Phantom 2040

The Ghost Who Walks!

Been on a bit of memory trip and remembered I watched this show as a kid. I don't think I realised it was based on the Phantom comics I've read (even though the names the same). And the whole show was on youtube so I relived the memories. Or more correctly filled the gap for the two memories of the show I had. It takes place in the year 2040 in Metropolis, a futuristic New York where the world are on the brink of destruction due to natural collapse and climate change. Mankind have built satellites around the earth where humans live and are born that terrorise people for independence. Mega Corporations rule the planet and the rich and influential tries to save themselves. Worst is the Maximum Industries headed by Rebecca Madison, her son Maxwell Jr. and chief of security Graft. As they try to start the Maximum Era where the rich have taken shelter in Cyberville, a city complex cut of from the world for 10 years while the rest of the world dies and are reborn and the people of Cyberville can return as leaders of the world. 16 years earlier Maxwell Madison Sr. died in a train crash that contaminated half of Metropolis, caused by the Phantom according to stories that haven't been seen since then. And that is the setup.

The character models looks a bit weird

Kit Walker is drawn into this when Guran, a friend of his father tries to tell him about his heritage, but are attacked by Maximum who have waited for him to return. Kits great-aunt Heloise gets hurt in the fight and Kit discovers that he is the last in line of the Phantom-family, the 24 to be exact. From here he picks up the skull ring and fights injustice in search for answers like what happened that day 16 years ago that killed his father. The first season was amazing with interesting stories and characters. For example the backstory of Graft that was a soldier in the resource wars of 2015 (ha) where he become a hero for saving children, gets promoted by Maxwell Sr. and then defects to save an amazonian village, but the battle leaves him just an upper-torso for Rebecca Madison to use as an enforcer. Also it gets really dark. Maxwell Sr. mind was saved by Rebecca by being downloaded into a computer so she tries to resurect him by putting him in a robot body. One episode it succeeds, but he is confused and sees that he has lost his sons childhood and kidnapps him and take him to the central station to try to remember what happened. The Phantom interupts him, and during the fight he realises he is dead, and as his son pleads with him to stay since he misses his father, the robot rips open his torso and jumps into a water pool, electrocuting him. Real dark stuff.

Maxwell Jr., Baudelaire the cat and Graft

Second season first half was good. The last part was not as good, It was rather noticeable as well. The ending of the first half where they had build up the story for was the Phantom traveling to Africa to visit his ancestral home in Bengala while Rebecca brought Maxwell Sr to life again and prepared to start the Maximum Era, they get trapped after the Phantom tries to blow up their HQ and they escape to Cyberville. Meanwhile it is revealed that the 23rd Phantom survived the accident and was able to put himself into cryonetic sleep, but was awakened for some reason, and the episode ends with him sitting at a monitor realising he have been awakend to early as the poison drips around him. After this studio meddling forced them to speed up to get an ending that was decent, and I think forced certain characters to act out of character to just tell their story since they couldn't build them more. Also, certain characters just disappeared or was pushed to the side, Graft for example. The ending is really noticeable since they wrap up the death of the 23rd Phantom, the truth behind the accident and the termination of Maxwell Sr. and then last 30 seconds tell that the other bad guys went to prison. A bit rushed. Another reason it felt worse is that it strained a bit of reality. One episode had the bad guys injecting the kid side-kick with nano-machines and could spy on the Phantom, but they saw it in 3rd-person where the more correct way would be 1st-person. Easier to animate. And then there was a virtual reality episode where all phantom chronicles are digitised and to find out about who was given a good mark medallion Kit 24 enters a digital adventure of the 21 Phantom (the one everyone knows) and he walks around in Morocco interacting with people until the Phantom arrives and captures the bad guys, gives the mark to a kid that helped them and is on his way.. while Kit 24 watches a pickpocket steal the mark and say it will be an heirloom for his family. HOW does he know that? How is it supposed to work? Talk about a very well written chronicle for each adventure if they are able to put that in.

Since I'm Swedish, I prefer this colour scheme

A pity it ended as it did, but it at least didn't overstay its welcome. The two memories I had was the backstory for Graft and the survival of the 23rd Phantom. I gotta say the voice acting phenomenal with Mark Hamill, Margot Kidder, Ron Pearlman and the guy doing the Puingin from Batman the animated series, Grace from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and the others do a decent job as well. The music was good and as mentioned the animation was ok, but it could look a bit freaky at times. Apparently the same guy who did Aeon Flux and worked on Fire and Ice and Transformers G1. Sad thing is, that there isn't a full release of the series. There's supposedly a season 1 box set in Australia, but for season 2 you gotta watch taped version from their original release. Apparently before Captain Planet, and besides environmental message, I have a hard time seeing why I would like that show if I like the Phantom as the presenter says.