10 Comic Book Heroes Whose Origins Are A Mystery
9. Phantom Lady
The Golden Age Phantom Lady’s origin was as flimsy as her costume. Sandra Knight was merely a bored socialite who got into super-heroics after an attempt on her senator father’s life. She got a black light ray projector from a professor friend and a “scandalously” skimpy costume to distract men, and the Phantom Lady was born. At first, she would battle crime alone but, like all heroes when World War II broke out, Knight joined the All-Star Squadron.
Phantom Lady was one of a group of heroes who accompanied Uncle Sam to the alternate world of Earth X. On this Earth, the Nazis were far more successful and had a far stronger foothold than on any other world. The Freedom Fighters continued to fight a guerrilla war for decades against this Nazi regime before finally winning with the help of both the Justice League and Justice Society.
With Crisis on Infinite Earths, all worlds were condensed into one. The Freedom Fighters remained as a subsection of the All-Star Squadron, and they fought throughout the war and into the subsequent decades, with Knight eventually passing her identity on to others. It has recently been retconned that Sandra Knight was the cousin of the Golden Age Starman, Ted Knight.