| Synopsis | - Jennifer Knight has been captured by Cyrus Bender and his men, and, chained by her ankles to the ceiling, she confesses that the reason that she has been investigating him is because his father was responsible for the murder of her parents. She wants to make him and his family pay for what they did to her and countless others. Cyrus originally intended to beat her to death with a bat, but now, her attitude has given him a challenge, and he hopes to break her spirit. With that in mind, he leaves her hanging for the night while his men destroy the laptop on which she had saved the proof that Cyrus murdered his father.
As the sun rises the next morning, Jennifer struggles to stay awake, having slipped in and out of consciousness numerous times overnight. When the door blasts open unexpectedly, she can't be sure she isn't hallucinating - especially when her saviour appears to be her friend Dane Maxwell, mysteriously smaller than she last remembered him. She had thought he was dead, but he explains that because Cyrus' thugs had used his experimental apparatus on him, he is now stronger - and smaller.
He punches through the chains, and after a short while, the two of them manage to escape the warehouse she was trapped in, and catch a bus back to Dane's junk yard. While Jennifer takes a shower and cleans her wounds, he prepares something special for her; something that can protect her from Cyrus Bender's bullets. After stepping out of the shower, Jennifer finds a suit waiting for her, and puts it on, marvelling at how strangely well it fits. Coyly, Dane admits that he may have memorized her body's shape, and made the suit for her from memory.
The suit, he explains, will protect her from bullets and more, thanks to a trigger mechanism in the right hand glove. When triggered, the suit against her skin makes her essentially intangible; a phantom. The technology was developed to help prevent car accidents, but in the meantime it would suit this new purpose. In addition to the protective aspect, when the suit's hood is raised over her head, Jennifer can conjure constructs made of blacklight.
In the meantime, they will need a place to master their new abilities, unfortunately, they have nowhere to go, and Dane needs access to his research in order to make himself big again. He, though, is more interested in putting Cyrus in jail than that, at the moment, despite Jennifer's strong desire to kill Cyrus instead. Frustrated, she argues that Cyrus would still be able to run the Bender organization from jail, so Dane suggests that they take down the business first - after finding somewhere outside of Metropolis to go. He happens to know somewhere near Calvin City.
Within two weeks, Jennifer has a decent hold on her "Phantom Lady" abilities, and Dane suggests that Phantom Lady would be a good codename. Since he got to name her, she insists - over his own adamant protestations - that he be called Doll Man. Even without his own suit, Dane has significant abilities. Having been compressed from a full-sized man into a small man, he technically weighs 200 pounds, and his strength has consequently multiplied in accordance. He can now leap to great heights, and knock Jennifer off of her feet, even at his small stature. While sparring, Jennifer traps Dane within her blacklight, and when she releases him, she discovers that the experience can be extremely harrowing. He describes it as being similar to death - something better suited for use on their enemies.
After months since her escape, Cyrus is still sure that Jennifer will return to kill him, and has increased his security. He is unaware that the Phantom Lady and Doll Man who have been thwarting his organized crime efforts are in fact Jennifer and Dane, but he has hired a freelancer to work on keeping them off his back.
While out stopping an illegal shipment on the docks, Phantom Lady and Dollman have their first encounter with Funerella.
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