Phantom Lady

Phantom Lady is a comic book character that first appeared in Police Comics #1



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Phantom Lady is a female super-hero who has been published by several different comic book companies, most recently DC. Three different women have been featured in the role, with Stormy Knight as the current incarnation of the character. She is commonly affiliated with the Freedom Fighters.

HISTORY

First appearance in Quality Comics
First appearance in Quality Comics

Quality Comics



Phantom Lady is a female wartime super-hero who dates back to the 1940’s. She first appeared in Quality's Police Comics #1 (August 1941), an anthology title; this issue also included the debut of characters such as Plastic Man and the Human Bomb. In the beginning, her costume was essentially a yellow swimsuit with a green cape. 

Fox Feature Syndicate

Notorious cover featuring Phantom Lady's revealing blue costume
Notorious cover featuring Phantom Lady's revealing blue costume
Phantom Lady was later published by Fox Feature Syndicate, who decided to radically change her costume to a far more revealing blue-and-red design. The character soon became controversial due to the time period, her busty appearance, and the small amount of clothing she wore as a heroine. She is a prime example of what is known as “good girl art," a type of art that fell under criticism because of the possible effect this could have on children. This type of art would portray the female superhero in provocative situations and “pin up” poses.  

Other publishers


Phantom Lady in a far more modest version of the blue costume
Phantom Lady in a far more modest version of the blue costume
Fox Feature went under in the 1950's and its assets were acquired by other publishers. Ajax-Farrell Publications printed several new stories featuring Phantom Lady. At this point the Comics Code Authority had been established, so Ajax-Farrell redesigned Phantom Lady's blue-and-red costume so that her cleavage was covered. These stories would prove to be the last new Phantom Lady material published until the 1970's. Charlton Comics then acquired the rights to Phantom Lady, but would only reprint classic stories from her Fox Feature days.

In the 1970's, both AC Comics and DC Comics sought to revive the character. AC believed that Phantom Lady was theirs to use and began publishing new Phantom Lady stories. AC's Phantom Lady wore a blue mask and an even skimpier version of her Fox Feature era blue-and-red costume. When DC found out, they insisted that they had bought the rights to Phantom Lady from Charlton and threatened to sue. To avoid a legal battle with the larger publisher, AC changed the name of their Phantom Lady to the Blue Bulleteer, though they did not change her appearance. This character would eventually become Nightveil, a member of FemForce

DC Comics


Sandra Knight as Phantom Lady
Sandra Knight as Phantom Lady

Sandra Knight (1973 - 1989)


Phantom Lady’s first appearance in DC comics is again accompanied by Plastic Man and the Human Bomb. In this issue her alter ego was revealed to be Sandra Knight, beautiful daughter of the United States Senator Henry Knight, and was truly a devoted daughter. One night Sandra discovered a plot to kill her father by two assassins that were trying to assassinate the Senator to cause political strife. Sandra was able to stop the assassin's plot. She did not have a weapon to use against them so she rolled up a newspaper and used that as a weapon. As a result of this she developed a liking for crime fighting and any kind of exciting activity. If she was going to become a crime fighter she would need more of a weapon than a rolled up newspaper so she took a “black light ray projector” that a friend had given her father and developed it into a weapon. She could turn it on herself and it would make her invisible or could blind opponents by shining it at them.

Sandra then took on the identity of Phantom Lady, Mistress of the Dark. For her DC debut, the decision was made to return her costume to the original "lemon and lime" color scheme, but this was combined with the revealing aspects of her second blue-and-red costume for a far more provocative look. Phantom Lady used this to her advantage in order to distract her male opponents.

Dee Tyler (1989 - 2005)


Dee Tyler as Phantom Lady
Dee Tyler as Phantom Lady
Sandra was the first of three different women who have taken the title of Phantom Lady. The second was Delilah "Dee" Tyler, who was introduced as the new Phantom Lady in 1989. Sandra Knight trained Dee for the role and then retired from crime-fighting. Dee's costume and overall look was almost identical to that of Sandra's, making it difficult to tell them apart. Dee remained in the role until 2005, when she was killed by Deathstroke the Terminator in the first issue of Infinite Crisis


Stormy Knight (2006 - present)


Stormy Knight as Phantom Lady
Stormy Knight as Phantom Lady
The third and current Phantom Lady is named Stormy Knight, who joins the mysterious figure known as Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters team. Like the original Phantom Lady, her father is a U.S. Senator. Stormy wears powerful wrist bands that give her the ability to project darkness, teleport, and even bend reality. She wears a redesigned yellow and green costume that is almost as revealing as the previous Phantom Lady costume, but is at least more form-fitting and appears less likely to be prone to 'wardrobe malfunctions.'


ABILITIES

Sandra Knight was a good hand-to-hand combatant and a trained intelligence agent. Delilah Tyler was a martial artist, specializing in Savate (French kickboxing). Stormy Knight has a degree in quantum physics but has not mentioned receiving formal combat training.




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Super Name: Phantom Lady
Real Name: Stormy Knight
Aliases: Sandra Knight (first user)
Dee Tyler (second user)
Stormy Knight (third user)
Publisher: DC Comics
Gender: Female
Character Type: Human
1st Appearance: Police Comics #1
Appears in: 113 issues
Birthday:
Died:
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