Moonstone Forums

With the Phantom re-boot coming up following The Phantom #26, I thought it'd be fun to see what you guys (and gals) want to see in the new Phantom series.

Some things I would like to see...

Development of Kit and Heloise - These kids have been around for about 30 years now and they've got to be 2 of the most dull characters ever to hit the comic. More often then not they're shown as 2 annoying kids always arguing about who will be the 22nd Phantom. After 20 years, its getting quite annoying. Give them interesting personalities and stuff to do, the potential is there but I feel like its being wasted.

More stories focusing on modern day Africa - Joe Gentile has stated that Moonstone will in fact be doing this which makes me really happy. Invisble Children was one of the best Phantom stories to come from Moonstone, and certainly one of Mike's best

SPOILERS FOR PHANTOM #24!!

Return of classic Phantom characters - It was awesome to see the Sky Band return last issue and I cannot wait to see how they fit into this whole reboot. A story arc on when where they were from there last appearance back in the 40's until Ben Raab's Aviatrix story (Phantoms #7 and #8) would be cool. Be cool to see Byron return as well to the cast after a long overdue return. The Singh Brotherhood are making a come back in the current arc and I also look forward to seeing them back in full force for the new series. Oh, and General Babau would also be really cool

What do you guys think?

Essentially, I'd like to see what Moonstone has already been doing very well done even more, plus some other things.

More mystique. Have the Phantom being seen as something otherwordly by his enemies. They should never really have the hang on him or understand him. Without the mystique, he's just a bloke with strange clothes.

More humanity. Don't be afraid to show us the man behind the mask. I treasure moments such as the little segment in Curse of the Phantom where an unmasked Kit is sitting over his chronicles, visibly tired and disheartened, trying to solve the mystery that is nagging him. The DC stories by Mark Verheiden did some of the best work in the character's history by showing his struggles with his mission in life (this does not mean I want him to turn into a whiny, Spider-Man type of hero who's constantly annoying the reader how his "gift is a curse" and so on).

More Diana! I can't get enough of Moonstone's Diana. I love the way Raab had Kit taking almost a supporting role when she was on FN-missions and so on, loyally following her. Also, there is a lot to say about the strong love between them.

Less of the kids. I really liked the Nanamaru story with them, but the comic should mainly focus on the Phantom himself. Not that I fear it would ever turn into a Kit and Heloise-book, with special guest appearances from their dad, but you get my point. The kids should be allowed to grow up, but not be too involved in their father's business.

Even more stuff about the 1st Phantom.

More old bad guys coming back to haunt the Ghost Who Walks, alá the Sky Band (don't be afraid to update them).

Although I know it's being done, more stories inspired by real events, like Invisible Children.

Introduce new villains that physically match the Phantom, like Manuel Ortega.

More stuff about Kit Walker's youth, the relationship between him and his father the 20th Phantom, and so on.

More of the Walker-family's fearless driver, Paul Jonassen (in comics, nobody stays dead).

I know it's probably heresy but if I were cranking up a new Phantom title, first thing I'd want to do is put a realistic timeline back into the line of succession. Meaning "our" Phantom that we've been reading about since the 30s has long since retired and we'd be on the 24th or 25th by now. At the very least I'd show the transition to the next Phantom.

I know...I know....that will never happen.

Failing that, something that came up in the recent Dynamite foolishness was how restricted Phantom storylines were because they always had to involve the jungle in some way. Ridiculous. With nearly 500 years of history and a worldwide map to choose from there's barely any story that couldn't be told with the Phantom, so make sure to take full advantage of that rich tapestry.

I too would like to see more of Diana, but I think its time she was given a role other than the "damsel in distress" Diana getting captured every time she shows up is pretty repetitive after a while.

Thats a good idea. The relationship between a man and the son he sees for a couple years of his life must be a very difficult one. Does he have doubts about sending his son away? Does his son hate him for it? Interesting questions plus more could be explopred with this. [/quote]

Silvestre is working on #1 right now. Here's what you can expect:

Action
Danger
Diana
Death
A new villain (who makes Ortega look like a boy scout)
New villian's not so nice friends
More action
More danger
Explosive cliffhanger

I've have the scripts for #2-5 in the works (#4 & 5 were originally going to be #27 & 28 of the current series).

Oh, and the Zero issue is just about completed. That's right, I said Zero issue.

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Thats a good idea. The relationship between a man and the son he sees for a couple years of his life must be a very difficult one. Does he have doubts about sending his son away? Does his son hate him for it? Interesting questions plus more could be explopred with this. [/quote]
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Those are some interesting points, but I would personally not like it very much if Mike turned it into a love-hate relationship between father and son... In danger of sounding like one of the Falk-purists, in the excellent Lee Falk novel "The Ghost Who Walks", their relationship is described in great detail as a very loving, caring one, with Kit having deep respect for his father... Who is sometimes a very strict man, but nearly always just and kind.

One of the things that always appealed to me with the Phantom is that he acknowledges that he carries a heavy burden, but is proud and happy to do so.

But sure, it would be cool to see him as a youngster having more doubts about whether he should actually stay in Clarksville with Diana for a normal life, or return to take up the mantle of the Phantom. Not to mention, it must have been tough tto leave behind a career as the world's greatest sportsman behind to fight evil instead.

Although it's wildly off-topic, I highly recommend people to try and get the Ghost Who Walks novel... The final moments of the book, with Kit's conversation with his dying father, is easily the most powerful scenes I have ever seen in a Phantom story, regardless of format.

That's fantastic, I hope the book will live up to my expectations (which are very high at the moment, and will probably grow when we hear even more about it).

It's cool that you seem to be giving the Phantom something of a regular rogues-gallery, alá Batman.
Speaking of, it would be extremely cool to see more villains that sort of mirrors the Phantom, like Batman and Joker/Two-Face in The Dark Knight. It felt like Ortega did this, since they are both very intelligent, physically powerful men born out of very similiar tragedies... What's so cool is how they took on such wildly different paths because of it.

Issue Zero... Cool. Sounds like a prequel/prologue of sorts to me.

As for the cliffhanger thing, I think Moonstone's been fantastic at this from issue 1. In each and every issue, I have been longing to read the next part as fast as possible due to the way they ended. The Aviatrix part 1 is probably the most exciting cliffhanger I've ever read in a comic (The "Or should I call you DADDY?" thing).

With over 20 Phantoms, surely not all of them died in the line of duty. I'd like to see where one of them makes that (to me) heartbreaking decision to hang up his cowl. What would be going through his mind in that situation? He would have to know that his son is most likely not going to be as fortunate as him and make it to gray hair and arthritis. Could a man purposefully hand down a legacy that would see his child buried before him or is that outweighed by the duty to the legend itself?

An acquaintance of mine comes from one of those families with a miltary service tradition going back to the Civil War. Most of his male relatives have done 2 tours, stayed to retire, or died on active duty. It's very interesting to talk to him about the family members who have been in just about every major (and minor) conflict for 140 years. Closer to home, as I am getting ready to retire next year, my oldest boy is talkng about joining up. He's 14 now. Needless to say, the thought has certainly crossed my mind a few times.

Re: The Ghost Who Walks novel. How hard is it to find a copy? It sounds like I'd enjoy it.

Ticktock

That is a nice idea, which I have not really thought of before. I always envisioned it would be cool if the 21st Phantom would be the first to hang up the cowl (maybe after being badly damaged?) but I've pretty much come to realize we will most likely never see him either dead or retired, at least as long as the Phantom is owned by King Features and still published in papers all over the world. Maybe a what-if story.
However, I really like the idea of doing this with a historical Phantom. We have not seen all of them die, so we can assume this is possible.

As for the Ghost Who Walks novel, I have no idea how hard it is to get by outside of Norway. It's difficult to find over here, but I managed to get a used copy from a Norwegian Internet auction (together with another Phantom book called The Slave Market of Mucar). I think its full English title is Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, so maybe you can come across it on Ebay or something.

I'd like to get the whole set of books one day, but it's difficult. It would be great if Avon would re-print at least the ones from Lee Falk in some sort of collection. With the Phantom getting something of a resurrection in the US thanks to Moonstone (and, hopefully, the planned TV-series), I think there could be a market for it.

How many Phantom novels were there exactly and have they been reprinted? Is this something Moonstone has the rights to do or does Avon have that license? Seems like it would be an awesome reprint project for Moonstone to take up if possible. Maybe a cool thing to do would be to serialize the novels in the back of the ongoing series along with ads where you could buy the full reprint or download an e-book version?

Is it heresy to want a slight redesign of the costume to get rid of the striped underpants? I love the Phantom design except for that aspect. I'm not a long-time fan of the character though so I am not sure whether that would be completely unthinkable.

Shoulda checked Wikipedia first before asking about the number of novels. It says Avon published 15.

As far as av availability of novel #1, I get a lot of books through my library's inter-library loan dept; in searching their database on Worldcat.og, I see that 23 libraries show as having that book. I'd recommend you contact your local library Ticktock and see if they have an interlibrary loan program where they can access a copy for you.