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.

Mark Justice is a name you’d expect to be fighting crime or aliens or something in some Golden Age comic or 80’s crime novel, later adapted into a TV show. Actually, he’s an author and while I’m sure he’s done his fair share of fighting space criminals this is what brings him to Bangalla in the next story of our book. He also does a horror podcast, but that’s all I know about him. I don’t get out much. Still, it’s time to see what he can do with the Man Who Cannot Die.

The Sky Warriors

by Mark Justice

The titular “sky warriors” really don’t make much of an appearance. Sure, there are two or three guys riding pterodactyls, but they only show up in two scenes. The rest of the story is about the Phantom tracking down a terrorist with a new gas he calls “Nightmare”. Think something Scarecrow from Batman would come up with. The Phantom chases him down and they end up in a cave, overcome by leaking gas.

They soon end up in a fantasy world where people ride dinosaurs and use energy staffs. Here the Phantom meets a man named Red Taylor who helps the Ghost Who Walks reclaim his prisoner and return to our world. Or does he? Maybe it was all a dream? The ending is ambiguous enough to make it a curiosity and it wouldn’t be the first time the franchise dipped into something a bit more paranormal.

Since I haven’t read Justice’s work and am not as versed in Phantom lore as I would like to be, I wonder if Justice was referencing something from the comics I don’t know about, one of his own works, or was testing the waters for a new series. It feels like either an homage or a “test run” but I could be wrong. A quick search for Bek Su Lah (the name of the land they were in) turns up nothing and looking up the name of the evil leader who meets his end just brought up the word “tartar”.

It’s not one of the stronger stories I’ve read thus far. I just feel like the writer was setting up something else for down the road which weakens the tale, but it’s not a bad story otherwise.

Next time: “The Leopard’s Eye” by Jeff Mariotte

Related articles

• Chapter By Chapter #2: Phantom Chronicles V2 – The Devil’s Kettle
• Chapter By Chapter #2: The Phantom Chronicles V2 – The Phantom of Cobtree Manor
• Chapter By Chapter: Phantom Chronicles V2 – “A Grim Certitude”