How Shane Foley fixed a classic Lee Falk story "The Fourth Son"
- Jermayn Parker
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
"The Fourth Son" is the 137th Phantom Sunday story. It was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Sy Barry and is one story that many phans (if not the majority) love and hold dear to their memories of reading Phantom comics.
Even I liked this story until I created the Phantom Bible, and this story, like a lot of stories created by Lee Falk, had so many holes that I decided to ignore it and strike this story from my (unofficial) Phantom lore that I wrote up in the Phantom Bible.
My decision was not popular among my fellow editors of the Phantom Bible, my colleagues at Chronicle Chamber, other phans and even a couple of story creators. However, once I outlined my decision and showed how Lee Falk broke the established lore and how it was not able to be bent back, they all agreed, except one, that the decision to remove the story from the Phantom Bible lore was the only one to make. The one to disagree was Shane Foley and he told me he would create a story to solve my problems.
This article is an exploration into my original problems, how Shane Foley fixed them, and how it has caused me to change my (unofficial) Phantom lore that I wrote up in the Phantom Bible.
Some phans may argue that you do not have to make the other stories from Team Fantomen, Frew, Moonstone, Mad Cave Studios etc fit the original Lee Falk stories. It, however, is a fun exercise, and I hope you stay with me as I identify the problems and how Shane Foley has attempted to fix them.
The problems with the classic Lee Falk & Sy Barry story "The Fourth Son"
1) Lee Falk contradicts himself on which Phantom is the runt.
This is not the first time, Lee Falk has made mention of a 'runt' being the Phantom. The first time was actually in the original Avon Novel #1. Now we have to believe this was actually written by Lee Falk. It is established that he wrote this novel and others were written by other creators. Let us assume that what Falk wrote in Avon Novel #1 is correct and that he originally intended the 13th Phantom to be the runt, it then contradicts other stories he wrote about the 13th Phantom. The most obvious one is "The Vault of Missing Men" originally published in newspapers in 1979 and 1980.
It must be mentioned that in no other stories has the 9th, the 13th, or any other Phantom ever been depicted as being short. This includes stories by Lee Falk, Team Fantomen, Moonstone and Frew created stories. The 9th Phantom, on a few occasions, has been mentioned as being the strongest. However, he was NEVER depicted as a man of short stature.
It is worth mentioning that Team Fantomen have changed the number of this smaller Phantom from the 9th in this story to the 13th as originally mentioned in Avon Novel #1. Personally, this makes even less sense and has caused some debate among the Fantomen readers.
2) Lee Falk contradicts the death of the 8th Phantom in the "The Fourth Son" story
"The Fourth Son" also depicts the 8th Phantom dying after being shot in the back by Mongol warriors. Contradictorily, in the 161st Daily adventure "The Snake Goddess" he is said to have died from a snake bite after building a secret path through the Great Swamp.
3) Lee Falk contradicts the wife of the 8th Phantom in the "The Fourth Son" story
In Lee Falk's classic "The Hanta Witch" story, the 8th Phantom met the queen and supposed witch Heloise of Koqania, whom he later married. In "The Fourth Son" he is married to an unnamed Englishwoman. We know she is English, because Kit One, Two and Three all go to England for studies as per the Phantom's tradition.
It is fair that in other Lee Falk-created stories, it is actually the 7th Phantom that marries Heloise of Koqania. This is also the case with Team Fantomen-created stories. For the record, in Team Fantomen-created stories, the 8th Phantom marries Ingrid of Holstein. In our Phantom Bible, we have the 8th marrying Ingrid.
4) The "The Fourth Son" story has the 9th Phantom marrying warrior princess Vhatta Khan instead of Team Fantomen's Flame Stanbury Walker
This is probably the biggest problem I encountered with creating the Phantom Bible, was having contradictory wives marrying the various Phantoms, and it's one of the reasons why I started the journey of creating the bible. Lee Falk, in different stories, had one wife marrying various Phantoms, including her own son!
Lee Falk actually never had another lady marrying the 9th Phantom, so I only had to deal with the Team Fantomen-created wife - Flame! Generally, to solve this problem like I have with other Phantoms in the Bible, we have a wife dying early and the Phantom remarrying. I originally did this, but as I decided to totally ignore this "The Fourth Son" story, I did not have to do this.
5) Lee Falk moves Bangalla out of Africa in the "Fourth Son" story
Yes, the fierce Mongol warriors conquered most of the known world, including westward into Europe, but their entry into Africa was not as successful. I am not a historian, but a simple Google search (or an encyclopedia flick through for Lee Falk in a pre-internet world) would show that in 1260, the Mongols, aiming to secure Syria and advance into Egypt, were defeated by the Mamluks. While the Mongols held parts of Syria intermittently, they never crossed into Africa (Egypt) and further into Africa.
It is then impossible for Jhantun Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan, to have a home base in Africa. It is possible that Jhantun has a home base outside of Africa; it then means for the 8th Phantom to ride home with an arrow in his back dying and slaves to return to their villages walking after being freed that Bangalla and the skull cave has been moved out of Africa.
It could be argued that for the sake of a good story, Lee Falk stretched history, which he has done several other times in his Phantom writing.
5) Lee Falk ignores his own lore
In this "The Fourth Son" story, Lee Falk decided to ignore his own established lore with the fourth son not going to school in his mother's homeland, and they even had their own pet Devil. I personally see Devil being incorrectly included as a mistake by Sy Barry.
Dumping the "The Fourth Son" story from established Phantom lore
It is worth mentioning that with no other creator until Shane Foley 30 years later, the warrior princess Vhatta Khan was never mentioned again. This includes stories by Lee Falk and Tony DePaul, Team Fantomen, who have over 1,000 original created stories, along with Frew and other publishers like Moonstone, who have tried to follow Lee Falk's original stories closely.
If you add up all these stories, it is close to 2000 other stories that Vhatta Khan was never mentioned in. It became an easier solution to remove this story than to make it fit.
I was comfortable with this decision until Shane Foley fulfilled what he promised.
Shane Foley fixing the problems with his "Ninth Hour" story published by Frew in issue #2019
You can watch or listen to the team's review of this story in X-Band: Phantom Podcast #333 - March 2026 newspaper stories, comics & news review at the 56 Minutes & 30 Seconds mark.
"Ninth Hour" is the second story by Shane Foley featuring the 9th Phantom being married to warrior princess Vhatta Khan. The first story was titled "The Strange Day of the Witch Men" published in Frew #1938 and #1939.
He doesn't answer all the questions I have raised, but the two biggest stumbling blocks for me were how you explain the 9th Phantom being a runt in one story and not in the other stories and then how you explain the 9th Phantom marrying 'both' Vhatta and Flame.
In a world's first, Foley has the runt die and one of his brothers take over the role. He cleverly has Kit-Two stay as the 9th Phantom instead of the 10th, which explains how the 9th can be short in one story and then normal height in the rest. It also explains how the 9th Phantom marries 'both' Vhatta and Flame.
In an interesting twist, Foley has Vhatta disappear, which surely will be explored more in a future story and the 10th Phantom is the son of Kit-Four and Vhatta.
Attached are a few pages of this "Ninth Hour" story in Frew issue 2019. You can click on them to get a better view.
A huge thank you to Shane Foley and other phans xxxx who have helped me write this article. Please note, this is just my opinion, and I welcome any input from other phans who may agree or disagree with me. The Phantom Bible, while it is an unofficial collection of lore and is not accepted as official lore by King Features, has been used by several creators and publishers and, at the time of writing, is the most expansive and complete lore there is.
