 The videos on Come Again TV are not made for kids. Anyone under the age of 13, get your parents' permission before watching. Some videos may contain graphic or lewd content. Viewer discretion is advised. Hey guys, welcome back to Come Again TV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides. I'm Shannon, and today on the show, broadcast in syndication from September 18, 1994 to March 3, 1996. Phantom 2040 was a French-American animated series based on the newspaper comic strip, The Phantom, created by Lee Folk. The unusual character designs were made by Peter Chung of Eon Flux fame. Phantom 2040 was my introduction to the character of The Phantom. I was 11 years old at the time, and I remember watching the series on Fox on Sunday mornings. The artwork was somewhat of a shock for me. I wasn't quite sure about it, considering it was like nothing I had ever seen before. But looking back and re-watching it on YouTube, I'm really drawn to the style. It makes sense for the time period the series takes place in. The series made shows like Batman Beyond Possible. It was quite a smart series for the time. It truly holds up over time, and we need to get this series in its entirety on Blu-ray or digital. In the year 2040, environmental disasters and the economic resource wars of the early 21st century had decimated the fragile ecological balance of the earth, once teeming with light. Everywhere, the privileged and wealthy continued to thrive in expensive real estate that towered above the suffering masses. The victims of Earth's misfortune had been forced to survive on scavenged refuse from the past on the mangled streets of four Lawrence city-states. In Metropia, the largest and most powerful of the city-states, the powerful corporation Maximum Inc. had commandeered armies of robotic biots to create a cold, steely urban center consisting of huge residential towers intertwined with tube-trained tunnels. Maximum had plans to build Cyberville, an immense survival shelter where only the wealthiest and most elite humans would retreat when Earth finally succumbed to its slowly deteriorating state. The only hope for the survival of humanity was the ghost jungle, thousands of square miles of mutated vegetation that could be the planet's salvation. This secret source of light was submerged beneath Metropia where no one could find it, but fortunately, college student Kit Walker Jr. had been chosen by fate to save the world, dotting the black mask and purple suit of his people's savior, the 24th Phantom. The role of the Phantom had been passed on from father to son since the 1500s, leading the world to believe that the Phantom was a single being. Kit, the 24th in the line, was young, unsure and unexperienced, but he found within him the courage and might to battle the evil that threatened to destroy the Earth. Phantom 2040 debuted to rave reviews, though it survived only 35 episodes before it was relegated to weekend repeats in 1996. The show won praise for its subtle teaching of such values as individuality, freedom, and the volatility of humanity. Even though his name was Kit Walker Jr. in the series, this Kit Walker is actually the 23rd as every Phantom before him has held the name aside from the very first whose name was Christopher Walker Jr. Unlike other animated series at the time, Phantom 2040 wasn't afraid to go dark. I mean really dark. In many episodes, characters were killed while one of the main characters was dead. You see, Maxwell Madison was killed in battle with the 23rd Phantom. His brain was placed inside a computer mainframe so that he could continue to communicate with his widow and son from beyond the grave. The series had a star cast voicing the characters. Kit Walker was voiced by Scott Valentine. Garan, whose Kit's mentor, was voiced by J.D. Hall. Aunt Heloise was voiced by Kerry Snodgrass. Jack Archer, Kit's college professor, was voiced by Alan Oppenheimer. Sparks, who becomes Kit's young ward, was voiced by Pamela Adalon. Sagan Cruz, Kit's love interest in the show, and a policewoman was voiced by Lea Remini. Rebecca Madison, who is the series main villain, was voiced by Margo Kitter. That's right, that Margo Kitter. Maxwell Madison Jr., Rebecca's sociopathic son, was voiced by Jeff Bennett. Hubert Graff, Madison's cyborg enforcer, was voiced by Ron Perlman in season one, and Richard Lynch in season two. Personally, Ron Perlman was the best voice actor for the job. Dr. Jack, the J. Jonah Jamison of the series, was voiced by Mark Hamill. Many episodes of the Phantom 2040 held a somewhat noir style with a sax player providing background music from the street. In the series, the new Phantom wasn't trained for the role like his ancestors were. His father died when he was still a baby, and he grew up not knowing about his heritage. When Grant came along and told him about the Phantom on his 18th birthday, he's initially skeptical, but takes on the role. His equipment included a stealth suit for invisibility, a wristband that contains powerful computer called analytical, and another that contains a smart rope. He also had a multi-purpose vehicle named Hero after the 21st Phantom's horse. Grant's family has been aiding the Phantom for generations. Like Kit, the name Grant is passed down from father to son. Jack Archer was a scientist and professor at Kit's school, one of the few who knew the Phantom's true identity, deducing it for himself early in the series, and eventually opened his own detective agency. Aunt Hallowes was Kit's only living relative and the daughter of the 22nd Phantom. She kept the truth from Kit, hoping he could lead a normal life but realized it was his destiny to become the Phantom. Rebecca Madison was the head of Maximum Ink and the widow of the 23rd Phantom's killer, or so it's speculated, Maxwell Madison. Her plans to turn the whole of Metropia into her private kingdom are foiled by the Phantom. Maxwell Madison Jr. was a sociopath whose intelligence was often overshadowed only by his laziness and disinterest in almost everything. When he did have an opinion on something, he would present it as coming from his cat, Baudelaire. Grafft was the Madison's main enforcer, a cyborg who wished to kill the Phantom with the promise that doing so would mean Rebecca cloning new arms and legs for him so he could finally return to a normal life. It should also be noted he was a cyborg because he saved a small village from Maximum Ink. Grafft was actually a conflicted villain as he's shown to have a lot of respect for the Phantom and even has a conscience refusing to hurt children and even save Sparks and returns him to the Phantom, saying this isn't a war for children. Take him away from here. The Phantom continuously tries to redeem Grafft by asking him to join their side on multiple occasions. Dr. Jack was a cynical sensationalist TV journalist who reported the Phantom and Maximum Ink's activities with a spin. His arrogance and vanity brought him to believe that rather than being merely a reporter of the news, he is the news and therefore anything he does not see, such as purposely covering his eyes when it is revealed the Phantom was being framed, is not the news. In Matter Over Mind, it is discovered that after Jack's wife perished in the Grand Central Station crash, he attempted an illegal operation to integrate an analytical computer into his mind, but the operation was interrupted. With the analytical program thought lost, Dr. Jack was left part biot with sensory implants on his head and multi-purpose eyepieces, which he used to film his new program, The Dr. Jack Show. Sagan Cruz was a metropia law enforcement officer who was attracted to Kit, but unaware of his dual identity until discovering both Kit and Heloise in the Phantom's lair. She was skeptical about the Phantom's motives, but eventually learned to trust him and has a cyborg police dog named DBL, which was a reference to the 21st Phantom's wolf, Mr. Cairo was a mysterious information broker who only appeared in holographic transmissions and dealt with both the Phantom and Maximum Inc. Early on, he discovered the Phantom's true identity, but chose to withhold the information from Rebecca Madison, despite the enormous reward being offered. He's later revealed to actually be the sentient analytical program separated from Dr. Jack's consciousness, but decided not to rejoin Dr. Jack's mind and instead remained on to loyally assist the Phantom, though meets his end when Max Jr. shuts down the power with him still inside it, deleting him. Heisenberg was a shape-shifting fractal biop built by Max Madison Jr. using nanites grown in space, named by Maxwell after the German physicist Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg is a first stable fractal biop created by Maximum and was controlled by Maxwell using a separate remote brain, which must be carried around in a case. Heisenberg was forced to impersonate the Phantom and succeeded in criminalizing him with the help of Dr. Jack, but after a confrontation with the Phantom, Max will lose the remote brain and with it control of Heisenberg. Eventually, Heisenberg gained independence in a form of sentience. Then dawns a cloak and saw answers for his past, remembering nothing of his creation other than his name. He makes a wise street saxophonist named Betty and after deciding to take on his own path, became a teacher to BIOS everywhere, helping them to be free from their human owners and become self-aware. He eventually joined the Phantom and became a close companion to Pavlova, Dr. Jack's assistant. He was voiced by Rob Paulson. Along with Andrea Romano's equally pioneering work on Batman the Animated Series, Stuart M. Rosen's voice direction on Phantom 2040 had a lasting impact on animated adventure television. Romano and Rosen cast accomplished dramatic actors and introduced a new level of maturity and complexity to their shows, vocal performances that set the standard for all TV animation that followed. A Phantom 2040 video game was produced for Sega Genesis, Game Gear, and Super NES and, like the Animated Series, received very positive reviews despite its obscurity. It's possible to play as both the Phantom and, in the Game Gear version, his alter ego, Kit Walker. The game has over 20 different endings, depending on the choices the player makes while progressing through the story and revolves around Rebecca Madison's attempt to create a buyout army, revive her dead husband, and seize control of both Metropia and the world. I've never personally played this, but if the game was as good as the internet says it was, they should definitely consider remastering it like they did with DuckTales Nintendo Game for PS3. Phantom 2040 was adapted into a comic book series by Marvel Comics in 1995. Only four issues were published and released as a mini-series. The stories were only loosely based on the TV series as they had a different tone than the dark and complicated animated show. Phantom 2040, The Ghost Who Walks, which was marketed as Phantom 2040 the movie and was actually a collection of the first few episodes of the series, was released on DVD by Landscape on September 21, 2004 and remains available for purchase in most countries as a US import. In Australia, where the popularity of Leigh Fault's original Phantom comic strip has never waned, Season 1 was released as a four-disk DVD collection containing the first 20 episodes of the series by Viavision Entertainment on November 6, 2013, but has never been released in the United States. Season 2 is currently unreleased. Another King's feature syndicate character appeared in the series, Episode 15 entitled Magician. For those of you familiar, this was Mandrake the Magician. However, in the episode he's called Steel. But given his relationship to the Phantom legacy and how he was able to find and enter the Skull Cave, as well as his friendship with the Walker family, it's hard not to know that this was Mandrake. You see, in the episode, the Magician kept the Phantom's car for him to pass it on to the next Phantom in the line when he was ready. It's also portrayed that there's a romantic history between him and Heloise. The episode ended with the Magician blowing up his own home in order to protect the secrets of the Phantom. As I stated earlier, I recently started re-washing a low quality version of the series on YouTube, which was transferred over via VHS recording, and I was incredibly surprised by how well the series holds up. I introduced my wife to a single episode, and even she enjoyed it. I truly wish someone would realize just how good the series was and how popular it's become in memory and produce a continuation. The videos I've been watching currently have thousands of views, and if a continuation were produced, imagine just how many views each episode would get if it remained true to the original series, and it was broadcast on a network like FX or the CWC. This was an amazing series that I'm only now learning was incredibly mature and way ahead of its time. We can thank the series for opening the door for Batman and Beyond. By the end of the series, it's explained that Maxwell and the 23rd Phantom were actually friends, and they created the ghost jungle together. In fact, Maxwell Madison Sr. knew the Phantom's true identity. However, Rebecca Madison framed her husband, causing the 23rd Phantom to believe that he was responsible for the train wreck. It was even believed for a short time that the 23rd Phantom actually caused the wreck. 23rd Phantom made his way back to the Skull Cave after the accident, and left a skull ring for his son to find. He then placed himself in cryo-freezing until a cure for the poison could be found. However, he was awoken too soon, and had to be placed into a coma. Eventually, the 24th Phantom defeats Rebecca, and with the help of Max Sr. is able to speak with his father one last time before he dies. As I said earlier, you can find the entire series on YouTube, since it hasn't yet been released on DVD, Blu-ray, or digital. 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