Phantasm
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| Phantasm | |
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| Information | |
| Real name: | Andrea Beaumont |
| Species: | Human |
| Hair: | Red |
| Eyes: | Blue |
| Relatives: | Carl Beaumont (father) |
| Base: | Gotham City |
| Affiliations: | Project Cadmus |
| Abilities: | Capable martial artist |
| Weaponry: | Special gauntlet and a razor sharp blade |
| Voiced by: | Dana Delany as Andrea; Stacy Keach, Jr. as Phantasm |
The Phantasm was the secret identity of Andrea Beaumont, a vigilante who would come to cross paths with the man she loved: the Batman.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Before The Bat
Andrea Beaumont was the daughter of Carl Beaumont, a successful businessman who found himself in debt to Gotham crime boss Salvatore Valestra. Unaware of the serious nature of her father's problems, Andrea would stumble into a chance meeting with young Bruce Wayne at her mother's gravesite while the future Batman was visiting his own parents' graves. The relationship quickly blossomed into something much more serious, and the subsequent emotions created feelings of doubt and guilt in Bruce. The son of Thomas and Martha Wayne had spent more than a decade on "the plan" which had prepared his body and mind for his imminent declaration of war on Gotham's underworld. But in all of his planning, Bruce had never counted on love and happiness. For the first time since his parents' death, Bruce found himself nearing an inner peace, and he proposed to Andrea Beaumont.
Unfortunately for Andrea and Bruce, Carl Beaumont's mob ties turned from sour to deadly. Fearing for his life, Carl forced Andrea into hiding with him. Knowing only that Andrea was leaving and would not return, Bruce fell into despair and threw himself back into "the plan" by becoming the Dark Knight.
Carl and Andrea attempted to disappear into anonymity, but they were soon found by Sal Valestra's chief hitman: a murderous thug who, years later, would become Batman's greatest enemy. Carl Beaumont was killed, despite the fact that he managed to pay Valestra back, with Andrea left alive to mourn him... and to plot her revenge. She covered up Carl's death, using his remaining money to establish a life for herself and acquire the weapons and equipment she would need to exact revenge on the men who ordered the death of her father.
[edit] Becoming the Phantasm
After rescuing Batman from the police, the two of them spent the night together at Wayne Manor and seemingly promised to reconcile their relationship, whilst at the same time, she told Bruce about why she had to leave but neglected to mention that her father was dead (killed by the former identity of The Joker) and lied to him by still keeping up the charade that he was the true identity of The Phantasm. When she eventually left, she promised she would return later that night. After leaving, she made one last phone call and cancelled a supposed dinner date she was supposed to be having with Arthur Reeves that same night, who unbeknown to her, was being visited by The Joker at the same time she had called. Having deduced her identity, Joker attempted to kill Andrea in her own apartment by blowing it up with remote controlled airplanes strapped with explosives, whilst at the same time mocking her with a prank-phone call. Unknown to The Joker however, was that the one who had picked up his call was Batman, who had been investigating her apartment at the time (and survived his assassination attempt meant for Andrea) and that Andrea was actually on her way to him. Andrea moved against the Joker at his hideout: the abandoned site of the old Gotham World's Fair. Batman discovered that Arthur Reeves had been the one who sold out Carl Beaumont to Sal Valestra in exchange for a payoff, and also realized that Valestra's old hitman was now the Joker. After attempting to kill him personally, Andrea almost fell victim to one of the madman's deadly traps, before she was saved by Batman. Phantasm and Batman argued over the Joker's fate, but both found themselves fighting for their lives against the Joker's booby-traps. After Batman subdued the Joker, an unmasked Andrea Beaumont disappeared with the Joker into a cloud of smoke as the fairgrounds exploded all around them.
A later issue of the comic based on the series explained the circumstances under which both Joker and Phantasm survived the blast; Phantasm in fact hesitated for a second when carrying Joker to the core of the explosion, seeing he was no longer the cold-hearted killer of her father, but rather a grinning lunatic with no sense of right and wrong. Because of this hesitation, the blast detonated before either was in range. Phantasm in fact returned once more to Bruce Wayne, if only to warn him that a major bounty had been set on his head, by none other than Arthur Reeves, by then deformed by the effect of Joker's Smilex toxin into a smiling monster himself. Some of his paid goons managed to capture both Wayne and Phantasm, holding them in Reeves' own apartment. Ultimately Reeves fell through a window when he believed he was about to kill the Phantasm with her own axe. In reality, it was only a set decoy, and Reeves fell to his death several stories below. Her mission accomplished, Andrea Beaumont left Wayne definitely.
[edit] Later Years
Andrea's career as the Phantasm apparently continued, though the details of her later life were never clearly depicted. Decades after Andrea Beaumont's disappearance, Amanda Waller hired the Phantasm to assassinate the parents of Terry McGinnis, whose father's DNA had been cloned to match that of Bruce Wayne (making Terry, in essence, Bruce's biological son.) Waller hoped that the tragedy of such a loss at a young age would drive Terry to become an agent of justice as Bruce Wayne had before him. However, at the last minute, Andrea refused to go through with the job and angrily berated Waller for planning the attempt at all, convincing her that she was violating everything that Batman stood for by going through with the plan. Terry would later become the new Batman through a different set of circumstances.
Since Waller had hand-picked the Phantasm for that particular step of Project Batman Beyond it is entirely possible that Andrea Beaumont had spent at least part of her later years working under Waller, whether at Cadmus or simply as a covert agent.
[edit] Weapons and Abilities
Andrea Beaumont is a normal human woman who has undergone extensive self-defense and martial arts training since her teens, making her a very capable hand-to-hand combatant whose skills have more often than not, taken even Bruce Wayne by surprise (both in and out of costume). She is an excellent athlete and is still an active mercenary/vigilante at a fairly late age, making it obvious that she's stayed in fighting shape over the years.
[edit] Background Information
Andrea Beaumont's first name was supposedly chosen because of Andrea Romano, who did the casting for the original Batman animated series and for this movie. Star Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman, had flirted with Romano, leading to a relationship between Conroy's character and Romano's namesake.
The Phantasm is somewhat based on the DC Comics character The Reaper, who according to revised comics continuity was a former vigilante who had been active in Gotham City twenty years prior to the first appearance of Batman. The Reaper was not above killing criminals but had disappeared from the public eye until the Batman's early adventures brought him out of retirement. The comics story (Batman: Year Two) was more straightforward than the mystery of Mask of the Phantasm and had several major differences; among other things, the Reaper's alter ego actually is the father of Bruce Wayne's love interest, and the secondary villain of the piece is Joe Chill, the killer of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Feature Film
Justice League Unlimited
- "Epilogue" (Cameo in flashback)
