Phantom Girl
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| Phantom Girl | |
.png/200px-Apparition_(comics).png) Tinya as Apparition. art by Jeff Moy |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Action Comics # 276 (May 1961) |
| Created by | Jerry Siegel Jim Mooney |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Tinya Wazzo |
| Place of origin | Bgztl |
| Team affiliations | Legion of Super-Heroes L.E.G.I.O.N. |
| Notable aliases | Phase, Apparition |
| Abilities | Intangibility |
Phantom Girl is the superhero alias of Tinya Wazzo. In the Post-Zero Hour continuity, she is known as Apparition. She is a fictional character in the DC Universe and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th and 31st centuries. She has the power to turn intangible and phase through solid objects as do all other natives of her home planet, Bgztl. Her mother is Winema Wazzo.
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[edit] Pre-Crisis
In the original pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, Phantom Girl is the fifth member to join the Legion and is a native of Bgztl, a planet that exists in the 4th Dimension. Like other Bgztllians, Phantom Girl has the ability to phase out of reality to become intangible. Initially appearing along with Triplicate Girl and Saturn Girl in Action Comics #276 in the story "Supergirl's Three Super Girl-Friends" , her first costume consisted of white tights and a white cape with a stylized P on the chest. Phantom Girl powers serve her well as member of the Legion's Espionage Squad, and she is involved romantically with fellow Legionnaire Ultra Boy for many years. In this continuity she has a brother, Gmya Wazzo.
[edit] Five Year Gap
Following the Magic Wars, Earth falls under the covert control of the Dominators, and withdraws from the United Planets. Sometime thereafter Phantom Girl is thought to have been killed in a shuttle accident. In reality, the time sorceress Glorith sends her to the 20th century where she is stripped of her memory of her true identity. She assumes the name Phase and joins the interstellar law enforcement agency, L.E.G.I.O.N..
A few years later, the members of the Dominators' highly classified "Batch SW6" escape captivity. It is first thought that the Batch SW6 are a group of teenage Legionnaire clones, created from samples taken just prior to Ferro Lad's death at the hands of the Sun-Eater. Later, they are revealed to be time-paradox duplicates, every bit as legitimate as their older counterparts. The Batch SW6 version of Tinya Wazzo eventually assumes the codename Apparition.
Due to various time travelers attempts to rewrite reality, continuity shifts again and Phase is now revealed to be, instead, Enya Wazzo, Phantom Girl's previously unknown cousin. The Time Trapper then returns the original Phantom Girl to be reunited with Ultra Boy moments before Zero Hour ends the first Legion continuity.
[edit] Post-Zero Hour
In the second reboot continuity Tinya Wazzo is also the fifth to join, under the codename Apparition. As in pre-Zero Hour reality, she becomes romantically involved with Ultra Boy. Apparition is eventually revealed to be half-Carggite, with Phase as another of her bodies. She never uses the codename "Phantom Girl".
Tinya is the daughter of Winema Wazzo, the Btzglian Ambassador to the United Planets, and regularly chafes under her mother's obsession with running her life for her. While helping her mother at a conference, which included the official unveiling of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Tinya phases through the decorative UP globe rather than go around it and spots something suspicious. When Saturn Girl telepathically scans the room, she picks up on this, giving enough time for Cosmic Boy and Live Wire to dispose of the bomb before the blast goes off. Tinya joins the search for the culprits and helps save Saturn Girl's life. Along with Triad, she is immediately inducted into the team.
When she and Ultra Boy meet, the two are instantly smitten with each other. Their romance is rocky, initially complicated by Winema's interference. Tinya is then apparently killed by Daxamite White Triangle terrorists who incinerate her with their heat vision in the invulnerable Ultra Boy's arms.
However, shortly afterward, Ultra Boy begins having painful seizures and soon Apparition emerges from his body. Now stuck in her phased state, Apparition can only be seen by Ultra Boy and Winema. Nonetheless, she plays a small but critical part in freeing the Legion from the Emerald Eye's control, after it corrupts Shrinking Violet. Apparition accidentally frees Saturn Girl by phasing through her and she gains the ability to see Apparition. Saturn Girl is able to influence the others enough until Violet panics and causes the Eye to send many of the Legionnaires, including Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, and Apparition, back in time to the late 20th Century.
While stranded in the past, Apparition meets a psychic using a Bgztllian touchstone - a red stone that assists in Bgztllians' phasing. This encounter ends with her becoming visible to all and gaining the power to disrupt machinery and electronics when phasing through them. Although Apparition fears that Ultra Boy will grow dissatisfied with never being able to make physical contact with her, he proves his devotion by marrying her. Shortly thereafter, however, Phase of the L.E.G.I.O.N. arrives to retrieve the touchstone which had been hers. She and Apparition are sucked into the realm within the touchstone and discover that they both identify themselves as Tinya Wazzo. When the two make physical contact, they involuntarily merge and Apparition becomes the dominant personality in the resulting body. A side effect is that she regains a physical form once more. Through hypnotic regression, Apparition learns that Winema Wazzo had become romantically involved with a roguish wanderer that left her pregnant. Unbeknown to her, he was a Carggite and his child inherited his ability to triplicate. Winema was only aware that she had given birth to a single child and Tinya's father stole her other two bodies as newborns and sold them to the Luck Lords to pay off his gambling debts. In the course of her own adventures, Phase also was sent back to the 20th Century. The fate of Tinya's third self remains unknown.
[edit] Blight
Ultra Boy and Apparition remain extremely close in the following months, rarely being seen without the other by their side. Eventually, Apparition decides to make a point of going on a Legion mission without Ultra Boy, to prove to herself and him that they could survive apart. While on the mission with Brainiac 5.1, Cosmic Boy and Monstress, the Blight takes over the Stargate network used by the United Planets for intergalactic travel and take over the planet. The group remains stranded far from Earth and must take a slower return trip home.
Arriving several months later, they crash to Earth as the Legion Outpost explodes behind them. The group joins up with Chameleon, the sole Legionnaire not captured or compromised by the Blight, and XS and Saturn Girl, Legionnaires who manage to escape. They defeat the Blight and Apparition helps Ultra Boy overcome his Blight infection.
[edit] Legion Lost
Shortly afterward, the Blight's damage to the Stargate network sends many of the Legionnaires through rift in space to a "Second Galaxy"; once again, Ultra Boy and Apparition are separated. However, as Ultra Boy begins to lose his sanity realizing he may never see Apparition again, she rises through the floor to alleviate his fears. This turns out to be one of Saturn Girl's telepathic illusions, imitating Apparition in an attempt to keep Ultra Boy sane. When her deception was discovered, Ultra Boy initially ignores Saturn Girl, but they do end up passionately kissing. Confused, they break off and are awkward around each other until returning home.
[edit] Baby
Meanwhile, the real Apparition was present at the official disbanding of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the wake of the Rift disaster by Ra's Al Ghul, who was then posing as the United Planets' President Leland McCauley. Invisible Kid is the first to notice her pregnancy. Apparition begs him not to tell her mother and he reluctantly respects her wishes.
Apparitions lives with her mother until she can no longer conceal the pregnancy. Winema's stifling involvement in her daughter's life only increases at this point, causing Apparition to flee to Rimbor, Ultra Boy's homeworld. There, she meets Timber Wolf, who, with the aid of his gang, helps and protects her. When Apparition hears the news of the Lost Legionnaires return, the stress causes her to go into labor. Three mercenaries are hired by her mother to recover her and the baby but they attempt to kill her for ease of transport. Timber Wolf is able to successfully defend Apparition and she gives birth to a boy. Apparition and Timber Wolf steal and use the mercenaries' return tickets to Earth.
On the ship, it becomes obvious that Apparition's son, Cub, has the powers of both his parents and is aging abnormally fast. Their return to Earth is delayed when they are knocked out of warp space by the Robotican battle fleet. They discover that the "engine" was in fact a living creature in significant pain.
[edit] Estrangement
Eventually reunited with the Legion and Ultra Boy, Apparition's marriage comes under many strains after the extended separation. Although Ultra Boy and Saturn Girl eventually realize that their kiss was borne out of confusion, Apparition discovers a letter between the two mentioning their kiss. Ultra Boy also grew jealous of the deep friendship his wife had developed with Timber Wolf, her protector during his absence. Finally, Cub continues to develop rapidly, reaching an apparent age of six years old after an experiment designed to retard his aging backfired. The tensions between the two are not resolved when the series reboots.
[edit] 2005 Reboot
In the new Legion of Super-Heroes continuity started in 2005, Tinya Wazzo is again called Phantom Girl. In this setting, Bgztl exists in the same location as Earth but is out of phase with it: the whole planet is in the "Buffer Zone" that the pre-Zero Hour Phantom Girl would phase into. Phantom Girl is the only Bgzltian who can shift between her home reality and Earth. When she phases she is visible in both universes and often engages in conversations or activities in the two realities at the same time, causing much confusion to those around her.
[edit] Post-Infinite Crisis
The events of the Infinite Crisis miniseries have apparently restored a close analogue of the Pre-Crisis Legion to continuity, as seen in "The Lightning Saga" story arc in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, and in the "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes" story arc in Action Comics. Phantom Girl is included in their number.
[edit] Other media
In Superman: The Animated Series, Phantom Girl made a cameo appearance in the episode "New Kids In Town". She later reappeared in an episode of Justice League Unlimited titled "Far From Home" in which she is one of only three Legionnaires (along with Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy) to have a speaking role.
She is part of the core Legion team in the Legion of Super-Heroes series. The voice actor portraying Phantom Girl is Heather Hogan. As in post-ZH continuity, her mother is President of the UP. There is also a romance hinted between her and Timber Wolf.
