this exactly.

Two years after Ditko envisioned Dr. Strange tangling with the higher realms of existence, it's frankly disappointing to see The Spectre approaching cosmic threats in the form of Space Wrestlemania.

I just realized something... in all his years on the police force, Jim Corrigan never rose to the rank of...

We've all heard complaints about Superman that he's "too powerful to be interesting" and yet I find stories such as "The Prankster has legally copyrighted the English language and Superman has to figure out his next move" to be much more entertaining than seven issues of Superman alternating punches with Doomsday until they collapse from boredom.   

I also believe that The Spectre shouldn't be so much a lawman but a judge.  Corrigan can do the investigating, the chase, the capture with help from his other half where needed; The Spectre shouldn't take over until it's time for the judge to carry out his verdict or the executioner to fulfill his judgement.  Even in 1966, I think a fear inspiring hero who reduces criminals to gibbering wrecks could have passed the code with the appropriate "we'll get our best doctors looking after him right away" assurance at the end.   

Somebody should let Rob know that Percival Popp has hacked his account.  


Actually...


I did think that was pretty clever.

Showcase #64 (October 1966) "The Ghost of Ace Chance!"




Author: Gardner Fox
Artist: Murphy Anderson

"Stay your flight, you who were Ace Chance! We have not yet finished our battle!"

Synopsis: Having lost his last cent and owing the shady-sounding Booth Cody $10,000, Ace Chance treads the cobblestone path upon the docks of Gateway City where things are about to get much worse before getting a lot better for the gambler. Ambushed by a pair of Cody's goons who intend to dispose of their victim by dropping him into a tank of liquid gas care of the nearby Marine Museum, Chance gets a momentary reprieve from this fate when Jim Corrigan, patrolling the area in response to a tip that the museum is to be robbed, hears his cry for help. Racing to his aid, the Captain-Detective easily overpowers the thugs even as his damoiseau in distress succumbs to his injuries and journeys into the hereafter readymade cloak and all.

"I -- am -- dead! I feel a tugging force pulling a ghostly shape out of my body... I sense -- somehow -- I'm being drawn away from Earth - toward a mystic realm -- a sort of hereafter.."

Perhaps contradictorily, The Spectre, rising from Corrigan's body, senses a spark of life within Chance's body which he attempts to jumpstart by entering while in his immaterial form. The feat does not work, so far gone is Chance, but creates a problem for the gambler who hasn't quite made to the mystic realm.

"Another force -- yanking me back toward my body!"

Unfortunately, with The Spectre now inhabiting his body, Chance has no place to go as he finds himself bouncing between his occupied corpse and the hereafter. Realizing that the only means through which he can end the anguish this ordeal is causing - and to ensure that his spirit doesn't dissipate, for that matter - is to locate another body, Chance sets his sights on Corrigan as he handcuffs his unconscious crooks. When he discovers that his selection possesses no spirit in need of displacing, Chance correctly deduces that he's lucked upon the host-body of The Spectre.

Prior to his death, Chance had schemed to attract, court, and marry the world's richest woman, Mona Marcy. How this was to be accomplished wasn't made clear beyond establishing that Chance thought so highly of his looks and charm that the fact that the pair had never even met would be of little consequence. Now housed within Corrigan's body, Chance determines to see the plan through. Meanwhile, The Spectre can't help but wonder just where his other half has disappeared to even as he drops Chance (who, I guess, still has some life) off at the hospital. Pinch-hitting for Corrigan, The Spectre drops the men off with the police (literally - he grows to gigantic size, carries the thugs in the palm of his hand, and hands them off to the police at a nearby precinct) and then ensure that when the crooks his partner or alter ego or whatever Corrigan is to him was tipped off about arrive, he's there to greet them. When the reprobates summarily head straight for a display case containing jewels "worth millions", they are startled to watch the gems transform into a pair of glowing red eyes around which The Spectre's face takes shape. From there on, it's all downhill for the lawbreakers who are promptly defeated and, like Booth Cody's men before them, are dropped off like a pack of disciplined puppies by way of an enormous Spectre in front of the same precinct as before.

At this point, we're informed that The Spectre feels drained after this evening's exertions despite the implausibility of such a scenario.

"I better return into my host body -- renew my Spectral powers--"

Unfortunately, with an earthquake spontaneously erupting on the streets below, that rest will have to be postponed. After dealing with that problem (Spectral energies here, Spectral energies there) a new catastrophe presents itself in the form of a tornado rearing towards Gateway City. Even after luring the threat into the open fields on the outskirts of the city where the tornado runs its course, The Spectre encounters yet another challenge as the very trees turn upon him. Wrenching the wayward wildlife from the ground by their very roots, The Spectre grows weaker still thanks to the cumulative effects of his efforts.

Though well aware that simultaneous disasters such as these must be man-made, The Spectre makes returning to Jim Corrigan his top priority. Arriving at Police HQ just as Corrigan is turning in his badge ("For twenty-odd years I've wasted my talents as a detective! Now I'm going to think of me first!") The Spectre attempts to reason with his buddy only to be informed that from here on out, the former Detective-Captain has no interest in continuing their relationship either. "Go haunt a house or something!" Ohhhhhh snap!

When he finds himself unable to force himself back into Corrigan's body, The Spectre correctly fills in all of the missing blanks (well, most of them).

"Some other spirit-body has displaced me in his body! Is that the reason I've been so terribly weakened by the battles with the earthquake, tornado and trees -- so I can't force my way back in?"

In addition to knowing what we already know (which also includes detecting "a strong barrier of evil energy about [Corrigan's] body"), there are one or two points which The Spectre shares with us:

"Evil deeds generate a special radiation -- energy of tremendous power!" In his weakened state, The Spectre is therefore unable to face-off against this mysterious opponent at this time.

"Just as evil creates its own unique energy -- so too do good deeds give rise to a good radiation, which keeps the evil energy in check!" Good news for The Spectre who, we learn, is capable of drawing upon good energy and holding it in reserve until required afterwards.

So, The Spectre can't declare a showdown at this time, but he can imbue himself with "good radiation" by visiting places where such energies can be located? Such as where? Hoo boy. "A jungle clearing where a Peace Corps Worker is doing a good turn for the natives" (we see a woman teaching children math), "a religious service" (people in prayer); "a hospital" (a doctor is about to administer a needle to a patient); and...

"The Viet Nam War Zone" (U.S. soldier carrying a rifle in a swamp). YIKES!



OK, so while The Spectre bathes under the calming, soothing, good-energy balms emanating from ground zero at the Vietnam war zone, what has Jim Corrigan/Ace Chance been up to? Well, he's been wining and dining Mona Marcy. Fox doesn't bother explaining how the two met or just what it is that high-society gals find so irresistible about Corrigan (see; Clarice Winston) but we are led to believe that Mrs. Marcy is smitten. Just as Corrigan-Chance readies to propose to Marcy, The Spectre arrives upon the scene and utters those words found on this cover - "Out of there -- you squatter!" as he bodily yanks Chance from Corrigan's shell. Chance however, isn't interested in giving up without a fight and so utilizes his powers to transform the walkway leading to Marcy's mansion into "Gold Alley -- that mystic street of the alchemists in Prague" to provide a suitable background for their battle (note: Gold Alley should actually be Gold Lane).

Having acquired a formidable amount of knowledge in the short time he's been a spirit, Chance manages to summon giant, flying basilisks which attack our hero. Chance's ploy backfires when The Spectre grabs the fleeing villain and proceeds to use him as a club with which he beats back the flying creatures. Beneath them, Gold Alley disappears and in its place materializes "the dark ruins of the dread chapel of Secaire... the site of black masses and demon worship in the past!"



Things go about as well for Chance here as they did in Gold Alley and once again, the fiend finds himself and the cult members who even today practice their dark arts in these ruins beaten back by The Spectre. Chance buys himself some time when he uses his evil energies to call forth some evil witches and evil warlocks to form an evil fire around our champion who responds by pouring some good energy into some clouds to douse the evil fires with some good water. I think you can see why my eyes started to glaze over at this juncture.

So anyway - evil fire is vanquished by good clouds, but Chance retaliates by summoning a "solar boat" which carries the pair "into the gulfs between the stars where primeval demon gods dwell".

There, The Spectre encounters Soraboru, a winged dragon elemental against whom even the grim ghost believes he cannot successfully face. However...

"With my every victory over the forces of evil which the ghost of Ace Chance summoned up against me -- I grew stronger and stronger in goodness!"

So with those added powers of "goodness" assisting him, The Spectre triumphantly tosses the behemoth into "the black ultimate where nothing can exist" (I guess a black hole or something like it) and grabs Chance by the collar and heads back to Earth to toss his spirit back into the body of Chance. Conferring with the doctor, The Spectre learns that the resting Chance has made "a complete recovery". With this confirmed, Spec prepares to hurl Chance's spirit back into his body which oddly, pleases the villain to no end.

"In a few moments The Spectre shall be overcome! As The Spectre carried me here -- by the last trace of evil energy still within me -- I summoned the body of Jim Corrigan here and teleported the body of Ace Chance back to Corrigan's place! To conceal the switch-over, I created an illusion of my former body -- so Jim Corrigan would look like Ace Chance! Spectre cannot possibly know this -- so when he puts me back inside his body -- I'll regain my former powers and -- destroy him!"

A clever plan with one minor drawback - The Spectre catches sight of 'Chance's' shadow and notes that it resembles not that of the criminal gambler, but that of Jim Corrigan. Figuring out his diabolical scheme, The Spectre dumps Chance back into his own body back at the path leading to Marcy's mansion and the tale ends with Corrigan lamenting that while cancelling his resignation from the police will be easy, he has no idea how to resolve things with Mona Marcy who is expecting his proposal.

"You got yourself into that hole, Jim -- so you'll have to dig your way out of it!" replies The Spectre somewhat callously.



Thoughts: Because the two previous issues of Showcase were devoted to The Inferior Five and with the title coming out on a bi-monthly basis, we now have insight into what readers thought about the return of The Spectre and how he fared in his last two installments via this issue's "Readers' Rendezous".



"After seeing THE SPECTRE IS COMING scattered throughout many DC magazines, I would have been very disappointed if "The War that Shook the Universe" had been anything but a masterwork. I was not disappointed; in fact, the story was greater than I thought it could possibly be.

The story's original touches were its biggest assets. I especially liked Jim Corrigan's relationship to The Spectre. Corrigan isn't The Spectre, The Spectre isn't Corrigan, but in some way they are connected. The Spectre's reasons for being out of action for the past 20 years was original and very good. The plot was excellent. I was glad to see The Spectre fighting someone as powerful as he. In future stories, please confine The Spectre's foes to supernatural menaces, spirits, and beings as powerful as he is."

Robert Klein


"THE SPECTRE HAS COME! So what?

That is my reaction in ten words or less. Showcase 60 created no reason for this opinion. It fulfilled the biggest and best publicity build-up in comics history in every way. The story was excellent, the art was Anderson, and it even had two "reprint" panels on page three. Plus one of the most dramatic covers in a long time.

But this is as far as it goes. What can be done further? Fox can improve, Anderson can improve and covers can improve - but The Spectre can't improve; he is. Nobody can beat a perfect hero, as this issue proved. No one can come even close. The big fight scenes from page 20-23 make for excellent art scenes but the Grim Ghost wasn't even scratched.

To sell a story there must be a basic rule followed - a conflict between good and evil (hero and villain) with evil having a chance at winning. Eliminating the last clause makes for some very dull stories. Therefore The Spectre can't go on and I hereby cast my vote for not giving him his own magazine"

Mike Friedrich


"The Spectre is terrific - he's in a class by himself and has a style all his, which is as it should be.

The Spectre's world intrigues me. It is so utterly different and new from anything I have ever seen in a comic mag before."

Alan Traherm


"The second Spectre story was titanic. It was not only a magnificent summary of Gardner Fox's summary of life, but also a statement of Good vs. Evil throughout the history of man - a statement so moving and yet so simple, but most of all, true.

The Spectre is not a man; nor is he a god, though his powers are roughly equal to one. He is Good - an idea, a concept, a belief.

Thus, by definition, The Spectre is not a "super-hero". To be valid to his premise, you could never make "him" the possessor of a magazine, a secret identity ("good" should not be anyone's secret), or an assistant (Kid Spectre? Absurd!). In fact, to be valid to his premise, he'll always be fighting the same "villain" - Evil. His battle may be unending, but it is not varied, and thus, because of the great symbolism involved, can be labelled "trite". You cannot re-state a statement as large as Good vs. Evil and expect it to be otherwise".

Irene Vartanoff


I've abbreviated these letters, but I think I've expressed the sentiment. Incidentally, Irene Vartanoff was in favour of continuing the series ("I'm sure it would be worth buying") but stuck to her guns by emphasizing that "I sincerely doubt that it could attain the heights of this Showcase story". As a regular letter writer, I think the odds are pretty decent that we'll be seeing more of Mrs. Vartanoff in future Spectre letter columns and I look forward to that. I do know that we'll be seeing Mike ("I hereby cast my vote for not giving him his own magazine") Friedrich's name in the upcoming Spectre series where it'll be displayed a little more prominently than in the letter column...

But enough about other people's thoughts...

Although I am enjoying this series thus far, Fox is skipping over waaayyy too much.

- After establishing that no one has seen The Spectre in twenty years in issue 60, Fox treats him as a familiar presence in Gateway City only two issues later. Despite coming face to face with a mile-high Spectre using a whole building as an arm rest and a pair of crooks balanced in the palm of his hand, the two officers leaving their precinct are completely blase about the whole experience. I have to wonder if the reason The Spectre pulls this trick a second time in this story is to illicit the surprised response he didn't produce the first time around. Towards issue's end, The Spectre flies through the hospital wall leading into Ace Chance's room and the attending doctor doesn't treat this occurrence as if it's the least bit unusual. I sort of assume that he can't actually see the spirit of Ace Chance as The Spectre lifts him above his head as he prepares to body slam him into his sleeping patient, but who know? Perhaps this is the sort of mundane thing that the doctor sees all the time in his boring old job.



- Jim Corrigan gets engaged... to a woman who doesn't get a single line of dialogue in the whole issue. In fact, she only appears in a montage of being romanced by the detective - who, let's remember, is actually unemployed since quitting his job, so yeah, quite the catch there. When Chance's inner monologue at the start of this tale reveals his plan to woo the world's richest woman despite never having met the lady, I was intrigued. What sort of ace up his sleeve is he hiding? Perhaps an heirloom he once won through gambling that has ties to this woman? Is Fox going to reveal that he has some secret power which will make this happen? As it turns out, Chance's brilliant scheme was nothing more than showing up on her doorstep, act charming, and have her fall madly in love with him. Why introduce a love interest if you're not actually going to introduce a love interest?



- I think I'm getting a handle on The Spectre's relationship to Corrigan. They're essentially room-mates with Corrigan's body being a place where The Spectre can recharge his powers. Now, John Ostrander would get a lot of mileage out of the notion that The Spectre was an entity which pre-dated Jim Corrigan and goes as far back as Biblical times (if not further). Corrigan would simply become a host for the spirit. Fox seems to have essentially the same set-up in place here with more of a 'Captain Marvel came into existence as a grown adult when Billy Batson first summoned him' bent than what Ostrander and others went for, but still, is The Spectre even a ghost or is he just a being created by The Voice (who we haven't seen/heard thus far in the revival)? If he's a ghost, whose ghost? Presumably Corrigan's, but as More Fun 52 established, The Spectre isn't Jim Corrigan's ghost - Jim Corrigan is Jim Corrigan's ghost. The Spectre was just a disguise Corrigan threw together (though it did somewhat puzzle me that The Spectre didn't actually look like Corrigan). Sure you could retroactively "reveal" that Corrigan only thought he came up with the Spectre identity and that the whole disguise, identity, whatever was actually planted in his subconscious without his realising it, but this certainly isn't something Fox has established. It does however, seem in keeping with how things were left off when Corrigan and The Spectre last saw one another back in More Fun 90 where one identity waved good-bye to the other as Jim left the title for good. So a slip up on Fox's part back then, seems to have solidified itself as the status quo here more than 20 years later.

- Ace Chance picks up on how the astral world really fast for a guy who went from being a dead gambler to a ghost in such a short period of time.  "I have learned much from the evil energies of Earth!"  Really?  In two days or whatever it's been you suddenly know how to rearrange cities, call upon and command creatures which might even be able to destroy The Spectre, and own a golden solar boat?

Some things I do enjoy:

- The Spectre getting locked out of Corrigan's body. It's an original idea and yet one which seems obvious in hindsight. With The Spectre leaping in and out of Corrigan's form on a regular basis, frequently when someone's been murdered, it was only a matter of time before some other recently departed soul sighted the spiritly vacant detective as the nearest and therefore most convenient body to occupy. Just how does The Spectre get back in?

- Fox briefly remembers that The Spectre is supposed to frighten criminals when The Spectre's leering face appears before the jewel robbers at The Marine Museum. It's a great entrance though the sequence suffers from that penchant a lot of writers had at this time to have the participants in a story narrate movements which are already obvious to the reader. Image - a pair of gems spaced far enough apart to resemble eyes begin to glow. Criminal's remark: "Heyy -- them gems are -- staring up at me -- like a pair of eyes!" Next Image - The Spectre's face forms around the gems/eyes. Criminal's remark: "Yiiii! A f-face f-forming around the eyes --!" Next image: The Spectre's fist slams into the crook's jaw. Criminal's remark: "Now a hand -- and it's f-flying at me - Gunnggg!" Next image: a caption reading 'Story continues on 4th page following'. Criminal's remark: "'Story continues on 4th page following'? What the Hell does that mean?"

- Anderson's artwork is incredible. Fox doesn't give him many opportunities to portray him as a 'Grim Guardian' but nonetheless, everything looks great and The Spectre does have a sombre mood about him. Anderson's realistic style though, is another reason why I wish Fox wrote more down to Earth tales in which The Spectre is lone anomaly rather than these cosmic wrestlemanias as shaxper put.

- The idea that Spectre needs to recharge himself inside Corrigan's body. There doesn't seem to be a set time period a la Aquaman needing to be immersed in water every 24 hours before The Spectre begins shouting "I need to get inside a man desperately right now!" but it seems like a reasonable limitation for a guy who doesn't otherwise seem to have any. I mean, he does state that "even I with all my powers could never defeat this creature!" when faced with Soraboru, but that sounds hollow to me given the greater threats he's shaken off and feats he's accomplished thus far. This explains why he needs Corrigan and I know from the one issue of The Spectre 1967 run I own that it will present an interesting problem for the ghost on at least one occasion when Corrigan flat out refuses to let him in.

- It was a minor detail, but I did get a kick out of The Spectre's "That's your problem, Jim" attitude to his partner at issue's end. The way The Spectre is casually relaxed in a chair as if to say "I just saved the universe - maybe you could solve one or two problems yourself while I put my feet up for five minutes" is simply great. This certainly doesn't sound like Fox's old "uh oh, Percvial needs some spare change to tip his barber with - this looks like a job for The Spectre! No problem is too small for me!" guy.

- And yes, I can't tell you a single thing about Mona Marcy's personality, but I do like that Fox is turning his attention towards Corrigan again. I don't know if she'll reappear, but it seems like Fox won't be abandoning Corrigan any time soon.

About the only problem I have with this issue is the sheer laziness of simplifying The Spectre's mission down to 'Good vs. Evil.' Not sure if Irene Vartanoff's letter encouraged Fox to continue down this path, but Great Caesar's Ghost, my eyes just glazed over during that whole "Now I'll hit you with this object that has evil energy in it!" "Then I'll hit you with this object that has good energy in it!" "Oh yeah? Well this object has evil energy in it!" "Is that so? Well this object..."

Fox is inventive and clever and this sort of pablum is beneath him. I did like Chance nearly tricking The Spectre into dealing his own losing hand by almost tossing his spirit back into his body (though I'm doubtful that The Spectre would have thought 'Hey, Ace Chance's nose isn't that aquiline' in the heat of the moment thus giving up the scheme) and Fox is giving us some cool settings for The Spectre vanquish evil in (I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen The Spectre set foot in a graveyard before now). It's weird - Fox always seems to be leading up to something that I have little interest in, but those steps with which he makes his journey are more often than not entertaining. It'll be interesting to see if he can ditch the 'Two cosmic beings bashing each other over the skull' ending to come up with an ending that lives up to his set-ups.

Oh, and Jim Corrigan doesn't seem to own a gun. Not sure if it's one of those things which were off limits at DC - having the good guy carry a gun - but I mean, he is a police officer.

No big deal really.

This marks the end of The Spectre's three-issue tryout in Showcase. Currently, he's involved in a Justice League two-parter (advertised in this very issue) so that's where I'll be headed next.

hmm, that's right.  Does Corrigan not have a soul?  Back in More Fun 75, The Spectre is granted the ability to use "the ray of life" on his corpse to bring Corrigan back (with The Spectre fading as though he is merging with his other self rather than now co-existing with), but it could be that he is given only the semblance of life instead of the real thing.  It would be a cruel trick to play, but Corrigan does retain his "supernatural powers" so he isn't exactly as he was before his murder. 

Perhaps that just as The Spectre is housed within Jim Corrigan's body, Jim Corrigan's soul is somehow contained within The Spectre.

Justice League of America #47 (Sept. 1967) "The Bridge Between Earths!"




Author:  Gardner Fox
Artist:  Mike Sekowsky

"I guess it's safe now to come out of hiding!  *sigh*  Poor Spectre!  He sure was a hero  He gave his existence to save -- GREAT GALAXY!  Is that The Spectre -- ?!" 

Synopsis: Becoming aware of the threat to Earth by his magic globe, a consultation with this strange artifact fills Doctor Fate in on the details which became apparent to us last issue - that The Spectre is attempting to literally hold both Earth-One and Two apart to prevent the worlds from colliding. Unfortunately, in doing so, The Spectre is also serving as a bridge by which The Anti-Matter Man can simply walk from one Earth to the another and when he completes the journey...

"Both he and the planet will suffer instant annihilation!"

And so, Doctor Fate decides to bring as many fellow members of The JSA and JLA as he can to The Spectre to fight The Anti-Matter Man. In his corner are Earth One's Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Hawkman, aided by Earth Two's Black Canary, The Sandman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Wildcat. Careful to provide them with a coating of magic which will prevent disaster when they touch anti-matter along with their own atmosphere enabling them to breathe in space, the collected team does their best against the giant though they can't resist the urge to utter awful "puns" while doing so.

"I'll BAT this MAN around -- BATMAN -- style!"

"I'm putting my whole 'sole' into this!" (said by Hawkman as he kicks the creature)

"I'm taking a "hand" in this, too!" (thank you, Green Lantern and your giant green fist)

ugh.

The team doesn't really get anywhere when they find their own powers and uniforms turning against them. Hawkman gets smothered by his wings, Green Lantern gets ensnared by his own ring-constructed fist, Doctor Fate gets trapped in a cage, and so on. Cleverly realising that while they might not be able to counteract The Anti-Matter Man's power to accomplish these tricks, they can nevertheless effect each other's rescue (ie. though The Flash's feet have grown too large to let him attack The Anti-Matter Man, his ability to produce a whirlwind of air with his arms to send Batman and Wildcat spinning towards their common foe has not been impeded).



Unfortunately, the heroes can only accomplish so much against the foe (whom Doctor Fate has learned more about through scanning The Anti-Matter's mind, notably that the being is "an explorer from his own anti-matter universe! He regards everything that has happened to him on his journey -- his fights with Spectre and with us -- as unfamiliar hazards of warp-space travel which he must overcome to reach his destination!") but the scales are about to balance themselves out thanks to the addition of one, thus far, unaccounted for JLA member - The Atom.

Ray Palmer has been unable to use his size changing powers while working with fellow scientist, Enrichetta Negrini at Ivy University. Discovering that this handicap is somehow connected to the Warp-Space invention which Negrini is working on (essentially a machine which shrink space making travel across great distances possible), Palmer switches the device off to regain his abilities, Finding this successful, Palmer uses the machine to peer into space, and becomes acquainted with the situation involving his fellow teammates. Using the invention to reach The Spectre, Palmer (as The Atom) lands on his body and suggests a plan of action.

"Spectre -- I want to shrink you to an inch in height -- then expand you! However, I must warn you -- that when you expand again -- the chances are you'll blow up -- might be destroyed! But that's the only way I can see how to save both Earths! The decision is yours!"

The Spectre heroically agrees to this suicide mission, The Atom sets everything in place, and sure enough, his plan works. The Earths are thrown back into proper alignment undoing what, if it isn't already clear, was the effect of Negrini's machine on space, and The Spectre is nowhere to be found. As he laments his departed friend, The Spectre reforms before The Atom's eyes.

"Yes, Atom -- I'm getting back into shape! Though the psycho-matter of my spirit body was explosively flung to all corners of this warped universe -- I still maintained control of its elements! Just before I exploded to smithereens, I imbued by body with spiritual-magnetic attraction -- so that no matter how far apart it was flung, it would be drawn back to normal after a while!"



Huzzah!

The pair manage to catch up to The Anti-Matter just in time to observe his being flung back to his own universe and, in reconvening with the other heroes, learn that their respective opponents Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster have become fast friends in their absence and are in too good of a mood to question the team's assurance that they'll be looked after by the proper authorities. As for Enrichetta Negrini's invention and her future as a scientist? "Risk is a necessary -- and calculated risk -- of all scientific research!", concludes Batman. Seems then, that no one is to be punished or even discouraged from their future endeavors, whatever they may be.

Thoughts:  I like how Fox posits that The Anti-Matter Man's exploration through space is akin to, say, a bacteria attaching itself to some host organism.  Neither good nor evil, it just does what it exists to do.  As a matter of fact, Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster (establishing a friendship which would later be referenced in Batman 194 though when I first read that issue some 30 years ago, I knew next to nothing about the tale I now review) resolve their differences and go compliantly with each team (The JSA doesn't quite know what to do with Grundy but seem confident that they'll think of something, while Blockbuster will be sent back to cared for at The Alfred Foundation - an institution created by Bruce Wayne in honour of his - at the time - later butler) and Enrichetta Negrini isn't revealed to have created her machine for some nefarious purpose and was a well-intentioned scientist who will be allowed to continue being a well-intentioned scientist hereafter since the team won't blame her for his costly mistake.  So, a tale of cosmic proportions with no less a threat than the destruction of two Earths, but without any real foes.  Nice job, Gardner Fox!

Incidentally, Negrini's bit of lateral thinking in coming up with her bending space idea suggests that while Fox might be a bit behind the time when it comes to hip dialogue ("spinner-winner", indeed), he's certainly keeping up with the scientific theories of the time.  Warping space is well beyond my understanding, but I have heard such a suggestion bandied about by brainier minds than mine.


 
Nice having arguably the least imposing member of the two teams save the day and juxtaposing The Atom in minature form before the awesome sight of The Spectre holding two worlds apart was inspired casting on Fox's part.  




Alternatively though, The Spectre despite serving a crucial role in this episode, The Spectre plays only a passive role here in the role of the battlefield upon which the teams engage The Anti-Matter Man.  I still see no reason why Doctor Fate couldn't have acted out this part instead of our ghostly hero other than the fact that one was vying for a title of their own and needed the publicity and the other didn't.  Who knows, perhaps if The Spectre wasn't getting the boost he was at this time, Doctor Fate would be the go-to guy whenever a giant, ominous presence is required to inform readers that something momentous is happening.  Sekowsky's depiction of Doctor Fate here, does little to dissuade me of that notion.

 

I guess if you have two supernaturally powered superheroes - one of whom is a ghost and the other a sorcerer - then it's the sorcerer who should be assigned these cosmic tasks and the ghost to be the one keeping to the shadows exacting his vengeance upon lowly individuals who thought they had fallen through the cracks.  I mean, would you expect Marley's ghost to go around zapping errant asteroids in the farthest reaches of space and headbutting Galactus?  I find myself wondering if the others even know that The Spectre is a ghost.  I mean, despite the enormity of the explosion, you think The Atom would spare a passing thought towards his comrade's status as a spirit to wonder if a ghost can die.

One final note:  In addition to the connection to Batman 194, this issue would serve as a partial inspiration for Big Bang Comics #3




Here, Dr. Weird acts as a Spectre stand-in (with Earth-A and Earth-B acting as Earth-One and Two proxies) when The Knights of Justice (representing The JSA) finds themselves face to face with The Round Table of America (approximating... well, you get the idea) for the first time.  It's a fun story and arguably Big Bang's best received (I believe it was the only issue to sell out) and as my favorite title of 1990's, I thought it worth mentioning.

Incidentally, though most characters within the Big Bang Universe were created specifically for that series (albeit as homages to their better known counterparts) Dr. Weird was a real comic character who dated back to the 1960s.  However, his creator Howard Keltner wasn't inspired by The Spectre, but by the MLJ character Mr. Justice first seen back in Blue Ribbon Comics #9 (Feb. 1941).  Now, Mr. Justice himself seems to be a Spectre take-off and, like electricmastro's mention of The Duke of Darkness way back on page three of this thread, seems deserving of a possible closer look at some point around here.  But that's for another day, since next, I'll be looking at the two appearances The Spectre made in Brave and the Bold