Before Mabuse, there was Fantomas - an earlier take on the criminal mastermind outwitting the detective through deception and disguise. Following the success of Fantomas, came the master criminal Filibus in this story (which also seems to have gotten some inspiration from Jules Verne's "Master of the World"). But while Fantomas and Mabuse are murderous psychos, Filibus seems to be just having fun bouncing between genders, flirting first with the brother then the sister. Is Filibus really a baroness - or a woman at all - or is that just another disguise?