| The Spectre | |
|---|---|
JSA #75 (Sept. 2005). Cover art by Alex Ross. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940) |
| Created by | Jerry Siegel Bernard Baily |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Aztar |
| Team affiliations | Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Archangels Black Lantern Corps Red Lantern Corps |
| Notable aliases | The Spirit of Vengeance, Spirit of Redemption, Avenging Wrath of God, The Man of Darkness, Raguel |
| Abilities |
Divine mystical enhancements granting virtual omnipotence, although the true scope ranges from the dictates of the Presence. Knowledge of events before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. |
The Spectre is a fictional character 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 (Jan. 1940) and received his first story the following month, #52 (Feb.1940). He was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, although several sources[1][2][3] attribute creator credit solely to Siegel, limiting Baily to being merely the artist assigned to the feature.
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The Spectre debuted in More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940) when hard-boiled cop Jim Corrigan was murdered, stuffed into a barrel (which was then filled with cement) and thus drowned. His spirit was refused entry into the afterlife, however, instead being sent back to Earth to eliminate evil by an entity referred to only as "The Voice". He saw his body when he appeared at the bottom of the waterfront.
The Spectre begins by seeking bloody vengeance against Corrigan's murderers in a grim, supernatural fashion. One of them turned to a skeleton when touching him. The Spectre is eventually awarded charter membership in the first ever super-hero team, the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics. Jim Corrigan is resurrected in More Fun #75 (Jan. 1942), after which the Spectre's ghostly form enters and emerges from him, though he also functions independently. The Spectre, and other JSA members, were prevented from entering occupied Europe due to the Spear of Destiny, a magical item which is one of the only things that could hurt the Spectre, which had been obtained by Adolf Hitler, and gave him control over superheroes that entered Nazi occupied areas.
During the mid-1940s, the popularity of superhero comics began to decline, and the Spectre was reduced to playing the role of "guardian angel" to a bumbling character called "Percival Popp, the Super Cop", who first appeared, More Fun #74 (Dec. 1941). When Corrigan enlisted in the military and departed to serve in World War II, in More Fun #90 (April 1944), the Spectre became "permanently" invisible, becoming a secondary player in his own series. The feature's final installment was in issue #101 (Feb. 1945), and the Spectre made his last appearance in the superhero group the Justice Society of America at roughly the same time, in All Star Comics #23 (Winter 1944–1945).
| The Spectre | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | vol. 1: Bi-monthly vol. 2-4: Monthly |
| Format | All: Standard U.S., 4 color. While being published, ongoing. |
| Publication date | vol. 1: November/December 1967 - May/June 1969 vol. 2: April 1987 - November 1989 1988 (Annual) vol. 3: December 1992 - February 1998 1995 (Annual) vol. 4: March 2001 - May 2003 |
| Number of issues | vol. 1: 10 vol. 2: 31, +1 (Annual) vol. 3: 64 (numbered 1 - 63, includes a #0), +1 (Annual) vol. 4: 27 |
| Main character(s) | All:The Spectre vol. 1-3: Jim Corrigan vol. 4: Hal Jordan |
| Creative team | |
| Creator(s) | Jerry Siegel Bernard Baily |
In the mid-1950s and 1960s Silver Age of Comic Books, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz had the Spectre revived and returned to the role of an avenging undead spirit, beginning in Showcase #60 (Feb. 1966). Under writer Gardner Fox and penciller Murphy Anderson, his power was vastly increased, and at times he approached the level of omnipotence. A 1987 magazine retrospective on the character said this revival had been initially announced as a team-up with Doctor Mid-Nite[4] After a three-issue try-out in Showcase, the Spectre appeared in the superhero-team comic Justice League of America #46-47 (Sept-Oct 1966) in that year's team-up of the titular group and its 1940s predecessors, the Justice Society of America (which had also been written by Fox). A few months later, he co-starred with the Silver Age Flash inThe Brave and the Bold #72 (July 1967). The Spectre was given his own title, premiering with a cover date of December 1967, while almost simultaneously he made a second appearance in The Brave & the Bold #75 (Jan. 1968), this time teamed with Batman. In The Spectre, the creative credits varied widely over the 10 issues published, with perhaps the most notable participant being a then-newcomer to comics, future industry art legend Neal Adams, who drew issues #2-5 (and also wrote #4-5). For its final two issues, the comic became in effect a horror anthology, with the title character being little more than a host/narrator in several short stories. The end to this era came in Justice League of America #83 (Aug. 1970), when, at the climax of another JLA/JSA crossover, the Ghostly Guardian (as DC nicknamed the character) appeared to be destroyed. His cameo at a JSA meeting in the previous issue spawned fan speculation about how he got from there to being imprisoned in a crypt, as found and freed by Doctor Fate in JLA #83[5]).
In the 1970s, DC revived the Spectre in the superhero anthology series Adventure Comics. Beginning with the 12-page "The Wrath of ... the Spectre" in issue #431 (Feb. 1974),[6] writer Michael Fleisher[7] and artist Jim Aparo produced 10 stories through issue #440 (July 1975)[8] that became controversial for what was considered gruesome, albeit bloodless, violence. As comics historian Les Daniels observed, the Spectre had
"...a new lease on life after editor [Joe] Orlando was mugged and decided the world needed a really relentless super hero. The character came back with a vengeance ... and quickly became a cause of controversy. Orlando plotted the stories with writer Michael Fleisher, and they emphasized the gruesome fates of criminals who ran afoul of the Spectre. The Comics Code had recently been liberalized, but this series pushed its restrictions to the limit, often by turning evildoers into inanimate objects and then thoroughly demolishing them. Jim Aparo's art showed criminals being transformed into everything from broken glass to melting candles, but Fleisher was quick to point out that many of his most bizarre plot devices were lifted from stories published decades earlier."[9]
In the series' letter column, some fans indicated uneasiness with this depiction. In issue #435 (Oct. 1974), Fleisher introduced a character that shared their concerns, a reporter named Earl Crawford. The series was canceled 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 four-issue miniseries in 1988 that reprinted the ten original Fleisher-Aparo stories in its first three issues, and three newly drawn stories.[10] Fleisher had stated in 1980 that only two scripts were left undrawn.[11]
The Spectre also made a guest appearance in the "Doctor Thirteen" feature in Ghosts #97-99 (Feb.-April 1981), and go on to periodic guest appearances in such other DC titles 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 miniseries, where the Spectre fought the Anti-Monitor, the Spectre was largely depowered. Prior to this, the Spectre is revealed to be guarding an entrance to Hell in a Swamp Thing Annual story by writer Alan Moore. Then, in the conclusion to Moore's "American Gothic" serial in the regular Swamp Thing comic, the Spectre is defeated by the Great Evil Beast. Next, in the Last Days of the Justice Society of America special, the Spectre fails to resolve a situation and is punished by God for his failure.
In his fourth solo series and second self-titled comic, the Spectre, under writer Doug Moench, Corrigan became the central figure in this story of an occult-oriented private detective agency. The Spectre's powers were significantly reduced here, with even the act of emerging from Corrigan's physical body being painful to both. This run ended with issue #31 (Nov. 1989). A few months after this, the Spectre has a cameo in writer Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic, a four-issue miniseries starring many DC occult characters.
Three years after the cancellation of the Doug Moench version, the Spectre was again given his own series, this time written by writer and former theology student 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, morally ambiguous situations that posed certain ethical questions, one example being: What vengeance should be wrought upon a woman who killed her abusive husband in his sleep? Other notable dilemmas included, among others:
Ostrander also added 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. 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. Spectre and Eclipso have battled numerous times through history but neither entity can be fully destroyed.
Unfortunately, with one exception, there are no trade paperback editions of Ostrander's run currently published.
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.
Although all of these versions are usually considered to be from the Earth-Two of the Pre-Crisis DC multiverse, the same continuity started during the Golden Age, an Earth-One version of The Spectre was shown to team-up with Batman and Superman on a few occasions.
Eventually, Corrigan's soul finds peace; he relinquishes the Spectre, and goes on to the afterlife. The role of the Spectre is later assumed by Hal Jordan, the spirit of the former Green Lantern, during the Day of Judgment storyline written by Geoff Johns, when a fallen angel attempts to gain the Spectre's power. Corrigan is asked to come back, but refuses as he has found peace. The Spectre chooses Jordan as his new host because Jordan seeks to atone for his universe-threatening actions as the villainous Parallax. His next appearance was in a four-part story arc in Legends of the DC Universe #33-36. In the series The Spectre vol. 4, written by J. M. DeMatteis, Jordan bends the Spectre's mission from one of vengeance to one of redemption, and making appearances elsewhere in the DC Universe, such as advising Superman during the "Emperor Joker" storyline.
The 2001 Green Arrow story "Quiver" (written by Kevin Smith) and the final Supergirl story arc, "Many Happy Returns" (by Peter David), revealed that the Spectre (Hal Jordan) is aware of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He is one of the few DC Universe characters with this knowledge.
After The Spectre vol. 4 was cancelled, Jordan was forced to return, temporarily, to the Spectre's mission of vengeance, following a confrontation between the new Justice Society of America and the Spirit King, who had managed to "resurrect" the ghosts of all those the Spectre had damned to Hell. In Green Lantern: Rebirth, written by Johns, the Spectre's decision of choosing Jordan as his host was retconned into being not because of Jordan's worthiness, but as an effort to destroy the Parallax entity, which was infecting Jordan's soul. After the Spectre was able to purge the Parallax from Jordan, he departed in order to move onto the next recipient of the spirit.
With no human host, the Spectre becomes unstable and goes on a vengeance-fueled rampage. Not only is he killing murderers, he also kills people for minor crimes, such as petty theft. As covered in one of the lead-ins to Infinite Crisis, Day of Vengeance, Jean Loring is transformed into the new Eclipso. She goes after the Spectre and seduces him into removing all magic in the DC Universe. Eclipso explains 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 makes sense to the unstable Spectre). The Spectre destroys magical constructs, institutions that teach magic, and magical dimensions. In one such dimension, his acts include the mass murder of over 700 battle hardened magicians. His actions cause havoc to some of the more powerful magic-based characters:
The Spectre also destroys the magic-fueled kingdom of Atlantis, the home of Aquaman, during his rampage.
In the Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special, the Spectre kills Nabu, the last of the Great Lords of the Ninth Age and the Presence's attention is finally drawn into action. The Spectre is once again forced into a human host, stopping his mad rampage. Nabu reveals, before dying, that originally he and the other Lords had been working towards forming the perfect host for the Spectre, but those plans are cut short.
The text of the story is unclear on who the Great Lords were. Nabu, introduced in 1942 as the powerful entity responsible for Kent Nelson becoming Doctor Fate, 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 Mordru and Amethyst, whom he battled on Gemworld. Amethyst is among those gathered by the Phantom Stranger to aid in rebuilding the Rock of Eternity, and survives into the Tenth Age.
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.
In Gotham Central #38, Crispus Allen is killed by a policeman coincidentally named Jim Corrigan (not the same Corrigan formerly associated with the Spectre). While Allen's body is in the morgue, the Spectre is forced against his will to enter Crispus Allen, taking Allen as his new host.
During the Blackest Night event, Black Hand reveals that the Spectre must be moved out of the way in order for the universe to be at peace. For that he uses the Black Lantern Pariah, who unleashes more black rings which latch themselves onto Crispus' body, turning him into a Black Lantern and sealing the Spectre inside its host. Changing into a giant version, the Black Lantern Spectre declares that it wants Hal Jordan back.[12] The Phantom Stranger and Blue Devil work together in an attempt to distract the Black Lantern Spectre from seeking out Hal Jordan. The Phantom Stranger manages to temporarily free the real Spectre, only for the Black Lantern to repress it again and, discarding the Stranger and Blue Devil, leaves to carry out its intention to cast vengeance on Hal Jordan.[13]
On Coast City, Hal Jordan encounters the Black Lantern Spectre. Using the real Spectre's power to protect itself, it is rendered immune to the combination of Emotional lights that usually destroy Black Lanterns. Knowing that the Spectre is afraid of Parallax, Jordan allows himself to be possessed by the fear entity once more in order to stop him. The Powers of the Spectre also become an interest to the Red Lantern Corps leader Atrocitus, as he senses the Spectre's real nature despite being influenced by the black ring: an embodiment of rage and vengeance. Atrocitus desires to harness the spirit's power for his Corps and his own vengeance against the Guardians of the Universe.[14] Parallax tears into the Black Lantern's body, freeing the real Spectre and destroying the facsimile. Atrocitus attempts to turn the Spectre into his own rage entity, but fails, the Spectre telling him that "he is God's Rage" and of the true rage entity, and warning him not to trifle with it. Parallax then attempts to destroy the Spectre, who uses his own fear of the entity, coupled with the love Carol Ferris feels for Hal, to separate Parallax from its host. The Spectre then confronts Nekron, the master of the Black Lanterns, but discovers that Nekron is without a soul, and thus, immune to his powers. The Spectre is then removed from the battlefield by Nekron to parts unknown.[15]
The Spectre resurfaces, again with Crispus Allen as its host, in the hills of Montana on the trail of the Butcher, the Red Lantern entity.[16] The Spectre confronts Atrocitus once again when the two locate the Butcher, who is about to possess a man whose daughter had been killed by a death row inmate. Despite the Spectre's attempts to stop it, the Butcher succeeds, killing the criminal. The Butcher then attempts to possess Atrocitus, revealing that Atrocitus had a wife and children who were killed in the Manhunters' attack. With the Spectre's help, Atrocitus wards off the Butcher and imprisons it within his power battery. The Spectre attempts to judge the man that the Butcher possessed, but Atrocitus argues that his method of judgment is flawed. The Spectre calls off his judgment, and is unable to judge Atrocitus, discovering that his mission is a "holy" one, although he warns Atrocitus that this will not last forever.[17]
The Spectre is the most powerful known being in the universe and is capable of virtually any feat. His powers vastly increased over the years. At times the Spectre utilized the mystic Ring of Life to perform feats beyond his powers.
In the four-issue Elseworlds miniseries Kingdom Come, the Spectre 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 in Kingdom Come #3 reveals that, with the passing of time, Spectre has become further and further removed from humanity. The illustrations show him only wearing his cloak to cover an otherwise nude body. As the series progresses, the cloak darkens from his traditional green to an ashen black. In Kingdom Come #4, he is convinced by McCay to try to see things through the perspective of his human host, who is indeed revealed to be Jim Corrigan. Corrigan becomes a member of McCay's congregation and, in the epilogue set in a superhero-themed restaurant, expresses irritation that the meal named after him, "Spectre platter", is a mix of spinach and cottage cheese.
| Title | Material collected | Pages | ISBN# |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Golden Age Spectre Archives, Vol. 1 | More Fun Comics #52-70 | 224 | ISBN 1563899558 |
| The Spectre: Crime and Punishment | The Spectre vol. 3, #1-4 | 120 | ISBN 1563891271 |
| Wrath of the Spectre | Adventure Comics #431-440 and Wrath of the Spectre #4 | 200 | ISBN 1401204740 |
| Title | Material collected | Pages | ISBN# |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre | Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre #1-3 and Tales of the Unexpected #1-3 | 128 | ISBN 1401215068 |
| The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected | Tales of the Unexpected #1-8 | 128 | ISBN 1401215068 |
| Final Crisis: Revelations | Final Crisis: Revelations #1-5 | 169 | ISBN |
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.
IGN ranked the Spectre as the 70th greatest superhero of all time.[22]
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