Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were a reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Will Murray comes with quite the pedigree. While the blurb focuses on his work with Doc Savage, he’s also worked on mainstream comics. Pulp fiction (which Moonstone, the publisher of this book, also likes to emulate in their comics) appears to be his passion, but he also co-created Squirrel Girl with Steve Ditko. He’s also worked on Lovecraftian stories and according to Wikipedia maintains an interest in the metaphysical. I wonder how much of this, considering the title of his piece, will factor into this third story in this anthology?

The Devil’s Kettle

by Will Murray

Immediately interesting is that the story is set in 1937, but involves the 21st Phantom. The Kit Walker we all know is the 21 generation, but while the strip started in 1937, the comic has been given the sliding timeline treatment. I’ve complained about this before since the entire backstory is that of a legacy hero, but regardless that’s rather interesting that Murray went this route.

The “Devil’s Kettle” in this story is an area that some believe to be a cursed place. Even the 4th Phantom put up warning signs. So when activity takes place around it, the current Phantom decides to check it out. Like the previous story, this tale involves Nazis. Unlike the previous story, however, this one is a bit lighter in tone. While most of the Nazis aren’t coming out of this alive, their demise is less brutal that the other, where elephants were puncturing people on their tusks and apes were practically eating people. It’s a nice change after the gore fest of the previous finale.

Also, this the first story not told from the point of view of a Phantom’s target but the usual narrator. It does change things up a bit. Someone was asleep in the formatting department, however. Extra spaces appear quite often in the text, something pushing things to a whole new line because of a hyphen. It doesn’t look all that professional.

Murray decides not to go with anything paranormal as even the secret of the Devil’s Kettle gets a scientific explanation (you’ll just have to read it) that is rather clever and adds to the MacGuffin for the story. While this didn’t grab my attention the way the first story did it was less dark than the second one and I’m fine with it. It was an enjoyable read.

Next Time: “The Phantom of Cobtree Manor” by Matthew Baugh

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