And I imagine fans writing in the late 1950s asking what happened to Alan Scott and Jay Garrick’s status in the DC Universe overall helped change that perception!

More Fun Comics #75 (January 1942)



Synopsis: Within the span of only three panels, this entry begins with a reiteration of not only the status quo established in earliest appearance of The Spectre in this title but also of the status quo established last issue with the introduction of Percival Popp.

As Clarice Winston once again asks Corrigan outside his home whether or not their relationship will ever culminate in marriage, our detective once responds that such a union is impossible for reasons he cannot divulge. “What right have I, an Earthbound ghost, to consider marriage?” Though lost in thought, Corrigan is not so distracted as to miss the fact that an eavesdropper lurks nearby. Cue Percival Popp in a tree.

As persistent as he was in the previous issue, Popp tries convincing the detective that the two should form a union of their own – that combining Popp’s “brains” and Corrigan’s “brawn”. Letting the pest know that he isn’t interested, Corrigan heads indoors and unbeknownst to him, has a third visitor paying him a call this evening. Escaped convict “Gat” Chenney, seeking revenge on the copper who “sen[t] me up for life”, scales the wall of Corrigan’s home. Sighted by Popp, the so-called “Super-Cop” intervenes and admittedly, puts up a pretty good fight against the scofflaw. The scuffle attracts the notice of Corrigan who transforms into The Spectre who promptly chucks Chenney into space. Feeling that his debt is paid to Popp for fighting on his behalf, The Spectre reserves a somewhat gentler fate for the nuisance. Dropping Popp off on the ring of a planet “a couple of million light years” away, The Spectre returns home for peaceful sleep. Awakening the next morning, Corrigan can’t help but feel as though something important has slipped his mind.

Cut to Percival Popp isolated on that distant planet being approached by a strange looking, I don’t know, green armadillo lizardy thing.

“I’ve got it! Percival! I left him marooned up on that planet!”

Though a caption assures us that The Spectre “streaks” back to Popp’s location, a comment the unfortunate visitor makes about having to run from that odd creature “for hours” suggests he might have actually taken his time in getting back to the fellow. Oh well, that creature apparently “just wanted to be friendly” anyway.


So Popp is dropped off on Earth, given a warning to behave, and then promptly heads off to The Winston household to see if he can get Clarice and Jim together once more. Sneaking into her home as she’s having her portrait painted by an artist named Armand, Clarice seems far more receptive to Popp than either halves of The Spectre are when the Super-Cop announces his intention to “bring [Corrigan] to his senses!” First however, Popp decides to trail Armand after deciding that he “doesn’t like his looks!”. Popp’s intuition seems on the money when he watches the artist drop a metal figure into the river. Reporting this information to Corrigan who, though insistent that Popp stop meddling in his affairs nevertheless agrees that his would-be partner may be on to something, Popp somehow gets into The Winston home alongside the detective.

The elder Mrs. Winston entreats Corrigan to see her daughter who now lays in a coma. The Spectre discovers the source of her predicament when he looks at the portrait now residing in Armand’s hotel room. “The face – as real as life! And it is life! Clarice’s soul – imprisoned on that canvas!” Following a sudden urge to check in on Popp however, reveals to The Spectre that his obnoxious stalker is about to dive in after the metal figure Armand tossed into the river. It’s an area The Spectre knows well since it is also the precise spot where Jim Corrigan lost his life at the hands of “Gat” Benson way back in More Fun #52. Recognizing the implications of Popp discovering the corpse of Jim Corrigan, The Spectre races to the scene.

“At the bottom of the river, The Spectre sorrowfully regards the figure imprisoned in a barrel of cement…”

“Myself… slain by gangsters!”



With this, The Spectre raises his arms to the sky and requests “the power… the permission!” While it may not be immediately clear what this means, it appears that his pleas are understood by The Voice. Granting The Spectre his wish – “for you have done well on Earth” – The Voice bestows unto its prodigy the ability to restore Jim Corrigan back to life. The Spectre fades and Corrigan thanks his lucky stars. Rising to the surface and appreciative even of the bursting feeling in his lungs as he continues his journey upwards, Corrigan is grateful to once more be alive.

Upon breaking the surface, Corrigan finds himself knocking heads with Popp as the latter jumps into the water. Explaining his presence by pointing out that he needed to retrieve Armand’s statue (which he has) Corrigan finds that Popp isn’t the only one present on the scene. Brandishing a gun, Armand demands the return of the figure which Corrigan offers to him. Asking what its purpose is, Armand explains that it is all part of a ritual enabling him to capture real life on canvas even at the cost of the sitter’s soul. Enraged, Popp lunges at Armand who promptly clubs him on the head before turning his attention back to Corrigan. With Popp unconscious, Corrigan seems ready accept that having once again been granted life, he is about to lose that gift a second time once Armand’s bullets reach their target. However, Corrigan is relieved to discover that the bullets pass through him harmlessly. Quickly dealing with the artist by vanishing him out of existence, The Spectre returns to his human form and informs the awakening Popp that while Armand has escaped, “I don’t think we’ll see him anymore!” The story draws to a close with Clarice and Jim arm in arm watching the moon together. Popp looks on and remarks “Just like the happy ending of a story!!”




Thoughts: What a weird time to revisit the origin of Jim Corrigan. Though I wouldn’t cite the introduction of Percival Popp to these pages as the point at which The Spectre lost his dark, sombre tone, you wouldn’t think that an issue featuring the brillo haired, goofy eyed, exaggeratedly bespectacled, “comic” stylings of Percival Popp would also contain a panel with The Spectre viewing his own corpse with sadness in his eyes. Interestingly, said corpse is actually depicted as an arm protruding from a barrel just as it was when last seen back in More Fun Comics #52. Though Baily doesn’t have Corrigan wearing the tuxedo he had on in that issue, it’s a nice odd to continuity especially since I can’t imagine too many readers would have necessarily recalled that detail. I suppose the tuxedo wouldn’t have made much sense in this issue either. “What were you doing down there, Jim?” “Same as you – looking for that statue!” “Why are you wearing a tuxedo?” “…”

Recently, M.W. Gallaher made the rather prescient observation that when Michael Fleisher wrote his 1970’s Spectre run, he incorporated “little bits of this run”. With that in mind, he is an excerpt from 1975’s Adventure Comics #439 “The Voice that Doomed The Spectre!”

“I can’t go on this way! I can’t! Other men have wives and families! They get to experience the joys and pains of life! And when they die, they are granted the everlasting peace of eternal rest! But I have none of those things! I’m not alive… or dead! I’m some sort of lifeless thing, doomed to carry out some kind of awful,unearthly vengeance that I can hardly even understand! Please, release me from my mission! Let me be a real man again! Let me marry the woman I love! Please!”

“When you awaken, Jim Corrigan, the humanity you thirst for shall once again be yours! Perhaps the mission I gave you… is indeed beyond the fulfillment of any one man! Perhaps being alive again will bring you happiness! I hope so!”



A little more eloquent than The Spectre’s “If you would give me the power – the permission!” from this issue perhaps, but surely the intent is the same.

Incidentally, I suspect that having Corrigan discover that he is once again mortal in this issue by being shot in the arm while rushing a crook he assumes doesn’t have a chance against him (you see, Fleisher’s Voice didn’t fill Corrigan in on the fact that his humanity had returned) was inspired by a sequence in More Fun #54 where Corrigan does the same. In fact, I believe that The Voice not telling Corrigan that he could now be killed in Adventure Comics #439 was inspired by The Voice offering Corrigan a favour in these early More Fun issues only for there to be a nasty catch to it all (ie. you may have everlasting peace, but there’ll be nobody around to stop that bullet racing towards your fiancée).


(don't worry - Corrigan does survive though with a wounded arm... this time)

What else, let’s see…

As much as I try to hate to Percival Popp, so far I only find him to be a mild annoyance. He’s presented more as a well-intentioned thorn in Corrigan’s side than as a broadly slapstick comic relief and for this reason isn’t as overpowering a presence as I first suspected he’d be. I still don’t quite understand why he’s here, but he feels more like an oddity than an anchor weighing things down. It helps that Siegel takes care to present Popp as surprisingly competent and avoids using him as the stereotypical cowardly klutz.

Speaking of comic relief, it’s nice to see that The Spectre still has a bit of a sense of humour as evidenced by the fact that he has no qualms about dropping Popp off in the farthest reaches of space just to ensure a peaceful night’s rest for himself.

Of course, the fact that Corrigan even needs to sleep despite our being previously informed that this is one of the comforts death has denied him, rather lessens the impact of his now being alive in way. In those early issues which established that Corrigan no longer needed to eat, sleep, or even breathe, it was clear just what he missed about being alive. Since at least some of those little touches have been forgotten about over time – “now for a quiet, peaceful sleep” remarks The Spectre – one has to wonder what he was deprived of in More Fun #52 that he hasn’t already reclaimed before this issue. To be fair, this installment makes it clear that unlike the ability to sleep, Corrigan never regained the ability to breathe until that was reinstated with his life.

The big change however is that Corrigan no longer has any reason not to marry Clarice Winston. In fact, the final panel of this tale has the two silhouetted like a pair of young lovers against the moon. After two years of hearing Corrigan bemoan the fact that he can’t marry the woman he loves more than anything else in this world, I’m curious to see where things go. I’m pretty sure the two don’t end up married, but since Siegel seemed to be on the verge of simply excising Clarice quietly from the strip only to do a 180 here, I wonder if we’ll get, well, something happening instead. I mean, it would be pretty odd to just drop her from the series at this point.

And another thing…

Planets don’t have actual rings around them- well, not solid ones at least. They’re essentially ice and little bits of rock from what I understand and therefore, not the sort of concrete edifice on which Percival Popp can sit and wait for The Spectre to remember that’s not where he lives. Still, I like that Baily doesn’t care and even makes these rings the home of weird lizard like creatures. “There may be no lizard monsters on Saturn, but by golly there should be!!” I can hear him yell as he draws this.

The scene is also a nice little reminder that while The Spectre’s code of ethics prevents him from hurting anyone who isn’t a bad guy, he’s still not someone you want to annoy as Popp does. You know, in re-reading that scene, I think I know how Corrigan’s trip back to whatever planet he dumped Popp off at could take only a few moments while at the seem time, seem to last for hours by Popp’s estimation. See – Corrigan thinks “Odd – but something important seems to have slipped my mind! If I could only remember what!” Cut to Popp spotting that alien creature. Cut to Corrigan snapping his fingers, “I’ve got it! Percival!” I’m now wondering if rather than making the connection between the memory he couldn’t quite recall and “I’ve got it! Percival!” almost instantaneously, several hours did actually pass between Corrigan realizing that he forgot something and remembering what it was, hence Popp’s line about “running for hours” from that animal.

So concludes another issue. A lot to look forward to; a lot to worry about. What will happen with Clairce and Jim? What will happen with Popp? I guess we’ll start finding out next issue…

More Fun Comics #76 (Feb, 1942)



"I can change to The Spectre and save those men... but I'm sick of being a spook!  I want to be human!"

Synopsis: Following the events of More Fun Comics #75 in which Jim Corrigan's life was restored without impacting his ability to operate as The Spectre, we find that rather than acknowledging the advantages which being a superhero affords, the detective can only resent the responsibility such power demands. When the ceiling begins to fall towards some runners at an indoor sporting match attended by Corrigan and Clarice Winston, the police officer considers his options. "I can change to The Spectre and save those men... but I'm sick of being a spook! I want to be human!" To his credit, Corrigan accepts that he can't allow these men to be harmed and rushes to action in the form of his ghostly alter-ego. Upon restoring the roof to its natural condition, The Spectre discovers that the ceiling was deliberated sabotaged. Before he can investigate further, he finds his attention distracted by a gunman taking a potshot at one of the runners on the field below. Dispensing with the thug as easily as he disappears from the police when they arrive upon the scene, The Spectre rejoins Corrigan and with Clarice in two, the detective asks one of the officers to shed some light on these chaotic events. He learns that having received a letter threatening trouble at the arena from a criminal who has Christened himself "The Head Man", headquarters has sent a couple of men down to investigate. When a panicked athlete informs the assembled mass that one of their runners, Nick Johnson, isn't responding to knocks on his locked door, Corrigan busts into the room and discovers a bound and gagged man in the closet. Johnson? No. "Percival Popp - The Super Cop!" Yes, once again, after overhearing the same conversation which brought these officers to this indoor arena, Popp has decided to barge upon the scene. Having arrived first, he managed to speak with the worried looking Nick Johnson who confided in Popp that he had been threatened by "The Head Man". Before the The Super-Cop could make further inquiries, he was slugged from behind, shoved into the closet, and well, here we are. Johnson's missing and somewhere there lurks a new foe for The Spectre dubbed The Head Man. Rejecting Popp's suggestion that they team up ("Stay outta my hair!!!" is actually how he puts it), Corrigan drives Clarice home oblivious to the fact that his number one fan has hidden himself in the back of his vehicle. Preparing to leave the Winston residence, Corrigan is accosted by a couple of armed men who invite him to visit The Head Man. "And whoever sees "The Head Man" don't live to boast about it!". Though Corrigan is pleased by this turn of events, Popp (unnoticed by the gunmen) doesn't cotton to the idea of his pal being taken for a one-way ride. He surprises the men and holds them at bay with their own revolvers. Not wanting his only lead to come to a dead end, Corrigan uses his occult powers to cause the guns to slip out of Popp's hands giving the men a chance to run for it, but not before the wanna be detective manages to snag one of their coats.


Kicking Popp out of the vehicle, Corrigan is free to give chase in his spectral form. Shrinking his own car and concealing it within his cloak, The Spectre leaves the abandoned automobile further down the road where it’s spotted by his prey. The car flies through the streets (literally about a foot off the ground though unbeknownst to them) as The Spectre gives chase. Arriving at a dance hall, The Spectre discovers that the men will be punished by The Head Man himself for failing to kill Corrigan.

Unveiling himself from behind a curtain, The Head Man reveals himself to be a headless figure (albeit it one still capable of speech) and declares, “HAHAHA – HAHA-AAA! Scream, cowards, scream! You know my secret now! Why did I paradoxically name myself The “Head Man”? Why? Because I have no head!!! HAHAHA-HAHA-AA-AA!!!”

Tossing the men into a pin, The Spectre plays his hand a little too late. The Head Man takes off behind a concealed wall and our hero turns his attention to a hidden cellar holding three men which until now, have held them captive. Recognizing one of the trio as a badly beaten Nick Johnson, The Spectre asks him his story and discovers that their captor had forced them to write him cheques after which he tortured them as if consumed by “an almost inhuman hatred”. With the men taken to Police HQ to tell their tale, The Spectre departs.

Meanwhile, Popp has retrieved a slip of paper advertising the hall and with the clue in hand, heads to the scene. Having missed out on all the action, Popp blabs to one of the patrons that he’s on the look-out for “a super crook known as “The Head Man”!”. Word gets around to the fiend himself and Popp is invited to join a fellow sitting at a table in the club who offers him info. With his head strategically concealed by a vase of flowers, the man asks what Popp intends to do once he finds his target. “First, I’ll knock his teeth in! Then, I’ll sink my arm into his stomach – all the way up to my elbow! And if that doesn’t subdue him, I may resort to physical violence!”

Although warned that there are rumours of The Head Man actually being headless, Popp isn’t deterred and continues to build himself up as a brave man even as he’s advised that no one who ever sees The Head Man lives long enough to tell. At this point, it occurs to Popp that he hasn’t even seen his informers face. Removing the vase, The Head Man tells him to “Have a good look!” at which point the Super-Cop faints.



When he’s tossed into a pit filling with water, The Spectre senses Popp’s predicament and heads to the scene. Rescuing the pest, The Head Man makes the mistake of rushing towards Popp intending to send him back down the hole. Sidestepping the charging figure, The Head Man lands on a rocky outcropping crushing his chest. Retrieved by The Spectre and with but moments to live, our hero makes a startling discovery when he opens The Head Man’s shirt. Beneath his clothing is “a tiny knob of a head” probably no more than three or four inches in height.

Explaining that he was always jealous of others who had “strong” bodies, The Head Man reveals that he was never really after money but responding to “the desire to kill – maim”. The Head Man dies, The Spectre flies off, and Popp calls the police. We last see Popp imploring Corrigan that he accept his proposition of working together which the detective once again rejects. The tale ends with a note from Siegel and Baily reading:

“Dear readers: Would you like to see Percival Popp and Jim Corrigan teamed together? Please write to The Spectre c/o More Fun Comics 480 Lexington Ave. New York City”



Thoughts: To recap, an important development occurred in the previous issue with two potentially major repercussions. Jim Corrigan has been returned to the land of the living and The Spectre doesn’t seem any worse for it. That’s the first repercussion. The second is that Corrigan is now absolved of the reason he has previously given himself and Clarice for not going through with their planned marriage.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure that this development or the fall-out from it would even be addressed going forward. Jim Corrigan has bemoaned the fact that he isn’t technically alive, but aside from references to no longer needing to sleep, breathe, or eat (and of those three, we know that he does sleep as evidenced in the previous issue) I’m not sure how restoring these activities really adds much to a series especially as it seems to be headed in a broader direction than before. Corrigan’s “Good Lord! I don’t breathe!” epiphany in More Fun #53 was a genuinely startling and powerful moment, but a nuanced touch for a series which doesn’t really delve into nuance any more. “Good Lord! I can taste this rutabaga!” “Good Lord! I can urinate again!” aren’t really lines I’m expecting to hear in this series. If Corrigan were perhaps vulnerable in his human form, that would be one thing, but if even Siegel lost interest enough in Corrigan not being able to eat, sleep, and breathe to mention it, why would I expect him to remember to have Corrigan remark on how he can now do these little things going ahead?

But the other ramification – his relationship with Clarice – isn’t as easy to overlook. Given the brevity of the Corrigan/Clarice/Spectre triangle when first introduced before being quickly abandoned/referenced again/forgotten about/referenced again, I wasn’t sure it was a given that we’d be seeing the young Mrs. Winston again despite the happily ever after ending we got last time. Yet, here they are together at a sporting event. She’s still just an accessory to Corrigan and no mention is made of their wedding being back on or anything like that, but, well, she’s there. Corrigan does seem to be on the verge of saying something when he drives her home and remarks “Clarice – I haven’t been as attentive in recent months as I should have, but---“ only to have her assure him that nothing further needs to be said “as long as everything is alright now”. For the record, I’ve never really cared about the love lives of any superhero – why I was supposed to care if Lois Lane settled down with Superman or Batwoman with Batman was beyond me – but having set up this plot point, I’d like to see Siegel either do something with it or just forget about it altogether. Right now, it seems as if things might be developing, but who knows?

A unique enemy for The Spectre, in that he’s the first physically odd villain who is also human, The Head Man reminds me of something Jack Cole might have come up with for Plastic Man. Over the top in our world, but perfectly suited to the environs of comic books, he’s one of those theatrical bad guys who operates without mercy but is borne out of tragedy and never does anything undramatically. That he could hold a conversation with Popp without the fellow catching on to the fact that his informer has no head due to a carefully placed vase is a bit silly, but worth it for the payoff.

However, Popp’s stupidity and bravado during this scene is the sort of comic relief I was worried we’d be getting from the character. Thus far, he’s been surprisingly competent and not prone to pratfalls and slapstick – more a character with an overblown sense of self-worth than an in-your-face obstacle you’re trying to read around.

If there is one thing I don’t like about this tale it’s the consideration Corrigan gives to doing nothing as the roof starts to cave in at the start of this piece. “I can change to The Spectre and save those men – but I’m sick of being a spook!” I can understand not wanting to rescue cats from trees or something, but he can’t spare a minute to save lives? How about “I can stay as Jim Corrigan and save those men – since that’s my job as a police officer!” then? In an earlier post, I noted that Corrigan’s original disposition as an brutish and rude thug seemed to actually wane once he died. Now that he’s alive again, it seems to be making a comeback. “Stay outta my hair!”, “And you call yourself a detective! G’wan… leave this car!” he snaps at Popp even being reprimanded by Clarice at one point to “Keep your temper.”

As mentioned, the last panel asks readers to submit their thoughts on whether Popp and Corrigan should team together”. I suppose responses were favourable to the idea and the character stuck. I can sort of see why – Corrigan has to save someone as The Spectre but first has to get this pest off his back. Anything that makes the hero have to work harder has its appeal and this is one roadblock Corrigan can’t permanently shove aside.

No request for thoughts on Corrigan and Clarice’s relationship though. Wonder what readers would have wanted to see there.

One thing I find notable is that Baily, starting a while ago, has changed the way he renders the Spectre's hood, giving it a jaunty jutting point instead of having it droop down over his brow. Somehow it makes the character look friendlier and happier instead of sinister and threatening, more in keeping with the tone it is increasingly taking on. Curiously, he takes the same approach with Maligno, suggesting that this is not an intentional effect he's going for.

Didn't Baily have a studio full of assistants? He might not have been drawing the Spectre himself at this point.

All Star Comics #9 (March 1942)  

"Good riddance to such vultures!  But too bad they took their secret with them!"




Synopsis: Once again, The Justice Society is called before Washington’s Chief of the F.B.I. (ostensibly J Edgar Hoover, but his face is never shown). Crediting the team with the fine job they did in carrying out his orders before (see All-Star Comics #4) the Chief requests their aid in “Central and South America and Mexico” where totalitarian regimes have planted spies.

As he explains:

“The United States cannot act officially for obvious diplomatic reasons! It might be construed as an act of oppression by the twisted minds of the foreign dictators! Yet those spies must be weeded out and overcome! That’s where you come in!”

Johnny Thunder picks up on his train of thought and continues:

“I get it! The Justice Society can go down there and help clean up those rats, without involving The United States – we work under cover, and Uncle Sam can’t be accused of interference – whatta good idea!”

“You hit the nail right on the head!”

The team gets their individual assignments (at which point we learn all members speak Spanish save for Johnny Thunder) and The Spectre heads for Buenos Aires, Argentina. His mission? “Army planes disappearing mysteriously! Suspect fifth columnists responsible! Investigate!”

At that moment, The Spectre catches sight of an army plane and decides to keep watch. Suddenly, a strange looking auto-gyro with seven metal arms appears and snatches the plane rising high enough up into the stratosphere to force its occupants to pass out from lack of air. Recognizing their plight, The Spectre frees them from their vessel and releasing their parachutes, enables the men to land safely upon the ground.

Returning his attention to the strange autogyro itself, The Spectre enters the craft and finds it to be manned by a pair of Nazis. Accepting that they are no match for their strange visitor, the Captain of the vessel detonates the ship before The Spectre can force them to carry out his order to “take me to your leaders”.

Thinking that Jim Corrigan might have better luck in acquiring a lead, the detective offers his services to the Argentine Secret Service where his reputation precedes him. Corrigan is informed that only today, they have captured the head of the spy ring our hero seeks. Accepting his request that he be allowed to tag along when the villain is flown to a military prison, Corrigan is on hand when another autogyro attempts to abscond with their craft. When the passengers begin gasping for air, Corrigan transforms into The Spectre, places the men into a trance in which “they won’t have to breathe”, and remains invisible as their plane is taken to a mountain in the Andes. There, the men are carried out of the craft (their trance-like state is mistaken for death), a swastika is added to its tail, and a fleet of autogyros ascend into the sky. The Spectre gives chase.

Growing to enormous height, our hero follows the first ship to Buenos Aires where a bomb is dropped over the city. Impressively, The Spectre catches the weapon in his mouth and spits it back at its source. Capturing the rest of the vessels and returning the stolen planes, The Spectre streaks back to the Andes, transforms back into Corrigan, frees the Argentine agent, and when the two take down the rest of the spies, Corrigan’s mission is complete.

Thoughts: I know these are only fictional stories and despite the occasional presence of real world issues and sometimes even real people in these tales I think it’s safe to assume that in the comic book world, we can take things at face value. Authority figures can always be trusted and characters and institutions presented as incorruptible and trustworthy are just what they seem in these tales. And I certainly have no problem with The Spectre going after Nazis, but…

Knowing what we know now about how the real world Hoover ran the F.B.I. and about how America used underhanded tactics to overthrow democracies in places such as Guatemala and Iran to replace them with U.S. appointed dictators, it’s pretty unnerving to see how eager The JSA is to act as pawns without question. Johnny Thunder even suggests that the team make “chief an associate member of The Justice Society! He sure is one man who does a lot for law and order!”. The Spectre seconds the motion and the team gives Maybe-Hoover (‘Maybe’ because we don’t actually see his face) three cheers. Man, I know it was a different time and place and people certainly didn’t know then what they do now, but, well, I got a little sick of all the praise Maybe-Hoover kept getting from The JSA – it just seemed to go on and on. I’ll leave it at that.



At six pages, this is a shorter tale than usual and three quarters of the first page is devoted to a magnificent image of The Spectre towering over a fleet of planes. We’ve seen the character grow to enormous heights before, but I’m hard pressed to recall a sight as awesome as this. I suggested before that Baily relying on cartoonish looking planets and stars was a result of sidestepping the dilemma an artist encounters when a regular sized object is presented alongside a giant object – say, having the regular sized Spectre grab hold of a humongous body such as a star. Make one thing look big, the other thing runs the risk of looking comical or fake. Not so here – a 200 foot tall Spectre smashing planes against a black sky is an arresting image and one which I suspect would imprint itself indelibly upon later writers hence very similar looking images making their way into comics decades down the road. Honestly, its unashamedly celebratory tone of what The Spectre can done when let loose feels more like All-Star Squadron than All-Star Comics where panels and time tended to be more compact.

The story itself is pretty straightforward though it’s always nice to see a superhero pound on some Nazis. While unusual, a fleet of autogyros making off with planes doesn’t have that added touch of the extraordinary Spectre tales require to be truly memorable. There are no memorable villains here either physically or characteristically, no plot that any superhero with the ability to fly could squash, and no real threat to our champion. It’s up to The Spectre to supply those details and there are a few on hand in addition to the afore mentioned splash.

First, The Spectre rises from the bottom of the autogyro when he makes his first appearance in this piece. We’ve seen him fly and walk through walls, but there’s something about him rising from the ground which feels a little more weird and therefore a little more right. It’s a little touch, but effective considering that he should be more ghost than superhero in my estimation.

Second, nice seeing that The Spectre can place people in a trance like state resembling death. Superman could do this of course to himself by stopping his heartbeat, but a good guy managing to do it to others? A neat trick and even something of a callback to the days when The Spectre might do this to a villain and just leave him stranded on the outer reaches of the universe.

Third, The Spectre swallows one of the Nazis’ bombs and then spits it back at its source. Impressive and disrespectful at the same time.

So a short story and to the point, but nice to see that little touches are still being added to the series.

Although his byline continued to appear for a time, Jerry Siegel turned over scripting duties on the Spectre series to Gardner Fox as of More Fun #72.

Cei-U!
I summon the secret substitution!