“No one suspects that Jim Corrigan is in reality the earthbound ‘Spectre,’ whose mission is to rid the world of crime …”

The Spectre: a superhero ghost who can do pretty much anything he wants, up to and including murder, as long as his motives lie within the confines of American “justice,” rather than the restricted sense of regular American “law.” The Spectre does not adhere to our mortal system of democratic rules. He judges from a higher authority.

I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff.

Talk about the ultimate fantasy character … I mean, what would you do, if in fact, you could do anything? Anything to the bad guys …

You could turn gang members blocking your safe passage home into hamburgers and feed them to hungry dogs. You could turn the local child molester into a living piece of sidewalk that will be forever trampled on and run over by freewheeling children. You could do a lot things, but I think you get the point.

However, the comic book world has certain limitations, and specifically as an art form marketed to kids in 1940—it damn well should have had boundaries to its presentation. You can’t just grow giant-size and crush somebody inside your fist …

Oh, wait a minute, yes you can.

If you’re the Spectre, and you’re getting rid of “bad guys,” you can. And he did. In More Fun Comics No. 56 (Dr. Fate on the cover) a couple of gangster goons run Jim Corrigan off the road with the intent to shoot him when he gets out of his car. Yet, emerging from the vehicle … comes the Spectre! The men jump into their comic book yellow car and try to escape, but the Spectre grows into a giant green-costumed ghost, larger and larger—until the getaway vehicle appears no bigger than a child’s toy. He picks up the little car. The men inside say (via world balloon) “Mercy—please spare us!”

“Why?” says the Spectre. “Cold-blooded killers deserve but one fate!”

The next panel: the Spectre’s closed fist.

The caption above reads:

“As the Spectre’s huge fist contracts, the car and its occupants are crushed to a pulp …”

Pulp is right, classic pulp era comic book storytelling, and I loved reading every moment of the villain’s ghastly demise. I loved watching it happen. That’s just great stuff, and frankly, I don’t mind my kids reading that sort of thing at all. Bad guys get crushed in the end. Okie-dokie.

I’m a collector of the DC Archives, Showcase Presents, Marvel Masterworks, and the Marvel Essential series, so yeah, I am a sucker for this kind of stuff—and granted while the Spectre might not be the greatest collection you can buy out of those four categories—it’s a must have for anyone who wants a real taste, and therefore a real treat, from the golden age of DC Comics’ supernatural superhero books.

The Spectre, created by Superman creator/writer Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily first appeared in More Fun Comics No. 52, cover date February 1940. It’s a classic. We’re talkin old school occult superhero from the first generation of supers, and now … you can own a hardback collection of the Spectre in The Golden Age Spectre Archives Volume 1, (published in 2003) collecting the Spectre appearances from More Fun Comics Nos. 52 to 70.

Beware of bad behavior; buy this book.

-Bradley Mason Hamlin
brad@retrocrush.com

THE SPECTRE RETURNS!

In the ’70s, DC Comics needed a new star attraction for their struggling Adventure Comics title, so they brought out the long dormant Spectre for a series of tightly scripted supernatural revenge stories written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Jim Aparo. They were collected in a full color 200 page paperback called Wrath of the Spectre in 2005, and it’s still available via Amazon for just a bit above $15.

You can totally see where the inspiration for Freddie Krueger’s over the top gory killing style comes from in these pages. As Brad points out, it’s something The Spectre has done since the ’40s, but it’s neat to see that sort of retribution dished out in a more modern context.

These days, The Spectre has become more of a force of the universe, and doesn’t seem to have time to take out the everyday scum and villainy that he cut his teeth with. We’ve got a whole new breed of criminal out there that’s just begging to get strangled with a giant gold chain, anally raped with an enormous forged credit card, or smoked inside of the world’s biggest crack pipe.

-Robert Berry
rberry@retrocrush.com