THE PHANTOM returns, and much more this week

In this week’s Wednesday Comics Reviews, the team reviews an absolutely packed week that sees The Phantom return, a banger debut with Skinbreaker, a pitch perfect new Twilight Zone comic, and much more! Plus, Ensign’s Log, FOC Watch and The Prog Report!

The Phantom #1

Writer: Ray Fawkes
Illustrator: Russell Mark Olson
Letters: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios 

Review by Clyde Hall

I’ve always liked those in-between characters. The ones linking pulp mystery men and women like the Black Bat and the Domino Lady with early superheroes like the Crimson Avenger and Miss Fury. And of them all, my favorite is the Phantom. I discovered Lee Falk’s Ghost Who Walks in Gold Key and Charlton Comics as a kid and later through the comic strips that spawned him. As a preteen I found the Avon paperback series penned by writers like Falk, Basil Cooper, and Frank S. Shawn, all with unforgettable George Wilson painted covers. I appreciated the Phantom 2040 animated series, cheered the Phantom 1996 theatrical film and Billy Zane’s portrayal of the hero, and bemoaned the 2010 Sci Fi Channel misguided miniseries. I even have a set of Phantom rings, both the Skull Ring and the Good Mark Ring.

I’m definitely invested in a human hero, enriched by centuries of adventure, who battles global evils and passes down the Phantom mantle to the next generation as a way of making his justice seem immortal. Inescapable. Mad Cave’s announcement they were joining the ranks of other Phantom comic books publishers like DC, Marvel, Western, King Features, Moonstone, Dynamite, and Harvey was welcome. Their handling of him in their Defenders of the Earth adaptation was above average given its cartoon source material. 

But would a title dedicated to the Ghost Who Walks and his legacy be a worthy effort? 

In the sincerest tradition possible, it is. Let me justify. All pulp masked heroes strain the fabric of believability in one way or another. The Phantom’s no different. The first time I read about the Isle of Eden, a small island owned by the Phantom and located several days ride from Bangalla and his Skull Cave, I hit the believability wall of Phantom lore. It’s a place where predator animals and their prey reside together in harmony, lions and tigers feasting on fish and vegetables, sheep and giraffe grazing at their leisure. Basically, our hero is experimenting with recreating a Garden of Eden biosphere there, apparently? 

Even in the fanciful mythos of a globe-hopping masked adventurer passing himself off as a ghostly spirit of justice, Eden feels out of place feasibly wise. My favorite Phantom stories lean into challenges based on a level of reality that someone formidable like Kit Walker as the 21st century Phantom would find difficult. Writer Ray Fawkes has foregone the pulp jungle-vine-too-far concepts and managed that more workable approach. 

In the premiere, we’re dropped into the Phantom recounting a plane crash near his home, the jungle region of Bangalla, on the edge of the Deep Woods. There are survivors, but since they’re drug runners, the rescue includes gunplay and violence. It’s a solid action intro reminiscent of the ‘For Those Who Came in Late’ opening of the 1996 film. 

It’s framed as Kit relating the events of the crash to Diana Palmer, his girlfriend, in a playful moment of rendering first aid in the aftermath. Again, it captures the spirit of fun adventure that Zane brought in his film portrayal with humor and the Skull Cave’s exotic setting. 

We get a slice of life in the Bandar village where the Phantom can be at ease among his childhood friends and elders, people like Guran and Guran’s parents. Then comes the lead-in of the plane crash, straight into the follow up of drug cartel overlords. They arrive as a mercenary unit with military ordinance and a willing to use it in pursuit of their missing cash crop. It’s a force far exceeding the fighting abilities of just one man, even a legendary Ghost Who Walks. Luckily, the Phantom’s also got his wolf, Devil. 

Overall the issue works thanks to Fawkes’ ability to transition almost seamlessly from one kind of scene to the next, including those with a completely different tone. The low-key joy of Kit sharing his latest exploit with Diana quickly moves to setting, showing the dangers of the Deep Woods, no place for the untraveled nor unwary. From there, Fawkes sets up the military threat now looming over Bangalla and displays the Phantom’s small unit tactical insights. This Phantom fights smarter, and he’s experienced enough to know the approach different kinds of soldiers…or in this case, modern day pirates…are likely to employ. It’s always a great payoff watching the prepared, predatorial bad guys become prey. 

By the climax, however, we’re seeing how even a stealthy tactician working at thinning the mercenary herd from the perimeters isn’t ideal for protecting the Bandar villagers. Can the Phantom fight and win? Yes. Can he do it without losing the people he cares about? Less certainty there. It’s a great note to end the first issue on. 

Russell Olson handling art and color reminds us of the Phantom’s comic strip aesthetic. There are added nuances of humor and dramatic expression, and the action sequences flow well. In some panels, his style reminded me very much of Pat Boyette’s work on the Charlton Phantom from the 1960s. Olson most works in his strengths, both of panel composition and coloration, when the Phantom becomes one with his jungle setting. The artist’s working of silhouettes, of deep shade and lighter tones, is especially effective. Some quieter moments come off as a bit flat, but mostly the balance between detailed backgrounds and plain ones with more delineated foregrounds keeps the look of his pages interesting. 

But Olson has an elephant in the room, fitting for a jungle hero, yet still bothersome. And I’m probably in the minority here, but I do miss the striped trunks. I know, I know…they dropped that look in the 1996 film for a more quirky, camouflaging pattern which worked well enough. I’d have preferred Olson do something similar here, instead of just leaving the Phantom’s distinctive uniform a purple blank. 

Trunk striping aside, Mad Cave’s first regular issue of The Phantom has enough of what makes the character great to please longtime fans and new readers. Being familiar with the character’s origins will help those new readers, but any online inquiry should fill in most of the blanks. And if you enjoyed the Free Comic Book Day issue #0, chances are you’ll also find pleasure here. The Phantom’s been fighting piracy, greed, cruelty, and evil in all its forms since 1936. With this creative team, the Ghost Who Walks will keep walking into the future fulfilling that same destiny.

Skinbreaker #1

Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: David Finch
Colorist: Annalisa Leoni
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comics – Skybound

Review by Tim Rooney

Created by comics superstars Robert Kirkman and David Finch, the epic fantasy has to aim high to live up to the weight of expectations. Skinbreaker does more than wave at ambition; it is an artist’s showcase containing the most stunning work of Finch’s career. It leverages all of his strengths: epic, widescreen action and character drama and meticulous detail. Finch’s precise and sharp ink lines give depth and shadow to the world and characters. But what takes the work to a new level is the introduction of softer, curved inks that contrast the patchy blacks and thinly scrawled cross hatching. In one sweeping two-page spread, clouds roil overhead in wind-swept beauty, softly fading into the soft yellows of Annalisa Leono’s colored sky. The billowing clouds are full of weight and motion, the curvature of the lines evoking the swirling breeze while leading the eye to the central action. Finch’s work is known for its spectacle, his cavernous panels keeping a clinical distance from the characters with sharp lines creating a dark, industrial quality. But in Skinbreaker, that draftsmanship is in service to lush landscapes and intimate portraits. Leono’s colors add to that new organic quality, bringing the richly detailed visuals to life, rendering this alien world in soft colors unfamiliar to our earthen landscapes. 

The story here is intentionally straight forward, introducing the characters and politics of the tribe. The set up is done through action and reaction, arguments and ceremony. Dialogue is sparse. We know the stakes as we witness Anok, our hero and chosen heir to the aging Chieftan, look on in pained silence as his mentor struggles with the hunt. The old man’s physical strength is waning and the warrior challenge to find the next Chief is inevitable. But Anok admires his mentor, knowing that true leadership requires more than brute force. When drawing humans, Finch’s faces can sometimes be too thin on detail or subtle in expression, the emotion lost in lines and shadow. But in designing these alien faces to suit his strengths, he is permitted more subtlety and detail. The folds and wrinkles of a furrowed eyebrow, the creases and scars of age, flesh out the characters beyond any dialogue. Rus Wooton roots his lettering in Finch’s linework, giving the word balloons a raw and rugged form fitting the harsh environment and weathered features. 

Any Robert Kirkman comic comes with steep expectations given the media juggernaut his work has spawned. Any new title he launches would probably sell. But Skinbreaker does not coast off previous successes. Though its ideas are mythic and well-trod, they are rooted deeply in the book’s character–the true strength of all of Kirkman’s best. The questions of power, might vs. right, of family and loyalty, are questions that are as relevant as they have ever been. But really, this is a master stroke of comics as a visual medium, a culmination of an artist’s career labored over for nearly a decade. This first issue of Skinbreaker is an oversized 32 pages that, if you really wanted to, you could breeze through quickly. The dialogue is light, narration boxes and captions nonexistent. But to rush through would be to miss all of the the subtlety and nuance that David Finch brings. It is a book to behold and admire. 

The Twilight Zone #1

Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Morgan Beem
Letterer: Sandy Tanaka
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Review by Jared Bird

‘The human body is a war zone. It’s what kills most of us, in the end.’ Billionaire Edward Kane is dying from stomach cancer. He has less than a year to live, at best. He’s spent an unfathomable amount of money on finding the cure to mortality, and he might’ve just succeeded. The first issue in IDW Publishing’s brand new anthology comic, inspired by the beloved 1959 genre-bending television series The Twilight Zone, ‘Blanks’ manages to be both timely and timeless at the same time.

The simple premise of a powerful man searching for immortality is about as old as a story premise gets. It’s the truth behind so many historical figures of power and the centre of countless stories. Watters and Beem take that premise, but reconfigure it to focus on the relatively modern version of a man with limitless power, a billionaire, therefore making the story feel modern and topical whilst simultaneously timeless in the way all the best Twilight Zone stories are. The first half of the issue slowly builds up Kane and his motivation, before the rugpull reveal of what his supposed cure for disease does to himself and others. Once it kicks in, the rest of the issue is a haunting and sad story, with one last impactful twist at the end that really knocks the reader’s socks off. It makes the most of its twenty four pages, and although part of me wishes it was longer, it also feels very well paced and put together, thriving in the limitations, so its length is hardly something I can critique. 

The script by Dan Watters is fantastic. Watters is one of the best in the business at writing somewhat villainous or evil protagonists, and his skill set really shines here. It’s incredibly well paced, and Kane feels like an incredibly well-realised character, even if only across one issue’s worth of pages, which is no easy feat. It would be simple to make a character like this feel like a one-note satire, but it really isn’t, and Watters goes for the jugular with his criticism whilst also making Kane feel concerningly real. 

Morgan Beem’s artwork matches the tone and style of The Twilight Zone really well. Presented here in a simple black, white and grey color palette, her artwork is a wonderful mix of stylised and impactful, knowing exactly when to lean into the horror elements that guide the second half of the issue, and with a great knack for character expression work that really makes Kane come alive as a protagonist for this story. She’s got a great sense of pacing as well, enhancing Watter’s script at every turn and complimenting it in a great way.

Overall, The Twilight Zone #1 is a great read, a compelling and impactful story about death, greed and selfishness, which shines despite its short page count, and leaves the reader shaken and moved. It features fantastic work from both Watters and Beem, who make it clear that this iteration of The Twilight Zone isn’t going to hold back on socio-political commentary, and also deliver an unsettling and fantastic story to begin this brand new anthology.

Street Sharks #1

Writer: Stephanie Williams 
Artist:  Ariel Medel
Colorist: Valentia Pinto
Color Assistant: Jonathan Dobbso
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Publisher: IDW Publishing

Review by Jordan Jennings

The latest in a recent string of 90’s children cartoon revivals hits the comic stand this week with Street Sharks #1 from IDW. The cartoon and toyline were seemingly developed to cash in on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles craze of the time, and while never reaching the highs of the TMNT, they were memorable. While the franchise has had comic tie-ins before, the series has largely laid dormant since the Clinton administration unlike contemporaries TMNT or Transformers. IDW makes a good fit for this project given their success with the aforementioned franchises, but going into this comic I found myself wondering will this comic capture the vibe of the show.  I am someone who, as a child, owned several Street Sharks and I still remember the cartoon and toy commercials. I can say Street Sharks #1 captures the essence of the show for better and for worse.

Up front the comic is 100% going for that saturday morning/syndicated on UPN energy. The writing by Stephanie Williams is serviceable and captures the show’s weird tone of X-TREME Sports Sharks fighting other nautical themed monsters to foil a mad scientist’s plot of the week. The problem is that like the show, the tone and direction of the script is all over the place. It isn’t bad but it reads like a lower tier TMNT clone.This should not come as a surprise since the cartoon wasn’t a paragon of great animation, after all. We do get a bit about the characters but there wasn’t much to begin with from the source. The fidelity of the adaptation should be applauded but I do think it does the writer a disservice not to push the edge here. One thing that makes Transformer, GI Joe, TMNT and other toy/cartoon franchises successful comics is that they don’t do literal adaptations of the shows. They take the source material as a basis and expand upon that. I am not asking for Slammo to have some deep, dark origin story, but I do feel that the comic would be more memorable if there was a bit more pathos and heft to the story. It can be silly and fun but has weight. Instead, this comic reads like a bowl of sugary cereal- Fun but fleeting

The same can be said for the art by Ariel Medel. The look of the comic feels like the animation cels from the DIC cartoon series. It reminds me of the Saturday Morning Adventures TMNT series IDW publishes. However, the art comes across as stiff here. The commitment to the source material, once again, is a detriment. The designs of the Street Sharks and the villainous Seaviates look great as action figures, but they aren’t great for the comics page. As an adaptation of the source material it looks spot-on, but when the source material is a stiffly animated cartoon and equally stiff action figures, that may not make for great comics. 

I wanted to like this comic. I think there is something interesting you can do with the Street Sharks, but in its current state and devotion to being on model to a fault, this comic is not very engaging or interesting.

Far Down Below #5

Writer: Chris Condon
Artist: Gegê Schall
Letterer: Nathan Kempf
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios

Review by Khalid Johnson

Charming through and through, the conclusion of Far Down Below ends things with a tidy resolution. It’s not an explosive finale, instead opting for something quieter; wrapping up the action and bringing us home where our characters can see their emotional resolutions realized. The penultimate issue did so much heavy lifting on these character dynamics that this issue just feels like the exhale you take when you come up for air.

Writer Chris Condon really brought these characters to life throughout with such real dialogue paired with an earnest optimism. Even when faced with some differences like Cold War era hostilities that seemed at the time significant only to be approached with genuine empathy. In a time where many would try to characterize empathy as a bad thing, I think we could use more of that.

The art of Gegê Schall just has an energy and aesthetic that immediately pulls Ghibli films into comparison and the expressiveness of the characters, each hug just feels so tender while the environments breathe vibrant colorful life onto each page. This is all complemented by the lettering work of Nathan Kempf who really shines through the sound effects on page and the way they’re integrated. It’s a solid conclusion to a charming series where people see each other in the darkness amidst the threat of ever-watching eyes and come together.

Ensign’s Log Star Date 9242025

As IDW’s Star Trek comics continue to expand, Ensign Avery Kaplan has enlisted here to keep a careful log!

Star Trek – The Last Starship #1

Writers: Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly
Artist: Adrián Bonilla
Colorist: Heather Moore
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

The next era of IDW’s Star Trek comics has arrived with the launch of the new flagship title, Star Trek: The Last Starship #1. There are some familiar names on the creator page: the issue is written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly, the masterminds behind the previous ongoing Star Trek comic, which was recently brought to a conclusion after several years with Star Trek: Omega #1 in June 2025.

You will see some similarities between The Last Starship and that previous ongoing flagship: for example, the issue’s sequential graphic narrative pages are occasionally interrupted by text-based pages that offer context and exposition. The other major similarity between The Last Starship and the previous ongoing title is the utilization of TV characters and narrative elements. However, while Star Trek was predominantly focused on narrative elements and characters from Star Trek’s 1990s era “second Renaissance,” The Last Starship combines narrative elements and characters abandoned by the current Paramount+ era, combined with the protagonist from Star Trek: The Original Series and also original characters.

In my opinion, this is a great use of the tie-in comics. I appreciate the original characters, and I like the characters and narrative elements that have been brought in from the Paramount+ era. Both The Burn and the returning characters were not fully explored by Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. This is unlike the 1990s era, which feels like it gave the shows the chance to fully explore most characters by the conclusion of each series. And since it seems unlikely that Paramount+ will be reviving any of its shows’ storylines or characters anytime soon, IDW picking up the loose threads is extremely welcome.

Overall, this complicated equation adds up to a very promising flagship title. While I find the inclusion of James T. Kirk, whose narrative has been fully explored onscreen, is a little less interesting, it is counterbalanced by enough other intriguing variables that I’m not too disappointed. And furthermore, inserting Kirk into The Burn is a very different setting that we’ve previously seen Star Trek’s first captain have to deal with, so that softens the disappointment of returning to the well, too. The art by Adrián Bonilla is on the moody, impressionistic style, an aura that is augmented by the colors by Heather Moore. This style is well suited to the somewhat grim vibe possessed by this story, with Starfleet trying to hold on to its cohesion on the brink of its destruction. And of course, the lettering by Clayton Cowles is excellent as always. The Last Starship #1 is a great first issue that will hopefully lead IDW’s flagship Star Trek title to all-new heights.

FOC Watch

This comic is currently available for pre-order, via Kickstarter

Time Sensitive #1

Writer: Joshua Rubin
Artist: Jorge Coelho
Colorist: Kay Woolhiser
Letterer: Micah Meyers
Pre-Order: Via the Time Sensitive #1 Kickstarter

Review by Zack Quaintance

I had a chance this week to check out Time Sensitive #1, a book that was written by Joshua Rubin, co-writer on the videogame Assassin’s Creed 2. It was also illustrated by Jorge Coelho, with colors by Kay Woolhiser and letters by Micah Meyers. Coelho is an artist who has worked on a good many comics, and whose work I’ve always found interesting. And I think with this book and this collaboration, he’s getting a chance to fully showcase the breadth of what he can do.

And, indeed, Time Sensitive is a great showcase for the artist, but also just a great read in general. With Time Sensitive, Rubin has delivered a well-paced, action-heavy script that has an intriguing deep sci-fi mystery at its center. Our lead character is a police officer in Los Angeles, and while doing his dangerous job, he’s also trying to build a family with the woman he loves. There’s an early shoot-out that transitions nicely to the domestic elements of the book — before it’s all upended by his wife literally disappearing in a blink. In this way, the comic gives us a main character with a relatable, sympathetic struggle, and then it goes about putting him through an escalating set of challenges.

What follows is a rapid-fire sci-fi mystery comic of the highest order, one with kinetic artwork, a number of great characters, and a sense of pacing that really can’t be over-praised for how well it draws readers through the book. It’s a bit tough to write about this one without giving anything away. This is, after all, a fantastic mystery, and so I’ll just leave it at this: definitely check out Time Sensitive #1 and get your pre-order in if the artwork and concept appeal to you — I know that I personally enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Prog Report

• 2000AD 2451 (Rebellion Publishing): I think this week’s Prog is as strong an individual issue as the magazine has put out all year. It comes after last week’s extra-long table-resetting issue, and it does a great job of reorganizing all the magazine’s space around some genuinely interesting stories. I talked about the new Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper stories (both of which I enjoyed the first chapter of) last week, and, obviously, those continue here. But in addition, we get the start of new exciting story as well. That story is Red Dragon by writer Rob Williams, artists Steve Yeowell and Patrick Goodard, colorist Dylan Teague, and letterer Simon Bowland. Red Dragon incorporates lore and characters from my personal favorite 2000AD comic of all time, the Grant Morrison-penned and Yeowell-illustrated Zenith, and it looks great doing it. I was always going to like this one, but was pleasantly surprised with how just how well the first chapter grabbed me. There’s a deliberate sort of dichotomy to the first chapter, starting with a blast of color to remind us of the title character and some of Zenith‘s events, before segueing to a literally black-and-white world centered on a bereft, recently-widowed writer who was involved the media ecosystem that formed around Zenith (always an interesting part of that story). It’s a sort of violent transition between the tones, but it’s one that works and serves the story well. It all speaks to a complex, personal-skewing comic that has a lot more in store, and I’m very excited to see how it plays out. So yeah, great issue this week. I will be back next week to weigh in with some judgement on another recently continued story, with Brass Sun. This week’s cover (above) is by Cliff Robinson with Dylan Teague. As always, you can pick up a digital copy of The Prog here. —Zack Quaintance

Column edited by The Beat’s reviews editor, Zack Quaintance.
Read past entries in the weekly Wednesday Comics reviews series or check-out our other reviews here!