Who is the Phantom?
The Phantom was born as Erik in a small town not far from Rouen, the son of a master-mason. He ran away at an early age from his father’s house, where his ugliness was a subject of horror and terror to his parents. For a time, he frequented the fairs, where a freak show showman exhibited him as the “living corpse.” He traveled around Europe and Asia with the Gypsies. There he acquired his acrobatic and musical skills and sharpened his twisted genius. Eventually, he ended up as court assassin and personal-engineer to the Persian Shah and built for him sophisticated traps and torture devices (such as the Punjab Lasso). After some time, the Shah feared that Erik knew too much and decided to dispose of him. Erik managed to escape, eventually making his way back to France. Erik used his architectural genius skills and won a contract as one of the architects of Paris’ Palais Garnier Opera House. Without anyone noticing, he pumped and drained the underground water into an underground lake and
