Danny Phantom: Into the Phantom-Verse 👻

Welcome back to another of Ethan Stranger’s Nicktoons reviewing blog post Today I’ll be talking about another Nicktoon from my childhood and that’s…Danny Phantom (Picture: Top Center).

Like many fans (or friends from my generation), Danny Phantom was (obviously) Nickelodeon’s answer to Marvel’s Spider-Man (especially with the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) films becoming hugely popular and my collection of several reprints of Lee/Ditko's Spider-Man (Picture: Bottom Left Corner) comics run).

https://www.cbr.com/danny-phantom-nickelodeon-spider-man/

(Click here to the similarities Between Spider-Man and Danny Phantom), 

                                           

Though I do feel like that article needs an update on doing more comparison between the differences between Spider-Man and Danny Phantom (especially since whenever Marvel Comics, Peter Parker’s Bully, Flash Thompson, becomes nicer to Peter parker and later becomes Agent Venom, While Danny Phantom’s Bully, Dash Baxter, never matures over time and never became a hero in his own right…)    

After Danny Phantom ended in 2007 (around the same year that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films had come to end), Butch Hartman’s (other) famous series (Fairly Oddparents) was still going on, but Butch Hartman did create other shows for Nickelodeon, like TUFF Puppy (Picture: Bottom left Corner), I remember catching a few episodes here and there and Bunsen is a Beast (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), the series lasted for 1 season, so there really wasn’t for me to enjoy (plus I found it’s Fairly Oddparents crossover a bit “childish”)

Plus who thinks that Butch Hartman/Seth McFarlence's short (Zoo Mates) should be made into an ongoing series (anything’s better than that despicable Loud House, Never in a million am I gonna write a blog post about that…) 

(Click here to watch the Zoo Mates short)

So now that it’s obvious that there's no need to discuss how Danny Phantom relates to Today’s Society (as again, Danny Phantom is like Spider-Man in several ways, though Peter Parker lost someone dear to him to understand what to do with his “Grea Power” while Danny Phantom didn’t lose anybody dear to him and quickly understands what to do with his powers). But with all Teenage superheroes, it’s all about keeping your identity a secret and maintaining a balance between both a normal life and superhero duties (Spider-Man found work at the Daily Bugle and was still going to school while Danny Phantom was more focused on School, I don’t remember, did Danny tried to get a job, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the series.

So now that’s been reviewed, allow me to discuss about my 2 of my favorite Danny Phantom Villains, the 1st one is the “Evil Harem Genie, Desiree (Picture: Bottom Left Corner)” (she even looks beautiful in Human Form (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) too), but I never truly The  Genie Desiree as a villain…

Oh no, I saw Desiree as more of a tragic figure, because (when she was human), she managed to win the heart of a sultan and was promised great wealth, but was cast out by the Sultan’s jealous wife. Desiree would later die of a broken heart (and old age), she would return as a “Ghost Genie”, granting wishes that would later backfire, but like I said before, I don’t see Desiree as a villain, but as this tragic figure who only wanted to be loved, but was just cast out…and then later (when she became a Ghost Genie), her granting wishes was just her unleashing her anger (as she was unable to let her past go and never truly experience love), had Danny Phantom and her friends attempted to help her find love (in some way) and help her let go of her past, perhaps then Desiree’s wishes wouldn’t turn out so backfiring and maybe she could’ve had her own theme song (Based around the “I Dream of Jeannie Theme”):    

(Enjoy the Genie Desiree drawing (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) that I Ethan Stranger (Picture: Bottom left Corner) drew a while back, but I’m more of a writer than an artist)

Forgive me if I sound like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, Butch Hartman, but have you ever since “The Neverending Story 2”, the way how Bastin defeats Xayide by wishing her to “have a heart”, imagine if Danny Phantom tried that with Desiree since she had a habit of granting any kind of wish… 

Another girly ghost villain that I enjoyed from the Danny Phantom series (as well as another tragic figure, like the Genie, Desiree) is Ember McLain (Picture: Bottom Center). A theory surrounding her origin is that she was an unpopular High Schooler (with dreams of becoming a Rock Star), who fell in love, but her lover abandoned her, then later (while back in her house) a mysterious fire killed her, thus she returns as a rock star ghost, bent on world domination with her hypnotic music. I don’t blame her, again, she's one of those tragic figures who hides her “true emotions” behind her evil manipulative schemes, had Danny Phantom and company attempted to redeem her (like get her to explain her backstory, perhaps they could've helped her), but sadly that never happened… 

The reason I’ve decided to do a Danny Phantom-Related Post was because of the announcement of this new “Danny Phantom Graphic Novel (Picture: Bottom Right Corner)”, believing that (after its release next year) Nickelodeon should perhaps look back into the World of Danny Phantom and introduce for a new generation (either as a continuation from the Original series or a soft reboot), plus Nickelodeon should consider of doing what they’re gonna do following the release of “Seth Rogen’s TMNT movie”, and that’s to release a series of spin-off films central around various TMNT films, set to debut on Paramount+ (perhaps Nickelodeon should do the same with Danny Phantom’s Rogues Gallery, as those films can center around his villains, serving as a huge prequel to the original series, exploring more of the villains' backstories and a world long before Danny even got his ghost powers). 

Despite the new Danny Phantom Graphic novel’s name (A Glitch in Time), it has nothing to do with Glitch Techs (though that would be a fun crossover to see “Danny Phantom meets Glitch Techs”), Butch Hartman should think about it (read more about that series in my “Glitch Techs: The Miko Kubota File”) #SaveGlitchTechs (For Miko ) (Picture: Bottom Right Corner)

To be fair, I’ve always pictured a crossover between Danny Phantom and Jenny Wakeman (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), as both are teenagers (though ones is a boy with ghost abilities and the other is a robot girl), but don’t you think it would be cool to see Jenny Wakeman upgrade herself with Ghost Tech (and interact with Danny’s Sister, Jazz) or have Danny Phantom do battle against Jenny’s friend-turned enemy, Misty (or be hunted by Skyway Patrol). A crossover like that could serve as Nickelodeon’s answer to the 2016 Supergirl/Flash Crossover (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), besides a wise man said:

-I think crossovers can be really, really, exciting. But they have to exist for a reason…

(Alex Kurtzman) 

Following the success Nickelodeon and DC comics have had with their TMNT/Batman Comics (Picture: Bottom Left Corner) and that 2019 Animated film, perhaps it’s time for Danny Phantom to have a turn in having his own DC Comics crossover (maybe a “Danny Phantom/Justice League Dark crossover”)? Plus IDW Publishing also releases a Ghostbusters/TMNT crossover, perhaps they try something similar with Danny Phantom (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) with either Butch Hartman or Nickelodeon’s permission.    

I believe that there’s so much more to explore within the world of Danny Phantom, but due to Butch Hartman being busy with his other shows (especially with the success of his The Fairly Oddparents and it even spun off into a Live-Action Series that “not-so-good”), thus I believe it’s time to for look back and find a way to explore more into the World of Danny Phantom (besides I wonder if, in the future, Nickelodeon decides to rip a page from Sony’s “Animated  Spider-Verse films” because you doesn’t wanna see various variants of Danny Phantom), besides could Danny Phantom even go exploring into the “Nicktoons-verse (or Nick-verse)”?     

If they ever plan to do a “Live-Action Danny Phantom Series (which could be highly unlikely due to that Live-Action Fairly Oddparents series on Paramount+ and that stupid Live-Action Loud House Series”), it should have a Jazzy-opening theme (from the 1977 Live-Action Spider-Man series) and respect the source material: 

Ethan Stranger Signs off…but 1st a quick word from the Genie, Desiree: