Writer – Mark Verheiden
Artist – Luke McDonnell
Colours – Anthony Tollin
Letters – Bob Pinaha

Wajir is a poor, overpopulated and polluted part of the country and it is something that The Phantom would like Diana to see so that she knows, at least in part, why The Phantom does what he does. It is a sad state of affairs to see how the people have to fight to live and it gets even worse when Diana and Kit hear about the stolen medicine shipments and the orphanage they are visiting having to go without when they are truly needed. There is a resolve within The Phantom when learning of this and he means to not only stop the thieves from stealing the medical supplies but to give the children of the orphanage and of Wajir something to strive for and something to live for. Mark Verheiden writes a very captivating tale once more and it finds The Phantom on very familiar ground in two ways, saving those who need it and who are unable to do so themselves and looking to the past to gain some sort of clarity in solving the problems of the present. At the time of the sixth Phantom, there was a confrontation with pirates being led by a man named Redbeard. Refusing to kill, The Phantom has to come up with a plan and so requests a duel with the spoils being his leadership or his death. Thankfully he would come out on top in the end and those pirates would be the first iteration of the Jungle Patrol which continues in the present day. So it is that Kit, the current Phantom, is on the hunt and it is not long before he finds his prey. With the local kids mixed up in all of it, he needs to find a way to end the criminals and ensure that they are not hurt. He does just that and the end of the book finds him enlisting the kids to form their own local patrol, one that will patrol the train yards so that anything else that comes through will be protected. It also means that Kit can leave his mark as The Phantom much like his ancestor did while doing something that will be to the benefit of all. Like many of the previous issues, Verheiden sticks the landing in the best possible way though it would have been nice to see what Diana thought of the outcome, though one could probably guess that she would be happy. Once again Luke McDonnell flexes those very artistic muscles of his to make this book look as good as it does and one cannot help but love the grittiness of his work as it fits hand-in-hand with the stories that Verheiden delivers. Altogether, a truly solid book.

4 out of 5