Blonde Phantom (comics)

The Blonde Phantom (Louise Grant Mason) is a fictional masked crime fighter appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created for Marvel predecessor Timely Comics, she first appeared in All Select Comics #11 (cover-dated Fall 1946), during the 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.

The character is Louise Grant, secretary to private detective Mark Mason. When Mason encounters cases he cannot solve, Louise dons a mask and costume to solve them as the vigilante Blonde Phantom. The character later was revealed to have been a member of early versions of the Invaders and the Avengers, and her daughter occasionally appears as the Blonde Phantom in modern Marvel stories.

Issue 12 (December 1946), “Death After Dinner!”
Mark Mason is investigating the leak of government secrets. Louise figures out that all of the leaks, through the leakers’ wives, are connected to a beauty salon. As the Blonde Phantom, she visits the salon, and is cut on the finger as part of her treatment. The “antiseptic” she is given to treat the cut is actually a hypnotic drug, and the Blonde Phantom is hypnotized herself.

It’s later revealed that the Blonde Phantom was faking all along -- she saw the finger-cut on an earlier victim, and took an antidote to the hypnotic drug that she expected.



Issue 19 (September 1948), “Her Double Trouble!”
A criminal doctor, Carla Demise, and her assistant Dora are released from prison. Dr. Demise is a plastic surgeon who has developed a method of hypnotizing a person to give them a new identity along with a new face. Dr. Demise gives Dora surgery to resemble the Blonde Phantom, then hypnotizes Dora to make her believe she is the Blonde Phantom. Dora then commits several murders while posing as the Blonde Phantom.

To clear her alter-ego’s name, Louise tracks Dr. Demise to her lair and confronts her, but is then hypnotized herself. Louise partially resists the hypnosis, allowing her to remember her identity. But she remains entranced long enough that, after she wakes up, she must race against time to stop the doctor’s evil plans.

Issue 20 (December 1948), “The Mental Maelstrom!”
An artist named Morton Marion Maximilian Muse has hypnotized another artist named Danny, and is selling Danny’s art for a fortune. The Blonde Phantom finds him and fights him, but he hypnotizes her, leaving her disoriented and hallucinating, until she falls unconscious.