Phantom Lady

Phantom Lady #17 (April, 1948). Cover art by Matt Baker

Phantom Lady is a fictional character, a superhero from the Golden Age of Comic Books. The character was originally published by Quality Comics and is presently part of the DC Comics universe of characters, after being used by a series of other now-defunct comic book companies. As published by Fox Features Syndicate in the late 1940s, the busty and scantily-clad Phantom Lady was a notable and controversial example of "good-girl art", a genre of comic art that portrayed voluptuous female characters in provocative situations and pin-up poses. Phantom Lady first appeared in Quality's Police Comics #1 (August, 1941), which also marked the debut of other characters such as Plastic Man and the Human Bomb. Phantom Lady was created by the Eisner-Iger Studio, with her early adventures written and drawn by Arthur Peddy.

Origin and early publication history

Panel from Police Comics; Phantom Lady's black ray gun is shot out of her hand

The alter ego of Phantom Lady was Sandra Knight, the beautiful D.C. debutante daughter of U.S. Senator Henry Knight. One night she happened across two would-be assassins targeting her father, and stealthily thwarted them with nothing more than a rolled-up newspaper. Knight consequently developed a taste for adventure and crime-fighting, and after finding a "black light ray projector" that a family friend named Professor Davis sent to her father, Knight then adopted the device as a weapon that could blind her enemies, or turn herself invisible if she aimed it at herself. She assumed the identity of Phantom Lady, in a costume that consisted of a green cape and the equivalent of a one-piece yellow swimsuit. Later stories published by DC Comics would alter details of this origin, giving her a more active and aggressive role in her own empowerment, and explaining her skimpy costume as a tactic to distract her usually male foes. Phantom Lady ran as one of the features in Police Comics through issue 23; she also appeared in Feature Comics #69-71 as part of a crossover with Spider Widow and the Raven. Her Quality Comics rogue's gallery included the Avenging Skulls, the Fire Fiend, the Killer Clown, Kurtz, the Robbing Robot, the Subway Slayer, and Vulture.

After Quality stopped publishing the adventures of Phantom Lady, what was now simply Iger Studios believed it owned the character and transferred it to Fox Features Syndicate, a move that would later cause confusion as to who actually owned the copyright in the character. The Fox version, which premiered in Phantom Lady #13 (the character took over a title previously called Wotalife Comics), is more well known to comic fans for the good-girl art by Matt Baker, one of the few African-American comic book artists who worked during the Golden Age. Baker altered her costume by changing the colors to red and blue, revealing her cleavage and adding a very short skirt. Fox published Phantom Lady only through issue 26 (April, 1949), and the character also guest-starred in All-Top Comics #8-16.

Phantom Lady #2 (Feb/Mar 1955). Ajax-Farrell Publications.

The cover of Phantom Lady #17 was reproduced in Seduction of the Innocent, the 1954 book by Dr. Fredric Wertham that denounced what he saw as the morally corruptive effect of comics on children. The cover, which illustrated Phantom Lady trying to escape from ropes, was presented by Wertham as a depiction of sexual bondage. In the meantime, Fox went under and its assets were acquired by other publishers, and Phantom Lady was then published as an occasional backup feature in other titles by Star Publications until it too went out of business. Ajax-Farrell Publications then published four issues of what was the second Phantom Lady title, with cover dates from December 1954/January 1955 through June 1955, as well as backup features of the character in other titles such as Wonder Boy. By then, Wertham's efforts had led to a Congressional investigation into the comics industry, and publishers decided to self-censor under the Comics Code Authority beginning in the fall of 1954. Some changes were consequently made to the Phantom Lady's costume, so that her cleavage was covered and shorts replaced her skirt. Farrell's assets were later acquired by Charlton Comics.

Phantom Lady in the modern era

The second Phantom Lady on the cover of Action Comics Weekly #639. Art by Kevin Nowlan.

In 1956, DC Comics obtained the rights to the Quality Comics characters, which they believed included Phantom Lady, and re-introduced her seventeen years later with a group of other Quality heroes as the Freedom Fighters in Justice League of America #107 (October, 1973). The Freedom Fighters were located on the parallel world of "Earth-X," in which World War II never ended. The team were featured in their own series for fifteen issues, and then after the Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the parallel worlds into one continuity, they were made part of the All-Star Squadron.

DC later retold the origin of Phantom Lady so that she overtook her father's would-be assassins with her fists instead of a newspaper. She was also given a more active role in acquiring her black light ray, which she no longer received from a family friend but instead a scientist named Dr. Abraham Davis, who had escaped from Nazi-controlled Europe. In the retelling, Sandra Knight set Davis up in a laboratory and helped him complete his invention. Ted Knight, now established as her cousin, also aided Davis and acquired the technology that allowed him to become the first Starman as a result. In the continuation of the new All-Star Squadron continuity, she married fellow Squadron member Iron Munro and the two later had a child.

Femforce #38 (1991). The Blue Bulleteer, derived from the Matt Baker Phantom Lady

In her old age, Sandra Knight became a school headmistress, and trained her successor. The new Phantom Lady, a.k.a. Delilah "Dee" Tyler, was introduced in Action Comics Weekly #636 (January, 1989) and was given a back-up feature in that title for several issues with art by Chuck Austen. The Tyler-Phantom Lady then guest-starred in the 1990s Starman series, and then joined a new version of the Freedom Fighters in the pages of the Justice Society of America.

In the 1970s, Bill Black's Paragon Publications (now AC Comics) began publishing its own revival of Phantom Lady, on the belief that an acquisition of characters from Charlton Comics (which ostensibly included the Fox-derived assets), gave it the rights to the characters. This Phantom Lady was an even more undressed version of the Matt Baker character, and a mask and ordinary handgun were also added. When DC threatened legal action, AC changed the name of their version to first the Blue Bulleteer and then to Nightveil, who was made a member of Femforce, the first all-female superhero team. AC Comics, as well as other minor publishers, have nonetheless published reprints of the original Fox Features Syndicate stories, which many believe to be in the public domain due to failure to renew the original copyrights.