PHANTOM OF THE UNDERWORLD

Real Name: Dr. Doyle Denton

Identity/Class: Normal human, conventional weapons user (World War II era)

Occupation: Police detective

Group Membership: New York Police Department

Affiliations: Nurse Andrus, Chief Inspector Flynn

Enemies: Perrone and his gang

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Dr. Stewart (possibly many others, see comments)

Base of Operations: New York City, USA

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 and has a PhD in criminal psychology. His understanding of criminal psychology made his a skilled hustler, able to convince criminals that he was someone else, despite not immediately resembling that man; he may even be a master of disguise.

Height: 6'1.5"
Weight: 195 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light brown

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.
   When Perrone sent for Stewart to tend to his bullet wound, Denton had Stewart's nurse, Miss Andrus, contact the police and arrange for them to raid the hideout. The police were ordered to arrest Denton so as to avoid blowing his cover, but the gang caught wind of the raid and held them off long enough for Perrone to escape. Denton tracked the remainder of the gang to the small town of Louisville. Shortly after he arrived, Perrone and his gang robbed a bank there, and Perrone was once again wounded. When his men went to find a doctor, they were pleased to run into Stewart.
   Denton went to Perrone's new hideout and removed the bullet, but Perrone told him he couldn't leave the house, as he was afraid of attracting attention (and possibly more suspicious than his fairly guileless henchmen). When Perrone began complaining of dizziness a few hours later, Denton saw his chance. He told Perrone he may have contracted an eye infection, and sent a man to Nurse Andrus to fetch a prescription. Andrus arrived with the solution personally, and when Perrone balked at allowing himself to be injected with the unknown medicine, she allowed herself to be inoculated first.
   The solution was formulated to cause temporary blindness. Denton injected everyone in the gang, and told them to keep their eyes closed for ten minutes. Before he could call the police and get Andrus to safety, however, one of the gangsters opened his eyes, and soon they had all discovered the trick. They began firing their guns wildly. Thinking fast, Denton prodded Perrone in the back with his pipe, pretending to have a gun. Once the police arrived, they took Perrone away, and Denton kept Andrus company until her vision returned.

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 mustache) at all, but since Perrone doesn't even notice, maybe it wasn't important.

Phantom of the Underworld has a profile in the Marvel Mystery Handbook (2009), wherein his name and location are officially confirmed.

John Holstein noted that a "Doc" Doyle story by Maurice Gutwirth was published in Centaur Publications' Keen Detective Funnies I#10 (November, 1938) and the Grand Comics Database suggests that it was "possibly reprinted from an earlier source"; that story was later reprinted in Centaur's Masked Marvel#1 (September, 1940). I'm sure there's an interesting story, now lost to time, how "Doc" Doyle came to appear in Timely/Marvel; is this another case where a character was "adopted" by Marvel, to borrow the term from Marvel man Tom Brevoort? Both the 1938 Centaur and 1940 Timely/Marvel stories are by Maurice Gutwirth, and in January 1940 (time of the DMC story), Centaur was still liquid and publishing. So how did "Doc" Doyle appear in DMC (with the unfulfilled promise of appearing in the next issue)? Was Timely/Marvel aware that Doyle was Centaur property; did Gutwirth sell Doyle as a new character? Doyle had cover billing a year earlier in the Centaur comic, so that seems unlikely. Who knows? It's just speculation at this point. At any rate, many Centaur characters were "adopted" decades later in 1992 by Malibu Comics' Protectors universe and with Marvel's acquisition of Malibu Comics in 1994, the Protectors universe realized its own Marvel reality designation (Earth-1136), so the original Centaur version could be considered an alternate version of the Timely/Marvel character profiled here.
---Grendel Prime

Updated images from Grendel Prime.

Profile by LV!

CLARIFICATIONS:
"Doc" Denton, the Phantom of the Underworld, has no known connection to

Images:
Marvel Mystery Handbook, Phantom of the Underworld entry (main image)
Daring Mystery Comics#1/7, p49, panel 4 (headshot)

Daring Mystery Comics#1/7 (January, 1940) - uncredited writer, Maurice Gutwirth (pencils and inks), possibly Martin Goodman (editor)
Marvel Mystery Handbook: 70th Anniversary Special (2009) - Michael Hoskin (head writer), Jeff Christiansen (Official Handbooks overseer), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First posted: 06/24/2006
Last updated: 10/21/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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