PHANTOM OF THE UNDERWORLD
Real Name: Dr. Doyle Denton (see comments)
Identity/Class: Normal human, conventional weapons user (World War II era)
Occupation: Police detective
Group Membership: Police department of unspecified city
Affiliations: Nurse Andrus, Chief Inspector Flynn
Enemies: Perrone
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Dr. Stewart (possibly many others, see notes)
Base of Operations: Unspecified city; 1940s era
First Appearance: Daring Mystery Comics#1/7 (January, 1940)
Powers/Abilities: "Doc" Denton is not only a clever and skilled detective, he is also a trained surgeon. He is knowledgeable about chemistry. In addition, he has some skill at impersonating others, and may in fact be a master of disguise.
History: (Daring Mystery Comics#1/7) - In 1940, a doctor named Stewart operated on Perrone, the head of one of the city's toughest gangs. Learning that the gang planned to recruit Stewart, "Doc" Denton took Stewart's place and accepted the gangsters' bribe. Denton gave the bribe to Stewart, telling him to "take a vacation", and moved into Stewart's practice.Comments: Created by Maurice Gutwirth (and an unknown writer?).
The strip is titled "Phantom of the Underworld", although no one actually calls Denton that in the text. My hypothesis is that the name is derived from what is likely to have been Denton's gimmick in each installment -- that is, he would impersonate someone in order to combat the underworld. However, despite the promise of the last panel, Denton never reappeared, and so this must remain conjectural. One flaw in this idea is that Denton does not actually disguise himself as Stewart (a bespectacled man with a moustache) at all, but since Perrone doesn't even notice, maybe it wasn't important.
Nonetheless, I chose to title the page "Phantom of the Underworld" because, for crying out loud, the guy's name is DR. DENTON!
Unfortunately, my copies of the DMC stories are black-and-white photocopies from the commercially-available microfiche. If anyone has the ability to replace the images in this profile with better, color images, please contact us.
The cover of DMC#1 claims the comic features "Doc Doyle - Daring Underworld-Buster". There aren't any other Docs doing anything to the underworld in DMC#1, so this must refer to to Denton. I'm inclined to call it an error, but hell, it's not like "Doyle Denton" is a worse name than "Dr Denton" already is.
Clarifications: "Doc" Denton, the Phantom of the Underworld, has no known connection to
Images:
Full shot - Daring Mystery Comics#1/7, p49, panel 1
Head shot - Daring Mystery Comics#1/7, p49, panel 4
Daring Mystery Comics#1/7 (Janurary 1940) - ? (script), Maurice Gutwirth (pencils and inks)
Last updated: 06/24/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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