I like that too, but what I liked even more was The Spectre's admission that he simply didn't know much about Pluto.  All too often, the good guy has the precise knowledge required to extricate himself from a trap (or to simply provide some conveniently delivered bit of exposition) but here he's forced to go into a situation blind.  Still, kind of odd that he's familiar with the farthest reaches of space, but one of the nine planets in our solar system (as of 1942, at any rate) is a blank?  Odd, but even lacking info on something which should be relatively open to him is a nice little quirk of itself. 

Truly the most shocking Spectre story yet.
I think Fox was going for an Eisner-esque human interest tale, but just completely botched it by not having an instant of genuine emotional response by the characters or in the reader. Maybe Fox was considering making Spec a guardian angel type for random characters every episode? Or was he just continuing to flounder, trying to find a way to make this into a completely inoffensive, unchallenging strip?
(This is at least the second "Hiram" we've seen in the strip--was that a go-to character name for Fox?)
But you know, in a way, this particular story does resonate a bit in the immediate national social/political/cultural environment: I suppose many of us are feeling tempted to withdraw our savings and blow this tumultuous scene in fear of there being not much of a future to look forward to. I don't know if that "chuck it all" feeling was going around during the depths of WWII, but the Spectre's need to urge people to stay on the job suggests that Fox thought it was.

Hiram Mink:  Money!  Money!  That's all I see!  What a dull, dreary job this is!  I wish I could change it - get out and see the world!

Herbert Anchovy:  I've been an accountant for twenty years!  I want a new job - something exciting - something that will let me live!  Exciting?  No, it's not - it's dull, dull, dull, my God, it's dull!

More Fun Comics #86 (Dec 1942) "The Man Who Knew All the Angles!"


"Just how big I really can grow ought to be very interesting to you - because it all depends on you as to how far we go!"

Synopsis: Though little attention is paid to the straggly weathered soul entering a tavern in Panama, when he identifies himself as Smokey Storey, ears prick up. Though now a derelict who has clearly seen better days, his reputation is such that when a young loudmouth boasts openly about a crime for which "I've got every angle figured out", he's offered a chance to tell his tale.

"Yessir, I was a good crook! That was before I met The Spectre, though!"

Dismissing The Spectre as a myth, the youngster nevertheless listens to Storey's tale, presented here in flashback.

Who was Smokey Storey before he became this sad castaway of a man? Well, let's go back to a period referred to in a caption only as "those days" (which couldn't be all that long ago seeing as the period we'll be visiting has Percival Popp working with Jim Corrigan)...

Storey did dirty work for wealthy people by killing off anyone his clients wanted done away with. Lucrative business though it was, he eventually ran afoul of Corrigan and Popp when the pair begins investigating one of Storey's rich clients named Elerson. Warned of this interference by that client, Storey sets out to frame a cashier for Elerson's crime of theft while also arranging to have him bumped off. Unfortunately, Storey's gunman, Trigger attempts that murder at the same time Corrigan and Popp pay the cashier a visit (looks like Storey did too good a job with his frame-up since the pair are convinced "the cashier's our man". Just as Corrigan enters he room, he spots Trigger on the fire-escape ready to do in his target, and lets The Spectre take over. Growing to gigantic size and seizing Trigger in his hand, The Spectre subjects his prisoner to the freezing temperatures of space and the intense heat one is exposed to when forced to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at tremendous speeds. Naturally, Trigger confesses everything.



Though the name Smokey Storey means nothing to The Spectre ("Either he's so clever he isn't known to the police, or he's a beginner") he turns his attention on the criminal's home only to be greeted with a boobytrapped room of moving knives which cut through his body. Thankfully, as the grim ghost notes "If I wasn't in my supernatural state, I'd certainly be done for". So, no beginner here. Proceeding further into the house, The Spectre is ambushed by some of Storey's men who don't stand a chance against the hero. However, in the time it takes Spec to mop up the room with the hoods, Storey manages to toodle-oo his way out of there through a door concealed in his floor. Both men remind themselves that it will be only a matter time before they meet again.

With that in mind, Storey plans his next angle - frame Percival Popp for tipping that cashier off that Corrigan was going to pay him a visit and plant money and a letter of thanks in the squirt's home supporting that allegation. When Corrigan is advised of Popp's double-dealing, he pays his partner a visit and discovers this evidence in his mattress. Although convinced of his innocence, Corrigan is compelled to arrest Popp due to it being his duty as a lawman. On the other hand, there's nothing stopping The Spectre from setting him free which he does promptly by busting him out of jail and offering him a chance to help.

Whatever plan The Spectre has come up with is going to have to wait a moment. The next scene has a lookout on Popp's home announcing to Storey that Popp has somehow broke out of prison and is pacing his room frantically. Deciding that a desperate man with information on the police could come in handy, Storey has Popp brought before him. Storey's idea seems ready to bear fruit when Popp expresses his anger at the police for accepting his guilt so readily and suggests that his captor bring the District Attorney before him so that he can reveal all the hush money he's paid the super-cop to "cover up for crooks in his employ!" And so the D.A. is kidnapped. Or rather, The Spectre disguised as the D.A. is kidnapped. Once he's brought before Storey, The Spectre reveals his true form and with Popp fighting by his side, beats up his men. Storey himself escapes through a window only for the tale to pick up in the present day with the criminal adding that he was then captured by the police, served his time, and is now a down on his luck derelict. With his story at an end, his audience decides against pulling whatever job they had schemed to.


Thoughts: Though The Comics Code wouldn't take effect for well over a decade at this point, it's interesting to see one of its restrictions in place here - that villains must be punished by issue's end. This tenet manifests itself in the way it's rather clumsily established that even though Storey begins and ends this adventure as a free man (even escaping from The Spectre at the end of his flashback) he was later caught by the police and jailed as explained by an obviously tagged on 'and that's how that story ended. Oh, and by the way, the police caught me shortly thereafter and I served my full sentence in case anyone's wondering'.

Nevertheless, this wasn't a bad tale and has quite a bit going for it. Storey is presented as a clever and competent crook. Smart enough to get out of a jam and clever enough to tie up any loose ends unless those ends are being held by a supernatural force. While a roomful of knives presents no more of a challenge to The Spectre than ordinary bullets, the fact that Fox makes the effort to jazz up Storey's offense on The Spectre rather than just throw hoods at him for the ghost to rather blandly punch is appreciated. In fact, even when The Spectre does engage in the humdrum sort of fisticuffs he's been resorting to far too frequently within these pages, things are spiced up a bit when our hero knocks one of Storey's thugs through the transom of his boss's door (a moment hurt by having the thug quip 'Here I come, ready or not!' as his head smashes the glass).

Also nice to see a criminal turn his attention towards The Spectre when he learns of his involvement in his schemes rather than continue as planned. Having this realization occur immediately after The Spectre remark that he can wait his enemy out if he has to, deftly illustrates how both the good guy and bad guy share an understanding of what role they play in this little game. A similiar juxtaposition is presented in the way that Corrigan and The Spectre react to Popp's frame-up. Despite being the same person (I suppose) Corrigan feels obligated to toss his partner in prison when he's discovered with Storey's bribe since he's a police officer who has been placed in that position. Knowing that he's innocent however, The Spectre breaks him out immediately thereafter because, 'Hey, that's what vigilantes do'. Such a roundabout method of getting Popp in and out of jail might seem unnecessary, but it does make sense in that it could be argued that Corrigan is acting as a man of his word who presumably gave an oath that he would respect the law no matter what it asks of him while The Spectre is following the path of justice.

Speaking of which...

We haven't really seen The Spectre exhibit his powers in a new way recently, so it was a treat seeing him fly a crook into space to subject him to extreme cold and then extreme heat on the way back. Again, he isn't simply punching them around until he gets the answers he wants, but resorting to some ingenuity for a change.

It also seems that we're past the point of Popp nagging The Spectre/Corrigan for the right to be their partner. He's seen working into the night with Corrigan without complaint from the season detective as if such a sight should be expected at this point. Whether this will continue we'll have to wait and see.

All in all, The Spectre resembles something approximating his identity of old here. Someone who enjoys using his powers to torment criminals and a being who really shouldn't be wasting time with criminals who opt to shoot him in his chest when they should be attempting something grander. That Percival Popp doesn't play comic relief this time around (nor does The Spectre for that matter - whose air of mystery is somewhat reinstated when a crook argues that he's just a "myth") also helps remind us just whose title adorns the masthead here.  This honestly feels like a Spectre tale and not a "Percvial Popp with..." yarn.  Possibly the most Spectre-centric tale (excepting that issue of More Fun where Popp didn't appear) since Popp debuted within these pages so far.

There are a lot of available ingredients which go unused in this series.  Saddling Jim Corrigan with a partner when he needs to change into The Spectre has storytelling potential and yet we always get that transformation happening unobserved out in the open.  Even that bit of convenience has possibilities when you'd think either Siegel or Fox would have hit upon the idea of Corrigan being left in a trancelike vulnerable state when The Spectre leaps out of his body, or hey, have them co-exist but since Corrigan is now alive, why not remove his memory of being The Spectre so that he's genuinely trying to catch the guy.  Surely, Fox would have been aware of how successful Captain Marvel was at this time, so why not take a page from their book and have the real, living, breathing entity be the weak link in this Corrigan-Spectre partnership? 

It's always a little jarring seeing real life events mixed with super-powered characters. I still remember how out of place seemed the Marvel's issue dedicated to the 9/11. While I know that their hearths were in the right place, was quite disorienting seeing characters despairing for something that in the comics' world would be the result of you average Spider-Man vs Rhino brawl. Here you have characters like The Spectre or Green Lantern who could end the war in few minutes but they use their vast powers for food delivery.

Nice splash page, at least, telling a bit of the story, what with the hay bale blocks and the late night signal-painting right above the heads of the Nazi officers and soldiers. All-Star gets to be a little third-rate in a lot of the art, so moody shots like this are, and probably were, appreciated.
The Spectre poses we've seen lately from Baily or his ghosts look a little less like they're copied from "Physical Culture" magazines and often more like dancers, or maybe, in this case, an ice skater.