Powers: Rhadmanthians traveled in spaceships and possessed telepathy. Transverter technology allowed Rhadmanthians to assume the form and memories of others. The hereditary Eliminators had hyper-kinetic powers, giving them telekinesis and the ability to transform into any form of energy, and to travel vast gulfs of space.

History: (Action Comics I #379) - Phantas held the hereditary title and powers of Eliminator on his homeworld of Rhadmanth, tasked with bringing criminals to justice. A renegade group of Rhadmanthian murderers fled the planet and traveled to Earth in a spaceship. They used Rhadmanthian transverter technology to assume the forms and memories of a group of reporters aboard a plane from Washington, teleporting them into their spaceship and taking their place. Reporter Clark Kent, secretly Superman, was on board the flight, but they could not target him because of his Kryptonian physiology. Phantas was dispatched to Earth to execute the murderers, but the Rhadmanthian did not want humans to be aware of his presence on Earth, fearing a mass panic. Phantas cooked up a ruse, posing as an occultist named Dr. Phantas, making a name for himself with his seemingly supernatural powers. He faked his own death and his funeral was covered by Clark Kent. Phantas’ lawyer Mark Sharpe showed Clark around Phantas’ mansion, and said no one knew where Phantas came from or how he came by his supernatural powers, and Clark thought the lawyer’s stories were poppycock. At the funeral a tape and projection of Phantas was played, saying he forbade anyone to open his coffin, lest they bring a horrible curse on themselves. Sharpe needed to open the coffin to find out who Phantas’ heirs were, so Clark said he’d get his friend Superman to do it, and changed outside. Superman opened the casket, only for Phantas to rise up and tell him Clark Kent and all his friends would pay dearly for activating his curse before vanishing. Phantas then spent days using his hyper-kinetic powers to execute the Rhadmanthians posing as reporters. Their deaths seemed like too much to be a coincidence, and the press blamed the curse on Clark Kent. Clark realized that all the reporters to die had been with him on the recent plane flight from Washington, and disguised himself as Mark Durbin, the last reporter besides himself from the flight that was still alive, and hid with Mark win a bank vault. A ghostly Phantas passed through the vault’s walls and when “Mark” asked him why he was trying to kill him Phantas thought he was feigning ignorance and recounted why he was after him. Phantas struck “Mark” with a bolt of energy, disintegrating his disguise, but the beam ricocheted and killed the Rhadmanthian Durbin. Phantas freed the real reporters from the Rhadmanthians spaceship, and told Superman not to judge him, because as Eliminator he was tasked with enforcing the law of his homeworld.

Comments: Created by Leo Dorfman & Curt Swan.

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