 Hey guys, welcome back to Come Again TV, we're all geek culture collides, I'm Shannon and today I'm going to be walking you through the long and storied history of the phantom according to his creator Lee Fulk and the early newspaper strips. So stay tuned. Welcome back guys, as I said today, I'll be taking you through the history of the phantom according to his creator Lee Fulk and the early newspaper strips. There are many different tellings of the phantom stories, each of which have their own history. So for this episode, we'll be focusing only on Lee Fulk's stories. In later episodes, we'll be diving into the phantom's history according to team phantom in, Moonstone Publishing, Bastai, and many others. So make sure and click that notification bell to keep up to date on all things phantom and more. The year of the death of the father of the first phantom and of the birth of the phantom line has been specified as 1525, 1535, 1536, and 1550. After swearing the oath of the skull, he became ruler of the jungle by entering the annual wrestling tourney, and he received the skull ring from the jungle kings. In 1555, he fought the pirate, Thomas Kitter, and is said to have destroyed the scorpia. It has been stated that he received the diamond cup of Alexander the Great, something which has also been attributed to either the third or the fourth phantom. The first phantom is said to have married either an unnamed granddaughter of Christopher Columbus or Christina, the daughter of the Viking Eric the rover, or even an unnamed Spanish princess. It hasn't really been made clear throughout the Lee Fulk publications. This phantom, according to Lee Fulk, was eventually killed by bandits. I mentioned before an oath in which the first phantom took before taking up his mantle. What was that oath? Well, I'm glad you asked. Christopher Walker, the first phantom, took up the skull of his father's killer, raised it above his head, and swore the sacred oath that every phantom after him would swear before taking up the mantle. I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice in all their forms. My sons and their sons shall follow. The second phantom was the first phantom to visit Walker's table. Most probably, it was he who gained the ownership of Walker's table from a Spanish king in the 16th century. The second phantom married Christopher Columbus's granddaughter Marabella. He helped the Ungun tribe defend their sacred burial ground and traveled to London in 1602 to meet his son, who told his father that he won't become the next phantom. The second phantom is also said to have a short temper and was a little bit short of patience. He was later killed by Barbary pirates and his son changed his mind to become the third. The third phantom was educated in England and appeared on Shakespeare's Globe Theater. In 1604, he married Rosamunda, Shakespeare's niece. Originally refusing to become the phantom, he eventually changed his mind. This phantom battled underground monsters on the island that later became Eden and left his mark on a wall in his own blood. The fourth phantom is said to have married Princess Pira, but that has also been attributed to the third phantom as well. Are we noticing a pattern here guys? In the early years of publishing, the phantom creator Leigh Fault or the newspaper strip publisher had any real sense of continuity. Oftentimes, many elements of one phantom will actually be attributed to another, making the history incredibly confusing. The fifth phantom was active during the 18th century, often wearing a cape and a hat over his phantom garb. He met and eventually married former pirate Juliet Adams, who was known as Captain Amazon. He met Juan Moreto in 1652, conflicting with the date of the earlier story, which is placed in the 18th century. Seven years after the destruction of the Sabah Island pirate fortress, when his son was very young, he fought Moreto's pirates and ended up their prisoner. Weeks later, his wife Juliet Adams learned of his mission from the book of the phantom chronicles in the Skull Cave. Knowing of Moreto, from her time as a pirate, Juliet decided to go after her husband. Some stories credit the sixth phantom with creating the jungle patrol and marrying Natala of Navarre. Several other stories credit this to the seventh phantom. The sixth phantom has also been said to have married a queen of France, or the daughter of a sultan. The seventh phantom was also credited with marrying either a French queen or Queen Natala of Navarre. He is also the one who most commonly is referred to as the founder of the jungle patrol, although that has also been attributed to the sixth phantom. He befriended the Black Emperor Junkar, who had an Italian named Michelangelo, car of the phantom head in honor of him. It is hinted that it was the seventh phantom who was the first phantom to meet the little people and the one to establish the Treaty of the Rattle. The seventh phantom died around 1680 outside the Skull Cave after being shot by a soldier. The eighth phantom was the tallest of the phantoms and had four sons, Kit 1, Kit 2, Kit 3, Triplets, which were born in 1703, and Kit 4, who was born in 1704. He met the queen and supposed witch, Halloweys of Cocania, whom he later married in either 1675 or 1685. In the issue of the fourth son, he is married to an unnamed English woman. The fourth son also depicts the eighth phantom dying in 1726 after being shot in the back by Mongol warriors. Contradictory in the snake goddess, he is said having died from a snake bite after building a secret path through the great swamp. The path was built by putting rocks one foot under the water surface and then letting thorns and other plants keep hostile swamp animals away. He was seceded by Kit 4, who was the only one of his sons to be present at his deathbed, born in 1704 as the fourth and youngest son of the eighth phantom and his British wife. He was given the name Kit 4. His three older brothers were triplets born in 1703 and named Kit 1, Kit 2, and Kit 3. Kit 4 was much smaller than his brothers and was called the runt. When his older brothers traveled to England in 1715 to be educated, he stayed in the jungle and trained hard to get stronger, but he never became a tall man. His brothers returned seven years later only to tell their father that they were hoping to pursue other careers instead of becoming the phantom and returned to England again. In 1725, the Mongol ruler Jutun Khan of Vatun Datun began slave raids in the jungle. In 1726, the eighth phantom traveled to Khan's palace to make him stop, but was shot in the back with an arrow by one of Khan's guards. The eighth made it back to the Skull Cave, but died shortly after. Kit 4 then traveled to Vatun Datun, where he fought and defeated Khan's six-foot-tall daughter, the 18-year-old warrior princess Vatun Khan. Vatun followed Kit 4 to the Deep Woods, where he became the ninth phantom. They were going to be married by the council of chiefs when Jutun Khan appeared, only to give them his blessing and wed them himself. In 1729, he rescued the treasure of King John of England, lost since 1216, and stored it in the Skull Cave. As the ninth phantom, he was known as the strongest phantom of all. He destroyed the idol of Zal, which was worshipped with human sacrifice in the Eastern Dark, and thus earned the title guardian of the Eastern Dark, as well as saving the life of the Queen of the Golden People. The tenth phantom married the daughter of a Scandinavian ship captain after rescuing her from a sinking vessel. The eleventh phantom married a Maharaja's daughter without her father's blessing. Currently, there's no information regarding the twelfth phantom by Lee Falk or any of the daily newspaper strips. However, we will dive into his character in future episodes, as he did appear in Team Phantom Men and Bestie Publishing Stories. The thirteenth phantom was born a few years after the Revolutionary War, which ended in 1783. His maternal grandfather was an influential American who introduced him to many important American leaders of the day. He then fell in love with Jeanette Lafitte, the sister of the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, and came to marry her after becoming the phantom. He finally got her brother's permission, though Jean Lafitte was dying then and was later buried in the vault of the missing men in the Skull Cave. But it's also been mentioned that it was the fourteenth phantom who married Jean Lafitte. According to the daily newspaper strip, the fourteenth phantom was the one to end slave trade in the Eastern Dark and was also said to have been married to Jeanette Lafitte. According to Lee Falk, the fifteenth phantom married an orphaned opera singer from Rome. Also, according to Falk, when a wealthy American named Morgan accidentally killed the Princess of Longo, the sixteenth phantom followed him back to the US to have him put on trial after spending quite some time there becoming known as a phantom cowboy. He eventually managed to bring Morgan back to Bangala, where the chief's counsel frees him from all accusations. Meanwhile, the phantom has met and fallen in love with Morgan's daughter Annie, and after receiving her father's blessing, they married twice once in her father's hometown and once in the Skull Cave. The phantom cowboy also mentions that Annie and the sixteenth phantom had twins, a boy and a girl. Presumably, although never actually stated the future seventeenth phantom and Julie in other stories said to be the children of the seventeenth phantom. Also, according to Tony DePaul, who also wrote the daily comic strips after Falk, the sixteenth phantom rescued a lost treasure originally of the Inca of Peru from thieves and brought it to the Skull Cave. The seventeenth phantom was born with his twin sister in 1852. Julie was raised and trained alongside her twin brother when the seventeenth phantom took up the mantle she remained in the Skull Cave and one day her brother was wounded when he tried to free a missionary that had been taken by pirates. Having seen everything, Julie saved her brother and brought him back to the Skull Cave to heal. Being that the seventeenth phantom was injured, she took one of his spare suits and altered it to fit her. After putting it on, she saved the missionary and fell in love with him. Her stories are known as Julie Walker, the phantom. She told her brother that she wanted to be as normal girls, having nice dresses and things. Her brother thought he understood her and bought her a dress. He then talked her into putting it on and come with him to the missionary. When he met the missionary with his sister hiding in the nearest bushes, he demonstrated that he was a man of few words, saying, my sister is in love with you. What are you going to do about that? The missionary had barely taken in that this must be the brother of the woman who rescued him before Julie showed herself from behind the bushes. Very upset, thing that she did not want to see him. The missionary, however, managed to convince her that he loved her. They were married, had four children, and lived happily ever after. Julie and Kate have from time to time been referred to as the children of the seventeenth phantom and children of the sixteenth alongside Annie Morgan. In some stories, the eighteenth phantom is said to have rescued his future wife from the rope people. Other stories attribute that to the seventeenth phantom. The nineteenth phantom was the first to encounter the rope people and banned guns from the jungle. He fought during World War I on the front line as a soldier and either married Jane Kerry or an unnamed South American explorer's daughter. He died falling from the phantom head peak, which is a mountain peak in Bengala shaped like the phantom's head. The twentieth phantom was either married to the beautiful lady Maude whom he had to save out of the dungeons of a prince. He is said to have married an unnamed daughter of Dr. Thorne, whom he met while saving them from the rope people. Never stated, but it's very possible that Lady Maude and Miss Thorne were one and the same. He met and befriended Dr. Axel, who saved his life and later delivered the future twenty-first phantom. He was also the one to help Axel start up his jungle hospital. The current phantom tells Diana that his father died after a battle with the Singh pirates, a story that is repeated in the childhood of the phantom. He is shown to have died after a gunfight with river pirates and dies after being stabbed in the back by Rama, a Singh pirate. The current phantom is the twenty-first in the newspaper strips. Born in the Skull Cave and continuing the tradition for the eldest boy who would be phantom to be named Kit, spent his first years in the Bengala jungles. Other producers of phantom stories generally have accepted the current phantom being the twenty-first, with the notable exception of the bestowed stories where he is considered the fifteenth. This phantom eventually married Diana Palmer. The couple then go on to have two children, Kit and Heloise. Diana works in the UN's Bengala office and first appeared in the very first phantom story entitled the Singh Brotherhood, even appearing in the first daily trip before the phantom had even been shown. Kit and Diana married in the legendary Skull Cave with the president of Bengala, Lamanda Luaga, and the president of Ivory, Lana Grande, were both in attendance and conducted it. Also in attendance were Mandrake the magician, Lothor, Diana's mother and uncle, Dr. Axel, Colonel Warbu, and all the chiefs of the Bengala tribes. Diana had a short career as a nurse and even won an Olympic medal in diving and has a black belt in karate. Since the twenty-first phantom is the current in the daily newspaper strips, there are no mentions of any later phantoms continuing in the tradition after Kit and Diana in the Falk and DePaul stories. With that being said, we'll go ahead and end this video here and I invite you guys back for episode two of Legends of the Phantom where we dive head first into the long storied history of team phantom ends, the phantom stories, which go all the way up to the 23rd phantom. I'm Shannon for Comic-Ed and TV, take care. Until next time, I'm Shannon for Comic-Ed and we're all geek culture collides.