Secret Origins #10

Issue Details

Synopsis

TARRY TILL I COME AGAIN On a Christmas Eve night, a priest despairing that good will win out in the world is visited by the Phantom Stranger, and hears of how he was once known as the Wandering Jew, a man who lost his child when King Herod had all the babies in Bethlehem destroyed while Jesus escaped, and so purchased his way to pose as a Roman soldier to scourge Jesus during His crucifixion. Expecting Jesus to speak vile curses to him, He instead told the man he will "tarry till I come again". After Jesus' death and resurrection, the man found himself wandering through the earth, trying to remove the curse placed on him, until he comes to the rescue of a woman during the Inquisition period who died at the hands of her torturers. From that point on, the man used the curse as a blessing to help those who were suffering, and even though God eventually offered to remove the curse, the man chose to remain under the curse until Jesus came again. The priest eventually believes the story and is renewed in his faith that good will overcome evil. ...AND MEN SHALL CALL HIM STRANGER A man in an ancient Middle Eastern country who lost his family in a divine judgment that befell his city committed suicide, but was prevented from joining the dead by an angel sent to him, telling him that he must now walk the earth as a stranger.