| The Spook | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Detective Comics #434 (April 1973) |
| Created by | Frank Robbins and Irv Novick |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Val Kaliban |
| Abilities | Hypnotism, escapology. The Spook's abilities are apparently not superhuman. |
The Spook is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Detective Comics #434 published in 1973.
Contents |
Val Kaliban is a great escape-artists, hypnotist and has used his extraordinary abilities together with special effects to commit spectacular crimes and make people believe he is a real ghost. He has been stopped by Batman every time. When last seen, Spook II was an inmate in Arkham Asylum (inexplicably, since he was never shown as insane).
Spook II was a former government operative who went mad and believed himself to be dead. As the Spook, he murdered several corporate heads whose companies he blamed for his "death", before being defeated by the Batman. He was recently killed by Damien Wayne after holding the Mayor hostage. Damien beheaded him putting an end to the confrontation. It is unknown if this was Val Kaliban or another person posing as the Spook.
Despite appearances, the Spook has no superhuman or supernatural abilities, although his mastery of escapology and hypnotism is very impressive indeed. He used a variety of gadgets such as inflatable effigies of himself that can float through the air, finger-tip and boot suction cups for scaling buildings, and smoke machines for obscuring the perceptions of others to enforce his supernatural persona.