Blonde Phantom
Entry updated 8 June 2026. Tagged: Character, Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1946-1949). Most issues state "Medalion Publishing Corp", part of the Timely Comics group which became Marvel Comics (#21 and #22 include a letter from the "Marvel Comics Group"; see below). Editor Stan Lee. Artists include Vince Alascia, Ken Bald and Syd Shores. Scriptwriters include Bill Woolfolk. 11 issues (numbered #12-#22); #12 had 52 pages, the rest 36; with 3-5 long strips and a short text story each issue, plus occasional short strips as filler.
Louise Grant (prim, bespectacled, blonde hair in a bun) works at the Mark Mason Detective Agency as Mason's mild-mannered secretary: she rather likes her boss, but unfortunately he has eyes only for that woman of action, The Blonde Phantom (domino-masked, shoulder-length blonde hair, glamorous ankle-length red dress) and, despite his profession, never notices the former's absence in the latter's presence – a spin on the Cliché involving male superheroes and their female love interest (see Women in SF) In #15 Louise dreams that Mason finally declares his love for her, only for her alter ego to appear and depart with him.
Blonde Phantom's first issue was #12, taking up the numbering from All Select Comics: until #10 the latter had been dominated by The Human Torch and Captain America tales, but they were absent from #11. Instead the Blonde Phantom made her debut, appearing on the cover and in two of the strips (one involving atomic secrets, the other a German secret-weapon formula). Though only a borderline superhero – masked but not really having a costume – the Blonde Phantom is athletic and intelligent, often solving crimes using her wits (see Feminism). She would star in 2-3 strips per issue
#12's opening story "Skyride to Doom" has a spy desiring the US military's new radio-controlled atomic bomb (see Weapons) and employing master of disguise False Face to get it: Mason ends up unconscious in the rocket as it flies to blow up New York, but he wakes and changes its course manually (the "radio controlled" element seems forgotten) whilst the Blonde Phantom, following in a jet plane, throws him a parachute. "Peril from the Past" (#13) concerns The Red Coat, whose ancestor had helped purchase coronation jewels for the crowning of George Washington as King of America (presumably a reference to the "Newburgh letter"), only for Washington to refuse the offer; now these are being sent to the British Museum and the villain intends to retrieve them. "Horror at Haunted Castle" (#14) has a descendant of Baron Frankenstein (who looks like the Frankenstein Monster) searching for his ancestor's treasure in their castle, which has been transported, brick by brick, to the USA by a millionaire: the Blonde Phantom correctly deduces the treasure is in the original Baron's tomb, pointing out that he was cremated (fearing otherwise someone might try to reanimate his body). The tale itself, aside perhaps for the descendant's appearance, has no genre elements, but takes place in a universe where the events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus (1818; rev 1831) are historical fact (see Alternate History). "The Last Man" (#18) is a Scientist rebuffed by the Blonde Phantom, who develops a gas that renders all males in the world unconscious, save for himself (a variation of the Last Man trope), and informs womankind that he will only revive the men if our heroine marries him. "Her Double Trouble" (#19) has Dr Demise ("one of the foremost medical minds in the country") released from prison and plotting her revenge on the Blonde Phantom: this involves advanced plastic surgery and the Hypnosis of a friend into believing she is the Blonde Phantom. "The Mental Maelstrom" (#20) possibly features an anthropomorphized manifestation of the artistic muse. "Kidnaped into the Future" (#21) finds the Blonde Phantom, Mason and others taken to the thirtieth century in a combined Rocket ship and Time Machine to be put in a Zoo and studied. However, the Blonde Phantom deduces the population of the future has "had machines do their thinking for so long that their own brains are weak" and thus susceptible to hypnotism. In "Trapped Under the Earth" (#22) criminal The Mole is imprisoned – but the whole jail sinks beneath the earth, as does the Blonde Phantom shortly after. The Mole was so named because of a fondness for being Underground, where he discovered an "electronic Gravity control" device left by a "prehistoric race", making him "master of gravity" now dwelling at the centre of the Earth. However, the Blonde Phantom disguises herself, pretending to be a vengeful member of the aforementioned race (saying they were from Atlantis) and bluffs the Mole into returning to the surface.
The comic's other regular was the Sub-Mariner (in all but #12 and #16), his stories tend to be brief and slight: most memorable are #14's, whose villain is The Brain, short but with a large head, a stealer of ambergris; and #21's "The Metal Men from the Moon", where Robots built by a now extinct Moon civilization take water from Earth's seas once a month, but one day accidentally suck up the Sub-Mariner; fearing they will be conquered if humanity learns of them, they wipe his memory (see Amnesia) and return him otherwise unharmed. Miss America appears in the first few issues (#12-#14, also in All Select Comics #11); #12's "Scourge of the Spiderman" has entomologist Professor Morte claiming the dead people found wrapped in a web-like silk are the victims of a giant spider: Miss America is convinced he's the murderer – but it turns out it's Morte's assistant, disguised as him, who has created giant spiders; feeding them on human blood and planning to breed enough to rule the world. Captain America appears in #16.
As mentioned above, #21 and #22 (both 1948) have a letter from the Marvel Comics Group Editors, the second discussing "The debate about comics raging ... in the Saturday Review of Literature" where an article by "a Dr Wertham" blames some juvenile delinquency on comics, "simply because many of the delinquent youngsters read comics"; the Editors point out that "93% of all young people ... read comics". [SP]
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