In the history of crime fiction, he represents a transition from Gothic novel villains of the 19th century to modern-day serial killers and supervillains.

The books and films were released in rapid succession anticipated current production methods of Hollywood, in two respects:[1] First, the authors distributed the writing among themselves; their "working method was to draw up the general plot between them and then go off and write alternate chapters independently of each other, meeting up to tie the two halves of the story together in the final chapter".

But whereas Lupin draws the line at murder, Fantômas has no such qualms, and is shown as a sociopath who enjoys killing in a sadistic fashion.

Fantômas makes use of bizarre and improbable techniques in his crimes, such as plague-infested rats, giant snakes, and rooms that fill with sand.

[citation needed] In the books, it is established that c. 1892, the man who later became Fantômas called himself Archduke Juan North and operated in the German principality of Hesse-Weimar.

Upon their return to Europe, soon before the first novel begins (c. 1900), Gurn and Lady Beltham were surprised in their Paris love nest, Rue Levert, by her husband.

As Etienne, he persuaded Charles to go into hiding, but the young man was soon found out by French police detective Juve, who had become truly obsessed with the capture of Fantômas.

Juve knew that Charles was innocent and gave him a new identity: journalist Jerôme Fandor, who is employed at the newspaper La Capitale.

A novelization of this serial was written by David Lee White for Black Coat Press under the title Fantômas in America in 2007.

Fantômas also has a cameo appearance in the Czech children's series Lucie, postrach ulice as a TV character, where he resembles his original 1911 book serial covers' depiction.

In May 2010, Christophe Gans was revealed to be co-writing and directing a new film version of Fantômas, with Vincent Cassel and Jean Reno attached to star.

In August 2022, Wassim Béji and production company SND acquired the adaptation rights to Fantômas, and are planning both a new film and a series, which is said to return to the character's darker roots.

This Fantômas was a thief who committed spectacular robberies just for the thrill of it, and wore a white skintight mask all the time or a variety of disguises so his true face was never shown to his nemeses.

Apparently the series was also influenced by the James Bond films, as Fantômas, equipped with advanced technology created by a scientist called Professor Semo, had all kind of adventures around the world, and even fought other, more cruel criminals.

The attractive female element was another concession to Latin American audiences familiar with beautiful women as part of male-dominated environments playing key roles without hiding their femininity, and preceding Charlie's Angels by decades.

A Fantômas short story by Paul Kupperberg and Roy Mann appeared in Captain Action Comics No.

Blaise Cendrars called the series "the modern Aeneid"; Guillaume Apollinaire said that "from the imaginative standpoint Fantômas is one of the richest works that exist".