Police Comics #1 (Phantom Lady)

Police Comics #1 (1941)
by Arthur F. Peddy

You wouldn’t expect it, but Phantom Lady has one of the most complicated histories of all Golden Age superheroes.

Her creator is Arthur F. Peddy; she’s basically his only famous superhero character, since in the 50s and 60s he worked almost exclusively on war comics and romance comics.
One of Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, “The sound of music”, was based on one of his comics.

Our protagonist doesn’t get a real origin: she’s just the wealthy daughter of a US Senator.
Who brings her along to witness nuclear testing!!!
Well, they don’t call it that… but the idea that they’re experimenting with an uranium bomb is not as far-fetched as you might think: this has a cover date of August 1941, and OSRD was formed in June of the same year.

But obviously this isn’t anywhere near what we now consider a nuclear weapon: it’s just SLIGHTLY more powerful than regular TNT.

And then the scientist who developed the bomb is SHOT BY A PLANE.

Did… did the Senator go witness the explosion WITHOUT ANY SECURITY DETAIL WHATSOEVER???
Also: bombing the place leaves no evidence this happened (WTF!?) and a plane that is precise enough to shoot and bomb a single person can’t pursue a car (double WTF!?).

If security was as pathetic in reality as much as it was in comics, I can’t comprehend how America survived the war.

This looks like a job for Phantom Lady, SOMEHOW.

She recognized the man who was next to the scientist before the explosion, and she decides to investigate his “weekend camp”.

Luckily for her this place has terrible security too, so she manages to Batman her way into the house. Nice panel!

So let me get this straight.
You have the resources to bomb a secret government test right next to a Senator… and you don’t even LOCK YOUR BACK DOOR???

This is when Phantom Lady introduces her signature weapon: the Black Light™ (called the Black Lantern^{(patent expired)} here), a device that can project darkness.
I’m pretty sure we’re never told where it comes from during the Golden Age, but in modern times it will be retconned to be a creation of the original Starman and she will be identified as his cousin.

It’s a neat idea that requires some very unique powers.
Too bad Phantom Lady kind of sucks using it in her first story.

Yeah, uhm, she doesn’t exactly have the best first impression.

She does regain some coolness points by integrating the technology into her car.
Bet you didn’t expect to see a car chase in a Phantom Lady story.

So the criminals decide to hide in the nearest swamp.
As you do.

Turns out they didn’t kill the scientist, they just want the secret to the bomb’s creation.
And once again they keep him without ANY SECURITY WHATSOEVER.

So Phantom Lady rescues the scientist…

…the criminals accidentally set the place on fire (!!!)…

…and are killed by snakes.

And that’s the story of how Phantom Lady saved the scientist from the most incompetent conspirators ever.

Also: the scientist already met the Senator’s daughter, how does he not recognize she’s not the same person???
She’s not even wearing glasses!

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Historical significance: 4/10
Out of all the Golden Age characters, Phantom Lady is just behind Starman for the amount of legacy characters. That being said, she’s more significant for comics history than for anything in-universe.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
The most unbelievable thing is how she manages to accomplish anything.

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Not a bad story, seriously elevated by the artwork. With just 6 pages it doesn’t have a lot of space to work with, but it’s quite entertaining.
It’s hard to take her too seriously when her adversaries are THAT incompetent, though.

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How close is this to the modern DC Comics character? Which one?
Oh boy, do things get complicated with Phantom Lady. This is going to be a long one.

Her run on Police Comics is not particularly remarkable, lasting until #23 in 1943.
Notably it includes one of the earliest superhero team-ups: in Feature Comics #69 she meets fellow heroine Spider Widow.

No wonder Spider Widow never gets big. Not only she has a terrible costume (she’s the one dressed like a witch), but she’s immediately upstaged by Phantom Lady.

The story then concludes on Police Comics #21.

Her costume becomes a little more risqué when Frank Borth takes over penciling duties with Police Comics #17, but nothing as extreme as you’d expect from Phantom Lady’s reputation.

And this is where things really complicated, because Quality Comics just stopped making Phantom Lady stories… but then Iger Studios, believing they owned the rights to the character (???) decided to start publishing new stories under the Fox Feature Syndicate publisher.

That’s right: since they had artists working on the character, they just assumed they had the rights and went on publishing, without Quality complaining.
That would never, ever, EVER happen today, no matter how minor the character!!!

Phantom Lady would then debut in the Fox universe with Phantom Lady #13.
That’s not a typo: there is no Phantom Lady #1, they simply continued the numbering from “Wotalife Comics #12”.
And THAT Phantom Lady is the one to take the fanservice to the extreme.

Not only her costume would make “Wardrobe Malfunction Lady” a better name, but if you thought the fanservice stops there…

…just to give you a small sample: all of these are from ONE of the stories of Phantom Girl #14.
It’s ten pages long and these are not even all of the examples.

Also, Phantom Lady gets bound and gagged a lot in this series.
And I do mean A LOT.

You’d be forgiven for thinking these are two completely different characters that just happen to share the same name, but she does (occasionally) use the dark light.

The covers don’t try to hide what’s really selling these issues.

Including the one that is BY FAR the most well-known Phantom Lady cover: issue 17 from 1948.

The reason for its fame is equally because of the fanservice and because of its historical importance: it’s directly reference in Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction Of The Innocent”, the book that will lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority.

 The cover is even shown in the book itself.
By the way, if you’re ever curious enough to read Seduction Of The Innocent because of its immense importance to the history of comics… just don’t, it’s awful.
For example, if you think Wertham has a point about the excessive fanservice… THIS is how he describes the cover of Phantom Lady #17.

Sexual stimulation by combining ‘headlights’ with the sadist’s dream of tying up a woman.
FREDRIC WERTHAM, “Seduction of the Innocent”

Not that it matters, but…
A first edition copy of Seduction Of The Innocent is worth about 600 dollars.
In 2021, someone paid 456,000 dollars for a near perfect copy of Phantom Girl #17.

But that’s not the end of Phantom Lady’s weird publishing history!
Because after Fox ended her series with #23, she was published by Ajax-Farrell Publications for 4 issues between 1954 to 1955.
You can tell they were still affected by the Wertham controversy because they SERIOUSLY tone down the fanservice.

Notice I didn’t say they removed it, because she gained both more clothes and a couple of bra sizes.

She also has a ridiculous vehicle in this version.

Charlton Comics and I.W.Publications published reprints of Golden Age material between the late 50s and early 60s, with the only new material being a few new covers.
Notably, nobody seems to agree whether they HAD the rights to do this! It’s unlikely I.W.Publishing did, but Charlton might have had SOME rights.

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DC Comics finally remembered they had the rights to the character in 1973: they completely disregarded EVERYTHING from the Fox version and brought her back in Justice League Of America #107, as we’ve already seen with many other Quality characters.

She had numerous adventures with the Freedom Fighters, and was a regular on All-Star Squadron and its spinoff Young All-Stars.
Both series were by Roy Thomas (of course), who had her marry a new hero: Iron Munro, a character he created as a replacement for Superman’s role in the Golden Age.

In 2006, on the pages of Manhunter #23 of all places, we learn she and Iron Munro had a child before they got married and gave him up for adoption. So she’s also the grandmother of the Kate Spencer version of Manhunter, who grew up thinking the original Atom was her grandfather.

She also had another son killed by a supervillain, by the way. Poor Phantom Lady can’t catch a break.

But she’s not the ONLY Phantom Lady.

A post-Crisis version, Delilah “Dee” Tyler, was introduced in 1989. That version of the character really doubled down on the fanservice, which had been downplayed by DC Comics so far.

Only to be killed in 2005 by Deathstroke for some reason.

2007 sees the creation of the third Phantom Lady: Stormy Knight.
Yes.
That is her actual name.

That version was then replaced by the fourth Phantom Lady in 2012.
This one is Jennifer Knight, introduced in a 4-issue miniseries that also creates a new version of Dollman. No relation with the original Phantom Lady, apparently.

This one only has 5 appearances to her name; I haven’t read them so I can’t say whether she’s a good character or not.

Out of all the successors, the second Phantom Lady is definitely my favorite as she really plays into the “pretending to be a ditz but she’s secretly a badass” trope.
The third Phantom Lady was fine but she had basically zero characterization in the stories I read.

So… that’s it, right? Nope! We are STILL not done with her mess of a publishing history!

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How close is this to the modern AC Comics character? 7/10

Remember how Fox just ASSUMED they had the rights to the character and published the one with the stripperific blue costume?
In 1972 (when DC Comics had yet to revive the character), AC Comics just ASSUMED the Fox version had slipped into the public domain and used her in Captain Paragon #1.
Keeping the name and the look of the Fox version, but for some reason turning her into a sorceress.

You can easily forgive DC Comics from not noticing that small independent book.
Then in 1983, AC Comics changed her name to Nightveil and gave her a whole series.

She’s COMPLETELY unrecognizable at this point, having been turned into a full-blown Doctor Strange equivalent with T&A.
Which makes you wonder why they even bothered tying her to Phantom Lady.
They also changed her civilian name to Laura Wright.

But also in 1984, she was also one of the founding members of FemForce together with fellow Golden Age heroine Miss Victory. They decided to change her name from Phantom Girl to Blue Bulleteer and, since this was FemForce, dial the fanservice to 11.

You might think that the reason for the name change was that DC comics complained, but as AC Comics writer Bill Black explains things are way weirder.

DC claimed they owned the name Phantom Lady and, in 1983, Dick Giordano (then DC editor) called me and asked me to cease and desist the use of the name. Big company pressuring a little company… I was just starting up, so I rolled over on this. I later discovered that DC had not and COULD NOT trademark the name Phantom Lady. But by then I had re-created the character as Nightveil. All this was a good thing because Nightveil has become such a great character far exceeding Phantom Lady in any incarnation. At AC we have a “retro” history as Femforce started during World War II. I created the Blue Bulleteer as the masked persona of Laura Wright before she becomes the sorceress, Nightveil. So from 1943 into the 1960s, Laura is Blue Bulleteer and runs around in a costume that is based on the Matt Baker, Fox Features version of Phantom Lady. The fans love it!
BILL BLACK

As I mentioned in the Miss Victory review, as of 2024 Femforce IS STILL ONGOING and Nightveil is given a very prominent role in the series.
She’s basically somewhere between Doctor Strange and the Spectre in terms of her role!

But sometimes she reverts to Blue Bulleteer when the fanservice calls.

Also, Nightveil received a live action adaptation before the DC Phantom Lady in the 2005 movie “Nightveil: Witchwar”.
A movie SO obscure I cannot find even a single review.

I’m sure it’s a masterpiece.