And here I was thinking the last we’d see of the character was Billy Zane hamming it up.
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Comments
14 responses to “Oh, So The Phantom’s Still Alive Then”
I thought this was going to be about a revival of the Phantom console, not a Fine Art column. There is something a little bit weird about the Phantom’s head in that picture though. Kind of feels like it was Photoshopped in,
The Phantom could definitely use a new incarnation in comics. He’s a generational character, so move him on, update him and bring him into the modern world and update the all purple costume. Of course, tone down the heavy racial stereotypes but set it in a wartorn country heavy with mercs, governmental strife etc. Could be absolutely fascinating. The Ghost Who Walks deserves a comeback!!!!
I haven’t seen the Phantom movie since I was young. Was it considered bad?
it was corny but it was an ok watch I guess lol
Billy Zane or Orlando Bloom (in a Legolas costume) would make me gay any day.
Demon Knight did it to me.
The Phantom is set in the modern world. It’s been continually modernised since the 60s
the phantom is set in multiple time periods. Its Kit Walker and occasionally other generations. Different comics go back and forth, occasionally going right back to the first Phantom who was shipwrecked on the coast. Its been a Walker family lineage thing making it easy for the writers to occasionally kill him off and bring him back quickly etc. At one stage Kit Walker was in WW2, then his son, Kit Walker was in Vietnam, then there was a Kit Walker later on in the 90s. This was explained as a passing of the torch as each generation got too old (or really, as time periods changed). I used to read them with my grandad as a kid, it made the most sense to me as a kid that that was how it worked, it was easy to accept, made far more sense than Batman and co. who stayed eternally young and I loved how father would hand it down to son, secretly hoping my Grandad was the phantom lmao (He was a massive fan, even had a fake set of Phantom pistols and a bronze cowl and mask!).
Good summary. A number of stories, especially from Scandinavian writers, have been set in a basically modern day setting. Last time I checked one of the twins (he has twin children, a son and a daughter as I recall) was about ready to take over.
There are also a few adaptations featuring “future” Phantoms (where the “current” Phantom is the 21st.) Wikipedia has some details if anyone is actually interested.
Sure, but my point more was that the contemporary adventures are set now- the newspaper strips, the scandinavian comics, everything. The attitudes in the comic shifted – even as early as the 60s, the setting had modernised into a contemporary african democracy, with the President of Bangalla being a Black Rhodes Scholar (Luaga) from a tribal background.
The current Phantom is the 21st, and it’s been the 21st since the comic’s genesis- even though, sure, he’d be in his 80s, it’s like how Batman has always been Bruce Wayne.
There have been reboots of the Phantom at various times- Dynamite comics had an ongoing comic called The Last Phantom starring the 22nd Phantom.
I don’t know setting the movie in the 60’s could work, I doubt any western audience knows much about Africa in the 60’s.
I suppose my favourite thing about the Phantom was he is just a man, he can die. He uses his skill and the mythology his ancestors created. And that he can die thing creates a lot of tension that Batman and Superman can’t. Most heroes in comics are functionally immortal where as if I killed the Phantom halfway through the first movie it means nothing.
They just need a different costume, brightly coloured spandex doesn’t work in a live action super hero movie… with the exception of Spiderman.
It’s not that the comic hit the 60s, modernised, and then stopped- it’s more that a concious effort was made to modernise it then, including a better portrayal of Africa and a more positive, nuanced portrayal of african people. Since then, it’s been a very contemporary comic – it’s not a period piece in any sense.
I’d be down with moving on a generation, I mean, they’ve been steadily modernizing him for years, but it’s gotten far enough away from it’s original time that it couldn’t hurt to give it a more drastic re-imagining.
but don’t you dare touch the purple, maybe give him some more gear to wear over the top, but they gotta keep that core alive. besides if his appearance suddenly changes the whole “Ghost who walks” trick won’t hit quite so hard.
the last incarnation I recall stole the suit from some mercs who were sent to kill him or something, it was some kind of invisibility suit, maybe they could just roll with that idea and give him some modern military equipment like the image featured above (although they gotta keep the two pistols with the skull on them). and then kit Devil out like he’s from CoD or something, he’d like that I’m sure.
Funny I was thinking the same. Then as I was reading your post I just kept thinking of Metal Gear Solid. Which for all accounts is very close to a modern day phantom (especially Snake Eater)
With an assault rifle? boooooo.
yeah. wheres the skull pistols!