Number 2451: The lady was a robot

The Phantom Lady had quite a career during the 1940s, and into the '50s and beyond. She began as a character for Quality Comics, then Fox, then Farrell. She got around.

In “The Beauty and the Brain,” from Phantom Lady #13 (actual #1, 1947, published by Fox), Phantom Lady, who is Sandra Knight, daughter of a U.S. senator, is replaced by a robot who is her double. The robot is recognized as Sandra, but then Sandra also masquerades as the robot. This kind of story doesn’t have to make sense.

I have mentioned before (more than is necessary, really) that no one recognizes Sandra when she is Phantom Lady, despite not changing her appearance, just her clothes. However, I haven’t forgotten this is a comic book, where costumed heroes and heroines manage to keep secret identities that would be instantly seen through in real life.

The artwork is by Matt Baker. The stories were produced by the Jerry Iger shop, which piled on pulchritude to make the female characters stand out. The author is credited as Gregory Page, a pseudonym for usual Iger scripter, Ruth Roche.

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