Cei-U! noted that it was Fox who introduced Popp but whether or not Fox did so under duress, I don't know.  I've read the Dr. Fate tales Fox wrote concurrently with his Spectre yarns (and which also appeared in More Fun at the same time) and given the fact that Fate (a character Fox did create) underwent a similar neutering (he lost his aura of mystique, most of his powers, even half of his helmet and eventually his cape, while Kent Nelson became a rather bland doctor of medicine as opposed to archeologist/adventurer) I don't think Fox was attached enough to The Spectre (a character who he didn't create) to take affront at the same sort of changes he was simultaneously bringing to his own creation.  If Fox were going to display some sort of rebellion on a feature he didn't want tinkered with, I have to imagine that rebellion would manifest itself on a character he created (Dr. Fate) and not on one he didn't (Jerry Siegel's Spectre).  I think Fox knew he couldn't get away with the sort of stories The Spectre was designed for and understood that the readers had spoken (or their parents or school teachers anyway) and wanted fun, law abiding, wholesome heroes in their comics and not creepy stuff out of Lovecraft.  I suspect that Fox was too much of a professional to be bothered by the idea of disrupting the purity of a character and in favour of going along with whatever the changing tastes of his audience wanted. 

I do wonder however if Fox hasn't spent most his time on The Spectre suspecting that each tale was to be his last. The Spectre's lost his cover status, he's even lost the little corner circle announcing his presence in More Fun, and when his name is mentioned on the cover, it comes after the rest of the features which is fitting considering the fact that his story is always the last in the book.  I suspect that Fox doesn't see any point in building upon a character who's been teetering on the edge of cancellation for some time and, if anything, is offering Popp as a possible replacement feature.  Though things won't work out that way, a comedy detective duo named Dover and Clover will soon be added to More Fun suggesting that Fox may have actually have been following the right trends by introducing Popp.  

All-Star Comics # 17 (June-July 1943)


 

Synopsis: A recap of the closing events of All-Star Comics #15 provides us with one additional detail omitted from the original entry - the villain Brainwave is still alive. Having the wherewithal to swing his smock over a beam jutting from his hideout as he apparently fell to his death following his previous encounter with The Justice Battalion, Brainwave survived that experience and has already planted the seeds for his vengeance upon the team. Having somehow stolen the minutes of all previous JSA meetings (how isn't explained) Brainwave has made a study of the society's past exploits and determined that the best way to conquer the group is by reducing their height to eight inches. This he achieves through his creation of a purple ray which he turns on the team after successfully breaking into their headquarters (How? Again, not explained).

So the Justice Society has been shrunk to eight inches in height and placed in individual cages. Having invited his men to this little soiree, Brainwave details the crimes he wants them to carry out. Though we aren't let in on these details (that would spoil the upcoming chapters) The JSA overhears his instructions (since Brainwave wanted them to so as to torment them further). Eight inches though they may be, helpless they are not for Hawkman manages to tweet to his birds who succeed in carrying each cage to the scene of Brainwave's intended crime. Hawkman! Sandman! And then... The Spectre's time comes...

"In a little frame house two men stare down at a queerly shaped gun..."

The aptly named Spider demonstrates this strange weapon gifted to him by Brainwave to his partner by firing it at an open doorframe. Instantly, a giant web is projected across the opening and when Spider's cohort skeptically attempts to tear the feeble looking barricade down, succeeds only in getting entangled within its snare. With its potency clearly illustrated for Spider's partner in crime, the pair head off to an unnamed bank where The Spectre is freed from his cage by the talons of Hawkman's eagle. Finding a couple of webbed up guards on the scene, The Spectre investigates finding it easy to navigate through the barrier due to his shrunken size.

Encountering the crooks as they attempt to rob the bank's vault, our pint sized hero uses whatever tool he can find to make his attack. He blinds one of the men with ink squirted from a pen and then stabs the crook with the instrument. Though the pair manage to fire a number of shots off in the general vicinity of the ghost, The Spectre's small size renders their efforts ineffectual.



Hiding in their loot bag, The Spectre travels with the hoods back to their base where he discovers the vat which produces the substance from which their webgun is filled. Tricking the hoods into chasing him around their shack, The Spectre manages to trip one into the vat and the other to touch a live wire which paralyzes him on the spot. When the rest of the gang arrive, The Spectre flies off into space, locates a meteor which he directs towards another, and arranges for the plummeting fragments to rain down upon the villains shack. The Spectre pulls a call box alarm summoning the police just in time for Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt to arrive upon the scene and carry him off to Brainwave's base, but not before using his magical powers to restore his size along with that of the rest of team.



What happens to Brainwave? Well, though he's planted a series of explosives along the trail leading up to his castle, what he doesn't know is that The Thunderbolt has rerouted them to inside his base. When Brainwave sets the explosives off (against Thunderbolt's advice) he succeeds only in blowing up his castle and himself (or does he) with it.

Thoughts: I wonder if this is the first time The Atom gets shrunken in size. I know it isn't the Al Pratt version who had that power, but still, kind of momentous in a trivial sort of way if so.

No idea why being shrunken in size should be anything more than a mild annoyance to The Spectre if that. He already has this power and no explanation is given as to why he can't simply enlarge himself right afterwards. I'm sure Fox could pull the old 'The Spectre could do this if he had been prepared for the attack but since he wasn't...' excuse, but having established that The Spectre still retains his abilities to fly into space and direct meteors, I'm not sure what sort of danger he's supposed to be in during the course of this tale. Why does he let Brainwave lock him in a cage if he still has his powers? Why doesn't he break out of it while en route to his destination rather than wait for Hawkman's bird to free him? For a series which is supposedly meant to introduce new readers to each character on this team, Fox sure is taking advantage of their presumed ignorance of the most basic of details to mold The Spectre into someone he's not (and I would guess Dr. Fate and Starman, too who should both be able to manage fine without their height if need be).

The webgun is pretty cool though by 1943, the superhero The Tarantula already owned one as early as 1941. So nothing new, but still interesting to see, though of course, since it's rendered useless the moment The Spectre walks through its openings, it loses quite a bit of its shine.

Not much else to say about this one other than The Spectre showering the crooks' hideout with meteors seems like a slight case of overkill. I mean, isn't alerting the police enough?

I think the F. in 'Gardner F. Fox' must have stood for "First Draft".
But once again, as deficient as the story itself turned out, we get something that one could easily imagine as a 1940's Poverty Row B-film. I can't think of many other Golden Age back-up strips that captured that feel as successfully.
Maybe Fox was receiving mental transmissions from a parallel Earth that had produced a series of Percival Popp movies...Earth-P?

More Fun Comics #94 (Nov-Dec 1943) "The Man Who Hated Puppets!"




Synopsis: While still a child, Martin Warren stopped to take in a Punch and Judy show while on his way home with his father's needed medication. The delay costs his father his life and to add insult to injury, a pickpocket helps himself to Warren's money during the show. Developing a psychological complex from the incident which manifests itself in a disdain for puppet shows, Warren, now a middle-aged, wealthy man, makes an except to his rule to abstain from such entertainment when his daughter requests that he attend a performance with her. Having the misfortune to be held up after the show, Warren vows to purchase the very theatre in which the performance was held and loudly proclaims his intentions within earshot of the detective who attempted to prevent the robbery - Percival Popp.

So while Popp is making Warren's business his business, Slick Greets (the head of the gang who waylaid Warren) decides that they're not finished with their victim from that evening. "See those pearls! There's a lot more where they came from - at Martin Warren's place!" And with that, Popp is commiserating with Pete, the owner of the venue Warren has targeted, as The Spectre listens in and decides to get involved. To save the theatre, The Spectre decides to animate some of Pete's puppets as Warren sleeps (well, when he awakens actually, since it would be pretty silly for him to do all this while he's sleeping) and takes turns mocking, guilting, and threatening the puppet-hater just as the janitor who has been bribed to turn off all power (thus, deactivating his employer's security system) makes his move. Though Warren didn't seem too bothered by The Spectre's puppet show chalking it up as he does to a dream, when The Spectre learns of Greets intentions for that evening, he sees an opportunity for Warren to turn to his puppets for help and lets things transpire of their own accord.



Finding Warren talking to imaginary puppets when they break into his room (great job, Spectre) Greets and his men figure that things couldn't go smoother for them as they plunder his home. When Warren expresses his concern over the loss of his valuables, the puppets offer a truce on the condition that should they save his fortune, Warren must accept that puppets aren't his enemy. "After all, if we saved your money we'd be bringing good luck, wouldn't we?"

So BAM! Truce it is. Popp shows up, is informed by the puppets that "this is our show, Perc, so stay out of it", and has a ring side to seat to these marionettes (actually, Spec) beating up Greets and his men. With the ne'er do wells defeated, Warren hands one of the puppets the money with which he was to buy the theatre and is last seen enjoying one of their actual performances as The Spectre remarks "Imagine anyone hating those little fellows!"




Thoughts: Once again, after initiating an idea, Fox decides to reuse the same idea soon afterwards. More Fun Comics #92 featured The Spectre bringing a ventriloquist's dummy to life to pester Percival Popp and catch some crooks as a bonus. Here, he animates a group of puppets to harass Martin Warren and steal Popp's thunder by snaring the criminals the super-cop would have certainly blundered to freedom. Unlike dummy Cholly McCasey who was imbued with a sprite-like mischievous personality in the hands of The Spectre, this time around, The Grim Ghost is really just playing with dolls, so much so, that when he first awakens Warren, it's clear that he isn't bringing the puppets to life with supernatural powers, but simply pulling their strings while rendering the strings invisible. As Lon Chaney once said "A ventriloquist's dummy at midnight can be frightening, but there's nothing frightening about using puppets as an excuse to sing to a grown man in his pajamas".

Nevertheless, there is something nasty about The Spectre's treatment of Martin Warren (a name which, incidentally, is also the name of Linda Page's Uncle in the first Batman serial which would have been released around this time). I can understand The Spectre spending all this time and energy on saving a puppet theatre (actually, I can't, but go with me on this) but how the hell does he justify accepting the money Warren was going to use to buy the venue when Warren thinks he's giving it to a magical puppet? Warren doesn't know he's actually giving it to The Spectre who, though he has saved him, isn't even someone he's actually met. Sure, Warren's giving it to him voluntarily and arguably even without being prompted, but after being subjected to The Spectre's antics, I'm not certain you can say he's of sound mind at the moment the handover is made - I mean, he's giving money to a puppet for Pete's Sake!

I guess you could say I'm not supposed to think deeply about such matters, but Fox's set-up is actually pretty interesting and original. Sort of, what if Bruce Wayne grew up hating films because of what happened when he went to see one that time with his parents? A kid who let his guard down to enjoy being a child for an hour gets his father killed here and should be suffering from all sorts of psychological aliments as a result - a unique idea, but Fox resolves it all too easily and rather grotesquely by having The Spectre add to his damaged psyche with his reckless actions. Another instance of Fox coming up with a cool idea and then looking for the easiest and blandest way to utilize it. Warren is an intriguing character reduced to the single dimensions you'd give to a background character all so that we can see The Spectre punch around a bunch of hoods.

Interestingly, for once, Percival Popp is shoved into the shadows here and The Spectre is given the spotlight. "This is our show, Perc, so stay out of it!" sounds like words The Spectre has been longing to say for a long time now.

MW Gallaher noted not too long ago that with the change in The Spectre's depiction now that he's invisible comes an interesting look for the character and I kind of agree with this outing. He doesn't come across so much as invisible at times in this story, but as someone with vaguely defined features - sort of like a negative of a photo in some respects with certain characteristics sharply outlined, but no real definition anywhere.

So The Spectre gets the spotlight for a change but in rather an unimpressive entry. Seven more issues to go and we'll see if he'll be asserting his right to star in these D level tales or letting Perc once again take over.

I had to double check to story to make sure that The Spectre couldn't be seen since he seems to appear and vanish at will throughout.  You're right about Peter the puppet maker seeming to look at him directly as opposed to looking towards the general vicinity of his whereabouts (though he could just be looking in the direction from which Spec's voice is emanating) and Baily did make The Spectre look more transparent when slugging a thug towards tale's end than at all other points, suggesting that some sort of change is going on.  I did notice too, that when The Spectre is performing his little puppet show for Warren's benefit, some panels reveal his hands manipulating the puppets while some seem to have them moving of their own accord.  It's almost as if Baily were alternating between showing us these events from the perspective of a reader who knows that The Spectre is around and from the perspective of Warren who doesn't.

I suppose a puppet show almost demands a smaller venue, but since the previous Cholly McCasey dummy yarn was predicated upon us accepting that a ventriloquist act could succeed on radio (which, based upon the success of such acts in real life, isn't actually an unusual requirement) I'm willing to go along with the notion.   

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm not so sure that you could consider the Spectre's abilities to be "limitless".  I don't really know where he stood in 1985/86 but based upon what I've read thus far (and keep in mind that despite the number of issues I've reviewed, I've only covered a three and a half year period so far) The Spectre is powerful enough to turn criminals into gibbering wrecks or skeletons simply with a glance but weak enough that he can be overcome by removing all oxygen from a room so long as he hasn't had time to prepare his lungs.  He can overcome evil versions of himself (such as Zor) despite their supernatural abilities far out stripping his at least in terms of experience, and yet he can be felled by technology such as a paralysis ray or color wheel in spite of the fact that you wouldn't expect a ghost to be susceptible to such science based equipment.  He can read minds, summon images from the past, and possesses a supernatural sixth sense informing him of where he needs to be, but he's also been flummoxed at least momentarily by run of the mill thieves.

The Tick has been described as possessing "drama power" which in essence means that the more dramatic the situation becomes, the stronger he gets.  The story requires him to be hampered by a cloud of smoke?  Then he's hampered.  The story requires him to fall thousands of feet and get by a train without problem?  No problem.

I think The Spectre is one of the better examples of a superhero exemplifying "drama power" given how all over the place his abilities are.

BUT...

As far as I know, the Anti-Monitor's abilities are limited to whatever can be explained away by comic book science - greater than real science of course, but it still has its limitations.  The Spectre, on the other hand, has access to The Voice who we are expected to believe either has a direct line to God or is God Herself.  I'd expect a Spectre vs. Anti-Monitor story circa 1941 to start with The Spectre realizing that he's been either outmatched at the end of their first encounter (or simply has no means by which to contain the Anti-Monitor), go up against him a second time, find himself struggling to undo the damage his opponent has done and continues to do, make a plea to The Voice for assistance, be granted The Ring of Life, and then blast The Anti-Monitor into nothingness.  Didn't the Earth-2 Superman deal the Anti-Monitor his killing blow in Crisis #12?  I figure if a guy who can summon the strength of a million suns can beat him, then a guy who can negate the strength of a million suns with the proper jewelry shouldn't have a problem. 

Of course, the real reason The Spectre will win will because he's the good guy.  A flip answer perhaps, but the truth is it's the good guy with access to those deux ex machinas which usually determine epic battles such as these and not the villain.