Ol' Phantom

A shadowy piece of the Before Watchmen puzzle, Ol' Phantom surfaced in 2012 courtesy of the legendary Darwyn Cooke, whose meticulous craft helped expand the world Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons built. This Modern Age figure inhabits the richly layered Before Watchmen: Minutemen and Silk Spectre miniseries, sharing those storied pages with icons like Nite Owl, Hooded Justice, and Captain Metropolis. With only a handful of appearances, Ol' Phantom is one of those intriguing background figures who gives the Watchmen universe its texture and depth — a small thread woven into one of DC's most ambitious publishing events of the 2010s, and a genuine curiosity for devoted collectors of Cooke's work.