DC Comics will make Mask of the Phantasm’s villain canon for the first time

On Tuesday night, Batman writer Tom King gave fans a big hint where his Batman story will head once it splits off from the main Batman series. His twelve-issue Batman/Catwoman series will apparently feature the Phantasm, marking the first time the eponymous villain of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has crossed over into the main Batman comics continuity.

King tweeted a promotional image from the new series, featuring the mask and blade of Andrea Beaumont, the deadly Phantasm. The quote “She awaits you,” is a reference to the line, “Your angel of death awaits,” which Beaumont would recite to her victims.

Although 1993’s Mask of the Phantasm animated feature drew elements from Mike W. Barr (and various artists)’s Batman: Year Two, its villain was an original creation to the Batman: The Animated Series team. Beaumont is an old flame of Bruce Wayne’s — one he almost married, but abandoned during his quest to become Batman — whose father forced her to go into hiding from the mob with him before she could get her happy ending. Years later, after their location was betrayed and her father was murdered, Andrea swore revenge on his killers, and returned to Gotham as the deadly vigilante, the Phantasm.

Although numerous elements of Batman: The Animated Series, like the character of Harley Quinn, have been incorporated into the main DC Comics continuity — and Mask of the Phantasm is regarded as among the best Batman movies ever made — Phantasm/Andrea Beaumont has never quite managed to make the leap to comics. She has appeared in stories based in the DC Animated Universe, including Batman Beyond comics; she’s appeared or been mentioned in multiple Batman video games; and her existence has been referenced in non-canonical stories like Batman: Li’l Gotham. But, if King’s tease is really Andrea, it will be the first time she has ever appeared in the main DC Universe.

Otherwise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that King would be interested in a woman who nearly married Bruce Wayne; one who he nearly gave up on his dreams of being Batman for. These themes have been core to his sometimes divisive but undeniably riveting run on Batman.

After rumors swirled that that run would be cut short of its expected 100-issue length, DC Comics announced earlier this month that King’s run would end at the end of 2019, with Batman #85. However, the story that he — with numerous artist collaborators — has been telling since 2016’s Batman #1, would still be concluded, in a new twelve-issue series called Batman/Catwoman, drawn by Clay Mann and starting in 2020.

The promotional art for that series can be seen reflected in the Phantasm’s blade in the image King tweeted: