things DC had to let go to reformat their universe. They’re still some of my favorite stories to this day and, as such, Phantom Stranger is pretty important character to me even if he’s not terribly well-known. I’ve mentioned it a million times I know, but some of the earliest things I remember reading as a kid were 70s JLA reprints.
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