Phantom Eagle is the name used by two fictional aviator heroes appearing inAmerican comic books.
The first character to use the name was teenaged Mickey Malone, a young aviator who appeared in the 1940s inFawcett Comics publications depicting contemporaneousWorld War II adventures. The second and better-known character, created in the 1960s byMarvel Comics, was Karl Kaufmann, the American son of German parents, who became a maskedWorld War I ace.
| Phantom Eagle (Fawcett Comics) | |
|---|---|
 Wow Comics #6 (July 1942); Phantom Eagle at right, artist unknown. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fawcett Comics |
| First appearance | Wow Comics #6 (July 1942) |
| Created by | Unknown |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Mickey Malone |
| Team affiliations | All-Star Squadron Squadron of Justice |
| Abilities | Skilled aviator Good hand to hand combatant |
The first Phantom Eagle was introduced by uncredited creators inFawcett Comics'Wow Comics #6 (cover-dated July 1942), during the period fans and historians call theGolden Age of Comic Books.[1] Following his debut, the Phantom Eagle appeared in every issue ofWow Comics, and by the final issue, #69 (August 1948) was a sidekick to Commando Yank. His primary writer-artist wasMarc Swayze.[2]
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.[3]
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".[4]
| Phantom Eagle (Marvel Comics) | |
|---|---|
 Marvel Super-Heroes #16, art byHerb Trimpe. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968) |
| Created by | Gary Friedrich (writer) Herb Trimpe (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Karl Kaufmann[5] |
| Team affiliations | Freedom's Five |
| Abilities | Ace World War I pilot Good hand to hand combatant |
The second Phantom Eagle was an unrelatedWorld War I hero created by writerGary Friedrich and artistHerb Trimpe inMarvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968).[2][6] As Trimpe described, Marvel production managerJohn Verpoorten "had been a classmate atSVA. When I got out of theAir Force 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 toSol Brodsky, who wasStan [Lee]'s right-hand man at the time. I said, 'Okay'. Later, while I was in thephotostat department, I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think".[7]
Trimpe in 2002 described the character's creation:
[T]he Phantom Eagle was primarily Gary Friedrich's idea. He knew I was interested in airplanes and that kind of stuff, so he came up with this wacko idea that became the Phantom Eagle. However, I could not quite justify this Americanized version of some sort of WWI combat ace. ... There was too much of a superhero in the character. If you know anything of that time in history or the feel of that time, you would know that it was just so wrong. But it was fun and I got to make up some of the airplanes. ... [T]he Phantom Eagle airplanes were all made up, and not patterned after a real airplane, but an original design by me. ... It had a kind of corny design pattern painted on it, like wings and that kind of stuff, which was not that far from what the pilots painted on their planes. But that character was whatRoy Rogers andGene Autry were to the AmericanWestern – totally Hollywoodized.[8]
The character made few appearances beyond his debut. The first was a time travel story inThe Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #135 (January 1971). Next came aflashback appearance inGhost Rider #12 (June 1975), in which the Phantom Eagle, as the cover proclaimed, was a real phantom.The Invaders #7 (July 1976)retconned the character as a member of theFreedom's Five, a newly created World War I team of costumed adventurers never subsequently seen. The Phantom Eagle also appeared for two panels inThor Corps #3 (November 1993), when the antagonist briefly alters reality.[2]
Ghost Rider #50 (November 1980) contains a page of pinup art by Trimpe that one historian speculates[9] may have been an unused cover of issue #12.
In 2014'sAll-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.
In 1914, Karl Kaufmann was a skilled American pilot fromOshkosh, Wisconsin, 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 enteredWorld War I, and desired to fight theCentral Powers. 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 theAllies 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.[10] At one point the time-traveling dictatorKang the Conqueror sent the simpleminded brute theHulk back to 1917 in an effort to secure a victory for Germany, by preventing the Phantom Eagle from destroying a key German super-weapon.[11] Another time, a brief altering of reality saw the Phantom Eagle'sbiplane pursued by modernjet fighters.[12]
The Phantom Eagle went on to join the team of costumed adventurers known asFreedom's Five, consisting of himself (the sole American), theCrimson Cavalier, theSilver Squire,Sir Steel, andUnion Jack.[13]
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 originalGhost Rider, he battled the aged German in aerial combat. With von Reitberger's death, Kaufmann'svengeful spirit was allowed to pass on.[14]
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.[15]
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.
Another Phantom Eagle exists onCounter-Earth, located on the far side of the sun.[16] He is the counterpart ofNefarius, the Lloyd Bloch of themain Marvel Universe.[citation needed]
WriterGarth Ennis and penciller-inkerHoward Chaykin produced an alternate-reality version of the character in aWorld War I-set miniseries,War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle #1–5 (May–September 2008), published under Marvel's mature-audienceMAXimprint.[17][18] The series is set in the same continuity (Earth-200111) as Ennis'The Punisher andFury MAX series.[5]
This version of the Phantom Eagle reappears in a tie-in to Marvel's 2015Secret Wars event, starring inWhere Monsters Dwell, a miniseries byGarth Ennis and Russell Braun.[19]
Aviation buff Herb Trimpe, who flew his own biplane for many years, teamed up with writer Gary Friedrich to create flying ace the Phantom Eagle.
{{cite book}}:|first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)