History
Inspired by the works of his entrepreneur ancestor, Raphael Van Zandt sought to carve a niche for himself by taking control of the island of Manhattan. He acquired a group of thugs and a simple-minded strongman named King Sampson and tried to achieve his goal by taking out New York's telecommunications network. This invariably brought him into conflict with the Freedom Fighters, who had only recently emigrated to Earth-One from Earth-X.
During his first encounter with them, he unwittingly phased through an intangible Phantom Lady causing him to accidentally kill one of his own thugs. He avenged himself against the heroes by turning Phantom Lady, the Black Condor and Doll Man into statues of solid silver. With half the team incapacitated, it was easy for the Silver Ghost to blackmail the other Freedom Fighters into working for him as his slaves. This infuriated Uncle Sam, the Ray and Human Bomb, but they felt like they had little choice but to concede to the Ghost's demands.
After being forced to commit random acts of property damage through the city, the three Freedom Fighters turned against the Silver Ghost when he threatened to poison the New York Reservoir. It was the Ray who finally defeated the villain by using his powers and a nearby body of water to short-circuit the Silver Ghost's armor. Afterward, the Human Bomb was able to use his knowledge of physics to turn Black Condor, Doll Man and Phantom Lady back to normal.
The Silver Ghost returned to oppose the Freedom Fighters on several subsequent occasions with a variety of schemes, including impersonating comic the book hero Americommando as the leader of the Crusaders and hiring the Secret Society of Super-Villains. He was eventually revealed to be an immigrant from the Freedom Fighter's home world of Earth-X, a Nazi who had traveled to Earth-One in pursuit of Firebrand, the alleged 'collaborator' who had seemingly betrayed him, and was apparently killed in battle with Firebrand but later turned up alive during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. [1]
Related
- 16 Appearances of Raphael Van Zandt (Earth-X)
- 6 Images featuring Raphael Van Zandt (Earth-X)
- Quotations by or about Raphael Van Zandt (Earth-X)
- Character Gallery: Raphael Van Zandt (Earth-X)
Footnotes
- ↑ He has been seen to be still active since the Crisis rewrote history, though it is unclear how much of his pre-Crisis history is still in continuity.