The Phantom
Unseen lurking entity
The Phantom is a comic strip superhero created in 1936, notable as the first costumed crimefighter in comics.
Unlike later superheroes, he has no powers—just a purple suit, a mask, and a legacy: each Phantom is succeeded by his son, creating the illusion of immortality.
The Ghost Who Walks is his epithet among those he protects.
The character influenced the superhero genre, predating Batman and Superman in establishing the masked vigilante archetype.
- comic stripSerialized newspaper cartoon panels
- BatmanGotham's masked vigilante
- The ShadowClassic radio vigilante
- superheroPowered champion against evil
- HellboyRed-skinned paranormal investigator
hero · specter · Dick Tracy · Zorro · apparition · Flash Gordon · invisible · mystery · ghost · Prince Valiant · adventure serial · maritime adventures · pulp hero · pulp fiction · masked vigilante · legend · lurking · disfigured
- comic stripsPeanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Blondie, Doonesbury
- Masked HeroesBatman, Spider-Man, Zorro, Robin, Batgirl
- Pulp HeroesThe Shadow, Nick Carter
- Broadwaymusicals, musical, Tony Award, musical theatre, theaters
- comicscomic books, comic book, comic strip, comic art, comic panel
- PlaysHamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear
fantasy, phantom, phantasm, phantasmagoria, phantoms, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantasmagoric, phantomlike