Those four teenagers from the old Phantom Stranger comics

[Tzigone]

I just thought about them again for the first time in forever. I don't recall if they had any sort of long-term purpose or plotline? I don't really get why they were present in the comics. Or if he was just supposed to run into them often they same way he did Doctor Thirteen? Somehow Thirteen always seemed more significant/notable to me. Not just that he lasted longer, though he did.

[JLH]

I'm currently re-reading the PS series and am at #14. The kids seemed to be ridiculously present all the time in early issues regardless of where the story took place. If I recall correctly, a story even took place overseas and they just happened to be there--Dr. Thirteen too! I'm not sure when they stopped appearing, but at this point (#14), they seem to be gone.

Jim Aparo, however, is very present and doing an incredible job. Whenever I think of the Phantom Stranger, it will always be his interpretation.

[Tzigone]

I'm currently re-reading the PS series and am at #14. The kids seemed to be ridiculously present all the time in early issues regardless of where the story took place. If I recall correctly, a story even took place overseas and they just happened to be there--Dr. Thirteen too! I'm not sure when they stopped appearing, but at this point (#14), they seem to be gone.

Yeah, they won a two week vacation in one issue and that's how they ended up in the same location. Makes you think someone is setting this stuff up. Then they disappear. Eh, maybe summer vacation ended and they had to go back to school. ;p

[MajorHoy]

May also depend on who was writing what issues. Looks like Len Wein started a stint with issue #14.

[DrNewGod]

I'm reading that series too at the moment. The stories needed a sympathetic exposition target. Asking why is like asking why The Mystery Machine kept driving The Scooby Gang into one mystery after another

[Confuzzled]

Are these teens the same ones who appear in the DC Showcase: Phantom Stranger animated short?

[Robotman]

Weren’t those the teenagers that somehow found the doorway between the DC and Marvel universes?

[Will Evans]

Any links to the DC wiki on these kids? I’m interested.

[Tzigone]

All four are stubs that say "One of four teenagers that repeatedly fall into trouble and need the Phantom Stranger to help them solve the mysteries. "

Their names are
Wild Rose
Mister Square
Spartacus
Attila

[Lee Stone]

All four are stubs that say "One of four teenagers that repeatedly fall into trouble and need the Phantom Stranger to help them solve the mysteries. "

Their names are
Wild Rose
Mister Square
Spartacus
Attila

Well, with names like those... no wonder they always fell into weird adventures.
They were likely weirdness magnets.

[Anodyne]

Well, with names like those... no wonder they always fell into weird adventures.
They were likely weirdness magnets.

I doubt those are the names their parents gave them.

[MajorHoy]

I doubt those are the names their parents gave them.

Then again, the 1960s were . . . weird.

[Anodyne]

Then again, the 1960s were . . . weird.

If the kids were teens in the 1960s, they were born--and presumably named by their parents-- in the 1950s. New parents might have named a baby girl "Wild Rose," but can you imagine them naming a baby boy "Mr. Square"?

I once read about a couple surnamed "Rose" who named their daughter "Wild." She grew up to marry a man surnamed "Bull."

[king81992]

All four are stubs that say "One of four teenagers that repeatedly fall into trouble and need the Phantom Stranger to help them solve the mysteries. "

Their names are
Wild Rose
Mister Square
Spartacus
Attila

With names like that, I'm surprised they never became superheroes.