Moonstone's Holiday Super Spectacular #1

If you were a fan of Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom, Buckaroo Banzai and Kolchak, The Night Stalker like I am; then you would flip for this holiday special from now defunct Moonstone!

The Ghost Who Walks, Lee Falk's The Phantom, works in the background as a U.N. transport truck tries to make it a Christmas to remember for an encampment of refugees.

Sherlock Holmes and trusty Dr. Watson are called upon to solve a Victorian Christmas Eve mystery.

Genius explorer Buckaroo Banzai is front and center in a holiday first contact with a alien race. Tragedy strikes unfortunately. But there's definitely an air of the nativity story with this tale's fateful ending.

My favorite story was the Kolchak adventure. The beat reporter gets a tip about some mysterious holiday themed killings. It was a good story and all. But that wasn't why I loved this one. It's because Kolchak, who was played by Darren McGavin, is gifted with a Leg Lamp, a la A Christmas Story. If you aren't in the know, McGavin played the dad in that 1983 holiday classic. Another aspect I loved was how some of the characters are drawn as characters from A Christmas Story. The homages just oozed throughout ever pore in this story. It was great!

There's also a story starring a character referred to as The Spider. I'm not familiar with him. The Spider is kind of a cross between a vampire and The Shadow. The story was okay. But the artwork was breathtaking. 

I really enjoyed this special. It featured holiday tales of a number of cult franchises of which I am a fan of but didn't know that there was a Christmas story of! If the point of this special was to introduce new readers to the Moonstone line-up, then the publisher succeeded. Unfortunately, I became a fan of Moonstone about 14 years too late! Let's hope I find some luck in the bargain bins!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Phantom #72

Lee Falk's Phantom is on paper, supposed to be something I would be all over. Yet, of the three main Defenders of the Earth characters, he's my least favorite. I have nothing against The African 'Batman'. His origin story is really cool. He's got a great costume, an awesome wolf sidekick and a bevy of lovely ladies. It's just that his stories are sooooo boring!

It seems that every Phantom story goes around in 3s. Either The Phantom will fight the baddie 3 times, get injured 3, or get captured 3 times. In this issue in which the Phantom takes on a mad scientist, he gets captured 3 times! 4 is you count him in a cage on the front cover. 

Speaking of the cover- the mad pooch on the front isn't the Phantom's beloved wolf, Devil. This canine is the pet of our book's bad guy. 

I love the old comics of the Big Three Defuncts: Gold Key, Dell, and Charlton (Four if you count Whitman, but it's history is so tied in with Gold Key, I consider them one and the same.) Charlton may not have had the best stories or the best art or the best sales (more often than not, it was the sales), but it's a beloved part of comics history. And despite this not being my favorite story or favorite character, it is still a beloved part of my collection.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Defenders of the Earth #3

The Phantom and his daughter Jedda return to Africa to follow-up on reports of massive snow storms in and around his kingdom. There he is greeted by his estranged brother. Angered by being passed up as the next Phantom, the brother has discovered a helmet of demonic power that gives him mastery over the elements. Will the Phantom renounce his title of the 'Ghost Who Walks' in order to save his people?

Finally, The Phantom gets a chance to shine in this issue that delves somewhat into his origin and history. But the writers have given the Phantom so many powers that he never had in the comics, including a brother. So, is this really the Phantom from the Sunday Comics?

I liked that Ming the Merciless wasn't the main villain in this issue. I think, had it been given a longer chance in publication, if Ming was the only baddie, it would have got boring quick. Obviously, as Ming seems to be only villain mentioned in a lot of the research I have done on this franchise, boring plots was just another factor that caused this series to not have a very long shelf life. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Defenders of the Earth #2

This second issue of Defenders of the Earth has the newly formed team creating a secret base. Meanwhile, Ming the Merciless has the same idea, choosing the North Pole as the locale of his operations on earth. 

Power Pack's Michael Higgins takes over storytelling from Stan Lee. It's like selecting a bench-warming roller blade enthusiast to replace Wayne Gretzky. There's just some mighty shoes to get filled here. 

One issue I have with Higgins isn't so much his talent, but his writing style. I think he must have been from the U.K. because the Defenders of the Earth are now starting to spout little bits of slang every once in a while and it's rather odd British bits of dialogue that's being thrown about. Last issue, Stan Lee had everybody sounding like a 1980s New Yorker. Now everyone sounds like they're from London's East End. It's rather an disjointed transition. 

Once again, the Phantom is grossly underused. He appears in the first act. But it's not until the third and final part of this story does he finally talk as well as spring into action. This issue is more about Mandrake and his bodyguard Lothar than anyone else. It's not so much a bad thing as poor use of all of your available characters. 

I think I am starting to see some cracks in this franchise's foundation leading to why both the comic book and TV series were quickly cancelled.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Defenders of the Earth #1

Defenders of the Earth- it was the crossover I never thought possible. I had grown up reading the adventures of Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. But I wasn't aware that those heroes knew each other.  

Then in 1985, Marvel Comics teamed with King Features Syndicate to create a 65-episode cartoon that teamed these legends together again for the first time as the Defenders of the Earth. The cartoon wasn't easy to find in my area of the country. But the occasional Saturday or Sunday that I was able to watch it, I was hooked. 

I never did purchase the action figures, mostly because Galoob's bulky sculpts just didn't appeal to me. But I really loved the comic book! Published by Marvel's Star Comics imprint, the series was a continuation of the series. 

This first issue was written by Stan the Man. It's entirely based on the pilot episode. In it, Ming the Merciless has kidnapped Flash Gordon's wife Dale and son Rick. Ming sends some of his robot sentries to capture Flash, who has sought refuge in the mansion home of renowned magician Mandrake. Along with his bodyguard Lothar and his son LJ and young apprentice Kshin, Mandrake agrees to help Flash recover his family. 

To do this, the heroes need a master tracker. So, they go to deepest, darkest Africa where they recruit the Phantom and his daughter Jedda to assist them in locating Ming's base on the planet Mongo. 

Needless to say, the heroes find Ming and manage to destroy his fortress. But the rescue of Dale and Rick takes a dark turn that I wasn't expecting, especially for kids' cartoons in the mid-80s. But the ending sets everything up for Flash, Mandrake, Lothar, the Phantom and their progeny to form the Defenders of the Earth as Ming now has his eyes set on conquering our planet for his newest throne world.

This was an enjoyable blast from the past. Having Stan Lee as writer for the first issue was a pleasant surprise. The artwork by Alex Suviuk was beautiful and the story itself was very good. 

The Phantom seems a bit of an afterthought though. He's not really needed in the story. I'm wondering if King Features demanded that the Phantom be added to the team as by 1985, his comic strip was the only one of the three characters in high rotation nationwide. Compared to Mandrake and Lothar, you must admit that the Phantom has better name recognition. Still, the purple clad hero feels more like an bit player in this book instead of star player that he really was.

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.