| “ | Your angel of death awaits. | „ |
| ~ The Phantasm |
Andrea Beaumont, also known as The Phantasm, is an anti-hero in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. He is a former lover of Bruce Wayne turned deadly vigilante, who targets the mob bosses responsible for his father's death.
He is voiced by Stacy Keach.
History
Bruce Wayne was visiting his parents' graves at a Gotham cemetery when he met the beautiful Andrea Beaumont. They quickly fell in love and began spending time together. At the same time, Bruce was also beginning to fight crime as a masked vigilante, but no one was scared. He decided that bats were scarier and attempted to be 'Batman'. After stopping a street robbery, Bruce gets hurt and Andrea is frightened. Bruce returns to his mansion, angered, as he "can only have one or the other, I can't have it both. I can't go out doing this if I have someone waiting for me to come home every night!" Deciding to choose love over crime fighting, Bruce proposed to Andrea. Although initially accepting Bruce's proposal, the next morning, Andrea returns the ring before leaving Bruce and Gotham behind. Saddened, Bruce ultimately donned the mask of Batman.
The Phantasm targets Chuckie Sol.
10 years later, a mysterious masked figure (who would become known as the Phantasm) begins slaying various mob members related to Salvatore Valestra, starting with Chuckie Sol. Because of the dark appearance, the Phantasm is mistaken for Batman and the Caped Crusader is put on the run from the police, attempting to clear his name. Valestra went to the Joker and pays him millions of dollars to kill Batman after Buzz Bronski's murder, although Joker would end up killing him instead. The Joker learns that Andrea is the Phantasm.
Andrea Beaumont
Andrea is killing the gangsters for the following reason: Andrea wanted to marry Bruce, but Salvatore and his gang was pressuring Andrea's father to give them the money he owed them. He knew he would be unable to do so, so he and Andrea moved away to the Mediterranean Coast of Europe to hide. His father eventually paid them. However, it apparently wasn't enough and when Andrea returned home after buying groceries one day, she found her father had been murdered (by the unnamed hitman who would later become the Joker). She became the Phantasm and killed Valestra's gang as revenge. Bruce (as Batman; Andrea knows his identity) confronts Andrea and asks him "what will vengeance solve?" Andrea responds "if anyone knows the answer to that Bruce, it's you!" A battle then ensues between Batman, Joker and Phantasm. Joker vanishes into the night, laughing as it happens, and Batman escapes an explosion, using a waterway below. Batman thinks that Andrea died in the explosion, however, in reality, she escaped to a cruise ship where one of the passengers notices him standing alone at the rail. He starts to introduce himself, but notices his rather cold greeting, and mourning veil. Andrea then tells the man that she wishes to be left alone.
Sometime afterwards, Andrea was hired by Amanda Waller to murder Terry McGinnis' parents so that he would follow in Batman's footsteps. However, Andrea couldn't bring herself to do it, as it was everything that Batman stood against.
Trivia
- Before the release of the Mask of the Phantasm film, a toy line was unveiled, which included a spoiler as to the true identity of the Phantasm: The package had included Andrea Beaumont and with the Phantasm costume right next to him.
- Phantasm also made a few appearances in the DCAU comics.
- The producers of the movie were so impressed with Dana's performance as Andrea/Phantasm and enjoyed working with him so much that they cast him as Lois Lane for Superman: The Animated Series.