The First-Ever Superhero Is Coming To Live-Action To Show Marvel & DC How It's Done

The first superhero ever created, the one that kickstarted the entire genre, The Phantom, is getting his own live-action series, and it could finally show Marvel and DC how it’s done. Reginald Hudlin, whose most recent feature directorial credit is the Eddie Murphy Christmas comedy Candy Cane Lane, is lined up to direct and produce the new Phantom series for King Features, a subsidiary of old-media giant Hearst. Created by Lee Falk, the Phantom was a precursor to the likes of Batman and Iron Man. This character was a major stepping stone in comic book history.

The original Phantom comic strip marked a turning point in the medium’s history. This character harked back to all the traditions of old-school pulp heroes like Tarzan and the Shadow, but he also pioneered all the hallmarks of superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Captain America, who would all soon dominate the pages of comic books. The Phantom is credited as being the first costumed superhero to ever show up in a comic. Hudlin himself is no stranger to the world of superhero comics; from 2005 to 2008, he wrote Black Panther for Marvel Comics, so he knows what he’s doing with this adaptation.

The Phantom first made his print debut 90 years ago, but he’s been making a comeback recently. Alex Segura wrote a great webcomic called Phantom 2040 that reimagined the character with a modern twist. Now, Hudlin is working on bringing the character to television with a new live-action show.

The Phantom Can Be As Good As Any TV Series From Marvel Or DC

The Phantom we see in the original comic strip is said to be the 21st in a long line of crimefighters that goes back to the 1500s, when British sailor Christopher Walker lost his father in a pirate attack. Christopher swore an oath on the skull of his father’s killer that he would fight evil wherever he saw it, which began the legacy of the Phantom, a long succession of fathers and sons who have passed down the mantle from generation to generation. He goes by many names: “The Ghost Who Walks,” “Guardian of the Eastern Dark,” “The Man Who Cannot Die.” Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

A TV show based on the first ever superhero could revitalize the genre by going back to its roots. The endless worldbuilding of the Marvel and DC universes has left audiences with superhero fatigue, where catching up on something like Peacemaker or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier can feel like homework. By going back to the very first superhero, this new Phantom series can take the superhero genre back to basics and focus on what makes these stories appealing in the first place: the mythological battle between good and evil.

When Denis Villeneuve’s Dune came out, and there was talk of an emperor and a desert planet, some people thought it was ripping off Star Wars, without realizing that George Lucas had borrowed elements of Frank Herbert’s Dune way back in 1977. The Phantom could face a similar predicament. Since it was so influential on all of Marvel and DC’s superhero comics, The Phantom might now look like an amalgamation of Marvel and DC tropes, when Marvel and DC took them from the Phantom in the first place.

It’s fitting that Hudlin used to write Black Panther comics, because he’s the Marvel hero that the Phantom has the most in common with. Much like T’Challa, he’s the latest in a long line of crimefighters going back centuries, and much like T’Challa, he operates out of a fictional African nation (except the Phantom’s equivalent of Wakanda is called Bangalla). But tonally, The Phantom has more in common with darker antiheroes like Batman and Daredevil, and the pirate element feels more akin to One Piece than anything from Marvel or DC.