Entertainment
SyFy Superhero Series Destroyed A 70 Year Old Franchise Now Can't Be Streamed Anywhere
By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated
For some unexplained reason, the success of Batman in 1989 kicked off a wave of retro superhero movies with The Rocketeer, The Shadow, Dick Tracy, and finally, The Phantom. Starring Billy Zane as The Ghost Who Walks, it was a complete flop that has since become a cult classic. In 2009, Syfy decided that the tiniest amount of critical reevaluation was enough to greenlight a backdoor pilot for an ongoing The Phantom series. Instead of embracing the classic 1930s design as the Zane film did, this new series updated The Phantom for the modern era by embracing, what else in 2009, parkour.
A New EXTREME Phantom
General Hospital star Ryan Carnes put on the new EXTREME crimefighting suit as Kit Walker, the 22nd Phantom, recruited by Bpaa Thap in the island nation of Bangalla to slam evil. You might have noticed already why The Phantom didn’t catch on. Since it was a backdoor pilot disguised as a miniseries, it spends most of the runtime on world-building, including the Singh Brotherhood, which is The Phantom’s traditional villain, and their evil plan to brainwash people using cable TV set boxes.
The villain’s master plan has aged worse than Dominic Toretto stealing TVs in the original The Fast and the Furious. And yet, even that has aged better than the EXTREME parkour and motorcycling stunts of Kit Walker’s Phantom. It was a good attempt to update the old skintight purple suit, but switching to a design with a short shelf life means that by the time the miniseries aired, it already looked ridiculous.
No One Liked The Redesign
The Phantom revival series crashed and burned when it aired and was never picked up to be a full series. Despite the parkour and EXTREME style, the miniseries attempts to update the classic hero and at least tries to do something different. Sure, they left behind everything that fans loved about the 1996 film, and fans of the classic hero were incredibly disappointed by the “Marvel 2099” redesign, but they tried. And that counts, right?
The backdoor pilot tells a complete story from start to finish and sets up future conflicts between The Phantom and The Singh Brotherhood that almost 20 years later, we’ll never get to see. To say that the reaction to The Phantom’s 2009 TV movie was disastrous would imply anyone watched it in the first place. By then, superhero fans had experienced Iron Man, and the era of cheap superhero television was over.
Syfy Has Buried The Phantom 2009
Even today, fans of The Phantom will gush over the Billy Zane box office flop while warning newcomers to the Ghost Who Walks fandom that the Syfy series pilot can easily be missed. Marvel and DC are struggling to get their B-list stars noticed in theaters, never mind a pulp comic hero from the 1930s who never broke into mainstream pop culture. The purple bodysuit is a tough sell.
The 2009 Syfy television movie/backdoor series pilot has been lost to the digital ether. It’s not streaming on any platform, but it did receive a DVD/Blu-Ray release that can be found dirt cheap from second-hand retailers.
The far superior 1996 Billy Zane movie The Phantom is streaming free on Tubi.
Entertainment
Send the Ecovacs Goat A2000 Robotic Lawn Mower out to handle all your grass-cutting needs, now for 25% off
SAVE $501.99: As of July 15, get the Ecovacs Goat A2000 Robotic Lawn Mower for $1,498 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,999.99. That’s a discount of 25%.
$1,498
at Amazon
$1,999.99
Save $501.99
It’s summer, the grass is growing higher than your kneecaps, and you don’t have the energy to deal with it. If you want a great-looking lawn without all the muss and fuss, it’s time to outsource your grass-cutting needs to a robot lawn mower. It’s the same great strategy as using a robot to vacuum your floors, only this time it’s happening outside with your grass.
As of July 15, get the Ecovacs Goat A2000 Robotic Lawn Mower for $1,498 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,999.99. That’s $501.99 and a discount of 25%.
This wire-free robot lawn mower is all about getting things done, and it has a wide range of features to ensure you aren’t the one doing them. Just set it up and let it go on its own, as its HoloScope 360-degree Dual-LiDAR system can automatically map your yard and figure the rest out. It uses 2 cm positioning to figure out where it should and shouldn’t be as it makes its way through your yard.
It has built-in edge trimming for clean borders as well as a high-power 32V platform to cut through even thicker grasses that less powerful robot lawn mowers can’t. Whether it’s uneven terrain, thick grass, or other challenges, this model can handle just about everything and then some. Plus, it charges up quickly back to 100% in about 50 minutes, so you aren’t left waiting for it to be usable again.
Mashable Deals
This machine can truly handle it all, and you won’t have to lift a finger to have great grass. Be sure and snatch yours up while it’s still affordable, since it’s one of the higher-end models out there.
Entertainment
Meet the 9 new emoji to help sum up 2026
Internet, meet the nine brand new emoji that will be coming to your keyboards.
The Emoji Standard and Research Working Group at the Unicode Consortium will soon introduce nine new emoji, and these additions are now being revealed ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17. (Why is July 17 known as World Emoji Day? If you check the calendar emoji, you’ll see the 17th date of the month is displayed.)
Our big Guessing Game is back! Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch.
The new emoji class of 2026 includes:
Mashable Light Speed
-
Lighthouse
-
Eraser
-
Leftwards Thumb Sign
-
Rightwards Thumb Sign
-
The Cracked Smiling Face
-
Net with Handle
-
The Meteor
-
The Pickle
-
The Monarch Butterfly
Here are the nine new emoji coming to your keyboard by next Spring.
Credit: Did Someone Say Emoji? Substack
A sneak peek at the designs was shared by Unicode Emoji Subcommittee-Chair Jennifer Daniel on her Substack newsletter, “Did Someone Say Emoji?” Daniel says they should arrive on your keyboard by next spring.
Some of these new emoji additions are interesting. For example, it’s hard to believe that there wasn’t already a Lighthouse or Eraser emoji. Pro wrestling fans will likely get some use out of the leftwards and rightwards thumb signs, as they are perfect for Rob Van Dam’s infamous signature pose when used in tandem. The phallic Pickle is sure to be popular for sexting.
However, the Cracked Smiling Face will surely run away as the true crowd-pleaser of the bunch, just like Hairy Creature (aka Bigfoot) was a fan favorite in the new 2025 emoji. Cracked Smiling Face looks like the perfect emoji to sum up 2026. Yes, the emoji won’t come out until next year. But that’ll be perfect timing for the emoji to sum up 2027, 2028, and then every year beyond that as well. Interestingly, the Cracked Smiling Face is the absolute newest even among its debuting peers. When these nine new emoji were proposed by Unicode earlier this year, the Cracked Smiling Face was originally a completely different emoji known as Smiley Face with Squinting Eyes.
Variations of the Smiley Face with Squinting Eyes from the Unicode Consortium’s proposal for the emoji.
Credit: Unicode Consortium
Some of these new additions might look familiar. You may be checking your keyboard for the Pickle, Monarch Butterfly, and Meteor emoji. You won’t find them. But you will find a Cucumber, a Morpho Butterfly, and a Comet emoji.
As Daniel writes in her Substack, these are all very different emoji, and some changes will be made to the existing emoji to make them all much more visually distinct. For example, the Morpho Butterfly is just a blue butterfly, whereas the Monarch Butterfly will actually look like the majestic orange-and-black butterfly. The Comet emoji and Meteor emoji will also be distinct, with the former showing as a blue streak rocketing through the sky and the latter looking like a flaming meatball.
Entertainment
A standalone Xbox Ally X20 OLED handheld is coming soon from Asus
Asus will sell a standalone version of its upcoming OLED Xbox Ally X20, according to a report from The Verge, walking back earlier plans that would have required buyers to purchase the handheld bundled with a pair of Xreal AR glasses.
An Asus spokesperson confirmed the change to The Verge, saying, “We are actively discussing the release schedule for a standalone version of the new Ally. Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements.”
Our big Guessing Game is back! Enter now for a chance to win an Apple Watch.
Mashable Light Speed
Credit: Asus
The Verge’s Sean Hollister, who spent two hours testing the device at Asus’s California offices, wrote that the OLED Ally could prove competitive with the recently released MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus. The review also highlighted ergonomic upgrades over last year’s Xbox Ally X, including new rubberized grips, quieter face buttons, and a reworked cooling system. Hollister singled out a “transforming” D-pad that can rotate between eight-way and four-way configurations, saying it made a noticeable difference in games like Hollow Knight: Silksong.
The Verge did not report specific pricing or a release date for the standalone OLED Ally, though Hollister noted the device will likely cost more than the current $1,000 Xbox Ally X. The bundle with the ROG Xreal R1 Gaming Glasses could cost up to $2,000, though no price or launch date has been confirmed yet.
Send the Ecovacs Goat A2000 Robotic Lawn Mower out to handle all your grass-cutting needs, now for 25% off
Meet the 9 new emoji to help sum up 2026
