They both predate the modern superhero. They both exemplify important tropes of the modern superhero. They both had weirdly unsatisfying movies in the 1990s. Pulp star The Shadow, and comic strip headliner The Phantom are part of an elite proto-superhero world, fighting crime with the power of the animals and/or a network of operatives, and keeping New York City, and the jungles of Africa safe from all manner of nefariosity. They also both have nebulous super abilities but lean most on the super power of “a pair of high caliber pistols,” leading to today’s mysterious masked query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) gives The Ghost Who Walks gets the edge over the Master of Men solely because he looks more like a traditional superhero, and I’m kind of a sucker for that, asking: Shadow or Phantom?
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Phantom, because I like the generational nature of the character, and how we’ve gotten to see multiple successive Kit Walkers over the years.
Shadow for me. always been a fan of the character.
the Phantom never grabbed my attention.
Phantom. He was huge up here for decades and still remembered fondly.
The Shadow! Why? Because he has appeared in 339 pulp novels, and stories; 677 radio episodes; at least 478 comic books; 14 films; and numerous collectibles, over the past nine decades. I don’t think The Phantom can come anywhere near matching that record.