DC Animated Universe
Register
Advertisement
Batman rogue

"Your Angel of Death awaits."[1]

After several tragedies, Andrea "Andi" Beaumont became the lethal vigilante known as the Phantasm who would come to cross paths with Batman while attempting to kill those who wronged her.

History[]

Doomed romance[]

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 Bruce Wayne at her mother's gravesite while the young billionaire was visiting the graves of his own parents. The relationship quickly blossomed into something much more serious, and the subsequent emotions created feelings of doubt and guilt in Bruce as he 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. He believed that had his parents never been murdered and lived to see him grown to his full measure, they would have arguably wanted to see him court a woman as he was doing with Andrea. Combined with an early attempt at crime-fighting, where he had stopped a truck hijacking with lukewarm results, Bruce felt that it may be best to abandon his vow to avenge his parents' murder; instead donating a considerable part of his inheritance to the Gotham City Police Department. While exploring a large grotto on his property, Bruce wondered how it could be useful when Andrea dropped by. Bruce popped the question, to which Andrea joyfully said yes.

Engagement

Andrea Beaumont accepts Bruce Wayne's proposal.

Unfortunately for Andrea and Bruce, Carl's mob ties turned from sour to deadly. Fearing for his life, Carl forced Andrea into hiding with him. The next day, Andrea prior to leaving had sent back the ring to Bruce along with a letter, where rather than revealing her current predicament, lied by saying that she was young and needed more time, 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.

Around that time, Arthur Reeves, who was helping Carl and Andrea to flee Gotham, was campaigning to be an alderman on the Gotham City Council. Reeves realized he didn't have enough funding to ensure his election, so he initially pleaded with Carl for a bailout, which was turned down. In desperation, Reeves turned to the Valestra mob for financial assistance. They agreed to ensure his electoral victory on the condition that Reeves revealed where Carl and Andrea were hiding, to which Reeves complied without question, unaware that the unforgiving Salvatore wanted Carl to pay for his embezzlement and lack of punctuality in blood.

Because of Reeves' betrayal, the Beaumonts were soon found by Valestra's chief hitman. Despite managing to pay Valestra back, Carl was killed with Andrea left alive to mourn him... and to plot her revenge. She covered up her father'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 her father's death and ruined her life and happiness and chance to be with Bruce.

Vengeance[]

Phantasm pursues Chuckie Sol

"Your Angel of Death awaits".

When Batman attempted to foil a conspiracy masterminded by Chuckie Sol to flood Gotham with counterfeit money, the Phantasm appeared in the midst of the fracas when Sol attempted to flee Batman. Sol at first thought Batman had found him, but when he got a good look at the Phantasm he realized that this was not so. Sol opened fire on the Phantasm, which had no effect. When the Phantasm was distracted, Sol attempted to get the Phantasm by using his car to kill his assailant. The Phantasm dodged this attempt at vehicular homicide, causing Chuckie Sol to careen off the parking garage and crash into an adjacent building to the shock of multiple civilians who witnessed the carnage. Since she had not actually been sighted publicly and Batman was spotted at the scene of the crime, it was strongly suspected that the Dark Knight had been the killer. Soon afterwards, Andrea returned to Gotham City and contacted Reeves, who was now a member of the Gotham City Council. Returning to her mother's grave, she caught a glimpse of Batman watching her from behind the Waynes' gravestone. Since it was at this very spot that they met, Andrea quickly realized that Bruce Wayne was the man behind the mask.

Next, she killed Buzz Bronski at Sol's gravesite. While Batman suspected that Phantasm was Carl Beaumont, Sal Valestra turned to the Joker for protection from Batman, the prime suspect in the mob killings. After Joker killed Valestra, the Clown Prince of Crime used the grinning corpse as bait for the mysterious vigilante and discovered via video camera that Batman wasn't to blame before blowing up the mobster's home. After escaping the explosion, Phantasm was pursued by Batman but again managed to escape once the police arrived.

Phantasm engages Batman

Phantasm engages Batman.

After Andrea rescued Batman from the police, the two of them spent the night together at Wayne Manor and seemingly promised to reconcile their relationship. She also told Bruce about why she had to leave but neglected to mention that her father was dead (killed by Joker's former identity) and lied to him by still keeping up the charade that she was Phantasm's true identity. 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 Reeves that same night. Having deduced her identity, Joker attempted to kill Andrea in her hotel room by blowing it up with a remote controlled airplane strapped with explosives while mocking her with a prank-phone call. Unknown to Joker, however, Batman was the one who had picked up his call as he had been investigating her room at the time and survived the assassination attempt meant for Andrea, and that she was actually on her way to kill Joker.

Andrea subdues Joker

Andrea Beaumont subdues the Joker.

With all the Valestra mob dead, Phantasm moved against Joker at his hideout: the abandoned site of the old Gotham World's Fair (ironically the same place where Bruce and Andrea had a date in their younger years). After attempting to kill him personally, Andrea almost fell victim to one of Joker's deadly traps before being saved by Batman. She and Batman argued over Joker's fate, but both found themselves fighting for their lives against Joker's booby-traps. After Joker was subdued, Andrea disappeared with him into a cloud of smoke as the fairgrounds exploded all around them.

Andrea alone

Andrea alone.

As a final farewell to Bruce, she left behind a locket with a picture of them in the Batcave. With nothing left, she left Gotham on an ocean liner (possibly traveling under another identity). While a party was going on in the ship's dining room, she stood alone outside on the deck. When Burton Earny tried to talk to her, she addressed him coldly. He asked if she would rather be alone, and she solemnly replied "I am".[2]

Later years[]

Andrea and Waller

An older Andrea confronts Amanda Waller.

Decades later, even after Bruce retired from crime-fighting, Andrea Beaumont's career as the Phantasm continued, either as a freelance assassin or covert agent. As part of Project Batman Beyond, Amanda Waller, Bruce's enemy-turned-ally from his time in the Justice League, ordered her to assassinate Warren McGinnis and Mary McGinnis in front of their son Terry McGinnis. Waller hoped that the tragic loss at a young age would drive Terry to become an agent of justice. Within seconds of performing the task, however, Phantasm refused to go through with the assignment.

Upon returning to Waller, Andrea angrily berated her for planning the attempt at all, arguing that they almost violated everything that Batman stood for. Even though Waller was narrow minded and ruthless, Andrea was able to convince her to abandon the project to prevent any further attempts on Warren and Mary McGinnis's lives. Since Andrea spared Warren and Mary, they would later have a second son and Terry would later meet Bruce and become the new Batman through a different set of circumstances.[3]

Weapons and abilities[]

Phantasm's gauntlet

Phantasm's gauntlet.

Despite being a normal human woman with no metahuman powers, Andrea has undergone extensive self-defense and martial arts training since her teens. This makes her a very capable hand-to-hand combatant whose skills have more often than not, taking even Bruce Wayne by surprise (both in and out of costume). She is an excellent athlete and is still an active mercenary/vigilante even into her later years, making it obvious that she's stayed in fighting shape over the years. It should be noted that Andrea seems to be a skilled tactical thinker as she planned and executed a complex multistage scheme wherein she seems to have methodically researched her targets' activities and patterns of behavior before striking out at them. Coupled with the fact that she expertly manipulated the people and other elements around her; including the similarly skilled Batman himself to serve her purposes.

As the Phantasm, Andrea wore a disguise composed of a protective bodysuit that shielded her from most minor impacts. Additionally, she wielded a razor sharp blade on her right hand and a special gauntlet on her left hand that dispenses smoke which can provide cover for her movements. This smoke can be used as an offensive weapon. The razor blade, however, was vulnerable to acidic compounds, and partially melted away when the Joker squirted acid from his boutonniere at it. The Phantasm "death's-head" mask has a built-in voice synthesizer that changes Andrea's voice to sound like her father's. The mask is also equipped with a breathing filter. Presumably, the eye lenses contain some sort of night vision, since she is able to move somewhat freely amongst her own cover smoke.

Background information[]

  • Andrea Beaumont was named after Andrea Romano due to an on-going gag Kevin Conroy would pull in the recording booth. "One of the earlier things I did was during a fight scene: [grunts] 'Unh! Unh! Uhhhh! Unh! [followed by a sigh] -- Oooooooh Andrea.' Everyone was just destroyed, and we had to stop for five minutes. The booth, the producers, everyone just lost it because it did sound like the kind of sounds you would make doing something other than fighting. Andrea loved it. Every week, during an episode, I would find a different place to put Andrea's name in. [...] She said she had an outtake reel she put together that she was taking home with her. So, in the film, what do they name the girl friend? Andrea."[4]
  • 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 her father's cold-hearted killer, 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's 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 left Gotham again, using a holographic disguise generator used by Reeves's hired assassin to conceal herself from Batman on patrol, and tearfully repeating her earlier last words to him, "goodbye, my love."
  • A few months after the film's release, Kenner released a series of toys to tie-in with the film. However, the action figure of the Phantasm was packaged with the mask off, revealing the character's identity to be Andrea Beaumont, and spoiling the film.
  • In December 2020, Andrea Beaumont made her main DC Universe comic book debut in Tom King's Batman/Catwoman 12-issue maxiseries.[6]

Appearances[]

Feature film[]

Justice League Unlimited

See also[]

References[]

  1. Melniker, B., Uslan, M. (Producers), & Radomski, E., Timm, B. W. (Directors). (1993). Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. United States: Warner Bros.
  2. Melniker, B., Uslan, M. (Producers), & Radomski, E., Timm, B. W. (Directors). (1993). Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. United States: Warner Bros.
  3. Timm, Bruce, McDuffie, Dwayne (story) & McDuffie, Dwayne (teleplay) & Riba, Dan (director) (July 23, 2005). "Epilogue". Justice League Unlimited. Season 1. Episode 26 (airdate). Episode 26 (production). Cartoon Network.
  4. "The Noble Voice" by Bob Miller - Comics Scene Magazine #40 (February 1994)
  5. Superman: TAS - Dana Delany Discusses 25 Years of Lois Lane & More (bleedingcool.com)
  6. Mask of the Phantasm’s villain is coming to Tom King’s Batman series - Polygon
Advertisement