Space Phantom

The Space Phantom is a Phantom villain from the planet Phantus. He possesses the unique power to steal a human's identity, and in doing so, send the target to the Limbo dimension. He can only maintain this power on one being at a time: when he releases the transformation or chooses another target, the original is taken out of Limbo.

Biography

In late 1963, the Space Phantom observed the rise of the Avengers: an Earth team of superheroes that he perceived as the only feasible defense to an invasion. He tracked the Avengers to Tony Stark's mansion, and casually walked in. He was met by the Hulk, and quickly used his power to impersonate him and send him to Limbo. The Phantom used his disguise to sow tension among the Avengers, and began causing chaos across the city to garner more negative attention against the Hulk. Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp came to fight him, but the Phantom transformed into a passing wasp and took the human Wasp hostage, flying quickly away to Tony Stark's factory. The Avengers (with the returned Hulk) gave chase, and the Phantom transformed into Giant-Man. Abandoning any pretense of deception, the Phantom fought Iron Man and Hulk directly, soon transforming into Iron Man to take advantage of his weaponry. Wasp went and brought Thor into the battle; the Phantom tried to transform into him, but failed: apparently, his ability only worked on humans. The attempt backfired, and Phantom sent himself into Limbo instead, returning Iron Man to Earth.