SPECTRE (COMICS)

The 'Spectre' is a fictional cosmic entity and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in a next issue ad in ''More Fun Comics'' #51 (January 1940) and received his first story the next month, #52 (February 1940), and was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, although several sources limit Baily to being the artist assigned to the feature, and assign creator credit solely to Siegel.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Origins

Silver Age version

Bronze Age version

Modern Age version

Hal Jordan

''Day of Vengeance''

Crispus Allen

Kingdom Come

Marvel VS DC

Awards

Other Versions

See also

External links

Fictional character biography

Origins

:Main articles: Jim Corrigan


The Spectre's career began in the late 1930s (specifically, ''More Fun Comics'' #52, cover-dated February 1940), when hard-boiled police detective Jim Corrigan was murdered. His spirit was refused entry into the afterlife, however, and, in the guise of a grey-skinned being in blue cloak, gloves, trunks and boots (these colors were soon changed to chalk-white and green, with all reprints of this early material "corrected" to match the official version), it was assigned by an entity referred to only as "The Voice" (generally conceded to be God) to eliminate all evil from the world.
The Spectre began by seeking bloody vengeance against Corrigan's murderers in a grim, supernatural fashion. In years to come, the character would gain a reputation among editors and writers as being too powerful to get a dramatic handle on, but creator Siegel apparently felt otherwise, because in More Fun #60 (October 1940), only the eighth Spectre story, he gave the Dead Detective an almost literal ''deus ex machina'', the Ring of Life, which would appear on the ghost's finger when he faced a menace beyond his powers (in six stories reprinted in recent years). The Spectre proved quite popular, and was awarded charter membership in the first ever super-hero team, the Justice Society of America in ''All-Star Comics''. Another reward was the resurrection of the body of Jim Corrigan (accomplished with the aforementioned Ring of Life), from which the Spectre's ghostly form could emerge and function independently (seen in ''More Fun'' #75, Jan. 1942).
During the mid-1940s, the popularity of superhero comics began to decline, and the Spectre suffered as a result. He was reduced to playing the role of "guardian angel" to a bumbling character called "Percival Popp, the Super Cop." Eventually, Jim Corrigan enlisted in the military to serve in World War II, and on his departure, the Spectre became "permanently" invisible, becoming a secondary player in his own series. The feature's final installment was in #101 (January--February 1945), and the Spectre made his last JSA appearance at the same time, in ''All-Star'' #23 (Winter [1944--]1945).

Silver Age version

When the Silver Age of comic books arrived in the 1960s, the Spectre was re-written and returned to the role of an avenging undead spirit, beginning in ''Showcase'' #60, January-February 1966. Under the authorship of Gardner Fox and as drawn by Murphy Anderson, his power was vastly increased, and at times he approached the level of omnipotence. After a three-issue try-out in ''Showcase'', he appeared in ''Justice League of America'' #s 46 (September) & 47 (October 1966) in that year's team-up of the titular group and their 1940s predecessors, the Justice Society (also written by Fox). A few months later, he co-starred with the Silver Age Flash in an issue of ''The Brave and the Bold'', #72 (June-July 1967). With a cover date of November-December 1967, the Spectre was given his own title, while almost simultaneously (December 1967-January 1968), he made a second appearance in ''B&B'' (#75), this time teamed up with the current version of Batman. In the Spectre's own series, the creative credits varied widely over the ten issues published, perhaps the most notable participant being a then newcomer to comics, Neal Adams, who drew #s 2-5 and also wrote his last two. For its final pair, the comic became in effect a horror anthology, with the title character being little more than a host/narrator in several very short stories. The capper to this era came in ''JLA'' #83, August 1970, when, at the climax of another JLA/JSA crossover, the Ghostly Guardian appeared to be destroyed (his generic cameo at a JSA meeting in the previous issue seems to have been an artist's error, although it has spawned plenty of fan speculation about how he got from there to being imprisoned in a crypt as found and freed by Doctor Fate in #83).

Bronze Age version

In the 1970s, the Spectre was revived in the pages of ''Adventure Comics''. This series, written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Jim Aparo, was notorious for its gruesome depictions of the Spectre's poetic retributions against criminals: they were melted like wax, turned to wood and run through sawmills, transformed into glass then allowed to fall over and shatter into many pieces. In the letter column, some fans indicated uneasiness with this depiction, and in #435, Fleisher, perhaps in response or perhaps his plan anyway, introduced a character that shared their concerns, a reporter named Earl Crawford. Crawford's interactions with Jim Corrigan present an interesting possible continuity problem. In the character's first story (specifically on page 7), Corrigan disparagingly refers to Crawford as "Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter", owing to Crawford's vaguely similar appearance (tall, dark hair and spectacles), leading one, presumably dim-witted, uniformed officer to ask him (on p. 8), "Gee, are you really Superman?" Clark Kent/Superman being merely a comic book character leads to questions as to where in the DC Multiverse these stories are taking place (as asked by Cary Burkett in his article "Speculations on The Spectre" in ''Amazing World of DC Comics'' #16, December 1977, p. 41).
The series was cancelled with scripts written but not yet drawn. Several years later, these remaining chapters were penciled by Aparo, lettered and inked by others, and published in the final issue of ''Wrath of the Spectre'', a 4-issue miniseries in 1988 which reprinted the ten original Fleisher/Aparo stories in its first three issues (Two Aparo-drawn horror shorts of similar vintage were used as page-count fillers; all thirteen Spectre stories were subsequently collected in a trade paperback book of the same title in 2005). However, while three "new" stories were presented here, a 1980 interview--this is a full transcript, not a textual article littered with direct quotes--with Fleisher in The Comics Journal flatly stated that 'two' scripts were left undrawn. (The writer also indicated here his preferred habit of staying well ahead of deadline in his comics work, explaining the leftover scripts; the existence of these had led to a belief that the series was cancelled quite abruptly, as indicated by Peter Sanderson's inside-covers text piece in ''Wrath'' #3.) Given that the thirteenth story does not follow certain formulae that 'all' twelve previous installments did, the claim that it was written by Fleisher in 1975 is called into question. However, it 'can' be alternatively argued that the interview is the unauthentic work here.
The Spectre also made a guest appearance in the Doctor Thirteen series in the DC comic ''Ghosts''. This three-part story (#97, February through #99, April, 1981) was a direct sequel to the Fleisher/Aparo run, including the Earl Crawford character (albeit visually redesigned as the Aparo original looked too much like Thirteen) and the same formatting of story titles (one of the ways that the thirteenth story credited to Fleisher varied from the other twelve), but was clearly produced with no consideration for Fleisher's then-undrawn leftovers. Here, supernatural debunker Terrence Thirteen became caught in a dangerous situation with deadly, terrorist-style criminals. The Spectre appeared and, as Thirteen watched in shock, killed the offenders. Thirteen was convinced that the Spectre was not a ghost, but a man, until in the final installment, the Spectre took Thirteen to the realm of Judgement, where Thirteen met with the spirit of his dead father. The Spectre would make periodic guest appearances in other DC titles as well, such as ''The Brave and the Bold'', ''DC Comics Presents'' and ''All-Star Squadron''.
Among the many changes made to DC Comics' characters during the later half of the 1980s (following the ''Crisis on Infinite Earths''), the Spectre was largely de-powered. First, and actually prior to the Crisis, The Spectre is revealed to be guarding an entrance to Hell in a ''Swamp Thing Annual'' story by Alan Moore. Then, in the conclusion to Moore's later ''Swamp Thing'' serial, "American Gothic", the Spectre is defeated by evil incarnate as it advances to destroy Heaven. Next, in the ''Last Days of the Justice Society of America'' special, he fails to resolve a situation and is punished by God for his failure. In his fourth solo series and second self-titled comic, under the authorship of Doug Moench, the Spectre became merely a generic mystical figure, with Corrigan the central figure of an occult-oriented private detective agency. His powers were significantly reduced here, with even the act of emerging from Corrigan's physical body being painful to both. This run was cancelled with the November 1989 issue, #31. A few months after this, the Spectre has a cameo in ''The Books of Magic'', a four issue miniseries/whirlwind tour of the DC Universe's occult characters, written by Neil Gaiman. This implies him to be Raguel, an archangel who metes out punishments for God as the Spirit of Vengeance.

Modern Age version

Three years after the cancellation of the Doug Moench version, the Spectre was again given his own series, this time written by former theologian John Ostrander, who chose to re-examine the Spectre in his aspects both as the embodied Avenging Wrath of the Murdered Dead and as a brutal 1930s policeman.
Ostrander placed the Spectre in complex, ambiguous situations — what vengeance should be wrought upon a woman who killed her abusive husband in his sleep, for instance. Other notable dilemmas included, among others:

★ The tiny (fictional) nation of Vlatava, the history of which was an endless cycle of civil war, ethnic cleansing, retribution, and blood feuds that had endured for centuries, The Spectre responded by judging the whole nation guilty, razing the land and killing the entire population except for two opposing politicians.

★ The pending execution of a wrongfully convicted man. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison after the Spectre threatened to kill the entire population of the state of New York in retribution.

★ A 90-year-old woman who had spent her entire life trying to atone for the single murder she had secretly committed in the 1920s. The Spectre found her on her deathbed.
Ostrander also retconned several new concepts into the Spectre's history: he revealed that the Spectre was meant to exist as the embodiment of the Wrath of God, and Jim Corrigan was but the latest human spirit assigned to guide him while he existed on Earth. This eliminated the resurrection of Jim Corrigan's body depicted in ''More Fun Comics'' #75 (January 1942), and made the Spectre's 1945-1965 disappearance as explained in ''Showcase'' #60 (January-February 1966), which had a few problems on its own terms, virtually impossible, yet Ostrander expressly retained that. It was also shown that the Spectre was a fallen angel named Aztar who had participated in Lucifer's rebellion, but then repented, and that serving as the embodiment of God's anger was its penance.
Furthermore, the Spectre was not the first embodiment of God's anger, but was the replacement for the previously minor DC character Eclipso; Ostrander chose to portray this as a distinction between the Spectre's pursuit of ''vengeance'' and Eclipso's pursuit of ''revenge''. In a historical context, Eclipso was responsible for the biblical Flood, while the Spectre was the Angel of Death who slew the firstborn Egyptian children.
The Spectre has also played a pivotal role in the ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' and ''Zero Hour'' storylines. In both cases, in the final struggle against the main villain — the Anti-Monitor and Parallax respectively — the Spectre was the only hero capable of standing against the villains directly, allowing the other heroes time to put a plan into action that would destroy the villains once and for all.
The 2001 Green Arrow story "Quiver" (written by Kevin Smith) revealed that the Spectre (as the Hal Jordan incarnation) is aware of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He is one of the few DC Universe characters with this knowledge.

Hal Jordan

Main articles: Hal Jordan

Eventually, Corrigan's soul found peace. He relinquished the Spectre, and went on to the afterlife. The role of the Spectre was later assumed by Hal Jordan, the spirit of the former Green Lantern, during the ''Day of Judgement'' storyline; the Spectre chose Hal as his new host because Hal sought to atone for his actions as Parallax. In a series written by J. M. DeMatteis, Hal Jordan was able to bend the Spectre's mission from one of vengeance into one of redemption, also making other appearances through some of DC's other storylines, such as advising Superman during the ''Emperor Joker'' storyline (Where the Joker stole the reality-warping power of Mister Mxyzptlk) and erasing all public knowledge of Wally West's identity as the Flash after his terrible first battle with Zoom. After this series was cancelled, Jordan was forced to return, temporarily, to the Spectre's mission of vengeance, following a confrontation between the new Justice Society and the Spirit King, who had managed to 'resurrect' the ghosts of all those the Spectre had damned to Hell. After the Spectre was able to purge the Parallax from Jordan, he departed in order to move onto the next recipient of the Spirit. Jordan admits that the knowledge he gained from being the Spectre's host has faded, but if he has any greater knowledge of the Universe, he has not revealed it to anyone else.

''Day of Vengeance''

As covered in one of the lead-ins to ''Infinite Crisis'', ''Day of Vengeance'', Jean Loring was transformed into the new Eclipso. She went after the Spectre, who was on a vengeance rampage. Not only was he killing murderers, he was also killing people for minor crimes, such as petty theft. She seduced the Spectre, who was unstable due to the loss of his host, into removing all magic in the DC Universe. Eclipso explained to the Spectre that all things that follow the rules of the physical universe follow God's law. Anything that breaks those rules, breaks God's law and is therefore evil. Consequently, as magic breaks the rules of the physical universe, it is an originating source of tremendous evil (this line of logic made sense to the unstable Spectre).
Therefore, the Spectre went on a rampage, destroying magical constructs, institutions that taught magic, and magical dimensions. In one such dimension, his acts included the mass murder of over 700 battle hardened magicians. His actions caused havoc to some of the more powerful magic-based characters:

★ Phantom Stranger, whom he turned into a mouse;

★ Black Adam, who fought the Spectre when the spirit invaded his kingdom of Khandaq and caused plagues of destruction;

★ Doctor Fate, who was imprisoned in a dimension inside his helmet;

★ Raven who can no longer properly control her powers; and

★ The wizard Shazam, who, despite the intervention of his champion Captain Marvel, was killed by the Spectre.
The Spectre also destroyed the magic-fueled kingdom of Atlantis, the home of Aquaman, during his rampage.
In the ''Day Of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special'', the Spectre killed Nabu, the last of the Great Lords of the Ninth Age and the Presence's attention was finally drawn to him. The Spectre was once again forced into a human host, finally stopping his mad rampage. Nabu revealed before dying, that originally, he and the other Lords had been working towards forming the perfect host for the Spectre, but those plans were cut short.
The text of the story is a little unclear on exactly who the Great Lords were. Nabu was one of the Lords of Order. The Spectre had apparently killed the others, along with their counterparts the Lords of Chaos, with the exception of Nabu and Amethyst, whom he battled on Gemworld. Amethyst was among those gathered by the Phantom Stranger to aid in rebuilding the Rock of Eternity, and survived into the Tenth Age. Since Nabu counted Shazam as another Great Lord, and the wizard was not a Lord of Order, it is likely that the Great Lords were a group separate from the Lords of Order and Chaos.

Crispus Allen

Main articles: Crispus Allen

In ''Gotham Central'' #38 Crispus Allen was killed by, ironically, a cop named Jim Corrigan (a different person). While his body was in the morgue, the Spectre began to enter Crispus Allen as he begged God not to put him in his new host. The Spectre was forced into Allen's body making him the new host for the Spirit of Vengeance.
Alexander Luthor also revealed that he was indirectly responsible for the Spectre's actions in ''Day of Vengeance''. The Psycho-Pirate, under Luthor's orders, gave Eclipso's diamond to Jean Loring, making her manipulate the Spectre so that magic could be undone and used as fuel for Luthor's Multiverse tower.

Kingdom Come

In the four issue ''Elseworlds'' miniseries ''Kingdom Come'', The Spectre (with Jim Corrigan still acting as host) takes a preacher named Norman McCay through the events of a possible future of the DC Universe. Here, Spectre is to determine who is responsible for an impending apocalyptic event. However, here his "faculties are not what they once were" (Kingdom Come #1), and he is said to need a human perspective to properly judge the events they witness.
A conversation between McCay and the character Deadman said that Spectre had become further and further removed from humanity as time went on (Kingdom Come #3). At the end of the story, he is convinced by McCay to try to see things through the perspective of his human host, and as Jim Corrigan, he can be seen in the congregation of McCay's church (Kingdom Come #4), as well as at the end of the Epilogue in the Planet Krypton restaurant (seen in the Kingdom Come collected editions).

Marvel VS DC

During the Marvel vs DC crossover series, the Spectre allied with the Living Tribunal , his Marvel counterpart, in an attempt to avert the destruction of their two respective universes. At the moment the conflict between the two universes was decided, the two cosmic guardians combined their energies to create an 'Amalgam Universe' featuring characters created by combining two heroes from the two different universes (Examples included Doctor Strangefate, a Doctor Strange/Doctor Fate fusion).
This universe was eventually split back into two by Access, forcing the two guardians into a desperate confrontation with the Brothers- cosmic entities personifying their respective universes- to avert the end of their worlds. Although the Spectre and the Living Tribunal were unable to stop the Brothers, the intervention of Batman and Captain America- two heroes who were essentially the Brothers in miniature, each one unique in their worlds but ''not'' determined to prove their superiority over their 'counterpart'- prompted the Brothers to realize the foolishness of their conflict and restore the balance between the two worlds.
Apparently, the Spectre and the Living Tribunal from Marvel worked together to create the Big Bang that brought the current universe into being.

Awards

The character won the ''1961 Alley Award as the Hero/Heroine Most Worthy of Revival'' and the ''1964 Alley Award for Strip Most Desired for Revival''.

Other Versions

★ The Spectre was intended to appear in a Christmas special, but the episode was never produced. [1]

★ Spectre will be appearing in Justice League Unlimited #37.[2]

★ In the Amalgam Comics universe, Spectre was combined with Nightmare to become 'Night Spectre'.

See also

★ Jim Corrigan

★ Hal Jordan

★ Crispus Allen

★ El Diablo

★ Crimson Avenger

★ The Word

External links

★ DC Guide Entry for The Spectre - Unofficial Guide of DC Universe

★ Comic Book Awards Almanac

★ A comprehensive index of Spectres appearances

★ Toonopedia

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre'' vol. 1.

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre'' vol. 2.

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre'' vol. 3.

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre'' vol. 4.

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre Annual'' vol. 1.

★ The Grand Comics Database Project - Index for ''The Spectre Annual'' vol. 2.

★ Classic Comic Books: The Spectre