Around the time when Joker killed Jason Todd Ghost-Maker killed Phantom-One's parents during a robbery. Seeing it as an opportunity to prove that he could succeed where Batman had failed he adopted him under the alias of Kasper Nordlund and decided to train him as his sidekick.
For two years he was trained by Ghost-Maker's old teachers and realized that Ghost-Maker simply did not care about being a father and that he saw Phantom-One only as a project. After his training was complete he and Ghost-Maker worked together for three years but Ghost-Maker kept telling him that he was slowing him down so during one of their battles with Palladium he attacked him in an effort to prove himself but the criminal blew the building in order to deter him. Finding himself trapped under the rubble he asked Ghost-Maker to help him but his master decided instead to help the civilian in danger leaving him for dead.[1] Believing Phantom-One dead Ghost-Maker hunted down Palladium and killed him in revenge. In reality Phantom-One survived and was saved by Black Mist who nursed him back to health and when they saw Ghost-Maker being lauded as a hero in Gotham and with a new sidekick they knew that he had to be stopped
