(Smash Comics 015, 1940)
It's a tale as old as opera: macho newsman Chic Carter is pissing and moaning his way through a theatre review assignment when a dramatic figure suddenly murders the star and disappears into the bowels of the opera house. Chic is quick to connect this killing with two others that took place over the last twenty years and sets out to capture the enigmatic Phantom.
Chic and the police stage a recreation of the fatal performance using the singer's poor understudy and... it works! Too well, actually. The singer doesn't get murdered (phew!) but the Phantom grabs her and runs off with Carter in hot pursuit, along with a suspiciously evil-looking actor.
It turns out that the opera's male lead has been maintaining his position of prominence for the last twenty years by having the Phantom murder his rivals, and what a commitment to being the king of a moderate hill that is. Sure, opera was a lot more of A Thing circa 1940 than it is now and this is presumably the top NYC opera house, but keeping a whole-ass man in a secret basement apartment for two entire decades in order to remove a rival on average every ten years... it's a heckuva commitment to your art is all I'll say.
In an unsurprising non-twist, the singer turns out to be a bad boss and shoots the Phantom dead for screwing up and kidnapping the understudy, only to be killed himself when the Phantom pops back up with a burst of dying berserker strength just long enough for revenge. Maybe if you hadn't outsourced all of your murdering to underpaid contractors you'd be better at it, idiot.
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