Danny Phantom is part superhero, part high school kid and part loyal son and friend. But right now, the deck seems stacked against him. He’ll need to figure out how to shuffle it up and set things right.
Danny Phantom is part superhero, part high school kid and part loyal son and friend. But right now, the deck seems stacked against him. He’ll need to figure out how to shuffle it up and set things right.
Danny Fenton (aka Danny Phantom) is smack dab in the middle of a mess.
A month ago, he used his ghost-powered abilities to, well, save the world. But he didn’t have any time to pat himself on the back. Because right after that, his archnemesis, the super-brilliant Vlad Masters, ruined everything by unleashing an evil version of Danny from another timeline.
Boo!
In an effort to defeat this “Dark Danny,” Danny and his best friends, Samantha and Tucker, had to turn to a guy named Clockwork to patch up tears in the timeline. But in doing so, that master of time guy erased all of Danny’s heroic moments from collective memory. And now the world thinks Danny is a villain.
Double boo!
Now, you’d probably think that being the newly dubbed “scourge of Amity Park” would be bad enough for a high school kid, but that’s only the beginning of Danny’s problems.
You see, Danny and Valerie, another girl from Casper High, had become close as of late. But the time shift returned them to frenemy status. And with her dad’s new Ecto-Net invention—which can totally destroy an unsuspecting spirit—Valerie is on a ghost-busting rampage and causing all sorts of havoc, with Danny in the crosshairs
And Danny’s clone/cousin, Dani—a female human/ghost hybrid version of Danny himself—suddenly popped up to cause problems.
And Danny has discovered that his werewolf pal Wulf needs some urgent help.
And … well, let’s just say that everything is going a little crazy right now.
Who knew that a superhero’s life could be so un-super?
None.
To understand what’s going on with Danny and his friends, readers need to know a little bit about how Danny gained his powers and what he does with them.
Danny Fenton was an average teenage boy who gained ghost powers after an accident with his parent’s ghost-hunting experiments. As “Danny Phantom,” he can turn invisible, become intangible, fly, and use other abilities such as cryokinesis (ice powers). Up until recently he has fought evil ghosts to protect his hometown of Amity Park.
However, after recent events, Danny came to realize that that ghosts are not necessarily all evil. Some simply need help. And Danny spends most of his time this go ‘round trying to protect ghosts from harm and send them to the “ghost zone” where they can be safe.
The story also focuses on a variety of anti-ghost weapons and spirit-based technology such as tools made from “ectomium” (an ectoplasm-based substance) and “blood blossoms” (blood-like flowers with anti-supernatural properties).
When ghosts are extinguished by Velarie’s new gun—a telescopic laser with high density ecto filament netting—they’re reduced to their “basest elements.” That sometimes equates to their “basest emotions,” that then affect nearby humans.
We don’t see much of Danny’s parents, Jack and Madeline Fenton. But they both appear loving and fun, if a bit oblivious about Danny’s activities.
The same attributes apply to Valarie’s dad. The difference in his case is that he definitively tells Valerie not to use his newest untested invention, but she disobeys and takes his blueprints for the device to create a version of her own.
There is a repercussion for Valerie’s disobedience, but her dad is kept in the dark. Despite this lack of parental awareness or direct comeuppance, however, Valerie does express her love for her father. Later in the story she declares, “I only have my dad, and I’d do anything to protect him.”
There’s not much to mention in this section. The worst language offenders we read are uses of “heck,” “shut up” and “blast.” There are also lots of physical clashes and power zaps between characters. But there’s only one instance of serious violence, when a weapon blast demolishes ride attractions in a theme park and puts innocent people in peril. (Danny needs to step up and protect a large group from harm.)
Several ghosts are obliterated by anti-ghost weapons. Danny’s female clone, Dani, spends time picking pockets at a theme park.
Although Valerie and Danny are at odds for most of this story, Danny makes a quick reference to the fact that they once dated.
Have you ever had a problem communicating with a friend? What do you do when miscommunication causes problems between you and someone you know?
Proverbs 15:4 says, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” What do you think that means? Should we always pause and consider how someone will hear the words we say?
The Danny Phantom stories focus on superheroes and ghosts. Have you ever considered what the Bible says about the topic of ghosts? For instance, Leviticus 19:31 says, “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists; do not be led astray by them.” How could someone be led astray by things in the spiritual realm?
Do you know the difference between real spiritual things around us and stories like this one?
This Nickelodeon series-based graphic novel is a twisting and action-filled adventure. It focuses on friendship and encourages readers to think about our tendency to make assumptions about other people.
That said, Danny Phantom: Fair Game also romps about in a town filled with ghosts, sci-fi clones, superpowers and people being consumed by raging emotions. Parents may want to discuss the differences between real spirituality and cartoon adventures like this one.
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
