Phantom Girl

The Original Phantom Girl

Bgtzl is a world that lies in the same location as Earth, but each planet resides in a different dimension. Bgtzl natives can become immaterial at will, and pass through solid objects. By extension, they can shift their bodies fully into Earth's dimension.

Tinya Wazzo was born to an upper/middle class family on Bgtzl, to attorney Winema and Bzyjn Wazzo with a brother, Gyma. At an early age, she began experiencing dreams in which she traveled to Earth (dubbed "Bgtzl-2" by her people). Her parents recognized this; Tinya was marked as one with special abilities. She would grow to possess a "phasing" ability that surpassed most people's.

In adolescence, Winema stifled Tinya's burgeoning interest in boys, which only fueled the girl's rebelliousness. She was drawn to "bad boys" and was ultimately coaxed into breaking Bgtzlian privacy laws. To keep her in check, her mother sent Tinya to an all-girls' school.

Near her graduation, Tinya's father died and the bitterness towards her mother intensified. By this time she knew that her abilities would allow her to phase completely into Earth's dimension. She was inspired by video of the new Legion of Super-Heroes to make the journey there, and hooked up with a criminal named Kynar. Using her power, they were able to stow away on a freighter bound for Earth, where they joined a gang led by Meglaro and Dr. Landro. But Tinya couldn't go along with their crimes and singlehandedly brought down the gang.

After that, she met the Legion and joined alongside Triplicate Girl as the team's first non-charter members. (Secret Origins vol. 2 #42) NOTE: In Secrets of the Legion #1 (1981), Phantom Girl was described as having joined just after Triplicate Girl, but in this and in Superboy #147 (1968) they are shown joining simultaneously.

Phantom Girl's abilities were the key to defeating one the team's earliest foes, Lucifer Seven. The villain used an incredible weapon that could disable any opponent. Tinya discovered that she could spy on him from within the Phantom Zone, which enabled her to nab his weapon and turn it back on him. (Secrets of the Legion #1)

The second time that Supergirl was invited to apply for Legion membership, Phantom Girl accompanied Triplicate Girl and Saturn Girl to the 20th century to recruit her. (Action Comics #276)

Tinya met her soul mate in fellow Legionnaire, Ultra Boy. Their attraction was so strong that Jo Nah left his girlfriend, An Ryd, when he joined the Legion. (Superboy vol. 1 #98) Their relationship was cemented when Ultra Boy showed his bravery by risking expulsion from the Legion in order to capture a group of space pirates. (Adventure Comics #316) The couple once pretended to marry, as part of a ruse to foil some alien spies. (#337)

Phantom Girl discovered that she could enter and leave the Phantom Zone at will. She traveled there to communicate with Gazor, a Kryptonian inmate who was sent to the Zone centuries earlier by Superman's father, Jor-El. (#323)

Phantom Girl is a member of the Legion's Espionage Squad, which was formed by Chameleon Boy. The Legion were branded as outlaws when Earth's Vice President Boltax drugged the water and hypnotized the population. The Squad went underground to free their friends from prison, and to add an antidote to the water supply with the help of Rond Vidar; "Boltax" was unmasked as the villain Universo. (#360)

Growing Up

Phantom Girl has always favored white in her uniforms; she was one of the first to update her Legion look. (Superboy #195)

Another hero from Bgtzl once tried to usurp Tinya's position in the Legion. Solon Darga took the name Phantom Lad and joined with several other disgruntled Legion applicants to form a "Legion of Super-Rejects." (Superboy #212)

When Tinya returned home to Bgtzl on furlough, she 'teamed up' with her brother Gmya after they witnessed a murder committed by hit-man, Ron-Vizl. Tinya was stalked by one of his accomplices, but Gmya followed his sister back to Earth, where he possessed the body of Sun Boy and protected his sister from assassination. (#215)

After the defeat of the Legion of Super-Villains on Orando, Phantom Girl and four teammates were left adrift in space, lost between dimensions. (Legion vol. 3 #5) They drifted to a planet that had been transformed into a giant factory — where a Controller was building a Sun-Eater. (#7–8) But when they left and stepped through a portal destined for Earth, they arrived in the 20th century instead. (DC Comics Presents #80) Superman ultimately helped them return home. (Legion vol. 3 #9)

When Phantom Girl sensed that her Espionage comrade, Chameleon Boy, might be in trouble, Phantom Girl (sporting a new costume) mobilized the rest of the Squad to search for him. (Legion vol. 3 #51) Dawnstar tracked him to the lair of Starfinger, where Tinya's instincts and skilled leadership orchestrated the extraction of Cham and Colossal Boy. (Legion vol. 3 Annual #4)

Tinya served a very long, unbroken tenure with the Legion, second only to Colossal Boy.

Powers

Phantom Girl has a rare genetic gift which gives her a much stronger level of the native Bgtzlian's ability to phase between matter. She can cross the barrier between Earth and Bgtzl without aid, and bring others with her.

She can also enter the Phantom Zone, which is a sort of buffer between the two dimensions.

Notes

Bgtzl was first named in Adventure Comics #316 (Feb. 1964). Her real name was revealed in Adventure #354 (Mar. 1967).

Jim Shooter on Phantom Girl:

"No wonder Ultra Boy worships her. She is bright, pretty, thoughtful, sensitive and charming. She also knows Ultra Boy well, she understands him better than he understands himself. She sees the good in him, but she surely knows he is unfaithful. I imagine she doesn't care, she accepts it as part of the price she pays—just as she accepts dealing with his negativism. I suspect she can maneuver him pretty handily, and wind him around the finger of her choice, though he doubtless believes he is running the show and she isn't on to him yet." —Interlac (1976)

Appearances + References

 

Glorith Reality: Phase

During the run of Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 4, known as the "Glorith Reality," Phantom Girl did not appear with the Legion in the 30th century. Instead, she was robbed of her memories and transported by Glorith to the 20th century, where she joined a group called the L.E.G.I.O.N.

Neither Tinya nor Jo knew that the Legion's enemy, Glorith, harbored great animosity for Ultra Boy. Glorith plotted her revenge on him by targeting Phantom Girl. After a decade of dating, Jo finally proposed marriage to Tinya and she planned a trip to Bgtzl for a short visit and to buy her wedding dress. At the moment of Tinya's departure, Glorith performed an exchanging spell that brought the Durlan from the 20th century to the 30th (he adopted a new name and became the Legion's founder, R.J. Brande). Conversely, Phantom Girl was sent to the 20th century. Glorith destroyed her ship and everyone assumed that she had died, even though a body was never recovered. (Legion vol. 4 Annual #1)

Tinya materialized where the Durlan had left: at the headquarters of the new L.E.G.I.O.N. on the planet Cairn. When this mysterious woman appeared out of nowhere their leader, Vril Dox was as surprised as anyone. Tinya had no memories of anything prior to her appearance, but possessed the power to pass through solid objects. She fled from the L.E.G.I.O.N.naires, but soon settled down and began trying to communicate with them. (L.E.G.I.O.N. #9–11)

Medical tests by Vril Dox and Marij'n Bek plus mental probes by the Telepath revealed no explanations for the woman's origins, but she exhibited a strong drive to stay active, even in an unfamiliar place. (#12) She soon began putting her talents to use as a member of the L.E.G.I.O.N. and adopted the name Phase. (#13)

Phase arrived just before the tragic loss of one of the team's founders and beloved friends, Lyrissa Mallor. To fill the void, Dox soon appointed Phase to Mallor's former post as second-in-command. She proved herself by averting a major crisis within her first hours on the job. She never hesitated to stand up to Dox, either. She defied his wishes by making Marij'n Bek and Captain Comet official members of the team. (L.E.G.I.O.N. #29)

When the L.E.G.I.O.N. was infiltrated by a traitor named Ig'nea, Dox disbanded the team. It was Phase who decided to defy him again when she rallied the troops to stay Good thing: they saved Dox from murder at Ig'nea's hands. (#30-39)

Her adventures with the team unknowingly brought her into contact with her own ancestors — a race of phantom people who were kidnapping children on the planet Dexll. These thieves tried to trick Phase into believing she was one of them, a long-lost relative. (#59) Upon further investigation she discovered that these phantom people had been enslaved by a demon called Bhargast and made to steal for him. Once the threat of Bhargast was ended, these people were led by a man named Bgtzl to colonize the demon's dimension. Given their inherent abilities, they were perfectly suited for life there. (#60) This place would eventually be named after Bgtzl, Tinya's homeworld.

When the time storm known called "Zero Hour" began to affect all reality, Jo Nah in the 30th century heard a hint that his beloved might have been transported to the 20th century. He took a time bubble to search for her. (Legion vol. 4 #59)

Batch SW6: Apparition

Meanwhile, in the 30th century, a group of Legion clones was awakened on Earth. These Legionnaires were still teenagers and among them was Tinya. (Legion vol. 4 #19–20) The adult Jo Nah was traumatized when he bumped into the girl. (#40)

Phantom Girl from this "Batch SW6" adopted the name Apparition when the team reestablished itself on Earth. This Tinya was also very much in love with the teen Ultra Boy. (#41)

As this reality began crumble under the stress of the Zero Hour, the Time Trapper hatched a plan to save the 30th century. It required the SW6 duplicates to re-merge with their adult counterparts. He actually restored the original Phantom Girl so that this could occur, then all existence faded to white. (#61)

Notes

The Anomalies of Zero Hour

In the continuity of the Legion vol. 4 and L.E.G.I.O.N. series (1989–94), it was made clear that Phase was Tinya Wazzo. She was explicitly identified as such in Who's Who #7 (Feb. 1991). But then, Zero Hour.

With Zero Hour, the entirety of Legion continuity was to be 'rebooted.' This created a conflict of interest: the L.E.G.I.O.N. team wanted to continue using Phase but the the all-new "reboot" Legion would need its Phantom Girl.

To fix this, when Jo Nah found Phase in L.E.G.I.O.N. #68–70 (July–Sept. 1994), he realized that she was not Tinya, but her previously unknown cousin, Enya Wazzo, who had been traveling with Tinya when Glorith destroyed her spaceship.

The character of Phase continued to appear in R.E.B.E.L.S., the successor to L.E.G.I.O.N. In post-Zero Hour continuity, Phase's origin was changed to align with the all-new Apparition (see below).

Tom & Mary Bierbaum on Phantom Girl

"Strongly driven to rebel against her stuffy, disapproving elitist mother, but also has lots of tendencies to follow in her mother's footsteps. Sort of the snooty cheerleader who sneaks a smoke in the girls' room." —Interlac (2000)

Powers

Phase has a rare genetic gift which gives her a much stronger level of the native Bgtzlian's ability to phase between matter. She can enter and leave the Phantom Zone at will, and cross between our universe and that of her native dimension, Bgtzl.

Appearances + References

Retroboot & New 52

In Retroboot continuity, that which followed Infinite Crisis and continued through the New 52, the continuity of the original Legion was more-or-less reinstated; Phantom Girl's origin happened to be among those events that were rewritten, though. The entirety of the Legion's origin was given a "face lift" in the New 52-era Legion: Secret Origins (2011). This series invalidated Phantom Girl's origin from Secret Origins #42 (see above).

Tinya Wazzo hails from the world called Bgtzl, which occupies the same space as Earth, but in another dimension. Among her people the ability to become intangible is common but she had a rare genetic gift that allowed her to cross the dimensional barrier to Earth. When Bgtzl became threatened by an ominous wormhole in space (created by the Time Trapper), leaders moved her world out of danger. They appointed Tinya as an ambassador of sorts, to warn Earth of an impending invasion. The first person she encountered in that other dimension was the young scientist called Brainiac 5, who was intrigued by her "asynchronous" abilities. (Legion: Secret Origin #1)

After aiding the Science Police in space, Tinya headed for Earth to deliver her message to the Directorate of the United Planets, giving them all of the data that her people had amassed. There she noticed the newly formed Legion of Super-Heroes on a video screen and immediately took off to find them. She was admitted as their fifth member, Phantom Girl. (#3)

She and Brainiac 5 became fast friends, but he initially refused Phantom Girl's invitation to join the Legion. When the wormhole began to expand, it was Phantom Girl who suggested that the Legion use Brainy's time travel technology to retrieve Superman from the past! (#4) Their first attempt at this was unsuccessful, but as fate would have it, Legion recruiters found their own super-boy: Ultra Boy of Rimbor. (#5)

Phantom Girl volunteered to pilot Brainiac's Time Bubble into the wormhole to destroy it. Her teammates assumed that she would be lost, but her powers allowed her to phase free of the explosion and she returned to the Legion. (#6)

New 52

Phantom Girl's closest friend in the Legion was Shadow Lass, so she thought nothing of phasing into Shady's quarters one day. She was shocked to discover Shady in bed with the Legionnaire Earth-Man (and not her longtime partner, Mon-El)! (Legion vol. 6 #5) She rushed to apologize the next day for intruding on her friend. (#6)

The Legion's leadership elections were sometimes unpredictable. Without even running for the office, the team of this era elected Phantom Girl as their next leader, to succeed Mon-El. This came at a critical time, when Tharok had reformed the Fatal Five and mounted a galaxywide campaign of destruction. (#16)

Phantom Girl's cruiser was attacked, and Sun Boy was killed while piloting the ship to a safe landing. She, Polar Boy and Invisible Kid were stranded on a strange world where no one spoke Interlac. But this was no regular planet — it was the dormant form of a Promethean Giant, which was then awakened and manipulated by Tharok. (#17)

Phantom Girl's team was unable to save the sentients who lived there. Invisible Kid disappeared with Polar Boy, and Tinya was left with little choice but to retreat into the phantom dimension. (#20) She did not reappear before the Legion defeated the Fatal Five and her final fate was unrevealed.

Powers

Phantom Girl has the native Bgtzlian's ability to become immaterial and "phase" between matter. She was gifted with a rare genetic gift that allows her to cross the boundaries between Bgtzl and Earth.

Appearances + References

Rebirth: Phantom Girl III

Little is known about Phantom Girl. During her time with the Legion, she has been romantic with Mon-El.

Powers

Phantom Girl demonstrates the ability to pass through solid matter, and to use special rings as a teleportational device.

Appearances + References