After spending 25 years in Tibet, a virtual factory for superheroes in the Golden Age, Phil Anson returned to America having learned all the secrets of the grand high lamas and took up residence in a posh hotel.
From there he would leave his body via astral projection to battle evil as Phantasmo: The Master of the World.
Phantasmo however was no phantom when outside his body, he was both visible and seemingly very solid, except when his astral form was raised to gigantic proportions at which point he became translucent.
His astral self interacted with the world as if solid, while at the same time gaining super strength, the power of flight, the ability to grow to gigantic size, and other abilities.
His one weakness was that while astral projecting his motionless physical body could be harmed, to guard against this Anson hired hotel bellhop / comedy relief Whizzer McGee as a bodyguard.
Dell’s First Superhero
At the time mainly a publisher of newspaper comic strip reprints Dell had started giving a few original creations a try in their comic books, the success of Superman led to Dell introducing their first superhero, Phantasmo.
He and others such as The Owl, The Gray Mask & Dove, the Masked Pilot, Dr. Hormone and others however would prove to be an experiment of only a few years, Phantasmo was gone in less than two years, before the 40’s were done so were all of Dell’s superheroes.