Stranger as of issue #9 (Aug. 2013) and cancelled as of #22 (Oct. 2014). Fictional character biography Origin Unusual for a comic book character of such longevity, nothing in the way of personal data about the Phantom Stranger — his real name, his true nature, or his origins — has ever been revealed. In 1987, DC produced a special issue of Secret Origins (Vol. 2, #10) that postulated four possible origins: In a variation of the Wandering Jew story, he was a man named Isaac with a wife (Rebecca) and a young son in Bethlehem during the time of Jesus' childhood. When King Herod heard that there was born a child who would be king of the Jews, he orders the Massacre of the Innocents in order to kill the Christ Child. Among the people killed were Isaac's wife and son. Blind with anger, he spends the next 30 years raging against Jesus. During the Passion of Jesus, Isaac bribes a guard to let him take his place and participate in the flagellation of Christ. Jesus condemns Isaac to "tarry in this world - until I come again". Centuries after the crucifixion, Isaac repents. He has spent his life helping mankind ever since, evidently finding the task so agreeably fulfilling that in the present day (i.e., the late 1980s) he politely declines an offer from God to release him from his penance. The Stranger was a man in Biblical times who was spared God's wrath by an angel. Questioning God's actions, he commits suicide. The angel forbids his spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condemns him to walk the world forever as part of humanity, but also forever separated from it. The angel also erases all of the man's memories of his past life. He then discovers his divine charge: to turn humanity away from evil, one soul at a time. Some versions of this story imply that the angel was the incarnation of the Spectre of that time period. The Phantom Stranger is a being caught in a time loop. Near the end of the universe, the Phantom Stranger approaches a group of scientists who are trying to transfer energy from the Big Bang to extend the life of the universe. The Phantom Stranger realizes that one of the scientists is in reality an Avatar of Anti-Life, and that their efforts will prevent the universe from