That was before my time, though I did like the Phantom strip when I was growing up. There was a similar scene in the movie Excalibur that I watched incessantly as a child (it was one of about 6 movies we had on VHS). Morgana Le Fay had been using some magic to stay young, but Merlin dispelled it and she shriveled up into an old crone and was murdered by her son who didn’t recognize her. Maybe the writers were Phantom fans!
Could be! I think it was Auden who said, “Novice poets borrow. Mature poets steal.”