According to Jim Harmon and Donald F. Glut: "Unquestionably, The Phantom was one of Columbia's better serials...a task in casting, settings, and mood totally missing in such disasters as "Batman" from the same studio." In a 2018 retrospective, Martin Pasko contended that ""The Phantom" has all the problems most serials - Columbia's in particular - did: an implausible script riddled with inane, unplayable dialogue; wretchedly wooden acting; and a budget that rendered ludicrous any attempt to stage believable, much less spectacular, action by today's standards."