Issue(s): Iron Man #14
Cover Date: Jun 69
Title: "The Night Phantom walks!"
Credits:
Archie Goodwin - Writer
Johnny T. Craig - Penciler
Johnny T. Craig - Inker

Review/plot:
Tony Stark heads down to Haiti (or its unnamed Marvel equivalent) to check up on a factory that has been destroyed, and discovers that the reason for the destruction is not some voodoo spirit as everyone suspects, but actually the old crippled man named Travis Hoyt...

...who happens to be in love with Janice Cord.

Which is why he's attacking Stark. That and the fact that Stark's factory was inadvertently draining the radioactive water that was giving Hoyt the powers and embarrassing skin complexion that made him the Night Phantom.

The Phantom is defeated when the fake voodoo drums that Hoyt was pumping out of his subwoofers causes the radioactive pool to crack open and swallow him. Or maybe it was voodoo!

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Stark is shown briefly in Sub-Mariner #14 on the plane ride home from the Caribbean and then appears in Captain Marvel #14 before appearing in the next issue of Iron Man.

References:

• Some conceptual panels are shown while Stark is reflecting on the fact that he's put Janice and others in danger. For Janice, we see the Mandarin and the Hulk robot, from Iron Man #9, and the Gladiator, from Iron Man #7-8. We also see the Black Knight dragging Happy out of his hospital bed from Tales of Suspense #73, and Pepper Potts getting threatened by the Titanium Man in Tales of Suspense #82-83.
  
• Hoyt tries to bring up the fact that Stark drove Janice's father to death and ruin in Iron Man #2 but Stark isn't interested in discussing it.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: Invincible Iron Man vol. 6

You have to wonder if Goodwin tailored this story specifically for Johnny Craig, considering all the Caribbean Zombie stories Craig did for EC in the 1950s.

Archie Goodwin's IM is usually good. Here's a case when it's not.

That's the Night Phantom's only appearance, right? (the robot duplicate doesn't count) He comes back during Avengers Standoff, but that was so many years later than even Iron Man almost forgot about him. Not to mention, out of scope.

The bit where the villain is unmasked resembles the climax reveal from MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and HOUSE OF WAX.

I think issues #12-14 show Goodwin trying out a character concept: Both the Controller and the Night Phantom are designed as foils to Tony Stark. Where Stark's injuries led him to develop a life-support system and become (relatively) altruistic, the Controller and the Night Phantom both respond by becoming egomaniacal exploiters addicted to the methods by which they regain their mobility and gain powers. And both end up fighting Iron Man because Stark bucks his old instincts to do right by Janice and Haiti.

Of the two, the Controller has a more interesting powers and makes a better foil to Tony Stark, as both started out as egotistical inventors and, as Len Kaminski points out much later, his literal mind control reflects Tony's own habit of using people and tech to get what he wants.

But Hoyt is a foil to Stark in three ways that the Controller isn't. First, he's a bit of an eco-conscious Luddite, even after he discovers the source of his super-powers and becomes addicted to it. This "spoiled social conscience" idea will be revisited more successfully with Goodwin's creation of Firebrand.

Second, Hoyt is jealous of Stark's youth and charm, which could have been an interesting dynamic but is used only for the old-fashioned horror-movie trope of the monster carrying off the female lead.

Third, Hoyt's power is innate, the product of what may be industrial waste or the result of A-tests, so he's perhaps a walking consequence of the industries Stark represents.

On rereading, this seems to be a tribute to Craig's EC horror work as Mark Drummond suggests. The first few pages, featuring a flashback to the Night Phantom's attack, are very much in the "pictures with captions" style of the old EC books.