By Joe Douglas
When I heard Mike Bullock would be writing Moonstone’s on-
going Phantom series I was very excited. His work on the all-ages
title Lions, Tigers and Bears was fun, exiting, a little scary and,
above all, original. It’s fair to say that I had high hopes and, yes, I
was one of his biggest supporters leading up to the release of
issue #12.
The first part of Tiger’s Blood, while not perfect, was an enjoyable
book. It hit all the right notes and suffered only from small
problems.
However 13 is an unlucky number and I think all of Mike’s luck left him while writing this issue.
Reading issue #13 it felt like the story could have been completely separate to that which
appeared in #12. The only connections were the new villain, Manuel Ortega, and the drug
Cupid which hardly raises a mention. Other than that Tigers Blood parts one and two could
have been completely separate stories.
In this issue we learn the origins of Manuel and his hatred toward the Phantom. While the
death of a loved one is of course a strong motivator, here it is glossed over so quickly it feels
almost unimportant rather than the life altering experience it was supposed to be. Also, the
character loses the intimidating persona he had last issue. In the first part of Tiger’s Blood all
we saw of Manuel was a man sitting at a bar scratching a Skull Mark into a table and then
defacing it. He said one word the entire issue, all else conveyed through facial expression and
hard stares. This resulted in a presentation of the character as a very hard, dark, evil man, a
man who would defiantly give the Phantom a run for his money. However all of that is lost in
this issue as Manuel carries on with his clichéd villainous monologues. Even the Phantom, who
was such a mysteriously powerful figure in the previous issue, is reverted to something much
below par. The mysterious air the characters had last issue that worked so well has completely
vanished. I have absolutely no idea why Mike suddenly jumped so far away from that kind of
characterization.
The dialogue in this issue really feels dead and, at times, plain silly. Lines like “…look how
he beats these poor men into submission” make you want to gag. Mike’s dialogue in Lions,
Tigers and Bears flowed so smoothly and felt so real yet here he seem to have gone for the
overly dramatic superhero talk that made comics sound so ridiculous back in the day.
Another problem is that while all the support characters speak in this overly dramatic way
the Phantom himself talks more like a street smart kid. We’ve seen the Phantom quip and
talk smart before, most recently in Ben Raab’s stories but also in a number of Falk’s, but
here it just doesn’t work or feel right for the character. We’ve gone from a hero (and villain)
who said next to nothing last issue, shrouded in a veil of mystery, to a man who just will not
shut up and says things that, really, just aren’t that funny or smart.
I’m not really sure what to make of Carlos Magno’s art. While a number of frames do look
quite nice, others distracted me from the story thinking “that looks a bit off…: I think I’ll have
to get a few more issues by him under my belt before I make a decision. As for Nick Main’s
colouring, it looked weak and washed out. While the colours in issue #12 may have been a
little dark in places, they did give the story a grate feeling of atmosphere. Here however the
story may as well have been black and white for all the colours added to it.
Over all Tiger’s Blood – Part 2 has been a huge disappointment. A paint-by-numbers tale
that not only contradicted how the characters were presented in the previous issue but also
destroyed the very elements that made them so intriguing. I still have faith in Mike as I know
he is capable of brilliant writing. 13 is an unlucky number, lets hope Mike’s luck, as well as
his skill as a writer, returns with issue #14
1.5/5
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