What happens to the Phantoms' mothers?

We received a question from a phan in Brazil who asked, "When a Phantom dies, what happens to the widow?".

Now we must admit, we have no idea if this situation has been specifically explained in a Phantom story before. In fact, the team can only think of a few stories and examples where we have seen a Phantom's widow or mother after the previous Phantom has passed the legacy onto the next.

When asking Jermayn Parker, he remembers this discussion in the old Phantom phorum days twenty years ago, and one theory was that the wives went back to their homeland and, in a sense, were free of their obligation and devotion to the fight against evil.

The extended team can think of four stories that feature the Phantom's mothers still in the picture. One is a Lee Falk and Sy Barry newspaper story from 1991-1992, which was the 137th Sunday story titled "The Fourth Son." This story features the death of the 8th Phantom, and his wife sticks around long enough to see her son marry.

The second story the team remembers featuring a Phantom's widow is from the team at Fantomen and was created by Norman Worker, with art by Hans Lindahl, and was published by Fantomet and Fantomen in the year 1997, Frew in 1998, and India in 2000. The story is called "The Ghost Who Died Twice." It also features perhaps the only time that the next Phantom takes over while the previous Phantom is still alive.

The third story is a 1978 Team Fantomen story, "The Avenger from the Sea" written by Norman Worker, with art by Georges Bess. In this story Ingrid of Holstein and Kit (the future 9th Phantom) are back from visiting Ingrid's homeland in Sweden in time to say goodbye after he was shot by Captain Blood.

It needs to be mentioned that this is the same Phantom that is featured in "The Fourth Son" story by Lee Falk and Sy Barry. In this story, the 9th Phantom is shown as never leaving Bangalla to study, and their mother is English instead of Swedish. The Team Fantomen story "The Avenger from the Sea" was created first.

The fourth story that features the Phantoms' mothers around while their son takes up the role as the Phantom is a 2013 Team Fantomen story, "The Black King", written by Jens Hansegård, with art by Kari Leppänen. In this story, we see the 5th Phantom's stepmother staying and dying in Bangalla.

While these four examples do not answer the question, they do show that the widows are not shipped off out of the Deepwoods, at least straight away, and are still welcomed (at least for a period of time).

Another suggestion is that most wives tend to die before their Phantom husbands, which was at least the case with Maude, the 20th Phantom's wife and the mother to our Phantom, the 21st. In the first "Childhood of the Phantom" story by Lee Falk (likely Alfred Bester) and Wilson McCoy (11th Sunday story from 1944), Maude is shown to pass and be buried in a grave outside the Skull Cave.

In the second "Childhood of the Phantom" story by Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy (53rd Sunday story from 1959), the death of Maude was not included in the story.

"The 21st Phantom" is a 2004 Team Fantomen story, written by Claes Reimerthi, with art by Paul Ryan. It marked the start of "The Phantom Year One" concept, in which the 21st Phantom is badly wounded and starts to recollect what happened to him when he was new as the Phantom. In this story a lonely secluded grove is shown, where previous Phantoms' wives have been laid to rest. This includes the 20th Phantom's wife, Maude.

As far as the team remembers, this grove has not been shown in other Lee Falk and/or newspaper stories; it does make sense with the grave of Maude being shown in the 1944 "Childhood of the Phantom" story by Lee Falk (likely Alfred Bester) and Wilson McCoy.

A side topic to the original question could be, what happens if the Phantom and his wife separate? This is answered in the 2008 Team Fantomen story, written by Claes Reimerthi, and art by Joan Boix, "The Great Deception, Part 1" see's Marabella, the first Phantom's wife leaving the Phantom to rule her kingdom Maravilloso.

At this stage, unless something comes to light, our best answer to the original question is that the wives are free to go back to their home country or as shown in at least two stories stay and help with the new Phantom and integrate the new Phantom's wife when they marry. We can say that at least most of the widows are buried in this secluded grove with the other Phantoms' wives.

If you have other Phantom-related questions that you would like to ask and see if we can answer, please send us an email at ChronicleChamber@gmail.com.