Revenge Of The Desert Phantom Review (includes Spoilers)

[tomswift2002]

Published in 1985 by Wanderer Books, subsequently published in the late 1980's by Minstrel books.

#84 in the Original/Digest series

After helping Iola learn some dance steps for an upcoming beauty pageant, Joe returns home to find Frank standing in the driveway waiting for him.  Frank tells Joe that a man named Mantu visited their home that afternoon asking the Hardy's to locate Niki Jarusa, the daughter of slain Zebwan President Jarusa. 

After checking all the background information out with Fenton Hardy and Sam Radley, the boys board a flight for Paris where Mantu believes Niki is.  However, after a wild moped chase through the streets of Paris with a gang of waiters,the Hardy's receive a clue that Niki is still in the United States --- and still in Bayport.

Upon their return the Hardy's go directly to the Pageant show that Iola is in because the clue said that Niki was a contestant there --- and they discover that she is infact there---along with Mantu who had said was returning to Zebwa!

After explaining what is going on to Niki and discovering that Mantu was trusted Colonel in her father's army, Niki and the Hardy's head for Africa and Zebwa where they will face gun-toting rebel forces at all turns in the road. 

Will Niki become the head of Zebwa and bring peace back to the country that her family once ruled? 


Comments:  The action in this book was non-stop.  Right from page one when Joe pulls into the drive way, right up to page 157 when the Hardy's unveil their Super Van to their friends.  Although, there is a mistake on the cover of the 1985 Wanderer edition (in the story Joe never fired the machine gun, nor was he sitting at it since he was the driver of the "Rhino", whereas Frank only drove the "Rhino" to bash Joe, Nikki and Chet out of the Zebwan jail, after which the boys switched places since Joe was considered to be the better driver) this is a story that is a must read for any Hardy Boys fan. 

Funny thing is, a couple of very similar plots would be used almost 20 years later, with the first being Hidden Mountain (Digest #186, August 2004) where the Hardy's have to escort a classmate to his parent's who are living in an isolated Witness Protection Program community up in the mountains of the US somewhere, and then again in The Ocean of Osyria (November 2004-January 2005, Comic Books #1-3) when the Hardys, Iola and Callie make a trek to Africa to locate some criminals who are also trying to take over an African nation and are selling stolen national treasures on Ebay using different accounts that they have hacked into.

Rating for Revenge Of The Desert Phantom: A++

Other Notes: It is very possible that had Simon & Schuster continued the Digest series and even the Casefiles series on in this style, both those series would still be running today, although in a very different direction than from where they ultimately went.  Instead of the Digests being sort of a "countrified" version of the Originals stories, the Digests might've been a "disco/hardrock" type of series where the Hardys still had time for their friends, but at the same time they were still solving thefts and counterfeiting organizaitons, but also global terrorism and espionage.  The Casefiles might've gone in the direction where the boys were solving espionage, terrorism, battery and possible even going after computer software and hardware hijackers that were hijacking top-secret computer parts.  And I think that is why both "Revenge Of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" both stand out as books in a series that could have been but was not (even though the Casefiles started going that way, but then got thrown back on the same rails as the Digest series in the mid-1990's) and are far superior to a lot of later Digests and Casefiles, and even all the Undercover Brother series books (including the Graphic Novels) that are out today.  When I was reading both books I gripped to the story, even though I've read both 3 or 4 times since I first read them back around 1999.  For those "new" Hardy Boys fans out there, I hope that you'll order from online at Ebay or Amazon or some other site, or even borrow them or ask your local library to get "Revenge Of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" in on interlibrary loan since these two books contain the spirit of the Original series, but at the same time, even though it's been 23 years since the books were released, they have a fresh, modern twist on them that makes you feel like you are reading the old "rock 'n' roll" books that have been remixed into a "disco-dance" version of the classic Hardy Boys story.  (I'm comparing the books to how they have taken old Abba or Elvis Presley songs and recut and remixed them to a pulsing dance beat for today's audience, you know what I'm saying?)  Plus in these two books, even though the action has been sped up, the boys still manage to go to many different places and do a lot of talking without the stories seeming to drag or leave you even wondering why they went to that place.  Plus the book has been structered to where the writing is complex but simple at the same time. 



While many collectors and fans don't view the Digests as being canon I would like to say that as collectors and fans we should view "Revenge of the Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" as Hardy Boys classics, as a two-part pilot for a spin-off series that never got produced.  Sure we all say that the Casefiles were the spin-off's of these two books, but when you look at Desert Phantom and Skyfire, even though the writing style is similar to what would be used later, there is really nothing to connect them to the Casefiles universe other than that.  The Hardy's receive their van from Police Chief Collig after they donate the $20,000 dollars given to them by Nikki to the Police Fund for orphaned children, whereas in the Casefiles, the Bayport Mall gives them their van for figuring out who was trying to blow up the mall and kill the senator.  Sure some might say that we could ignore that fact, but we really can not ignore it, since the Hardys use the van in "The Skyfire Puzzle", in which case that would mean the Hardys would be doing what was done in the Collins edition of the Original/Revised Hardy Boys series...using a vehicle that they don't own even before they receive it. 



"Revenge Of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" stand as the only two published stories of a series that never was, and of a trilogy that was never completed since the third part of this test trilogy is known to exist in a Simon & Schuster storage warehouse, but it has not seen the light of day since an editor, back in 1985/86/87, confined it there because they felt that the series would do better if it went in another lackluster direction and the new series went in the general direction that those three stories were heading.



Recently I've been thinking back to these two volumes (Digests #84 & 85), since all the Undercover Brothers stories have been really lackluster and really pale in comparison for the past three years.  What if Simon & Schuster had gone in this direction, might the Digests still be around and would the Casefiles have even existed?  Would we have ever seen volumes like "The Case of The Psychic's Vision" or "Haunted"?  Would we have seen the Hardy Boys series maybe graduate into an adult series with a style of writing that is similar to the different Star Trek series that Simon & Schuster publish?  Would the 1995 Hardy Boys TV series been different if the abandoned series of "Revenge Of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" had been allowed to continue?  Or would we even have The Unofficial Hardy Boys Web Page, Mr. Pizza's Forum, The Hardy Boys Detective Agency and their various different forums because the last book had been published in the late 1980's and the series had gone out of print?



I don't have the answers for these philosophical questions, but I do know that "Revenge Of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle" did offer us a glimpse into a Hardy world that could've been and hopefully in the future will be again.

So, I say again, lets remember and reflect on these two Hardy Boys Classics that are the unproduced pilots of a series that could've been and hopefully will be in the future. 

To "Revenge of The Desert Phantom" and "The Skyfire Puzzle", thank you for the journey.

[Q]

Sounds good.

[003Robin457]

I read that one and it was good!

[Bigfootman]

Here's my review of the first ever book in the Casefile's format:

Writing: I liked the writing, and the athor added plenty of plot twists along the way the kept me guessing. Also, the book had tension between Joe and Ioa, making it even more interesting. And the Hardys face a major moral delema during the Rhino parts, making the writing even better.
10

Myistery: Adding murders into the Hardy Boys was new at the time the book was pubished, and the book handled it quite well. I liked the globe travling, and the parts in Paris were awsome.
10

Supsects: This is one of the minor problems with the book, there are 2 supects, and they don't appear till later on. However, who needs supsects when you have action...right...
9.9

Action: Sadly, the action dosen't get going until chapter 3, but even after that, there's still some empty parts. I found myself fighting total bordom during the giant anthill chapter, but there's action soon after. However, since this was kind of a test to see if the new format worked, I didn't mind. Plus, the huge groups of bad guys that appear throughout the book make up for it.
9.9

Reread Value: If you see it, I suggest you buy it, cause you will want to read again and again!
10

Pros:
-Action!
-Drama!
-Great Writing!

Cons:
-Slow begaining
-Giant Anthill chapter
-Hard to find

Perplexing:
-The cover scene with Joe shooting the machene gun neaver happened in the book.
-The same with the cover of Frank and Joe driving by girrafes. I'll read again but I sure there's NO girrafes in the book!

Rating
9.9
Beyond Expections

[Bigfootman]

We got a final look at the world of the casefiles in Training For Trouble. Exept they change it so so Ioa is back.
RIP Casefiles 

[NZone]

Maybe we could have Jim McGaffin raise them from the dead  http://kmtv.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2882528&h1=Teen%27s%20Funeral%20Service%20Surprises%20Some%20People&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=110100&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=36058056 I knew the family and know that this church is weird, (btw the pastor is a jerk, I met him once)

[tomswift2002]

We got a final look at the world of the casefiles in Training For Trouble. Exept they change it so so Ioa is back.
RIP Casefiles 

When I put that part into my original post I was trying to say that with Digests #84 and 85 Simon & Schuster (and I've even read that apparently #84 & 85 were written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, because they were trying to push the series into a different direction, but were not published till after the purchase of the Syndicate) was trying to take the Digests on a different road than they ultimately went on with the Casefiles and the other Digests. 

I'll try to paint a mental picture with what I was saying.  Imagine that you are standing at a fork in a road.  There are 3 ways to turn (right, straight, left).  With Digests #84 and 85 I believe S&S tried to take the straight road, but found that it turned from a paved road to a rocky road, so they back-tracked to the fork and decided to split up the series and take the other two forks in the road, the left going the way of the Casefiles, the right being the continuation of the Digests.

[IndiaZer]

Revenge Of The Desert Phantom have a great story.I really like that.,

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[003Robin457]

They get their Van in this one so it's one of the few digest that has  major change in the HB stories.

[tomswift2002]

They get their Van in this one so it's one of the few digest that has  major change in the HB stories.

Unfortunately, 2 books later (and 2 years later) the Hardy's van would lose all the cool modifications that it has in this book and The Skyfire Puzzle.