Phantom Eagle is the name used by two fictional aviator heroes appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s. The first character to use the name was teenaged Mickey Malone, a young aviator who appeared in the 1940s in

Fawcett Comics Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel, the alter ego of radio reporter Billy Bats ...

publications depicting contemporaneous

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

adventures. The second and better-known character, created in the 1960s by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

, was Karl Kaufmann, the American son of German parents, who became a masked

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

ace.

Fawcett Comics

Publication history

The first Phantom Eagle was introduced by uncredited creators in

' ''

Wow Comics ''Wow Comics'' is an monthly Golden Age comic book anthology series that was published by Fawcett Comics from winter 1940 to August 1948. From issue #9 to #58, the book's cover features were the solo adventures of Fawcett's Mary Marvel character. ...

'' #6 (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...

d July 1942), during the period fans and historians call the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and ma ...

. Following his debut, the Phantom Eagle appeared in every issue of ''Wow Comics'', and by the final issue, #69 (August 1948) was a sidekick to Commando Yank. His primary writer-artist was Marc Swayze.Phantom Eagle
(character, both Fawcett and Marvel versions) at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

Fictional character biography

The Phantom Eagle was teenager Mickey Malone, who, though forbidden by superior officer Sergeant Flog at his military airbase in Great Britain, was determined to fight the World War II Axis powers. Donning an aviator-styled costume and building his own airplane, he takes the name Phantom Eagle and becomes a secret ace. He later forms the Phoenix Squadron, a group of fellow teen pilots. During the post-war period, Malone formed a charter airline and searched for the Golden Chalice, a lost artifact upon which is inscribed the "Formula for Peace".

Marvel Comics

Publication history

The second Phantom Eagle was an unrelated

hero created by writer

Gary Friedrich Gary Friedrich (; August 21, 1943 – August 29, 2018) was an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics' '' Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos'' and in the following era, the series '' The Monster of Fr ...

and artist

Herb Trimpe Herbert William Trimpe (; May 26, 1939 – April 13, 2015) was an American comics artist and occasional writer, best known as the seminal 1970s artist on '' The Incredible Hulk'' and as the first artist to draw for publication the character Wol ...

in '' Marvel Super-Heroes'' #16 (September 1968). As Trimpe described, Marvel production manager John Verpoorten "had been a classmate at SVA. When I got out of the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

in October 1966, he worked in the production department at Marvel. He said they were hiring freelance people, and I should come up to the office and show my work to

Sol Brodsky Soloman "Sol" Brodsky (April 22, 1923 – June 4, 1984) was an People of the United States, American comic book artist who, as Marvel Comics' Silver Age of comic books, Silver Age Unit production manager, production manager, was one of the key arc ...

, who was Stan ees right-hand man at the time. I said, 'Okay'. Later, while I was in the

photostat The Photostat machine, or Photostat, was an early Photocopying, projection photocopier created in the 1900s (decade), decade of the 1900s by the Commercial Camera Company, which became the Photostat Corporation. The "Photostat" name, which was ori ...

department, I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think". Trimpe in 2002 described the character's creation: The character made few appearances beyond his debut. The first was a time travel story in '' The Incredible Hulk'' (vol. 2) #135 (January 1971). Next came a flashback appearance in '' Ghost Rider'' #12 (June 1975), in which the Phantom Eagle, as the cover proclaimed, was a real phantom. '' The Invaders'' #7 (July 1976)

retconned Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work ...

the character as a member of the Freedom's Five, a newly created World War I team of costumed adventurers never subsequently seen. The Phantom Eagle also appeared for two panels in '' Thor Corps'' #3 (November 1993), when the antagonist briefly alters reality. ''Ghost Rider'' #50 (November 1980) contains a page of pinup art by Trimpe that one historian speculates may have been an unused cover of issue #12. In 2014's '' All-New Invaders'' #12, there's a flashback of Freedom's Five and it is revealed that Phantom Eagle died at the end of the war.

Fictional character biography

In 1914, Karl Kaufmann was a skilled American pilot from

Oshkosh, Wisconsin Oshkosh () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the western shore of Lake Winnebago and had a population of 66,816 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List o ...

, whose German parents had returned to their native country. Kaufmann had become an expert stunt-pilot and co-owner of a flying circus, by 1917, when the United States entered

, and desired to fight the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...

. Concealing his identity so as not to risk reprisals against his parents, he devised a stylized aviator uniform with darkened goggles and a cape, and joined the European conflict to become an ace on the side of the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

as a U.S. Army Air Corps test pilot. In his first mission as Phantom Eagle, he successfully led a U.S. fighter squadron against an experimental dirigible aircraft carrier with which German forces attempted to invade New York; however, he witnessed the death of his best friend, Rex Griffin, as a result. At one point the time-traveling dictator

Kang the Conqueror Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in '' Fantastic Four'' #19 (October 1963) as Rama-Tut, an ...

sent the simpleminded brute the

Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...

back to 1917 in an effort to secure a victory for Germany, by preventing the Phantom Eagle from destroying a key German super-weapon. Another time, a brief altering of reality saw the Phantom Eagle's

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

pursued by modern

jet fighter Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the air ...

s. The Phantom Eagle went on to join the team of costumed adventurers known as Freedom's Five, consisting of himself (the sole American), the Crimson Cavalier, the Silver Squire, Sir Steel, and

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

. Kaufmann and his parents were later killed together near the end of the war by German pilot Hermann von Reitberger, who strafed both the Phantom Eagle and the two civilians with his machine guns as they fled from Germany into Alsace, France. Swearing vengeance, the Phantom Eagle's spirit haunted and hunted von Reitberger through the years until, after a chance, modern-day encounter with the original Ghost Rider, he battled the aged German in aerial combat. With von Reitberger's death, Kaufmann's vengeful spirit was allowed to pass on. Sometime later, the ghost of the Phantom Eagle's plane assisted Doctor Strange and the Punisher. They were trying to stop a collection of mystically powered mobsters.

Powers and abilities

The Phantom Eagle was a normal man with no superhuman powers. He possessed good hand-to-hand fighting skills, and was an expert stunt-flyer and combat pilot. He customized his own World War I vintage biplane.

Other versions

Counter-Earth Phantom Eagle

Another Phantom Eagle exists on

Counter-Earth The Counter-Earth is a : Hypothetical bodies of the Solar System, hypothetical body of the Solar System that orbits on the other side of the Solar System from Earth. A Counter-Earth or ''Antichthon'' () was hypothesized by the pre-Socratic philoso ...

, located on the far side of the sun. He is the counterpart of Nefarius, the Lloyd Bloch of the main Marvel Universe.

MAX

Writer

Garth Ennis Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a Northern Irish-American comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series ''Preacher'' with artist Steve Dillon, his nine-year run on Marvel Comics' ''Punisher'' franchise, and '' The Boys'' with artist Dar ...

and penciller-inker

Howard Chaykin Howard Victor Chaykin (; born October 7, 1950) is an Americans, American comics artist, comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett an ...

produced an alternate-reality version of the character in a

-set miniseries, '' War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle'' #1–5 (May–September 2008), published under Marvel's mature-audience

MAX Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

imprint. The series is set in the same continuity (Earth-200111) as Ennis' '' The Punisher'' and '' Fury'' MAX series. This version of the Phantom Eagle reappears in a tie-in to Marvel's 2015 ''

Secret Wars ''Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars'', commonly known as ''Secret Wars'', is a 12-issue American comic book Fictional crossover, crossover limited series published from May 1984 to April 1985 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Shooter ...

'' event, starring in '' Where Monsters Dwell'', a miniseries by

and Russell Braun.

References

External links

* Nevins, Jess
Jess Nevins' The Golden Age Heroes Directory
*Nevins, Jess

and *

{{GoldenAge 1942 comics debuts 1968 comics debuts Aviation comics Characters created by Gary Friedrich Characters created by Herb Trimpe Comics characters introduced in 1942 Comics characters introduced in 1968 Fawcett Comics superheroes Fictional aviators Fictional characters from Wisconsin Fictional fighter pilots Fictional World War I veterans Fictional World War II veterans Marvel Comics male superheroes Marvel Comics military personnel United States-themed superheroes War comics published by Marvel Comics