Found on the ArtStation website, on the account of writer/artist Alden Kaye, is a fan produced digital comic book titled Phantom 2040 Legacy.

Phantom 2040 – For Those Who Came In Late…

It’s the year 2040, all environmental disasters and the economic Resource Wars from the early 21st century have decimated the fragile ecological balance of an Earth once teeming with life. Everywhere, the privileged and wealthy continue to thrive in expensive real estate developments that tower above the suffering masses. The victims of Earth’s misfortune have been forced to subsist on scavenged refuse from the past on the mangled streets of forlorn city-states.

In Metropia (once known as New Yotk City), the largest and most powerful of the city-states, the powerful robotics manufacturing corporation Maximum Inc. has slowly shaped a cold, steely urban center, consisting of huge, residential towers intertwined with TubeTrain tunnels. Maximum’s robotic “biots” (Biological Optical Transputer System) have replaced enormous amounts of human labour, and the corporation is illegally producing prohibited combat biots to form Maximum’s private underground army. Under this guise of efficient progress, Maximum has own plans for the future, all known as the Maximum Era. Through the construction of the fortress of Cyberville, an immense survival shelter where only the wealthiest and most elite humans will retreat, and the take over of Metropia by Maximum’s biot armies, their plans all ultimately involve the dark path of decline and extinction as the culminating result of man’s prior errors and efforts, once Earth finally succumbs to its slowly deteriorating state.

The only hope for the survival of humanity is the Ghost Jungle — thousands of square miles of mutated vegetation that may be the planet’s salvation. This secret source of life is submerged beneath Metropia, unseen by most. College student Kit Walker Jr. is chosen by fate to save the world, donning the black mask and purple suit of his people’s savior, the 24th Phantom.

The role of the Phantom has been passed on from father to son since the 16th century, leading the world to believe that the Phantom is a single immortal individual. Kit, the 24th in the line, is young, unsure, and inexperienced, but he finds within him the courage and might to battle the evil that threatens to destroy the Earth.

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Seen in black and white, the fan produced Phantom 2040 Legacy digital comic book has been written and illustrated by Alden Kaye containing 24 pages plus the fantastic front cover (seen below), available to read free of charge on the ArtStation website.

The story unfolds in the year 2040, within the city of Metropia, previously referred to as New York City. Beginning on page 7, Alden presents a beautifully illustrated origin story of the Phantom, which extends over 11 pages.

The story line see Rebecca Madison, chairperson of Maximum Inc. trying to claim a shipping container belonging to past Phantoms, housing an array of his belongings and more specifically, she’s trying to gain access to the Phantoms Journals.

The last page of Phantom 2040 Legacy leaves us with a “To Be Continued” note, with the storyline hopefully continuing in a future edition.

The digital comic book adheres faithfully to the mythology, legacy, and aesthetic of the Phantom, with this interpretation by Alden Kaye hitting the mark on several levels. It’s great to see fans taking the initiative and contributing in spreading the message of the Phantom in such a positive way, and like so many instances seen within the Phantom community, at no cost to us the reader.

Head over to the account of Alden Kaye on ArtStation to read Phantom 2040 Legacy, found HERE

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