So I knew nothing about the Phantom Stranger before this issue, and maybe I don't know much more having read it except that he's totally badass and Tomasi gives him a righteous intro worth repeating:
"I have walked hundreds of billions of miles across this earth...across time and space...through the blinding light of the Elysian Fields...and the darkest depths of Pandemonium...where the stench and despair of the Chaoplasm is always a potent reminder of how far man can fall. I am the Phantom Stranger. And the Stranger comes...when the Stranger is needed."
I mean it's over the top, but it works perfectly with the art by Syaf/Cifuentes/Arreola. And the way Tomasi writes him, the Phantom Stranger seems like a dude who deserves such hyperbole. Or I guess it's not hyperbole. Anyway, it's a Blackest Night tie-in, and the Stranger and Blue Devil are battling the Night-ed Spectre, who promptly escapes. Plan B, I suppose, is to track down Boston Brand in Nanda Parbat, help Deadman get his shit together, and then send him off to Hal Jordan with an enlightening tidbit: "Yeah, that something to do with White Light ain't got a snowball's chance in hell of stopping Nekron." The Stranger facilitates this whole shebang.
Tomasi has a great time writing Brand's flippant wit, and he makes the Stranger truly ominous and powerful - the guy dresses like the operatic phantom, fer chrissakes, but I wouldn't call him on it. Deadman would. He doesn't though. So cool. And speaking of costumes, Deadman's high-collared red jumpsuit totally shouldn't work, but it totally does. They should bring back this title for real.
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