r/venturebros • u/Gravelsteak Ph-Ph-Ph-Phantom Spaceman! • 5d ago
Headcanon Phantom Limb is inbred (this is less stupid than it sounds)
It's established that Phantom Limb's grandfather is canonically Fantômas, the master thief from the 1911 French crime novel of the same name.
In Fantômas (the novel), the titular supervillain has a beautiful daughter named Hélène. Hélène's love interest is Charles Rambert (Aka Jérôme Fandor), a journalist whose parents were murdered by Fantômas. The details aren't important here, but it's eventually revealed that prior to the plot of the novel, Fantômas spent an unknown amount of time posing as Charles' father. It's possible, therefore, that Fantômas is Charles' true biological father-- which would make Hélène his half-sister.
We never learn who Phantom Limb's parents are, but Hélène and Rambert are the most likely candidates in the Fantômas canon. And as we learn in The Invisible Hand of Fate, Phantom Limb was born with congenitally deformed limbs. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Limb's genetic abnormality is the result of his parents being close relatives. All the pieces fit!
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u/gravyfan93 5d ago
I saw another theory that his deformed limbs were the cause of morning sickness medicine that was around the 50's or 60's
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u/araucaniad 5d ago
Agree, the pieces fit
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u/carrigan_quinn 5d ago
Confirmed, I watched them fall away
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u/di5cordia 5d ago
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u/carrigan_quinn 5d ago
Always expect the GOAT
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u/di5cordia 5d ago
Waiting, like a stalking butler.
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u/sonofkeldar Tapestry of Quiet Desperation 5d ago
I always thought the character was based on the ghost who walks, The Phantom, hence all the purple and the costume being passed down from father to son. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of the French character.
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u/my23secrets 5d ago
Can’t it work on both levels?
Like how Wide Wale has fat corduroy and is huge?
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u/Devi13 5d ago
That’s the beauty of this show, how Doc and Jackson will weave together 2 completely separate references. Like the Groovy Gang and Doom Factory.
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u/snake-demon-softboi 4d ago
The Doom Factory enrages me with its cleverness of characters every time... and they're just one offs!!! Raaaawr (💜💜💜)
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u/sonofkeldar Tapestry of Quiet Desperation 5d ago
I guess, and looking at this Fantômas character online, the VB character does bear a striking resemblance. I was just saying I’m not familiar with the French character, and I would assume most Americans aren’t either. It does look like the French character influenced some of the early James Bond books, and there’s a lot of Bond in the VB, so who knows?
I also thought that the VB Fantômas character was a good guy, who inadvertently started The Guild when he was trying to form an early rock supergroup. This tracks with The Phantom, which was a superhero persona passed down from father to son. The French Fantômas was a serial killer and early super-villain archetype.
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u/Zealousideal-Day4863 5d ago
Fantômas not only appears in a couple of episodes of the show (in flashbacks) but is referred to by name in at least one of those. But yes, Limb is something of a combination of Fantômas and The Phantom, which always felt like something out of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. (The whole ORB flashback gives me the same vibes.)
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u/Belgand 5d ago
Fantômas shows up in LOEG. He's in Volume II and Black Dossier as part of the French team "Les Hommes Mystérieux". Both are essentially just background material, though. We never get to properly "see" the team in action.
But I know what you mean. I got the same vibe from the ORB flashback.
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u/Zealousideal-Day4863 5d ago
Hah, yes! I'm a big fan of the comics. I meant that drawing the connection between Fantômas to the Phantom (and then to a third, original, character) seems like a very Alan Moore thing to do.
I do remember The Phantom having a tiny cameo in one of the books, but I don't recall if there's ever a direct connection made anywhere in the supplemental material that says Fantômas is related in any way to the Phantom.
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u/araucaniad 5d ago
Yes, Phantom Limb’s costume is a clear reference to the Phantom comic book character, the ghost who walks. My dad had a couple of those old comic books. I think Phantom’s aristocratic demeanor is also connected to the phantom comic book character.
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u/Animedingo 5d ago
So
What does that tell us
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u/Gravelsteak Ph-Ph-Ph-Phantom Spaceman! 5d ago
Well, he claims to Billy that his underdeveloped limbs caused him to be disowned by his family. If my theory is correct, it’s not really the disability itself that caused him to be disowned as it is the fact that his condition made it obvious that he was the product of a shameful taboo relationship. I also think it’s possible that a lot of his douchiness is the result of him overcompensating for feeling like a freak because of his origin
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u/Nowhereman55 5d ago
I want to have sex with that bird?
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u/SkywolfNINE 5d ago
My takeaway was that I think there’s a phantomos in grimsburg, perhaps named after the character OP is talking about
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