I've seen J. M. DeMatteis's name a lot but I haven't read much of his work, and of that, most of it was "bwah-ha-ha" stuff co-written with Keith Giffen. To that end, I was a little nervous about his taking over Justice League Dark, which just finished a stellar third volume by Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes, and also what his scripts for Phantom Stranger, from plots by Dan DiDio, would look like.

Having finished Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 2: Breach of Faith, I can rightfully say I've followed DeMatteis's creations to Hell and back ... and I'd do so again in an instant.

[Review contains spoilers]

In the first volume of Phantom Stranger, DiDio posited this title as a bit like Quantum Leap or The Fugitive; in most of the issues the Stranger is sent, presumably by God, to push someone on to a certain path, and the Stranger is often responsible for betraying the person in the process. The second volume's structure is similar; the story finds the Stranger on a quest to find his missing adopted human family, but while there's more connection, the stories still feel self-contained and episodic. This is a boon, I think, as it gives the series an air of a horror serial like Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone.

The book bobs and weaves a little bit, not immediately following up from the last volume's cliffhanger but rather sending the Stranger on a side trip to Las Vegas. From this first issue, DeMatteis immediately impresses; the Stranger joins a poker game with three of Trigon's sons, and the copious, winding dialogue is something to behold. The intricate poker game scene is itself over ten pages long, and in the entirely of the issue there's nary a punch thrown, something all too rare in today's superhero comics. DeMatteis delivers in a Phantom Stranger comic exactly what you would want -- tales of supernatural intrigue markedly different from your average Superman or Batman comic. Gene Ha's boisterous, rounded shapes are perfect for the issue.

Breach gets even more engaging, however, the deeper the reader goes. This volume finally reveals how the Phantom Stranger came to have a human persona, Phillip Stark, and a human family. The truth is certainly horrific, a little better and a little worse than the reader might have imagined. What comes out of this most notably is that the original Stark, a murderer killed by the Stranger, has now become the demonic Sin Eater, giving this series the Stranger's first original nemesis. DeMatteis does well here in that despite that Stark is a serial killer and the Stranger's actions might be generally considered "right," the series never quite gives the Stranger that break, always suggesting that he, too, transgressed by interrupting the destinies of Stark and his family.

DeMatteis then follows in the grand tradition of comics horror titles like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman's Sandman by sending the Stranger to both Hell and to Heaven. What he encounters in both places is, again, horrific, and wrenching; the eternal torments that the Stranger might face in Hell pale, to an extent, in comparison to the choice he must make in Heaven of resurrecting just one of his three deceased family members. Dematteis and DiDio have brought the Stranger full circle from the beginning of the book, now understanding the relative fruitlessness of trying to shrug the yoke that God has put on him; I'll be curious to see for how long the Stranger is a "good soldier" and how he might inevitably act out next.

My one complaint in this volume is the use of the Question; likely this is not DeMatteis's choice so much as DiDio's or the architects of the "Trinity of Sin" and "Trinity War" stories. Whichever is the case, Phantom Stranger's Question appears to be a villain, considerably far from Vic Sage or Renee Montoya, trying to murder the Stranger in revenge for past conflicts. I generally advocate for the New 52 to take wide swings away from DC's old continuity, but making the Question a bad guy and giving him supernatural origins -- while still keeping his classic costume and appearance -- feels to me like a mistreatment of the character. (Conversely, I'm rather thrilled DeMatteis and company found a way to bring back former Justice Leaguer and angel Zauriel in this volume, illustrated well by Fernando Blanco.)

Constant readers will forgive me, but I actually didn't read the last issue collected in this volume, a Trinity War tie-in that seemed to me, when I glanced at it, to start in medias res. Ordinarily I read straight through books, crossovers irrespective, so I can review here whether the tie-ins made sense or not. However, the Trinity War tie-in issues collected in Justice League of America Vol. 1: World's Most Dangerous made so little sense out of context, and given that I have an opportunity to read the single Trinity War collection, I've decided to treat myself this time, not read Trinity War piecemeal, and instead read it in its intended reading order. Possibly I'll report back here later how much sense that final Phantom Stranger Trinity War tie-in issue makes on its own; my initial guess is not much.

That said, constant readers may begin to sense a bit of a trend in recent and upcoming reviews -- Justice League Dark, Phantom Stranger, and next a bit of Aquaman and Justice League -- because, yup, we're on the road to Trinity War.

As for this volume, I never thought I'd consider myself a Phantom Stranger fan, but with Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 2: Breach of Faith, J. M. DeMatteis has made me a believer both in the Stranger and in himself. This one was a pleasant surprise, and I'm equally surprised how excited I am for volume three.

[Includes original covers as well as two-page "WTF" cover; character sketches]

The Phantom Stranger, kind of like Oracle Barbara Gordon, was a character that in the pre-Flashpoint era sometimes became no more than a plot device -- need technical jargon, enter Oracle; need to move characters from one mystic place to another, enter Phantom Stranger. Oracle, at least, had her own supporting cast; Phanton Stranger was just an entity that fit whatever the day's plot called for.

For that reason, I don't mind -- and actually really enjoyed -- the changes that Dan Didio makes to the character in Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger: A Stranger Among us, though I recognize that what Stranger purists there are might not be so sanguine. Here, DiDio gives the Stranger an origin, a supporting cast, and makes him something of a lovable bastard, too, all of which positions him well in the "Dark" corner of the new DC Universe.

[Review contains spoilers]

The first two issues of Phantom Stranger (the Zero Month issue and issue #1) establish that even as this is the Stranger's title, at times the Stranger will play almost a Cryptkeeper role, introducing and facilitating the story but not necessarily being the main actor. Even if the reader isn't necessarily a Stranger fan, it's hard to resist the one-two punch of the introduction of the New 52 Spectre in the first chapter and long-time Teen Titan Raven in the second chapter.

Justice League Dark, at least the first collection, wasn't so "dark," but Stranger achieves something a little closer to the I, Vampire/Animal Man side of the Dark titles -- moody horror and twist endings. Artist Brent Anderson helps immeasurably in this regard.

Purposely incongruous with all the supernatural shenanigans, DiDio introduces Phantom Stranger's secret identity Philip Stark, and also his super-normal wife and children. Some may feel DiDio has pulled the curtain too far back on the Stranger, but in this post-Lost world, I don't mind so much learning most (but not all) of the characters secrets ahead of time, and then letting the actual plot drive the story.

Of course, the Stranger's family is so sickly sweet that we just know they're going to be kidnapped in the end, as they are. I wouldn't say I feel the same emotional connection to the Stranger's family as I do to Buddy Baker's, if for instance Elena Stark might discover the Stranger's identity and leave him, mainly because the Starks are so one-dimensional. Obviously the reader understands that the Starks are there more to show what the Stranger values and what he has to lose than they are as characters in their own right; I'm interested to see DiDio finally reveal how the Stranger came to the Starks, whether he took over someone else's life or what his real connection to them is (we can guess Elena and the Stranger didn't meet a speed-dating party).

Late in the book the Stranger runs afoul of John Constantine and the Justice League Dark. Constantine, of course, is traditionally an ornery character, but DiDio's Phantom Stranger too is a tougher, angrier character (more "New 52," perhaps), far from the wise, almost zen Stranger of previous depictions. Again, purists may not like this so much, but for me it made the Stranger more interesting, and I enjoyed his banter with Constantine and getting to see some of the pecking order of the supernatural DCU.

And aside from the Spectre, Raven, Dr. Thirteen, the Justice League Dark, and Pandora, DiDio really sells the book (and elicits my promise to be back for the next volume) when he trots out the Question. Naturally this isn't "my" Vic Sage (and it's a far cry from Question Renee Montoya), but I like enough DiDio's new version of the Phanton Stranger to give his Question a shot, too (and who can resist that this new Question actually carries on conversations solely in questions?).

Phantom Stranger is strongest when it gets down to the Stranger handling his divine-commanded tasks (especially when he's commanded to betray the people he's supposedly helping); it is less strong in handling the Stranger's biblical origins. The Stranger is obviously meant to be the New Testament's Judas Iscariot, bit the title seems unable -- maybe not allowed -- to use the word "Jesus" anywhere (though come to think of it I'm pretty sure David Hine's Azrael story did. On one hand I guess I'm encouraged by DiDio's willingness to handle "edgy" material (this is not so edgy comparitively but I imagine the material might be controversial to some). On the other hand it seems rather overcomplicated to position the Stranger within these biblical aspects if DiDio's not actually allowed to discuss them; better than that the Stranger once betrayed the wizard Shazam or someone instead.

I wasn't very enthusiastic about DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio's Outsiders, and he and Keith Giffen's OMAC was an enjoyable story but didn't seem to have the legs necessarily to make a series. Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger: A Stranger Among us isn't perfect, but in all I think DiDio achieves a better voice here than he did on the previous series, and certainly there's enough twists and guest starts to keep the story moving. I haven't been a Phantom Stranger reader before, but now I am; this is an interesting debut volume.

[Includes original covers, sketchbook pages]

Coming up Thursday, our look at the next Before Watchmen volumes. Don't miss it!

The Phantom Stranger has a whole history with DC Comics, encapsulated in this Wikipedia entry. For our purposes today we're ignoring all of that to show you the first Phantom Stranger story from The Phantom Stranger #1 (1952).

[SPOILER ALERT] This is shown with a caveat: it's a story that appears to be supernatural but is shown to be a hoax. That was a basic trademark of DC's mystery comics line, which during the horror comics fad of the early '50s fell short of horror due to the debunking done in virtually every horror story. There's a fictional tradition of this type of mystery, and while a gimmick, it's a clever gimmick. For those who prefer their supernatural straight with no twists at the end to spoil the illusion, years later DC went full-bore into the supernatural, including the stories featuring this character.[END OF SPOILER]

This first series featuring The Phantom Stranger had a short run, just six issues. It was edited by Julius Schwartz.

This story is written by long-time DC scripter John Broome, and is drawn by Carmine Infantino and Sy Barry.