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The Phantom, 5/3/05

So it turns out that the Phantom is not going to defeat his enemies by shooting them in the back of the head. Instead, much more humanely, he’s going to avail himself of non-FDA-approved “Bandar medicine” to brainwash them, leaving them with shattered Manchurian Candidate-style psyches and glimpsed half-memories for the rest of their miserable lives.

The men at least are lucky: they’re just going to be dragged off to a filthy hut somewhere, be injected with the essence of God knows what quasipoisonous tropical root, and have their minds cleansed in a quick and business-like fashion. Mina, however, seems destined to first be brought (blindfolded, natch) into the Phantom’s waterfall-shrouded Love Cavern. Trust the Ghost-Who-Puts-The-Moves-On: no one will be harmed, but someone might have to listen to R. Kelly’s Chocolate Factory and deal with some scented candles.

A new artistic team recently took over The Phantom, and it’s good to see that they’re sticking to the strip’s proud tradition of baffling punctuation marks. Most people would have been satisfied with some wacky onomatopoetic noises in panel three, but I like the fact that they’ve rendered Sputt! as an exclamation, but Blubb!? as a question. “Blubb!?” Yes, Mina: blubb.

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The Phantom, 4/21/05

I know where it looks like this is going, but most superheroes don’t dispose of their nemeses by lining them up and then shooting them execution-style in the back of the head. On the other hand, most superheroes have more super powers than a pistol and a purple lycra suit.

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The Phantom, 1/22/05

Here’s another game much like Exposition, called Tenterhooks. The point is to talk around something that everyone knows about for the sole purpose of artificially creating suspense. You know, like referring to your Secret Nazi Whoosit as “what we came for” rather than just saying it. On the other hand, if this bunch of watery grave-robbers typically conducts themselves with such a lax view towards security that they can’t be bother to remember how many rubber-suited villains are in their party, then maybe they’re better off being as indirect as possible.

On the other hand, it’s possible that they aren’t being indirect at all, and really are just an innocent band of historic meter-long aluminum tube enthusiasts.

Bonus observation: the Ghost-Who-Ruminates-Aloud apparently can’t decide what type of word balloon best represents his underwater running commentary. Nice to see that he’s always trying new things out.