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Quote1 Vengeance blackens the soul, Bruce. I always feared you would become that which you fought against, but you've avoided that pit so far and I thank heaven for that. But Andrea fell into that pit years ago, and no one, not even you, could have pulled her back. Quote2
Alfred Pennyworth src

The Phantasm (real name Andrea Beaumont) is a bitter and vengeful vigilante who targeted key members of Gotham City's criminal underworld, making her an enemy of both heroes like the Batman and villains like the Joker.

Origins

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Andi Beaumont

Andrea Beaumont was born to wealthy businessman Carl Beaumont, and grew up in Gotham City to be an outgoing, optimistic young woman. While attending Gotham University, she met Bruce Wayne, a friendly but emotionally unstable billionaire. The two quickly fell in love, bonding over their love of martial arts, hope for the future, and the grief over their dead loved ones, Bruce having lost his parents years ago while Andrea had lost her mother.

Bruce and Andrea were eventually engaged and planned to marry, but the night Bruce had proposed to her, Andrea walked in on her father having a business deal with gangsters Sal Valestra, Chucky Sol, and Buzz Bronski, who she later learned he'd been working with for years. When Sal threatened Andrea in front of Carl, he promised to wire the funds of several European banks to them by the next morning. This convinced Sal and his colleagues to leave, and afterwards Carl insisted he and Andrea flee the city, knowing he couldn't wire the banks that quickly and the mafia would soon come after him. As they fled, Andrea mailed Bruce back the ring he'd given her with a note telling him to forget her.

After they spent some time trying to pay Sal back with no success, Andrea and Carl used the money Carl had been stealing from the mafia to build up a small fortune and, with the help of Carl's secretary, Arthur Reeves, they moved to Europe, where they lived in secret for a few years. However, when Carl refused to help Arthur get money to fund his campaign to win an election, Arthur sold the Beaumonts' location to Sal, who sent a low-level crook to Europe, who killed him in his home. Upon finding his body, Andrea was filled with a furious pain that influenced her to adopt the guise of "The Phantasm", donning a skull mask, cloak, voice modulator, and arm-mounted scythe, planning to use her weaponry and combat skills to take out those who wronged her father as a vigilante.[1]

Hunting for Vengeance

Around 1993, Andrea returned to Gotham City under the pretense of organizing family finances, contacting Arthur Reeves and going out with him to get close to the mobsters who killed her father as the Phantasm. Her first target was Chucky Sol, who she killed while he was being chased by Gotham's vigilante protector, the Batman. Because of their similar cloaks and costumes, the media and the G.C.P.D. mistook the Phantasm for Batman, and accused him of killing Sol and later Buzz Bronski, who the Phantasm killed next. As the Batman began investigating the Phantasm and her victims, Andrea put together that he was her former fiancé, Bruce Wayne, and became disgusted that he'd gone on to become a vigilante, but was unwilling to take lives.

As the police began investigating the Batman with the help of Arthur, Sal Valestra discovered his old partners were being killed, and he suspected he may be next, so he enlisted the help of the Joker, Gotham's greatest criminal mastermind who used to work for Sal, having been the henchman who personally executed Carl Beaumont. When Sal insulted the Joker, he was killed by the Joker and left for the Phantasm to find in his home, before the Joker blew it up and sent the Phantasm running to the rooftops, where she was cornered by Batman. She quickly escaped the scene as the G.C.P.D. arrived to take down Batman, nearly capturing and unmasking him, before Andrea returned in her civilian clothes to allow Batman to get in her car and return him to his home before the police could detain him.

After she patched up Bruce, Andrea told him she'd seen the chase on TV and knew she had to save him, and then told Bruce that the Phantasm was her father, trying to take down the mob and get him and Andrea off the hook from their blackmail. Bruce and Andrea reconciled their differences and slept together that night, and considered possibly starting their relationship over. However, Andrea was still fixated on killing the Joker, the last person on whom she desired revenge, and so made her way to the abandoned amusement park he was using as a lair. She ambushed the Joker, who had already figured out her true identity as the Phantasm, and they engaged in a violent tussle.

The Batman had learned of Andrea's plans and followed her to the amusement park, where he saved her from one of the Joker's death traps and tried to talk her down from killing him. She refused, trying to make a case that what she and Bruce do isn't very different, but he merely told her to leave and chased after the Joker himself. He and the Joker engaged in a violent, bloody battle throughout the park, and in his rage, nearly brought himself to killing the Joker when he learned that he'd rigged the entire park to blow and kill him and Andrea. When they had both beaten each other senseless, Andrea returned and grabbed the Joker, escaping with him as the park exploded. Batman escaped just in time, but Andrea and the Joker were nowhere to be found.[1]

Becoming an Assassin

The Joker later escaped Andrea, perhaps thanks to her learning from Batman's refusal to kill, and she disappeared for many years, with no one, not even Bruce, able to find her.[1] She eventually used the Phantasm moniker to become a prolific assassin, eventually catching the eye of government agent Amanda Waller.[2]

Tracking Terry McGinnis

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Phantasm continues to haunt the legacy of Batman

In the 2020s, Waller hired the Phantasm to kill the parents of the young Terry McGinnis as they were leaving a movie theater with him, similar to how Bruce's parents were gunned down before his eyes by a mugger while leaving a movie theater as well. She hoped that this would spark a similar trauma in Terry that would lead him to become the next Batman, considering how she had injected him with Bruce's DNA in the womb. The Phantasm initially took the job, but refused to go through with the assignment, not wanting to put another person through the same pain she and Bruce had gone through.[2]

Andrea kept tabs on Terry, seeing him fulfill his destiny and become Batman. Fearful that Terry would become a murderer if he learned that his ally Vigilante was responsible for the death of Warren McGinnis, she set out to kill him.[3] Phantasm failed; however, as Jake was able to fend her off with Terry's help.[4] She tried again when Jake was kidnapped by the Jokerz, but they had infected him with Joker Venom, killing him.[5]


Abilities


Weapons

  • Scythe: Andrea's primary weapon as the Phantasm is a razor sharp scythe blade that she wears over her right hand, using it to slash through windows, weapons, and even her enemies' bodies.[1]
  • Smoke Emitters: The Phantasm's costume can emit blinding smoke screens from her left glove.
    • Fear Toxin: Andrea would later incorporate fear toxin into her smoke to compensate for her aging physique.[6]


  • Andrea Beaumont was primarily voiced by Dana Delany, and by Stacy Keach when in costume as the Phantasm.
  • Andrea never uses the name "Phantasm" onscreen in Mask of the Phantasm.

Related

External Links

Footnotes


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Batman Villain(s)
This character, team or organization, has been primarily an enemy of the Batman, or the Batman Family as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Batman Villains."

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Batman Beyond Villain(s)
This character is or was primarily an enemy of Batman Beyond. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Batman Beyond Villains."
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