Review: The Phantom Vs The Red Dragons
From Mad Cave Studios
A new one-shot building on the ongoing adventures of The Phantom from Mad Cave Studios this week in The Phantom Vs The Red Dragons.
THE PHANTOM MUST DIE!
But how do you kill a Ghost? The Red Dragons are gonna try – and anyone who gets in the way is just collateral damage! When someone in The Phantom’s familiar cowl starts sinking the Dragons’ pirate operations, Princess Sin goes on the warpath. The South China Sea belongs to the Red Dragons – and they’re not afraid of one man in a mask. Not yet.
Author: Ray Fawkes
Artists: Lynne Yoshii, and Alessio Zonno
Building off the mini-series and the previous one-shot. The Phantom finds himself in an interesting position. Someone is trying to get him into more trouble. Various ‘Phantoms’ have been seen, killing people and causing different levels of mayhem. Making the real Phantom a target.
This makes up a lot of the action part of this story, as The Phantom looks to regain his reputation and deal with these imposters. There is an excellent montage of his attacks and how he deals with them all. This highlights his various strengths and methods well. But there is a deeper problem behind all of this.
This leads us to dealing with The Red Dragons, and it is a unique idea where The Phantom recognises that they may not be the main issue at this point. That isn’t to say that the Red Dragons aren’t a problem, and it may be something that The Phantom will circle back to in the fullness of time, but his vision is leading elsewhere.
We get a good hint on this here, with a strong look at the Sing Brotherhood, who have been in the background of this run on the Phantom, and these roads lead us toward this inevitable showdown.
This was an interesting issue – the artwork was exciting and had us in various locations, from the cities and towns to the jungle and high seas. It allowed us to enjoy the action of the Phantom too. The story is something different, as the Red Dragons aren’t really the ultimate foe (yet), and the Phantom does deal with them for the time being. But he doesn’t really fight against them like the Sky Bandits.
It does set us up nicely for what is next as well as adding more to the Phantom mythos and those around him.
