# Any fans of The Phantom? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [April 23, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626 "2021-04-23T16:19:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/21 "2021-04-24T01:01:44Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > On the same note though, I’d love to see a well made Doc Savage movie/mini-series (at least one of which is constantly rumored to be in the works), and felt that while the John Carter movie was overpriced and overproduced, it was much better than the reviews gave it credit for. I really liked the Doc Savage books. I remember my excitement when the Ron Ely film was released, and my realization, even at 12, that they had ruined it by making it camp. Blah. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/22 "2021-04-24T01:07:22Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I really liked the Doc Savage books. I remember my excitement when the Ron Ely film was released, and my realization, even at 12, that they had ruined it by making it camp. Blah. I came into Doc Savage by Philip Jose Farmer, who wrote his story in terms similar to the Holmesian ‘Game’, which left it much more serious. But everyone’s experience of classic characters is going to be different, depending on (exactly as you described) your age and medium encountered in. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/23 "2021-04-24T01:40:46Z")
[Moderating] @carnivorousplant, you are aware, are you not, that there are, you know, actual people who wear bras? People with actual lives, that don’t revolve entirely around manicures? If you’ve got that much of a problem imagining people in bras being people, I’m not sure how you manage to exist in… Well, in the world in general. But in particular in the little corner of the world that is this message board. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/24 "2021-04-24T01:42:39Z")
I was being facetious. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/25 "2021-04-24T01:43:44Z")
The Phantom would look very different being a woman than a man, dispelling the rumor that he is an immortal ghost, Are you familiar with the comic? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/26 "2021-04-24T01:46:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I think the only thing I have missed seeing is a two-part mini series from 2009 that is supposed to be an updating of the character, but I think I can track that one down. That was way better than I anticipated, so I think you’ll like it too. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/27 "2021-04-24T01:56:06Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The Phantom would look very different being a woman than a man, dispelling the rumor that he is an immortal ghost… Apparently not. > **[Julie Walker](https://ghostwhowalks.fandom.com/wiki/Julie_Walker)** > > Julie Walker and her twin-brother Kit, the future 17th Phantom, were born in 1852. They were educated in Denmark, the home country of their mother, Asta Jensen. Both the twins were trained by their father, the 16th Phantom, until her brother assumed... ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/28 "2021-04-24T02:04:49Z")
It says Kit is the (future) seventeenth Phantom. I thought we were up to twenty second. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/29 "2021-04-24T02:06:56Z")
Future as in not yet the Phantom at the time his sister stepped up. Also, we are currently at Phantom #21. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/30 "2021-04-24T02:09:57Z")
How would the Bandar, who know the Phantom is a succession of sons, explain that the Phantom some how became a woman? ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/31 "2021-04-24T02:11:04Z")
It says Kit, the future 17th phantom, was born in 1852. When he was born, he obviously wasn’t the Phantom yet. He would go on, in the future from his birth, to become the 17th Phantom. This is pretty common English phrasing. Julie Walker, the Female Phantom, first appeared in a story titled, [“The Female Phantom”](https://www.phantomwiki.org/The_Female_Phantom_(story)), in 1969, written by Lee Falk himself. That’s about as canonical as it can get that the Phantom can be a woman. It’s true that in the Falk stories in which she appeared, she wasn’t the “official” Phantom, she just filled in for her brother, but having a woman in the costume appearing as the Ghost Who Walks didn’t seem to bother the creator. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/32 "2021-04-24T02:12:23Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How would the Bandar, who know the Phantom is a succession of sons, explain that the Phantom some how became a woman? The Bandar are not there to explain the Phantom-They are there to keep his secrets. Most of what people know about The Ghost Who Walks are third and fourth hand rumors. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/33 "2021-04-24T02:13:38Z")
How can you keep the secret that the Phantom is suddenly a woman? Evil doers would rejoice that it is a scam, the Phantom is not immortal. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/34 "2021-04-24T02:18:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How can you keep the secret that the Phantom is suddenly a woman? > Evil doers wouls rejoice that it is a scam, the Phantom is not immortal. You don’t? Again, Lee Falk himself wrote a story in which a woman, albeit temporarily, became the Phantom (and didn’t disguise her gender). He didn’t think it created any plot problems. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/35 "2021-04-24T02:19:26Z")
The Phantom is very rarely seen-his very existence is doubted by most. If a lowlife happens to give his/her opinion that the Phantom is really a woman, it will be given no more credence than any other rumor. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/36 "2021-04-24T02:20:45Z")
I’m reminded of the Almost Got 'Im episode of the Batman animated series. “Not the robot theory again!” “Well, he could be!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/37 "2021-04-24T02:25:12Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How can you keep the secret that the Phantom is suddenly a woman? _“Mandrake gestures hypnotically.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/38 "2021-04-24T02:27:38Z")
Frankly, if Kit Jr. and Heloise split the duties the resulting confusion could work to their advantage. BTW, if I remember correctly Heloise is the eldest child, so she should at least be given a chance. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/39 "2021-04-24T02:30:01Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I’m reminded of the Almost Got 'Im episode of the Batman animated series. > > “Not the robot theory again!” > “Well, he could be!” Yeah, me too. Also the Rashomon-style episode when Renee Montoya and Random Rookie Cop describe their memories of an interaction with Batman (“He had wings! And shot fire from his finger tips!”). And the one with the kids and their theories (which “coincidentally” recapitulate all of the various iconic eras of his comics history, while getting in a kind of mean spirited dig at Joel Schumacher). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626/40 "2021-04-24T02:33:16Z")
Another plus for Heloise-She took out Eric Sahara, The Nomad. This is something her daddy had been trying to do for years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fans-of-the-phantom/940626.md?page=3)