She wore a crocheted hat, dun-coloured, and not out of place on Miss Marple. Or perhaps it was the way she peered at the picture as though examining faults in the printing. She was drawn by the posters of Superheroes and was muttering something about the comic books she read as a teen. She said he wore a mask.
Bazinga! Let’s see, there’s Antman, Batman, The Black Hood, Black Canary, Captain America, Catwoman, Dare Devil, Doctor Fate, Flash (the new one), Green Lantern, Hawkman, Ironman, Lone Ranger, Zorro, Spiderman, Red Arrow… But then, looking at the woman I began to explain that masks were pretty much de rigueur for comic book heroes. I took a stab and named the oldest one I could think of, The Phantom.
Miss Marple was thrilled.
Lee Falk created the character and originally called him the Grey Ghost. It was published in 1939. Falk wanted his costume coloured grey but the colourist liked purple and it got to the printers before Falk could say, ‘we’re forming a union, jerk hole, my foot and your face’… or maybe that was Skateman. Whatever, it was okay in the end because The Phantom is many coloured, red in Turkey, blue in Scandinavian countries, and brown in New Zealand. The Phantom has no super powers as such, just his wits and a couple of .45 pistols. He also lives in the Skull cave where all former Phantoms are buried, in the fictional country of Bangalla.
Miss Marple didn’t give a toss about any of that as it was the girlfriend who got her fired up, and it seems kept her mean ever since. Miss Marple was so resentful of Diana Palmer, she read every comic she could get until things were rationed after the war, which meant paper was in short supply and the comics went out of print.
As it turns out, Miss Marple’s envy has endured throughout the years. A green-eyed bitterness towards a fictitious lover, a real phantom jealousy.
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