The Phantom is a fictional, costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional country of Bangalla. The character was created by Lee Falk for the adventure comic strip The Phantom, which debuted in newspapers on February 17, 1936. The Phantom was later depicted in many forms of media, including television shows, movies, and video games.

Biography

In the jungles of the fictional African country of Bangalla, there is a myth featuring The Ghost Who Walks, a powerful and indestructible guardian of the innocent and fighter of all types of injustice. Because he seems to have existed for generations, many believe him to be immortal. In reality, the Phantom is a legacy hero, descended from 20 previous generations of crimefighters who all adopt the same persona. When a new Phantom takes the task from his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons shall follow me". The first Phantom married Christina, the daughter of a Scandinavian sea captain, Eric the Rover. The second Phantom married Marabella, the granddaughter of Christopher Columbus.

The comic sometimes runs flashback adventures of previous Phantoms written by various authors who sometimes confuse Phantom history. Current stories have Marabella as the daughter of Columbus and marrying the first Phantom. As Columbus died in 1506 while, according to the new history, Marabella first meets the Phantom in 1544, this results in another inconsistency, requiring her to be at least 38 years old despite being depicted as in her early 20s. Inconsistencies in storylines and histories are not corrected as a mark of respect to authors, but Falk's original history takes precedence.

The present Phantom is the 21st in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no superhuman powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength, skill with his weapons, and fearsome reputation to fight crime. His real name is Kit Walker. References to "Mr. Walker" are in the strip often accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the original surname of the man who became the first Phantom.




The Phantom Rings
A signature of the character is his two rings. One has a pattern formed like four crossing sabres, "The Good Mark", that he leaves on visitors whom he befriends, placing the person under his protection. The other, "The Evil Mark" or "Skull Mark" has a skull shape, which leaves a scar of the corresponding shape on the enemies he punches with it. He wears the Good Mark on his left hand because it is closer to the heart, and the Evil Mark on his right hand. The Skull Ring was given to the first Phantom by Paracelsus. The original owner of the Skull Ring was Emperor Nero of the Roman empire and it would later be revealed that the ring had been made from the nails that hung Jesus to the cross. The Good Mark ring was made after the sixth Phantom founded the Jungle Patrol.

His base is in the Deep Woods of Bengali (originally "Bengalla", or "Bangalla" and renamed Denkali in the Indian edition), a fictional country initially said to be set in Asia, near India, but depicted as in Africa during and after the 1960s. The Phantom's base is the fabled Skull Cave, where all of the previous Phantoms are buried.

The Phantom is the commander of Bangalla's Jungle Patrol. Because of a betrayal leading to the death of the 14th Phantom, the identity of the commander has been kept hidden from members of the patrol ever since. The Phantom uses several ways to stay in contact. These include radio and a safe with a false bottom.

Another character who has aided the modern-day Phantom is Guran, chief of the local pygmy tribe, who is the only tribe to know his true nature. Guran is the Phantom's best friend since childhood and a supporter of his cause.



The Phantom has two helpers, a mountain wolf named Devil and a horse named Hero. He also has a trained falcon named Fraka. From 1962 on, The Phantom raised an orphan named Rex King, who was later on revealed to be the prince of the kingdom of Baronkhan. He also has two dolphins named Solomon and Nefertiti, and numerous other animals kept on the island of Eden.

In 1978, he married his sweetheart since his days in American college, Diana Palmer, who works at the United Nations.


Origin
The story of the Phantom started with a young sailor named Christopher Walker (sometimes called Christopher Standish in certain versions of the story). Christopher was born in 1516 in Portsmouth. His father, also named Christopher Walker, had been a seaman since he was a young boy, and was the cabin boy on Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa María, when he sailed to the Americas. Christopher Jr. became a shipboy on his father's ship in 1526.

In 1536, when Christopher was 20 years old, he was a part of what was supposed to be his father's last voyage. The ship was attacked by pirates and Christopher's father was murdered. He was the sole survivor and was washed ashore on a Bengalla beach, where he was found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe, who nursed him back to health and took care of him. He vows revenge on "the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms!"

The Bandars showed Christopher to a cave, which resembled a human skull in appearance. Christopher later carved the features out to enhance this. This Skull Cave became his home.

Wearing a costume based on the demon god, Christopher became the first of what would later be known as the Phantom. When he died, his son took over for him, when the second Phantom died, his son took over, and so on. So it would go on through the centuries, causing people to believe that the Phantom was immortal. These people gave him nicknames including "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Cannot Die".


Kit Walker, the 21st Phantom

The 21st Phantom's birth name is Kit Walker, as was the name of many of the Phantoms before him. Kit was born in the Skull Cave, and spent his first years in the jungle of Bengalla. His mother, Maud Thorne McPatrick, who had previously worked as Rita Hayworth's stunt double, was born in Mississippi, where Kit went to study when he was 12 years old, living with his aunt Lucy and uncle Jasper in the town of Clarksville.

Here he met his wife-to-be, Diana Palmer. Kit was an extremely talented sportsman and was predicted to become the world champion of many different events (even knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion in a sparring match when the champion visited Clarksville). Despite the opportunity to choose practically any career he wanted, Kit faithfully returned to Bengalla to take over the role of the Phantom when he received word from Guran that his father was dying from a knife-wound.

One of Kit's first missions as the Phantom was to find his father's killer, Rama Singh, who had betrayed and murdered the 20th Phantom by first helping him to blow up a fleet of ships owned by the Singh Brotherhood, only to then stab him in the back, stealing his special gunbelt in the process. The 21st Phantom eventually found him and reclaimed the belt at the island of Gullique, but before he could avenge his father and bring the killer to jail, the desperate Rama blew up his lair, killing himself and his henchmen in the process.


Costume and weapons
As part of the official uniform, the Phantom wears a black mask and a purple skintight bodysuit. He also carries period-appropriate sidearms, currently two M1911 pistols in a special belt with a skull-like buckle. Falk has insisted that the Phantom only uses his guns to shoot out the guns of his opponents, a fact that writer Peter David was unaware of when he wrote DC Comics' 1988 four-issue Phantom miniseries, in which he had the Phantom shoot to wound his enemies. However, there are some early instances (in the Lee Falk strips) of the Phantom using his guns to shoot and kill people (sometimes in self-defense).

While there had been masked crime fighters like the costumed Zorro, The Shadow, or the business-suited The Clock, the Phantom was the first fictional character to wear the skintight costume and eyes with no visible pupils that has become a trademark of superheroes. Creator Lee Falk had originally envisioned a gray costume and even considered naming his creation "The Gray Ghost". It was not until the Phantom Sunday strip debuted in 1939 that the costume was shown to be purple. Falk, however, continued to refer to the costume as gray in the text of the strip on several occasions afterward, but finally accepted the purple color. In a Sunday strip story published in the 1960s it was shown that the first Phantom chose the costume based on the appearance of a jungle idol, and colored the cloth with purple jungle berries.

As part of a modernization of the character in the Moonstone Books' series, The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, the Phantom began wearing a costume made of kevlar.


Enemies
The most dangerous and lasting enemy of the Phantom is the Singh Brotherhood, active for centuries and responsible for the death of the 21st Phantom's father. In the 1970s, Falk's comics changed the group's name to the "Sengh Brotherhood", or "Sanngh Brotherhood". This is because "Singh" is a common name in India, and Falk wished to avoid offending Indian readers by implying that the organization originated in that country. In Egmont's Phantom comics, the brotherhood has evolved into a modern company called Singh Corporations.

Another criminal organization that the Phantom repeatedly clashes with is the Sky Band, a group of all-female air pirates. A major threat to the Phantom was Kigali Lubanga, the President of Bengalla for several years. Other recurring villainous characters are pirate leader Baron Grover, larcenous art collector Jason Parnassos, thief Vasti Riba, terrorist leader Skul, dictator Prince Grigor, General Bababu, international terrorist The Python, Manuel Ortega, Ali Gutaale, Goldhand, Bail, HIM, Rebecca Madison (in the Phantom 2040 series), and Xander Drax (in the 1996 film).