WILLOW THE PHANTASMAGORIC

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Stage Magician

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Ali, Akbar, Carmine Pesca

Enemies: Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Sarge

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Carmine Pesca

Base of Operations: SS Madagascar

First Appearance: Daredevil I#193 (April, 1983)

Powers/Abilities: Willow the Phantasmagoric is a trained stage magician, using pulleys, mirrors, and illusions to fool her audience into believing she wields magic. She briefly possessed Dragon missiles.

History:

(Daredevil I#193 (fb) - BTS) - The tall and lanky Willow the Phantasmagoric worked as the stage magician on the SS Madagascar, along with her aides Ali and Akbar. She planned to steal a large shipment of diamonds from the ship, so she placed an ad in the paper for someone who resembled her so that she could pose as this person in one of her magic shows when he acted as an audience stand-in; secretly, Willow planned on pinning her crimes on this person. She hired the tall and skinny Carmine Pesca, then she posed as Carmine in New York to hire criminals to help her steal missiles. When "Carmine" and her men stormed the facility, Willow shot and killed the security guard and stole his gun, then she drove off with the stolen missiles and left her hired men behind.

(Daredevil I#193) - Willow introduced herself to Carmine on the ship, then to blind attorney Matt Murdock, who she thought was staring at her initially. She invited Murdock to her show that night, where she impressed the audience with an illusion of an elephant and then tested a new pulley system to help Murdock "disappear." She showed Murdock her tricks, then bid him farewell. That night, she fired a missile at the ship's radio equipment, knocking it out, and then created an illusion of a submarine in the water. The "submarine" demanded the surrender of the diamonds, which the ship sent over on a raft and which Willow retrieved with the new pulleys. She planned to sew the diamonds on to Ali and Akbar's costumes to fool customs and then escape into France when they docked. Daredevil attacked, however, and defeated Ali and Akbar in combat. After Daredevil evaded her agile kicks, Willow drew her gun, as if by magic, and fired, despite Daredevil's warnings that it didn't work. The gun backfired and killed Willow.

Comments: Created by Larry Hama, Klaus Janson, and Denny O'Neil.

Willow's gun was called "Bitsy", and had family ties to World War I in a backstory shared by the guard she'd stolen it from, as relayed to Daredevil before the guard died. This story was called Bitsy's revenge.

Profile by Chadman.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Willow the Phantasmagoric has no known connections to

Ali and Akbar

(Daredevil I#193 (fb) - BTS) - The magic show stand-ins for Willow the Phantasmagoric aboard the SS Madagascar, Ali and Akbar planned the heist of diamonds along with Willow.

(Daredevil I#193) - Ali and Akbar aided Willow in her magic show, using Matt Murdock as a volunteer. Later, Willow created an illusion of a submarine demanding the payment of diamonds, and Ali and Akbar used a pulley to retrieve the diamonds. Daredevil attacked, however, and defeated Ali and Akbar in combat. Willow was killed when her gun backfired.

--Daredevil I#193 (Daredevil I#193 (fb) - BTS, 193

Carmine Pesca

(Daredevil I#193 (fb) - BTS) - Carmine Pesca responded to a job offer placed by Willow the Phantasmagoric in the newspaper, looking for a tall and skinny stand-in for her cruise ship magic show. Pesca accepted the job. 

(Daredevil I#193) - Pesca moved on to the SS Madagascar and met with Willow. Soon, the ship was under attack by criminals who sought rare diamonds kept in the safe. Daredevil saved Pesca from being hit by a falling satellite dish, then accused Pesca of being behind the attacks, but he told the hero his real reasons for being there. Willow was exposed as the criminal.

--Daredevil I#193 (Daredevil I#193 (fb) - BTS, 193



Sarge


(Daredevil I#193 (fb) – BTS) – Sarge grew up with stories of his father's service in World War I. When Sarge enlisted, his father gave him the gun he carried in the first war and Sarge grew to call the gun Bitsy. In Viet Nam, when enemy agents snuck up on Sarge, he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger but the enemy agent's grenade went off prematurely and the enemy was killed. Sarge found that a piece of shrapnel had lodged itself into Bitsy, saving his life. After two years of service in Viet Nam, Sarge still carried the gun proudly in the decades afterwards, though he knew it didn't work. Sarge eventually got a job at the Armory as a supply man working the overnight shift. Daredevil would sometimes stop by for coffee and conversation. When a group of men, led by "Carmine Pesca" (secretly Willow the Phantasmagoric in disguise), broke in to steal the new Dragon missiles. Willow shot Sarge and stole Bitsy.

(Daredevil I#193) – Daredevil dropped by for coffee and found Sarge dying. Sarge recounted how much Bitsy meant to him then he perished.


--Daredevil I#193 (193 (fb) – BTS, 193d

images: (without ads)
Daredevil I#193, p19, pan7 (main)

p20, pan6 (2nd)
p18, pan6 (Ali and Akbar)
p10, pan5 (Carmine Pesca)
              p2, pan4 (Sarge)

Appearances:
Daredevil I#193 (April, 1983) - Larry Hama (writer), Klaus Janson (penciler/inker), Denny O'Neil (editor)

Originally posted: 05/28/2008
Last updated: 01/22/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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