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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 20, 2020 2:06:48 GMT -5
All-Star Comics #23 (Winter 1944) "The Plunder of The Psycho-Pirate" Synopsis: The Daily Courier has been enjoining The Justice Society to join their crusade against the recent spate of emotion themed crimes which have garnered the country's attention (or maybe the city's attention since it isn't explicitly stated how wide spread these crimes are). Though the team decides to take editor, Morgan up on his offer, it is the man responsible for these misdeeds who first responds to his published plea with a note of his own. "I am a criminal. I am a great criminal, for not only have I never been caught, but thanks to my deft touch in the crimes I have planned, no one has even suspected me! Yet The Justice Society is equally great as crime fighters. It is inevitable that we must clash someday. Neither of us has yet failed and so I propose a contest between us. I shall issue six challenges to you to try to stop six crimes I have planned! The Psycho-Pirate!"  OK, so bingo-bango, The Psycho-Pirate is back (writing as if he's never met The JSA despite two previous occasions contradicting this) and his challenge neatly offers each hero a chance to set their wits against his with each encounter using a different emotion as its theme. Fear, love, hate - it's all there, and for The Spectre, "I'm to fight greed. Well, I've done that before, and won!" Well, let's see shall we?
The Spectre's tale: With only two copies of The Grinning Guardian idol known to exist, collector Iva Mason (who owns one of them) jumps at the chance offered to him by a cloaked stranger to own the other copy. His fee for delivering the item appraised at a cool million dollars? $500,000. Mason accepts the offer. With only two copies of The Grinning Guardian idol known to exist, collector Ephraim Smith (who owns one of them) jumps at the chance offered to him by a cloaked stranger to own the other copy... And so, this shifty, unnamed caller of dubious moral character has set himself up to "obtain" the copy owned by Smith for Mason, and the copy owned by Mason for Smith with neither party knowing of this snag. Just how does the gentleman in the blue hat intend to accomplish this feat? Well, let's get to the part where The Spectre enters the scene first... We learn that The Spectre's mission is to protect Smith from being robbed. When he enters Smith's home and introduces himself, he tells the collector as much and his intent to prevent this from occurring. Hearing someone approach, Spec hides behind a curtain to observe the return of the non-moustachioed scoundrel (I really wish Fox had named this guy) who is acting as a middleman for both Smith and Mason. Claiming that the police witnessed his theft of Mason's statue and his intention to claim that Smith bribed him to steal the idol, the pants wearing criminal offers his mark a chance - "Give me your idol! I had to throw the other one away when I thought they were going to catch me -- but if I replace it with yours, they won't know the difference and there'll be no prosecution! Later, I can return it to you!" Smith agrees and gives him the statue. The Spectre trails the crook to his hideout and finds him gloating that both rubes fell for his story and he now owns both copies of The Grinning Guardian. Though he makes short work of the criminals, The Spectre hesitates when Smith and Mason's "dealer" offers him a deal of his own. Let him take The Spectre to The Psycho-Pirate. And no, I'm not sure just what the catch with that deal is supposed to be. There's no "I'll take you to The Psycho-Pirate if you let me go free" clause or anything like that, just "Follow me and I'll take you where he is! Then you can get him!" The Spectre thinks the proposition over thusly: "My every instinct warns me that this lad is a phoney, and this is just a trick... but - but suppose it isn't??? I could smash The Psycho-Pirate myself and save my Justice Society buddies from him!" So with that, The Spectre decides to let the guy take him to The Pirate. Here then, is the part of the tale dealing with the emotion of greed. The Spectre's greedy desire to assure the safety of his friends is the means by which The Psycho-Pirate intends to do him in though it isn't yet clear how. However, when The Spectre does enter the villain's home, he is caught off-guard by vents which release "noxious fumes" - a knockout gas of some sort obviously, but how it can affect The Spectre isn't explained - choking and collapsing to the floor, The Spectre manages to save himself only by throwing the two Grinning Guardians through a pane of glass thus enabling the air outside to revive him. The Psycho-Pirate (disguised by a gasmask) enters the scene only to make a quick retreat using The Spectre's guide as a distraction by which to make his escape. The Spectre chides himself for his greed, but consoles himself through a reminder that he caught some crooks and reacquired Smith and Mason's statues. He flies off to The Courier's office to see how the rest of the team is doing. 
The rest of the tale: Morgan is in low spirits after learning that his men have deserted him, that he's been refused a badly needed loan, and he's being foreclosed. Starman reassures him that when The Psycho-Pirate is caught, these issues will clear themselves up, but Morgan doubts that the wily criminal will be captured. Thankfully, The Atom enters the picture and identifies Morgan's linotype setter Halstead as The Pirate connecting him with the events which transpired during his solo outing in this tale. Realising the odds against him, The Pirate gives in to despair and lets The JSA take him without resistance. Thoughts: A very poor showing for The Spectre on a number of levels. Where to begin? - While there is precedent for The Spectre being overcome due to an attack on his lungs (in All-Star Comics #13 when all oxygen is sucked out of a room) that earlier instance can be excused I believe, on account of the fact that it was necessary to have The JSA overpowered at the same time to tell a larger story with a bigger pay-off. It's a cheat sure, but it's a cheat with a reward at the end of it. This time around though, Fox doesn't even bother with an apologetic caption attempting to sort of/kind of convince us that The Spectre is invulnerable to such an attack only if he is prepared for it - instead, he almost seems to expect the reader to not care enough about The Spectre to be bothered by this discrepancy. That Fox himself doesn't appear to be interested in coming up with some sort of supernatural predicament to threaten The Spectre (ie. those idols contain magical elements) and just treats him as if he were Johnny Thunder is sad. - Though not displaying the same level of stupidity as Smith does when he hands over his million dollar statue to Mr. Cloak and Hat, The Spectre admits that he's "not sure" if his ridiculous story about needing the idol to sqaure things with the police is on the level or not. Really? "The police saw me steal Idol #1 but if you give me yours and I turn it over to them they'll give it right back to me so I can give it back to you". What part of that sounds reasonable to The Spectre? - I get that the days when The Spectre could summon up an image from the past or alter a criminal's brain so that he is now an upstanding member of society or read minds are well behind us, but that he can be flummoxed by having a criminal point out that "Hey, I know where my boss is and I can take you to him" as if such an achievement is outside the realms of possibility is pretty pathetic. OK, I sort of get that The Spectre is thinking more along the lines of "if an offer seems too good to be true..." but still, what sort of trap could such an ordinary criminal have prepared for him even if this is a trap. Oh, right gas. But even there, it would be like Superman questioning the wisdom of following a criminal to Luthor's hideout because "what if Luthor tries to hit me with a mallet? It's a terrible risk I'm taking". It's too bad - this one started with promise since a crook stealing one collector's idol to give to a second collector and then stealing the second collector's idol to give to collector number one is pretty clever and funny, but it almost seems as if Fox came up with the idea before deciding that he was unable to resolve this dilemma intelligently and just gave up trying. It's been pointed out that while this issue marks his last appearance in this title, The Spectre was scheduled to appear in later stories before having The Flash or someone take his place. This time around however, it feels as though this was originally a Johnny Thunder tale in which the dimwitted goof got replaced by The Spectre hence his ineptitude here. A rather sad whimper of a yarn for The Spectre to go out on within these pages. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 20, 2020 7:29:48 GMT -5
Hey, here's an idea: what if the Spectre we've been seeing in All Star is actually the Jim Corrigan half of the partnership? Yeah, he's supposedly off fighting the war, but weren't the JSA inducted as the Justice Battalion for the duration, and he sees the JSA as part of his official responsibilities to the country? Perhaps he retains some subset of The Spectre's powers, including the ability to transform his appearance, and and a few superhuman abilities like flight, but being human rather than ghost, he's still vulnerable to conventional dangers like gas (and gullibility)? Maybe Jim's still trying to fulfill his JSA obligations, and pawning off the pesky Popp on his invisible spirit self, while he retains a solid, visible form and enough magic to hold his own with the likes of Dr. Midnite and The Atom!
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 21, 2020 12:20:37 GMT -5
I've wondered that too. A little while back I suggested that one could explain The Spectre's buffoonery by his trying to break his contract with The Voice. He doesn't want to spend eternity waging a war on crime which he can never win, knows The Voice won't let him out of their arrangement when he requests it, and so hits upon the scheme of embarrassing himself as much as he can so that The Voice will have to fire him. Of course, as it turned out, Corrigan shrugged off The Spectre and with him his obligations effortlessly back in More Fun 90 so there goes that idea. I would have liked to have seen Corrigan return from the war in 1945, pay a surprise visit to his old friend, The Spectre and confront him with all the goofball antics he's proven prone to since his absence. "You're supposed to be killing bad guys! Killing! Why are you and Popp playing with dolls!"
I still suspect that there are multiple Spectres afoot. Perhaps every time Corrigan transformed into and out of The Spectre he left behind enough vestigial traces of ectoplasm for those blobs to turn into inferior copies of the ghost. Who knows, maybe even Popp is one of these things.
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 23, 2020 23:53:03 GMT -5
More Fun Comics #101 (Jan-Feb 1945) "The Unsafe Safe!" Synopsis: After quickly establishing that Popp now has his own crimefighting headquarters (presumably somewhere in Police HQ but this is never specified) the super-cop responds to a nearby cry for help emanating from a jewelry shop. There he finds that into one of the store's jewelry trays has fallen a "valuable necklace" worn by a prospective buyer who had the misfortune of having the strand binding said item break while he was looking over the merchant's wares. As a result, his valuables are now mixed in with those of the store. Popp announces that he'll take the items to his lab where he'll look them over and return after separating and re-arranging the gems. Though the shopkeeper isn't comfortable with this arrangement, the customer and his pals won't dream of impugning Popp's good name. "Sir! This is Percival Popp, the inimitable cop! I trust him with my jewels, why can't you?" So intending to return to his lab, Popp leaves the establishment only to be trailed by some of the second party's (who, by this time, it has become obvious are pulling a neat little scam) hoods. Thankfully, The Spectre has chosen this moment to pay his pal a visit and quickly makes short work of the thugs before Popp even has a chance to know he's being followed. However, since The Spectre decides to simply stand guard over the blaguards until the police arrive, the scam artists manage to waylay Popp in his laboratory where they steal the jeweler's goods and lock the idiot cop in his safe with their fakes. Soon enough though, good old Spectre shows up, releases Popp, and confirms the confidence trick for the benefit of his perplexed pal. He doesn't, however, stick around long enough to do the same for the jeweler who barges in with the police in tow. Opting instead to fly off with Popp, The Spectre deduces from his description that The Ruby Diller mob is the source of their troubles. Alighting in their hideout in time to hear the gang gloat of their success in making a fool out of Popp, the pair tackle the gang with Popp (thanks to a well placed fan biting him in the backside propelling him forward) even getting in a shot this time around. The police arrive, Popp is cleared, and the duo fly off again this time to donate the detective's safe to the scrap heap. Popp comments, "It also ends my dream of a detective career... till the next time!" as the safe is carted away as The Spectre stands with his back turned toward him.  Thoughts: But there will be no next time for Popp and The Spectre will not see the light of darkness again until 1966. Interestingly, one Jerry Siegel creation would be replaced by another with this issue - Superboy. Although Siegel and Shuster had long expressed an interest in telling tales of Superman as a boy - "before he developed a social conscience" was the way I once heard Siegel's idea described - DC rejected the idea, waited until Siegel was in the army, and introduced the character without consulting the creator or paying him. Siegel would sue for the rights to Superman and Boy and for a fair share of the profits from these characters, have it ruled that while DC owned Superman, Siegel owned Superboy, and after settling with DC out of court over the rights to both Superman and Superboy, the two parted company until the end of the next decade. So a strange arc for The Spectre. Introduced with so much promise towards the end of 1939, he would be bastardized by Gardner Fox when Siegel went off to war and, to add further insult to injury, be replaced by none other than a stolen idea of his marking not only the end of Siegel's second biggest creation for DC (albeit in an almost unrecognizable form) but triggering an end to Siegel himself at DC until 1959. Kind of darkly fitting then that this tale should end with The Spectre standing in front of a truck headed to the scrap heap. Of course, The Spectre's More Fun trajectory saw him cross paths with other threats to his standing within this title. In the very issue which promised the introduction of Percival Popp, Super-Cop in the next installment, this title introduced The Green Arrow and Aquaman. If Spec had competition enough Doctor Fate making the scene in issue 55 then issue 73 must have come as a shock, and yet... The Spectre's run lasted longer with Popp than without. 23 issues of More Fun without Popp ( More Fun Comics #52-73 and 77) vs. 27 with ( More Fun Comics #74-76, 78-101). Of course, with 23 issues of All-Star Comics factored in (the first two acting more like early bonus tales during his early period given that All-Star at this time was an anthology series and not JSA pseudo team-up title) in which Popp was nary to be found, that'll double his solo run to 46. Still, a character who "deliver[ed] death with a glance" (as promised in his debut) who would leave his prey "frozen with horror" (issue 55) whose early adventures inspired readers to murder their wives and their lovers (check out M.W.'s post on the second page of this thread) cast all of that ambience aside in favour of the comedy stylings of Percvial Popp. Hell, he even cast Jim Corrigan aside to make room for Popp further underscoring just how much of a shell The Spectre had become by the end of his run. Speaking of which... eh. Kind of an interesting ploy - dropping one's gems seemingly by accident into a jeweler's tray and arranging for the separator to favour you - but just was this mob's plan had Popp not stumbled onto the scene? They certainly weren't expecting him to bumble his way onto the scene, so how did they expect to resolve this scam? Just hope that the jeweler lets them walk away with the tray? When The Spectre barrels into the crooks at the start of this tale, the text makes it clear that he is "unseen" due to his invisibility, but those men who missed out on the action watch from a distance and cry, "Scram! The Spectre!" I guess criminals have finally sussed out the fact that when people go flying around as if accosted by some invisible force, The Spectre is around. As a matter of fact, when Popp goes after the crooks after being incriminated by them, the villains put two and two together to correctly deduce that where Popp goes, so too does old' Spec. And with the yarn concluding with Popp's safe being turned over to the scrap drive, we return to Fox's penchant of having The Spectre keep his pet on a short leash - Popp might get ahead on some occasions, but when he does, The Spectre is there to make sure he doesn't stay there. That this story ends with Fox explaining why Popp won't get to keep his equipment, it seems as if the writer were attempting to maintain a certain status quo so that his next Spectre tale can adhere to the same bland set-up it always has. In other words, it seems like Fox didn't know this would his last Spec tale within these pages though since I can't think of any Golden Age character who got a last issue send-off, I'm not sure it would have mattered if he had. So no more Spectre. More Fun would soon become a humour book and even the recently introduced Superboy would have to take up new digs in Adventure Comics along with Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Johnny Quick. Not sure if The Spectre was thought of as lower ranked than these heroes or if the fact that because Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Johnny Thunder were Mort Weisigner creations they were given higher status due to Weisinger's clout (which, to be honest, I don't know if this carried much weight in 1945). In 1961, The Spectre would win The Alley Award for 'Hero or Heroine Most Deserving of a Revival' so it's clear that he had quite a number of fans during this run (though whether they were thinking of his early adventures or of his solo appearances in All-Star, I can't say). So, I've done what I set out to do - cover the whole of The Spectre's Golden Age adventures from start to finish and it's all here. Which isn't to say that this is where this thread ends. I'll look at the coming issues of All-Star Comics which would have had The Spectre if only he were available (and indeed, did have The Spectre for a short time) and then I think I'll follow Shaxper's suggestion and create a list of sorts of significant, memorable, and unique stories to serve as a quick encapsulation of the stories I'd keep and skip should I ever do a sort of 'All you need to know' thread on the Golden Age guy. As always, thoughts and comments are appreciated as are ideas for where you might want this thread to go from here. My thanks to everyone for adding to this thread or just reading it invisibly!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 24, 2020 7:47:05 GMT -5
Thanks for working through those... this was one of those runs I was thinking about getting a collection for... I think I can pretty safely pass on it now! Maybe the first Archive or two (assuming they are out there)  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 24, 2020 8:43:50 GMT -5
As should be quite apparent, I've enjoyed the heck out of your detailed review, chadwilliam . Finally having the impetus to read all of the Golden Age Spectre stories along with you on this thread has satisfied the completionist instinct that's always followed me. My first exposure to the character was on the boxes of Ben Cooper Halloween costumes, and I was disappointed that I never could find the costume of the creepy whitefaced guy peering from behind his green hood and cloak (mainly because the costume never existed, damn you Ben Cooper and your misleading packaging!). In print, I first encountered him in DC's reprint backups of the early 70's, and then in the glorious Adventure Comics run. In those days, information on the content of old comics was hard to come by, and I was fascinated by the few remarks I saw about the feature's transformation into a Percival Popp vehicle. It sounded awful, but I desperately wanted to sample some of those stories, the ones that were never reprinted, and never mentioned "in continuity" (heck, I don't think Popp even showed up in Crisis, did he?). Now I've read them all, and found the Popp stories to be not quite what I'd imagined them to be, and even developed some genuine affection for them. As I've mentioned a few times in this thread, imagining the Popp stories as a Poverty Row film series about a bumbling detective who doesn't realize all his successes are due to his invisible ghost friend has made them go down easier. In my head canon, Corrigan now returns from the war, merges again with his ectoplasmic alter ego, regaining their full joint mystical energies after their stretch of independent existence, invisible ghostly Spectre having been hanging out with Popp, human semi-powered Corrigan/Spectre having been splitting his duties between the army and occasional JSA adventures. They part ways with Popp, who's now well established on his own as a genuinely renowned detective. Clarice has been privy to Corrigan's superhero identity as "The Spectre", but not to the true nature of his supernatural powers (since he's only been the "human version" since the undocumented revelation of his secret implied by that All Star Comics bombshell). Jim thinks better of continuing to be involved with her, anticipating that the restored Spectre may now once again be called to do battle with awesome occult threats, and they beat a path to Gateway City, where... ...at this point, the official DC Universe canon takes over once again, and I hope, since you've asked about future installments, you'll at least review the character's return to print in Showcase #60, where we learned how The Spectre's Golden Age adventures came to a halt in 1945. Of course, I'm game for carrying on through Spec's Silver Age solo series, with a couple of other JSA co-features and its own radical change of direction toward the end, and the Bronze Age Adventure Comics classics, and even the Ghosts pair-ups with Dr. Thirteen, but I know these extensive explorations can be exhausting, so I'll understand if you prefer to wrap it up with the Golden Age, per the thread title. It's been a fine thread, and a pleasure to come along for the ride! |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 26, 2020 22:38:39 GMT -5
As should be quite apparent, I've enjoyed the heck out of your detailed review, chadwilliam . Finally having the impetus to read all of the Golden Age Spectre stories along with you on this thread has satisfied the completionist instinct that's always followed me. Thank you for the compliment! I've thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts on these reviews/issues which I've looked forward to without exception since you started sharing them. I really hope you'll stick around M.W! |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 26, 2020 22:51:41 GMT -5
As M.W. Gallaher has noted, while All-Star Comic #23 marks the end of The Spectre's forays into the pages of this title, such was not the original intention for the character. With All-American Comics splintering off from DC, The Spectre simply was no longer available to make appearances within these pages. However, with that decision not being finalized until after Fox had already penned a number of issues featuring the character, one can almost squint their eyes and see how the guy would have been worked into these tales (or simply visualize The Spectre where they see The Flash since the latter was redrawn/pasted over the former on at least two occasions). With that in mind, this is a quick look at All-Star Comics #24 (the first All-Star Comics #24 anyway)  Originally, the story which eventually found its way into All-Star Comics #30 would have appeared here (why it was delayed for six issues, I don't know) and the team would have, as mentioned, counted The Spectre as part of its roster. When "The Dreams of Madness" did see print, gone was The Spectre and his chapter of this adventure in which The JSA go after Brain Wave was replaced by a Flash tale. It's unfortunate since this is a fun little romp. Disguised as a scientist/psychologist, Brain Wave tricks the team into letting him record their dreams so better understand and therefore help mankind. His ruse? Use his machine to make them dream what he wants them to with the end result being their descent into perpetual madness. As mentioned, The Flash's little jaunt into dream land wasn't achieved simply by pasting his face and costume over top The Spectre's yarn, but by coming up with a new chapter altogether written specifically with the speedster in mind. As a result, we simply don't know what Fox had intended for The Spectre since, as far as I know, his original draft no longer exists, but something akin to The Spectre in Wonderland sounds about right given the contents of this issue. Hawkman discovers himself in a land of refrigerators where ice cube people tasked with the responsibility of switching the light off when the fridge door is closed do battle with matchstick men; Doctor Mid-Nite does battle against giant germ people who spend their time operating on human beings so as to wipe out the deadly plague that is mankind; and so forth. The Flash, incidentally, enters a world where cartoon animals rule the world and human beings are stupid creatures incapable of speech (at least, that's according to one human who tells Flash as much) and the world's fastest man loses a race to a hare. It's fun stuff and with each chapter sort of designed to cater to each member's individual hallmarks (ie. Doctor Mid-Nite is a doctor, hence his germ based dream; The diminutive Atom going up against giants, and so forth) it'd be interesting to know what Fox had in mind for The Spectre. A world of ghosts where everyone's frightened by the living perhaps? Oh well, unless something turns up, I guess we'll never know. However, we have a much clearer idea of how the next issue would have looked had Spectre stuck around as initially intended...  |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 27, 2020 18:02:06 GMT -5
And the All-Star Comics #24 as published.  Recognize the DC logo in the corner of the cover? Neither do I. This I just don't get. 'An All-American Publication'? This wasn't the only DC (?) comic to appear at this time with that brand upon its cover. You'll also find it on All-Flash #17, Flash #62, Green Lantern #14, Sensation #38, Mutt and Jeff #16, and Funny Stuff #3 and frankly, I don't know why. Even accounting for the fact that The Green Lantern was an 'AA' character, surely The Flash wasn't. And why is this logo here at all? I know that around this time Max Gaines was looking to sell his share in All-American to Jack Liebowitz (which he did) and that the two companies would merge, but was this simply a matter of 'why do all of our comics have the DC logo on it when we're partners? 'OK, ok, we'll put your brand on these issues then' diplomacy? Well, whatever's going on - here's this issue's roll-call: The Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Atom, Doctor Mid-Nite, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder, Wildcat (making his first of two appearances in this title), and Mr. Terrific (making his only appearance in this title). Presumably, The Flash's return to this series was in response to the gap created through the absence of The Spectre (I suppose with the page count going down, AA and DC's eventual merge, a desire to pare down their superhero output, he was selected for the chopping block) but had The Spectre originally been scheduled to appear in place of The Flash, there probably wouldn't have been much for him to do. Though he appears with the group and is warmly recognized and received as an Honorary Member, The Flash isn't granted his own tale in this issue. It's possible that the Mr. Terrific or Wildcat tales were offered as substitutes for Spec and Starman in this piece about The JSA's attempt to convince a young man that he should ignore his doubts over the need to fight in war and enlist against the Nazis as his family desires, but there's nothing that really screams Spectre to me other that Mr. Terrific's entry opening with him paying a visit to 1725 where he and the young man (who transforms into a young boy) meet Frederick The Great as a child. Mr. Terrific leaves the two alone so they can play with some of dolls which, followers of this thread will recognize, as one of The Spectre's favorite past times. Mr. Terrific isn't given a lot to do in this outing save for beating up some bad guys towards the end and he accomplishes this in such an ordinary manner (he breaks a chair over a bad guy's head, slugs another on the jaw, etc) that there's nothing about his methods which suggest The Spectre (who, admittedly, himself wasn't doing a lot which screamed 'The Spectre' towards this time either). The same goes for Wildcat's adventure as he and his guest visit 1896 against the backdrop of a chemist's laboratory. Wildcat drops off his pal and picks him up at the end and that's about it aside from some basic fighting and slugging near the Swiss border. With the shuffling around of issues here (as I stated above, the original plans for this comic were moved to All-Star #30) I don't know if Spectre was intended be involved at all. Had he been, I don't see how he could have really stood out since the team stays more in the background than usual so that their dissenting friend can take the stage. Next issue however, would make it clear that The Spectre, though absent, was originally meant to join the fun of All-Star Comics #25. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 28, 2020 13:22:36 GMT -5
Flash was indeed one of the properties claimed by the "All-American" side of the partnership. AA had All-American Comics and Sensation Comics and Flash Comics and all of the superheroes that originated in those titles, while DC had Action Comics, Detective Comics, Adventure Comics, More Fun Comics, and all of those titles' features including, of course, Superman and Batman. AA had those two JSA adventures already in the can when the split came down, forcing development of a quick replacement in the new issue 24, so Spectre and Starman were never a part of this story during its conception. Two Morrows' All Star Companion doesn't come to a definitive answer as to why Wildcat and Mr. Terrific were drafted but it's obvious that Flash and Green Lantern were being returned to the fold to make up for the future unavailability of the DC-owned characters (although surely Spectre wouldn't have continued on in any case once his solo feature was canned). One would think that Flash and GL could have been full participants rather than Wildcat and Terrific, but maybe AA wanted to play up some of their stable of underutilized features to detract from the disappearance of the DC guys from the team.
As it turned out, All Star didn't suffer much from the loss of DC characters. Aside from guest appearances from Batman and Superman, I don't believe there were ever any more JSA participants from the DC side even once the companies reunited. Of course, there wasn't a lot to choose from presuming the World's Finest team was off-limits for regular appearances. Past members like Sandman, Spectre, Hour Man, Starman, and Dr. Fate were either defunct or nearing the end of publication, Johnny Quick would have been redundant, Aquaman wouldn't have been an especially appealing character to poach, and it would be unseemly for one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory to jump ship.
The question that occurs to me now is whether The Spectre should ever have been a JSA member in the first place. We've seen how in the later issues, the JSA Spec was way out of sync with the More Fun Spec, and the early Spectre never seemed the type to pal around with superheroes. Of course, with the JSA being the birthplace of the very concept of the supergroup as an ongoing premise, they can be forgiven for not anticipating how the team's function and dynamics and tone would play out. Superhero teams seem to naturally tend toward being high profile organizations in their fictional worlds, making characters more suited for low profile activity inappropriate. This problem continued to this day, with characters like Batman having to simultaneously be an urban legend as well as a mainstay of the well-known JLA, or Mr. Miracle spoiling his day job as an escape artist also being a public superhero in a later JLA (come on, if you know the guy has super god powers, is it really that impressive to see him escape from a death trap?).
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 28, 2020 16:04:37 GMT -5
is early adventures or of his solo appearances in All-Star, I can't say). So, I've done what I set out to do - cover the whole of The Spectre's Golden Age adventures from start to finish and it's all here. Which isn't to say that this is where this thread ends. I'll look at the coming issues of All-Star Comics which would have had The Spectre if only he were available (and indeed, did have The Spectre for a short time) and then I think I'll follow Shaxper's suggestion and create a list of sorts of significant, memorable, and unique stories to serve as a quick encapsulation of the stories I'd keep and skip should I ever do a sort of 'All you need to know' thread on the Golden Age guy. As always, thoughts and comments are appreciated as are ideas for where you might want this thread to go from here. My thanks to everyone for adding to this thread or just reading it invisibly! chadwilliam, you delivered one of the most thorough, entertaining histories of a comic character I've read in a very long time. Honestly, aside from a few editorial changes, your work could be in a book of the kind we see from ToMorrows Publishing. I do hope you take a deep dive into his great 1970s run, and how he was elevated to a deserved, bigger-than-life (ironically enough) status in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Kingdom Come. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 29, 2020 22:52:36 GMT -5
is early adventures or of his solo appearances in All-Star, I can't say). So, I've done what I set out to do - cover the whole of The Spectre's Golden Age adventures from start to finish and it's all here. Which isn't to say that this is where this thread ends. I'll look at the coming issues of All-Star Comics which would have had The Spectre if only he were available (and indeed, did have The Spectre for a short time) and then I think I'll follow Shaxper's suggestion and create a list of sorts of significant, memorable, and unique stories to serve as a quick encapsulation of the stories I'd keep and skip should I ever do a sort of 'All you need to know' thread on the Golden Age guy. As always, thoughts and comments are appreciated as are ideas for where you might want this thread to go from here. My thanks to everyone for adding to this thread or just reading it invisibly! chadwilliam, you delivered one of the most thorough, entertaining histories of a comic character I've read in a very long time. Honestly, aside from a few editorial changes, your work could be in a book of the kind we see from ToMorrows Publishing. I do hope you take a deep dive into his great 1970s run, and how he was elevated to a deserved, bigger-than-life (ironically enough) status in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Kingdom Come. Thank you very much for the generous praise! Not sure how far I'll be going, but at least touching upon Fleischer's run is a very tempting idea. Thanks again! |
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 2, 2020 0:52:49 GMT -5
OK, so here we have what would have been a Spectre story from All-Star #25 had The Flash not taken his place. It's clear from the end product that it was a quick patch-up job which took care of the switch and not a more involved rewrite as was the case with issue 30/24. With that in mind... 
All-Star Comics #25 ( "The Mystery of the Forgotten Crime") Summer 1945 Synopsis: "Rob Victor didn't kill Tim Kimball". So declares an amnesiac of 20 years who has somehow managed to stumble his way into JSA headquarters two decades after Rob Victor was convicted for the murder which this stranger claims he didn't commit. Why wait 20 years to divulge this information? Well, you see, this stranger only recently recalled this little tidbit of information after having his memory partially restored following a car accident that day, but that "little tidbit" is all which has dislodged itself from the clouded memory which still permeates his brain. Not only is this fellow incapable of recalling his own name, but he doesn't know how he knows what he knows about this crime other than being "absolutely positive that Rob Victor is innocent". This isn't to say that the team is entirely lacking in clews. A silver belt buckle, a wallet, a scarf, a gold watch, and a tie-clasp - the contents of the stranger's pockets serve as the only leads the team has to go on and while this seemingly disparate collection of items offers little in the way of evidence, it is enough for them to get started. Although The Flash/Spectre feels left out of the proceedings when it is the others who follow-up these slim leads, he is offered the chance to get involved in the action when, after being informed that gambling czar, Big Hunk has been doing his damnedest to obstruct the rest of the group, it is he who is sent after the shady customer himself. "It'll be a pleasure", responds The Flash/Spectre. The Fash/Spectre's tale: Arriving via rooftop at Big Hunk's club, Chez Adams, The Flash/Spectre roughs up the gambler's men and intimidates the information he's after out of Hunk. As it turns out, Big Hunk was given $100,000 by Kimball's brother, Hengast to keep the JSA from investigating his brethren's death. The Flash-Spectre corroborates his tale and reconvenes with the team. At the conclusion of the tale, it turns out that not is Tim Kimball still alive, but in the team's very midst in the form of the amnesiac stranger. Rob Victor, having since escaped the prison he was sent to for Kimball's murder, enters the story after revealing that Kimball caught his eye when walking along the street. Witnessing the accident which partially jarred his memory back into semi-place, Victor followed the man whom he was believed to have killed to JSA headquarters, where he recognizes Kimball for who he is (an identification he didn't make at first beyond a vague 'Don't I know that guy from someplace?' sentiment given the time which had elapsed between 1925 and the present year of 1945). With Kimball's memory restored by the sudden revelation of his true identity, he recounts the events of that night back in 1925. It turns out that it was Hengast (actually, his cousin and not brother as earlier claimed by his kin) took advantage of Victor after he had too much to drink to frame him for Tim's murder - a murder which never actually took place. Though a shot was fired, Tim Kimball survived the experience but fainted. A nearby hobo attempted to rob him, Kimball awoke to fight him off, there was a fire, the hobo's body was found, ergo the public thought Kimball (who, after recuperating from his bullet wound, was hit by by a tree which was hit by lightning which caused his amnesia - look, I'm just relaying what the story is, ok?) was dead. Rob Victor, who was in a drunken stupor when he was supposed to have killed Kimball, remember, thought he was guilty of the crime he never committed and now knows the truth. Hengast is captured and the case is closed. Thoughts: OK, so clew #1 that The Spectre played the Flash role in this tale - the cover. Though technically not flying, it seems unusual to have The Flash leaping through the air to attack the mystery figure in this image. The flying heroes are air-borne, the ones incapable of flying are grounded with the exception of The Flash. However, pasting an image of The Flash overtop The Spectre would explain this. Clew #2 - The splash page  The Flash isn't really known for materializing through solid objects and, again, doesn't really drop from the sky (or travel along roof-tops a la panel #1 for that matter). Or maybe he does. I haven't read a lot of Flash stories so it's quite possible that his MO here wouldn't have struck too many readers as all that unusual. He does adopt a tough guy attitude when handling Hunk and his men - he throws one his goons across a table, tosses out a lot of that 'let's have a friendly little chat, wink, wink' sort of dialogue - but such parlance wouldn't have been solely the calling card of The Spectre (who was just as likely to make bad jokes as he was to toss around flip threats so I can't really that the dialogue is more Spectre than Flash. However, there is a bit where Hunk turns down The Flash's request that he start talking by remarking "I'd as soon talk as I would fly" which transitions into The Flash taking him up on his offer by leaping off with him. The relevant panel doesn't quite depict The Flash as flying through the air (despite his "now you're flying" reply) but it doesn't conclusively show him speeding along the ground either. A sparsely depicted background and some strategically (assuming it was intentional) speed lines make thinks unclear in this regard.  So, not really a missed opportunity for The Spectre. It isn't as though this story would have been a classic or covered any new ground for the character had it been published as originally written and drawn. Still, it's a bit disappointing that The Spectre wasn't able to stick around for this entry since (assuming that nothing else was changed) he would have gotten a fairer share of the spotlight in this tale than he normally did. Usually, Spec would get a line or two and the chance to stand around in the background during the group scenes in these comics, but here, The Flash-Spectre gets more dialogue than we're accustomed to seeing. It is The Flash-Spectre who recalls what he knows about the Kimball case at the start of the story, it is he who raises the possibility that mistakes were made during the trial, and he simply feels like a greater presence during these moments than would be the case if the team still had as many members as it did during its early days. So, one can still read this and picture The Spectre in The Flash's place and as M.W. noted, these characters are pretty interchangeable, but I can't say that anything is really gained or lost through the substitution. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 2, 2020 5:29:16 GMT -5
That third panel in the page above looks like it was supposed to be the two characters suspended in the sky, a standard threatening strategy for flying superheroes. I'll also note that the brim of Flash's helmet probably pasted conveniently over the jutting pointy tip of the Spectre's hood (as it was being depicted at the end of Spec's run), like in the first panel of that same page, where the hood would have protruded into the space of that circular ceiling light.
And man, that is one industrial-looking casino, isn't it? Vegas this ain't!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2020 8:31:35 GMT -5
These reviews were awesome. The Spectre and Dr Fate stories from the 1940s have always been of interest to me. So these were a nice way of learning more of the 40s Spectre. I hope Dr Fate didn't get a Percival Popp too!
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