good morning/evening/night depending the time you may be reading this. it is me Nebur here posting about a mysterious and yet cool and old chracter from the DC universe. you know who i`m refering? no you don`t? it`s the Phantom Stranger! you don`t know who or what it is? well let me explain it to you in this post!
overview
The Phantom Stranger is a character from the DC franchise who made his debut in the comic Phantom Stranger #1 in August of 1952 from then on he has made several apperances in other DC comics and some Vertigo titles. usually his role contrary to the Spectre who is the Vengaence of God, the Phantom Stranger is the Hope of God for creation. his role is usually help those who are passing throught their darkest period and help them to choose the right side, note Phantom Stranger cannot force no one to take a choice, he can only present arguments and options to choose the right way but, he is not allowed to be a Deus ex machina (character,plot or thing who in literature solves a critical situation with no apparent remedy with the inclusion of it) in the strorylines allowing creation to choose their own path. despite the Phantom is a very old character his name, origin and even his face has not yet been revealed to date. he is an entity with vast mystical/magical/dimensional powers to a point he cannot be destroyed except by God or maybe Lucifer and Michael, however Nekron leader of the black lantern corps has stated that the stranger is neither dead or alive so the concept of "death" may not be applicable to him.
Origin theories
note that in this theories i am completely arbitrary and neutral to this so i just present them the way they are but i claim they do not belong to me neither have i formulated them or created. so the theories to his origin are:
1) One proposes the Stranger
was originally a private citizen during biblical times and was spared
God's wrath. An angel was sent to deliver him from divine wrath. After
questioning God's actions, he commits suicide. The angel forbids his
spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condemns him
to walk the world forever to be a part of humanity but also forever
separated from it. He then discovered his divine charge, to turn humanity
away from evil, one soul at a time. Some versions of this story imply that
the angel to do this was not just a random angel but the incarnation of The
Spectre of that time period.
2) In a variation of the Wandering
Jew story, he was a man named Isaac with a wife (Rebecca) and a son
during the time of Jesus' childhood. When King Herod heard
that there was born a child who would be king of the Jews, he ordered
the deaths of all baby boys in order to kill the Christ child. Among
the people killed were Isaac's wife and son. Blind with anger, he spent
the next 30 years in a rage against Jesus. Later, after being tried in
part by Herod's son, Jesus was subjected to torture. On
learning this, Isaac bribed a guard to assume his role in the flagellation
of Christ. Upon this Jesus sentenced him into exile from his home and
to wander until Doomsday. After the crucifixion, Isaac recognized his
mistake and let go of his anger. He has since spent the rest of his life
helping society, even declining an offer from God, father of Jesus
himself, to release him from his sentence.
3) Another was a proposal that the stranger is a remnant of the previous universe. At the end of the universe the Phantom Stranger approaches a group of scientists studying the event, warning them not to interfere in the natural conclusion of the universe. The story concludes with the Phantom Stranger passing a portion of himself to a scientist, the universe is reborn, and the scientist from the previous universe is the Phantom Stranger in the new universe. (This tale is somewhat similar to the origin story of Galactus in Marvel Comics.)
4) Another tale postulated that
the Stranger was a fallen angel who sided with neither Heaven
nor Hell during Satan's rebellion and thus condemned
to walk the Earth alone for all time. Alan Moore wrote and Joe
Orlando illustrated this story. This is also backed by The Word
who said that the Phantom Stranger was a fallen one.
Powers
all right now here we go to the part you may have wanted from the beginning and we are gonna speak about the Phantom Stranger`s powers which are very hight and vast as hell. the true limit or extent of the Phantom Stranger`s powers is unknown however we know he cannot force a person to choose something against his will, neither he can defeat huge cosmic level beings like the Spectre, the Presence or Lucifer Morningstar due to their hight level of power. but, that is just enought trash talk about the Stranger and his cons, now i will name his known to date power:
Time space manipulation: Phantom Stranger can go to past, present and future any time he desires or has to, he can also go to realms like Heaven,Hell,Asgard even to a person`s mind if he wants to. he can also warp those he wants to to alter realities or universes.
Expert magic user: not on the level of Nabu or Mordru but, he is certainly a very good magician being able to cancel spells as to cast them,dispel them and manipulate them. the exact connection the stranger has with magic is unknown.
Energy manipulation: he can fire strong blasts of energy.
Inmortality: i know the concept of inmortality has varied between time to time but, the Stranger is certainly one of the very unique beings not being able to be killed only by an omnipotent, however this can be negated due to the thing "he is neither dead or alive" but, you can call him "indestructible" if you like it better.
flight: if he can do all of this why would you expect him not to be able to fly?
Relative Omniscience: posibly the stranger`s best known power is his mysterious "omniscience" he knows most of the things going around in DC and in the crossover of Avengers/JLA he seemed to know very well the marvel universe, however he didn`t knew what the great evil beast was or what would happen if the Presence and the GEB met, another case presents with him not being able to know certain things about the Swamp thing, however some claim that in the case of the Swamp thing he "pretended" not to know that, however this is just speculation.
Final words
OK, i had a lot of fun doing this and i really enjoyed the task of making a good post about such a powerful and yet enigmatic character like the Phantom Stranger which very few data exists by the way... still i like this post and i hope you enjoy it too :) see you later my fellowe readers :)
u can contact me at: anebur13@yahoo.com
Disclaimer
i don not own Phantom Stranger neither any DC character this information is used only for educational porpuses and entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment