NIGHT
PHANTOMNIGHT
PHANTOM
Real Name: Travis Hoyt
Identity/Class: Human mutate, U.S. Citizen (presumptive)
Occupation: Terrorist; former novel writer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Drexel Cord
Enemies: Avengers (Iron Man/Tony Stark, Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Spider-Man/Miles Morales, Thor/Jane Foster, Vision), Janice Cord, Iron Man (Tony Stark), Inspector Christophe, Project: Caribbean, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: An underground cavern in Haiti
First Appearance: Iron Man I#14 (June, 1969)
Powers: Hoyt gained superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability, making him virtually invulnerable. His skin was hideously scarred, and he covered it with bandages, as well as a plastic mask when he wished to appear in his original form. He used a loudspeaker to project drumbeats when in action, in order to feed on the local superstition.
History:
(Iron Man I#14 (fb) - Travis Hoyt was a renown novelist, several times making it on the best-seller list. He was in a plane wreck, which he survived, but was left confined to a wheelchair. He withdrew from civilization and moved to Haiti.
Hoyt blamed technology and progress for his injury and was disgusted by the development going on in Haiti. He entered an unfinished plant during a work break due to the rainy season. The earth and timber had been weakened by the rain, and it gave way, plunging him into an underground cavern and pool. The pool was radioactive, and Hoyt was instantly changed by it, regaining the use of his legs. Repeated bathing made him stronger and stronger, although its corrosive nature left him severely scarred. Hoyt covered his skin with thin bandages around his head, and began wearing a plastic mask in the form of his original face.
(Iron Man I#14) - Now possessing the power to take vengeance on the technology that he hated, Hoyt, as the Night Phantom, began to sabotage and destroy power plants in Haiti. After destroying Project: Caribbean, a division of Stark Industries, he attracted the attention of Tony Stark. Stark participated with the Haitian police inspector, Christophe, in investigating the source of the plant's destruction. Natives and workers had named the Night Phantom as the cause, but they had chalked it up to local superstition. The Night Phantom attacked Stark and Hoyt, who stopped them in their jeep and then threw it into the jungle.
Janice Cord, the then-girlfriend of Stark, encountered the scene of the accident. Christophe recovered first and set out after the Night Phantom, sending Janice to bring Stark back to the house of Travis Hoyt, an old friend of her father. Hoyt captured Christophe, then drove Stark out of his house. Resenting the fact that Janice would choose a man like Stark over himself, Hoyt revealed his true form to her and attempted to force her into the same underground pool, to make her a better mate for him.
Stark, as Iron Man, investigated the site of his accident and tracked it down to the vicinity of Hoyt's lair, and followed the sound of the drumbeats to Hoyt's cavern. Iron Man saved Janice from Hoyt, and then battled him. When Iron Man succeeding in stunning Hoyt with a point-blank blast from his repulsor rays, Hoyt leapt back into the pool to increase his power even further. However, a crack in the bottom of the pool had been weakened by the constant vibration of the heavily amplified drumbeats (hmm...), and the force and weight of the Night Phantom caused it to collapse. The hole in the bottom of the pool generated a powerful whirlpool that drug the Night Phantom down and washed him away.
SECRET WARS II HAPPENED
(All-New, All-Different Avengers#7 (fb) - BTS) - Night Phantom was imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Pleasant Hill where his reality was rewritten by a Cosmic Cube.
(All-New, All-Different Avengers#7) - Night Phantom somehow escaped and ended up in New York City demanding his life back. Rampaging through an area of the town he came into conflict with Spider-Man (Morales), who he attempted to squash with a car. Iron Man saved Spider-Man, but the confused Night Phantom, who didn't even know what year it was, hit him hard. Thor and Vision worked together against Night Phantom, who demanded to know how long he had been in Pleasant Hill. Night Phantom tried to release vast amounts of radioactivity from his body, but Thor knocked him out with lightning and Iron Man wrapped him up in concrete. Maria Hill (actually Mindblast or Bloodlust remade by Kobik to keep the Avengers away from Pleasant Hill) of S.H.I.E.L.D. then appeared and told the heroes they were no longer needed, but Iron Man wanted answers. Hill took Night Phantom back to Pleasant Hill along with the Avengers to show them the prison.
(Illuminati I#6 (fb)) - Night Phantom fought S.H.I.E.L.D. agents alongside other villains.
(Illuminati I#7) - Night Phantom hung out in Hood's House of Hell.
(Iron Man VI#3) - Iron Man choked out Night Phantom in the middle of the street until the police asked him to stop.
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and Johnny Craig.
There's really no good reason to think the Night Phantom was killed by the same waters which empowered him...other than the fact that he was a pretty unspectacular villain. He had a cool, kind-of-Invisible Man-look.
And he did indeed return...in 2016.
--Markus Raymond
Clarifications:
The Night Phantom has no known connection to:
He should be distinguished from:
It was created by Mr. Kline and sent after Iron Man. This robot had the power, abilities, and personality of the original, and it was not until some of its circuitry was exposed that anyone knew it was a robot. It was ultimately destroyed by Iron Man.
--Iron Man I#44 (45
images: (without ads)
Iron Man I#14, p1 (main image)
Iron Man I#14, p4, pan5 (head shot)
Iron Man I#14, p13, pan3 (ripping off face mask)
All-New, All-Different Avengers#7, p8, pan2 (escaped from Pleasant Hill)
Iron Man I#44, Cover (robot)
Appearances:
Iron Man I#14 (June, 1969) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Johnny Craig (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#44 (January, 1972) - Gerry Conway & Robert Kanigher (writers), George Tuska (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#45 (March, 1972) - Gary Friedrich (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
All-New, All-Different Avengers#7 (May, 2016) - Mark Waid (writer), Adam Kubert (artist), Tom Brevoort with Wil Moss (editors)
Illuminati I#6 (June, 2016) - Joshua Williamson (writer), Mike Henderson (artist), Katie Kubert (editor)
Illuminati I#7 (July, 2016) - Joshua Williamson (writer), Shawn Crystal (artist), Katie Kubert (editor)
Iron Man VI#3 (January, 2021) - Christopher Cantwell (writer), Cafu (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 09/08/2001
Last updated: 10/25/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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