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César Spadari, Lee Falk, The Phantom “ The Moriarty Experiment” - Comic Strip
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The Phantom “ The Moriarty Experiment”

Comic Strip
2006
Ink
37 x 45 cm (14.57 x 17.72 in.)
Added on 4/25/26
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Description

The 18th Phantom visits his half-brother Chris Somerset and his wife at the beginning of 1891. Chris wants to learn more about their aunt Julie and the Phantom tells him of one of his adventures. After her husband's death and after the death of the 17th Phantom Julie went to Paris to study medicine with Louis Pasteur. One of Pasteur's students, Eustace Moriarty, became infatuated by her but Julie, still grieving her husband, politely declined him. After finishing her studies, she returned to Bengali to work in the jungle. Some time later Morarity came to the mission where she worked to conduct mental experiments on the children of the mission. When Julie still refused him, he kidnapped her with the intent to brainwash her into loving him. Bachenreik Falls is partially anagramed from Reichenbach Falls
The scene of the battle between the 18th Phantom and Eustace Moriarty at Bachenreik Falls was inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Final Problem, initially intended to be the last story about Sherlock Holmes.
Moriarty's first name in this story is Eustace, instead of James as in the Sherlock Holmes novels, even though his visit to London in the end implies that he is the same Moriarty that becomes the arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.
The mention of Sherlock Holmes in the end of the story is one of few times that a fictional character is implied to be a real character within the Phantom's world. This contradicts an earlier Team Fantomen story, "The Boy Detectives", where Sherlock Holmes is mentioned as a fictional character.
This story contains references to two upcoming stories also written by David Bishop, but the references don't match how the stories eventually turned out:
Julie never wears the Phantom costume when she defeats the slavers of Cinnabar in "The Slave Ship", and she does it with her brother, not alone.
In the actual publication, "The Death Peddlers" in the story of the same name have a distinctive look that does not match this reference

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About César Spadari

César Aurelio Spadari is an Argentinian comic strip artist.