Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews

chadwilliam
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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 17, 2021 22:46:59 GMT -5 shaxper, MWGallaher, and 1 more like this

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 17, 2021 22:46:59 GMT -5

Wrath of The Spectre #4 (August 1988) "The Maniac and... The Spectre!"

Author: Michael Fleisher
Artists: Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo

Synopsis: Earl Crawford receives a visit from an elderly lady within his padded cell at The New York State Asylum where he now resides. Though a stranger, the woman confides that she, too, knows of The Spectre, but is unwilling to detail how. "Have faith that someday your sanity will be proven and you'll be released from this terrible place", is about all that she seems willing to offer Crawford, the reporter is less than reassured by such platitudes and seems more distressed than before now by this addition to an already overwhelming mystery. "Someday" is no solace to Crawford who pleads with his mystery visitor for something more than kinds words for a man who fears "rot[ting] here like some blasted lunatic!" and desperately wants to escape.

"All I need is some sort of tool I can use to pry that wire grating off my window! Wire cutters, a pair of pliers -- anything!"

Sympathizing with the unjustly imprisoned Crawford, she produces a penknife from her purse. The tool coupled with some bedsheets converted into a makeshift rope, enable Crawford's escape that evening though he is at a loss for conceiving of his next step. Similarly doubtfully of the future which awaits them are Jim Corrigan and Gwen Sterling who discuss the matter as the latter removes the disguise which gained her entrance into Crawford's room earlier that day.

"I...I did just what you told me to! I visited him at the asylum, and... and I did my best to lift his spirits! I hinted that there were people on the outside who believed in him... who were working to prove his sanity and gain his release! Oh, Jim! That poor man! Locked inside that padded cell, treated like some sort of wild animal, all because --"

Corrigan consoles Gwen that "before long we'll--" but is interrupted when Gwen, trying to emphasize just how bad Crawford's predicament is, explains that she gave him her penknife to aid in his escape. With the situation escalating so, Corrigan decides that he'll have to do something "to make sure he doesn't wind up in even worse trouble!"

As for that something...

Freddy "The Torch" Fisher, despite his certain death last time at the hands of The Spectre and his supposed murder courtesy of Earl Crawford in the eyes of the law, walks into a police station where he lets the desk sergeant take a good look at him, and suggests that perhaps he had been consider letting the newsman go "otherwise our young people might lose faith in the judicial system! By the way, the guy that paid me to set all those tenement fires was Harrison DeMarko!" And with that, Fisher leaves the station and drifts into thin, Spectre-shaped air before the sergeant can arrest him.

Elsewhere, Harrison DeMarko counts his profits - including the money he no longer has to pay Fisher - just as The Spectre finishes his rounds for the evening in the slumlord's "sumptuous downtown office". DeMarko catches sight of his unwelcome visitor, watches as the bullets he fires towards him turn into flowers, and shouts as he is turned into a cactus. Things end better for our resident reporter as he is finally tracked down by the police who corner him in an alley only to inform him that with Fisher alive, his insanity ruling is no longer valid. Despite his recent ordeal, Earl Crawford walks the streets pondering the same questions he's asked since he's started tracking "The Force" with the added query of "who was that woman who helped me escape? How is she tied in with The Spectre?"

Thoughts: Man, how I wish that Crawford's visitor

had turned out to be Clarice Winston. I know that this wouldn't necessarily have worked within Fleisher's continuity, but a mysterious 60 year old or so visitor who knows of The Spectre, can assure Crawford of his existence, whose own existence seems testament to the burdens one must endure when one gets too close to this entity would have been great. That it's just Gwen Sterling in disguise is a bit of a disappointment.

It does raise questions as to just what Corrigan's responsibilities become once Crawford gets arrested though. You can't really blame him for Crawford's predicament - The Spectre certainly never encouraged him to follow him around - but it doesn't really sit well with me that Sterling's visit consists of nothing more than her utterance of a rather hopeless sounding pep-talk. "Just try to have faith that some day your sanity will be proven and you'll be released from this terrible place!" "Try to have faith"? "Some day"? "Terrible place"? This sounds like the lyrics to a dirge and yet, Gwen tells Jim later on that "I did my best to lift his spirits!" She also mentions that her visit was planned by Corrigan which almost seems worse than him doing nothing at all. If Corrigan were oblivious to Crawford's plight, I could understand him not raising a finger, but knowing that he's aware of what's going on and doing only the bare minimum he can makes me wonder where his head's at. I suppose I'm probably being too harsh since plans take time to come up with, but it's not like he's ever short of ideas when he's coming up with ways of killing criminals. Although...

Jumping ahead, I don't know why The Spectre transforms DeMarko into a cactus. So far we've seen

-Model to Old Lady,
-Mannequin Maker to Mannequin,
-Killer to Skeleton,

and so forth. Where does Slumlord to Cactus come from?

I guess it's been a long night for The Spectre what with this following his trip to the station in the guise of Freddy Fisher so I'll just chalk it up to "Look, 'cactus' just randomly popped in my head and I'm tired so that's what you get turned into. Now good-night!"

I did like his Fisher disguise and it was a neat little way of getting Crawford out of his jam. Not sure if it would work in real life, at least that quickly, but suits me fine for a comic book. I like when darker heroes like The Spectre display a sense of humour and you really get that with Corrigan in this scene. "Better let him out then, don't you think? Otherwise our young people might lose faith in the judicial system!" Nice to see little moments such as these where Corrigan gets to amuse himself by playing a role so broadly with an "I know it's a little over the top, but when else do I get to have fun" attitude.

Oh, and extremely trivial point here: these two stories have titles ending with an exclamation point while those contained with Fleisher's Adventure run didn't. If that shot of DeMarko turning into a cactus doesn't keep you awake at night, perhaps this fact will.

Last Edit: Feb 17, 2021 22:50:28 GMT -5 by chadwilliam

tarkintino
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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 18, 2021 11:14:58 GMT -5

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Post by tarkintino on Feb 18, 2021 11:14:58 GMT -5

Feb 12, 2021 0:47:51 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

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Adventure Comics #439 (June 1975) "The Voice that Doomed... The Spectre"

Synopsis: Gwen Sterling is kidnapped at the bank. Why? She just is. It's Gwen - this is what she does for a living.

Now, now, every hero needs a damsel in distress!

The Symbiosis Liberation Army is now holding her hostage after gunning down the bank manager. Jim Corrigan gives too late to prevent her latest kidnapping, but The Spectre has followed them to their hideout where a flag adorned with the image of a three-headed snake hangs on their wall. Man, they're really going to regret having put that thing up in about thirty seconds. So - Gwen bound and held prisoner; The SLA opening the bag containing the stolen (or "liberated") money; The Spectre aware of all of this. The Spectre pops out of the bag; bad guys are, like, "Huh?"; snake on flag comes to life; the three members of The SLA are crushed to death.

Interesting that Fleisher wanted to use so direct an inspiration of the real world terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army who--on May 17 1974--suffered their greatest defeat in a shootout with the LAPD (I was in that neighborhood as it took place), with most dying from gunshots and smoke inhalation in the burning house they occupied. Fleisher loses the impact of what the SLA stood for in context of that dark period of American history, so in a way, his "Sybiosis Liberation Army" seems like a watered-down, topical reference of the time one would see on Dragnet (the 1967-70 version) with their so-called "Black Widow Party" stand-in for the Black Panther Party.

There's something a little different this time around though. A flippant "it's your funeral" comment made by one of the criminals and directed at The Spectre triggers a morbid, "I never had... a funeral" thought from the hero. We've seen such asides from The Spectre here and there before, but there's a bitter persistence this time around - a lingering inability to dislodge the unhealthy acknowledgement of his station in life(or death) from his frontal lobes. His thoughts continue as the executions begin.

Early 1970s comics saw a good number of depressed, brooding or tragic heroes (Spider-Man probably at the top of that list), but The Spectre lamenting his fate--a remove from the natural process of leaving the physical world, going through the traditions of a funeral was quite sad. Any hero acknowledging that he's forever separated from eternal peace makes his journey such a sad thing to see.

"I can't go on this way! I can't way! Other men have wives and families! They get to experience the pains and joys of life! And when they die, they are granted the everlasting peace of eternal rest! But I have none of those things! I'm not alive... or dead! I'm some sort of lifeless thing, doomed to carry out some kind of awful, unearthly vengeance that I can hardly even understand!"

Yes, quite sad.

He looks to the sky.

"Please, release me from my mission! Let me be a real man again! Let me marry the woman I live! Please!"

Though he doesn't hear it, a response is given. From above, an astral light shines.

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

I really loved this open, unambiguous scene of a hero actually calling out/praying to God for the miracle of a second chance at earthy life. In a first half of a decade with a large number of powerful hero moments borrowing from rela world emotions / perspectives, this is one the finest committed to the page.

Predictably, Corrigan is spotted, shot, and stunned to discover that he is bleeding. A moment later, he tumbles backwards over a railing and lands in the street with three bullets inside of him. Clinging to life, he is ambulanced away and spends the next week hovering "between life and death". Eventually, he awakens and is treated to a scolding from his Captain.

"The doctor tells me you're going to survive, in spite of your best efforts to commit suicide! Just what do you think you are anyway -- immortal? You-- Your shot killed Shawn! He's dead! Let me tell you something, Jim! You came awfully damn close to becoming a ghost yourself!"

Ahh, the irony of the Captain's warning. If only he knew...

Corrigan scoffs at the notion informing his boss that he hasn't felt this alive in years. With his new lease on life, Corrigan pays a visit to Gwen Sterling who is shocked to see the man she has been stalking these many months with his arm in a sling. Her surprise soon changes to delight when Corrigan proposes marriage and with a passionate kiss, Sterling accepts.

Thoughts: Quite a few developments, but I'm not sure they can be described as "developments" since such a term suggests progression, which in this case...

I have no idea what Corrigan sees in Gwen Sterling. She's attractive and obsessed with him, but I'd like to think that Corrigan isn't as superficial as that. Why Sterling is so obsessed with Corrigan isn't explained either.

While some may not understand what Corrigan saw in Gwen, we must remember that through the intimate connection, one can see many things / feel connections an observer would not. That, and Corrigan deserved a happy future...for as long as that would last.

after bearing witness to The Spectre killing three terrorists, it is to the arms of Jim Corrigan that she races for consolation from the fearful sight of "that... that snake! It was horrible!". I mean, she knows he's The Spectre - this has already been established - does she not connect the dots between The Spectre - Snake - Jim Corrigan? eeuughhhh.

But like Betty Ross and Bruce Banner, the former does not believe the alter-ego is the true essence of the man she knows, so Gwen can make the psychological separation between Corrigan and The Spectre.

That evening he looks up at the stars in desperation and lays his soul bare. With slumped shoulders but eyes searching for a glimmer of hope this is Jim Corrigan as we've never seen him - sensitively aware of the emotions which have been denied him and delicately asking for a second chance and he has to ask delicately because the man he wants to be isn't this hardened soul he's become. It's touching - how could a direct look at a soul laid bare be anything else?

Its a powerful sequence--man asking not to be what he believed himself to be--a prisoner of destiny. What's truly satisfying is that his plea/prayer (all things considered, one of unprecedetned magnitude in the DC Universe) was answered.

We're back to 'Adventure Comics' for the title of this magazine - nary a 'Weird' in sight. Actually, that change took effect as of last issue - I just forgot to catch it then.

Yes, by issue #441, the title would become Aquaman's as the featured player until #452 (July, 1977), where he would replaced by Superboy for a second stint in the title.

Feb 14, 2021 0:29:25 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Adventure Comics #440 (August 1975) "The Second Death of... The Spectre"

SynopsisCorrigan's "insurance" buys him only the time it takes for McLaren to agree to Corrigan's terms - that "unless you want Mitch to be dead, too" will they able to shoot him - before Corrigan is gunned down in hail of bullets. And that's it, it's over. Corrigan and Mitch lay dead, Louie pokes his head in and asks for his "payoff", gets it in lead, and "Ducky" (actually, his rubber duck) decides to give the dead detective a send-off "that oughtta be good for a million laughs!"

I wonder if other readers at the time expected Corrigan to have happiness taken from him yet again?

We cut to Gwen's home where she hears the sound of her door-bell.

"Oh my Gosh! What if it's Jim? It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her outfit before the --"

She opens the door and comes to face with her fiance's corpse propped up against the doorframe. Not immediately registering just what it is she's looking at, Gwen takes in Jim's vacant expression, colour drained face, and the sign reading "I was a pesky cop. I got want I deserved" strung around his neck, and lets out a bloodcurdling shriek as the ex-lawman falls to the floor like a slab of marble.

I always thought that was such a cruel attack on Gwen, a true innocent in the entire matter.

His funeral is held - "it's a simple, quiet ceremony... he hadn't had too many friends" - Corrigan is buried and that evening, when the graves were "as silent as the gentle munching of worms... a voice rang out, if you could really call it a voice. It was more like a clap of brittle thunder..."

Shades of Warren! "gentle munching of worms" read like something Archie Goodwin would have written for Creepy and Eerie.

"I am calling you... Jim Corrigan--! Shake away the soft, moist Earth... and come to me--!"

And with that, Corrigan's wide-eyed, slack jawed corpse raises from his grave and ascends heavenward acquiring life once again.

The Voice: You may speak... Jim Corrigan--!
Corrigan: Why have I been brought here? Why have I been torn from my grave to-
The Voice: No man can escape his destiny--! And your destiny is to remain Earthbound... to strike at evil with the fearsome vengeance of the hereafter... as... The Spectre--!
Corrigan: What do I care about vengeance? It's eternal rest I want! Can't you understand that? Haven't I earned it? Haven't I?

Truly powerful, and providing a hard, cold "yes" to the question of whether or not he was fated to be a prisoner of destiny.

She is interrupted by Jim Corrigan who appears briefly before her only to inform his bride-not-to-be that he is only "the spectral shadow of the man I used to be! The world will be told that Jim Corrigan was buried alive by mistake... and rescued by an old caretaker! But the truth is that no man can escape his destiny! And my destiny is to be... The Spectre--!"

Though Gwen begs him to stay, Corrigan fades away.

Truly powerful, and providing a hard, cold "yes" to the question of whether or not he was fated to be a prisoner of destiny. Poor Gwen--seven she has to go one with a form of torture thanks to Corrigan even letting her know he was "alive", instead of allowing her to attempt to let time heal her heart.

Thoughts: I guess being able to rely on The Spectre for so long has made him soft

Tha s what I assumed--if one lives a life of being incapable of being harmed, but is suddenly rendered human, he would naturally believe he's still "super".

Fleisher had three more scripts ready to go, but this one really feels like the end of the series. It ending on a note so much like the one which started it all. Of course, one has to wonder where Earl Crawford went, but otherwise it wraps things up neatly without wrapping things up at all. No one really knows why the series ended - sales were decent enough. Some believe it wasn't doing well enough (this was Fleisher's opinion) while others heard that it was being badmouthed by others at DC and the company felt "who needs this sort of trouble" (Joe Orlando was more receptive to that notion).

I never like the multiple-who-done-its about the demise of a series, but if DC wanted to cut characters or series, they would have been better off dumping the truckload of tryout titles and uninspiring hanger-on titles that were just limping around in the mid-70s. That did not happen, so one of the strongest creative runs of he early 70s at either of the Big Two publishers just...ends. So, its the return of Aquaman having a regular series, with Aparo continuing to present an edgier King of the Seven Seas, as he had in the character's original title and a 1974 appearance in The Brave and the Bold.

Last Edit: Feb 18, 2021 11:16:27 GMT -5 by tarkintino

chadwilliam
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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 19, 2021 0:26:54 GMT -5 shaxper likes this

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 19, 2021 0:26:54 GMT -5

You've given me a lot to reflect upon, tarkintino and I thank you for that.

Fleisher had this to share in the foreword for Wrath of The Spectre #4:

"[Corrigan's] decided that he's separated from the realm of mortals and has to sever his links with them. I was interested in exploring that. I decided that the death of Jim Corrigan was also a kind of spiritual death. That is, he was now committed to a life in which all that he expressed was his anger. His mission was to exterminate evil, but he didn't have a real life. He didn't have real loves and real friendships. He didn't have recreation and relaxation and the joy of real living. He only had that he was some sort of divinely appointed executioner. That seemed to me a very dead, sterile kind of life. So I wanted to create a haunting life-in-death for Jim Corrigan. Whenever he had relationships, whenever he was lulled into the feeling that he might really be alive again after all, things would happen that would rudely disabuse him of this notion".

I'm sort of disappointed that we didn't see more of this. It's touched upon certainly - Corrigan explaining his status to Gwen in the car, for instance - but never really explored. I hear him mention that any kids they had would turn out to be "zombies", his re-iteration that he doesn't breathe, and I keep wishing that Gwen would interrupt him and say "Wait - what? How would our children turn out? What is it like not having to breathe?" but these stories move at such a brisk pace that these little character defining details are never truly explored leaving the reader to think they know the character, but do they really?

Your point about Corrigan seeing something in Gwen which would go undetected by the reader is a good one and why I've reproduced Fleisher's statement above. I think I would have enjoyed seeing Corrigan wondering if he really did love Gwen or if he had become so "sterile" that he was conning himself into thinking he did. It seems like something which would have interested the writer and would have been something he could have easily included in the series, and yet, for some reason, didn't really bother with. His conversation with The Voice (even though he has no idea he is having a conversation) is even more powerful because it's so much of an outlier.

It's interesting to me that no one really followed up on these characters later on (well, there is an "Earl Crawford" who appears in The Spectre story in Ghosts #98-99 who references his experiences here, but that "Earl Crawford" doesn't remotely resemble this one) but the themes seem to have inspired John Ostrander for what seems to be a deeply personal run on the character during the 1990's. In fact, your observance about Corrigan's funeral reminded me of the fact that a confidant of Corrigan's during his Ostrander/Mandrake run does suggest that he be given one for closure and as for being "a prisoner of destiny", again, that's something which I'd be surprised to find wasn't touched upon during the later series though it's been a while since I've read it. Kind of fitting that one acclaimed run should follow another so spiritually.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 shaxper and MWGallaher like this

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5

Wrath of The Spectre #4 "The Voodoo Hag of Doom!" (August 1988)

Author: Michael Fleisher
Artists: Jim Aparo and Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: Gwen Sterling is attending a board meeting for Sterling Textiles, Inc. where, as a result of her father's passing, she holds a "major portion" of stock. Things progress only so far since the conference is interrupted by the eponymous Voodoo Hag of Doom. Threatening "drastic action" should the company not stop their production of the "indecent dresses" they've been manufacturing, the hag demonstrates the merit of her ultimatum by producing a voodoo doll carrying the likeness of board member, Henderson and submerging it in a nearby fish tank. Henderson clutches his throat, gags, and drops dead - the victim of drowning. The hag leaves and when the police investigate, Corrigan is there. When word gets out, the press follows and while the official position of the police is that "Henderson died of natural causes" given their unwillingness to believe in voodoo, there are at least two individuals who don't but that verdict: Jim Corrigan and Earl Crawford.

Crawford has been busy since gaining his freedom last issue. Stopping off at Newsbeat to tender his resignation, the discredited reporter gives his boss a piece of his mind before tendering his resignation.

"Last time I was in here I brought you undeveloped photographs of The Spectre in action... positive proof that he really exists! And what did you do with them? Did you think for a minute that maybe your best writer had come up with the news scoop of the century? Oh no! You called up the police and told them I was off my rocker!"

Which isn't to say that Crawford has given up on The Spectre. Far from it...

Meanwhile, The Voodoo Hag of Doom pays a visit of her own to board member, Thompson. Decapitating a doll in his likeness, Thompson breathes a sigh of relief when a moment later, his head remains firmly planted upon his shoulders. He should have waited a bit longer. He should probably also have held off on buying that 16th century scimitar and he should definitely not have displayed it by hanging it from a rather unsecure line attached to the ceiling in his rather palatial home.

SNAP WHAACK GHAAAGH! Hee Hee! THUMP THUMP THUMP

Now Thompson is dead. Interestingly, the hag leaves just as Corrigan arrives. Passing one another, Corrigan asks if Thompson's in, "I believe he is -- in a (hee hee) manner of speakin'!", she replies, Corrigan enters the room, and now recognizes his mistake. Pursuing The Voodoo Hag of Doom from a distance in the astral form of The Spectre, the grim ghost watches as his quarry enters a shop and accepts her payment for the two murders she's carried out on his behalf.

"I've been paying you good money to use your voodoo powers to kill the other board members so that I can assume control of the company", says the shadowed figure.

Deciding it best that he dispose of the remaining members, this figure pays off The Voodoo Hag of Doom, departs, and leaves his employee at the mercy of The Spectre. Unfortunately, there's a very good reason this series isn't entitled The Mercy of The Spectre.

Whilst counting her ill-gotten gains, The Voodoo Hag of Doom watches more with disappointment than shock of The Spectre makes his presence known as he turns the lucre into horseflies. Given her desire for the money, The Spectre does The Voodoo Hag of Doom the favour of transforming her into a spider suggesting that it will make reclaiming her money turned horseflies that much simpler. While Spec is off doing that, Earl Crawford has broken his way into the home of Gwen Sterling suspecting that she is to be next on the hitman's list. In a very promisingly development, there he discovers the wig and dress Sterling used to disguise her as his visitor while imprisoned and begins to wonder just why she decided to help him as she did.

Elsewhere in the house, Gwen is paid a visit by the final board member, Slater who requests to speak with her despite the lateness of the hour. Once granted entry, Slater's intentions become clear once he prepares to murder the only other stock holder in Sterling Textiles, but finds his attention drawn to the strange shape rising from a nearby coffee cup. His inquiry as to what exactly it is that he's seeing is answered as the mist takes the form of The Spectre.

"It is I, putrid fiend...! Here to wreak the vengeful wrath of... The Spectre..."

What follows is an unsettlingly comical scene. Slater begs the wraith to not hurt him and then falls to the floor like a child.

"It was all just a game! Games are fun! Do you want to watch me play a neat game? Wheeeee! This game is called roly-poly! But if I play it outside, my clothes will get dirty and mommy will spank me!"

Like I said, for a 50-something adult, it's a somewhat disturbing scene. Gwen phones the police and Earl Crawford watches without attracting her attention. Leaving the way he entered - through the window - Crawford wonders how Gwen Sterling is involved with The Spectre.

Thoughts: Unfortunately, that enticing thread will never be resolved. This issue marks the last of the Flesher run and just as the author was advancing the story towards such an intriguing path. Certainly some sort of confrontation would have taken place and I would have loved to have seen Sterling explain her presence at The New York State Asylum but I suppose 'twas not to be. On the other hand, just what was Sterling doing at The New York State Asylum? Having learned the hard way that a future with Jim Corrigan was not in the cards and with Corrigan being forced to accept the same, why are they still together? You'd think that the grisly spectacle of seeing your fiance's corpse propped up against your doorframe the night before your wedding would drive home the message that things can never be between the two of you. Likewise, Corrigan was given the freedom he yearned for only to have it snatched away violently. Even if the two remain in love, things seem way too business as usual for my liking. It feels just too "You were gunned down violently, your corpse landed at my feet, you had to be rescued from your own grave... wanna go for pizza?" It almost seems obscene the way Corrigan is asking her for favours here. What happened to "it's not really me! It's just the spectral shadow of the man I used to be!" and then fading away at the end of Adventure Comics 440? Did he fade back in seconds later and say "by the way, can you dress as a little old lady for me and pay a visit to Earl Crawford please and thanks?" Doesn't that kind of ruin the moment? It's got me wondering just whether or not the Crawford subplot would have gone anywhere or just been forgotten like this.

The Spectre goes up against a foe with some supernatural ability. Had this been part of the Fox/Anderson run, I have to imagine that the hag would have presented a greater obstacle for our hero than she does here. I think this is the first time we've seen a magician of sorts be brushed aside as if she were just another ordinary goon. Not sure if this makes The Spectre seem all the more impressive or The Voodoo Hag of Doom that much weaker.

I don't think it was mentioned during the Adventure Comics run meaning it's taken 13 years to learn that the name of Crawford's (former) employer is Bob Elliot. As an added bonus, we also learn that Newsbeat employs a red-headed copy boy named Freddy who resembles a mop topped Jimmy Olsen. That Earl Crawford looks like Clark Kent, I can buy; that he works with a copyboy who looks like Jimmy Olsen is a little out there.

I mentioned above that Slater's fate is a memorable one, but I can't help but notice that the decapitation of Thompson here stands out as a little more revealing than what we would have gotten had this script been penciled back in 1975 as originally hoped for. Somehow, I doubt that the severed head bouncing along the floor would have passed muster back then and so serves as an interesting then and now juxtaposition if you're wanting to compare what you could have gotten away with in 1975 vs. 1988.

Corrigan comes across as an idiot when he approaches the hag at Thompson's place. Forget being The Spectre - shouldn't her bizarre appearance and personality immediately have reminded him of the bizarre voodoo lady he was supposed to be on the look-out for? And it isn't as if he had his mind on other things - he was on his way to talk to Thompson about this very case. I'm starting to wonder if the reason The Voice selected Corrigan for its mission was to make up for a lot of screw ups he made in life.

As frustrating as it was watching that, I have to admit that I enjoyed watching Earl Crawford tell his boss off. A nice bit of sanity in a story which ends with anything but. Actually, I'm not 100% certain that Slater's descent into madness was caused by The Spectre. If so, it's a nice call back to the Golden Age when he'd reduce his foes to gibbering idiots, but if not, it's a believable representation of how a person might respond if they saw a ghost rise from a coffee cup. All too often, people are shown as a little too rational in this situation - "I can't explain what's going on, but I have enough sense to pull my gun and plan my getaway" - when I think pure shock seems more reasonable.

So that's it for this entry. While there are no further issues to review, I did a while back, promise a look at where some of the past ended up, which I'll do next before we wrap things up entirely.

Last Edit: Feb 22, 2021 18:15:46 GMT -5 by chadwilliam

chaykinstevens
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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 22, 2021 13:01:38 GMT -5

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Post by chaykinstevens on Feb 22, 2021 13:01:38 GMT -5

Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Wrath of The Spectre #4 "The Voodoo Hag of Doom!" (August 1988)

Author: Michael Fleisher
Artists: Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo

DeCarlo didn't ink this story.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 22, 2021 15:26:50 GMT -5

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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2021 15:26:50 GMT -5

Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Thoughts: Unfortunately, that enticing thread will never be resolved. This issue marks the last of the Flesher run and just as the author was advancing the story towards such an intriguing path. Certainly some sort of confrontation would have taken place and I would have loved to have seen Sterling explain her presence at The New York State Asylum but I suppose 'twas not to be. On the other hand, just what was Sterling doing at The New York State Asylum? Having learned the hard way that a future with Jim Corrigan was not in the cards and with Corrigan being forced to accept the same, why are they still together? You'd think that the grisly spectacle of seeing your fiance's corpse propped up against your doorframe the night before your wedding would drive home the message that things can never be between the two of you. Likewise, Corrigan was given the freedom he yearned for only to have it snatched away violently. Even if the two remain in love, things seem way too business as usual for my liking. It feels just too "You were gunned down violently, your corpse landed at my feet, you had to be rescued from your own grave... wanna go for pizza?" It almost seems obscene the way Corrigan is asking her for favours here. What happened to "it's not really me! It's just the spectral shadow of the man I used to be!" and then fading away at the end of Adventure Comics 440? Did he fade back in seconds later and say "by the way, can you dress as a little old lady for me and pay a visit to Earl Crawford please and thanks?" Doesn't that kind of ruin the moment? It's got me wondering just whether or not the Crawford subplot would have gone anywhere or just been forgotten like this.

I have posted my thoughts in several places about this before. I feel that the stories in Wrath of the Spectre #4 were supposed to be Adventure # 439-441. However DC decided to cut Spectre from the title so I think Fleisher shelved these scripts & wrote the 2 part conclusion that appeared in #439-440.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 22, 2021 18:15:15 GMT -5

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 22, 2021 18:15:15 GMT -5

Feb 22, 2021 13:01:38 GMT -5 chaykinstevens said:

Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Wrath of The Spectre #4 "The Voodoo Hag of Doom!" (August 1988)

Author: Michael Fleisher
Artists: Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo

DeCarlo didn't ink this story.

Whoops! It's been changed.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 22, 2021 18:22:09 GMT -5

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 22, 2021 18:22:09 GMT -5

Feb 22, 2021 15:26:50 GMT -5 md62 said:

Feb 21, 2021 19:59:04 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Thoughts: Unfortunately, that enticing thread will never be resolved. This issue marks the last of the Flesher run and just as the author was advancing the story towards such an intriguing path. Certainly some sort of confrontation would have taken place and I would have loved to have seen Sterling explain her presence at The New York State Asylum but I suppose 'twas not to be. On the other hand, just what was Sterling doing at The New York State Asylum? Having learned the hard way that a future with Jim Corrigan was not in the cards and with Corrigan being forced to accept the same, why are they still together? You'd think that the grisly spectacle of seeing your fiance's corpse propped up against your doorframe the night before your wedding would drive home the message that things can never be between the two of you. Likewise, Corrigan was given the freedom he yearned for only to have it snatched away violently. Even if the two remain in love, things seem way too business as usual for my liking. It feels just too "You were gunned down violently, your corpse landed at my feet, you had to be rescued from your own grave... wanna go for pizza?" It almost seems obscene the way Corrigan is asking her for favours here. What happened to "it's not really me! It's just the spectral shadow of the man I used to be!" and then fading away at the end of Adventure Comics 440? Did he fade back in seconds later and say "by the way, can you dress as a little old lady for me and pay a visit to Earl Crawford please and thanks?" Doesn't that kind of ruin the moment? It's got me wondering just whether or not the Crawford subplot would have gone anywhere or just been forgotten like this.

I have posted my thoughts in several places about this before. I feel that the stories in Wrath of the Spectre #4 were supposed to be Adventure # 439-441. However DC decided to cut Spectre from the title so I think Fleisher shelved these scripts & wrote the 2 part conclusion that appeared in #439-440.

I'll bet you're right. Jim Corrigan's new lease on life is cut so abruptly short that I can't help but wonder why Fleisher didn't take more time with it. This would explain why.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 22, 2021 18:40:03 GMT -5

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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 22, 2021 18:40:03 GMT -5

I agree with the hypothesis, and it doesn't contradict the literal text of the editorial material in issue 4: "[W]hen the Spectre's series was cancelled, there were three entire scripts for the character...that had not been illustrated." It is a little at odds with what follows: "It is these three stories...that form the conclusion..." But maybe Peter Sanderson or whoever put this together wasn't aware of the author's intended publication order. It sure seems to me that DC missed the boat by not putting these where we all seem to think they belong, as that would have put the new material into two different issues instead of one, which might have increased sales a bit, and yielded a more satisfying reading experience. I was certainly in the target audience, and I was very eager to see these. I think it would be less of the slight disappointment that it was to me had these stories preceded the clearly-intended series finale.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 24, 2021 15:33:51 GMT -5 shaxper and zaku like this

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 24, 2021 15:33:51 GMT -5

Aug 30, 2020 12:33:17 GMT -5 zaku said:

Uh, I've just found there is a post-crisis version of Percival Popp...

So it's taken me a while, but...

There was a Post-Crisis Percival Popp who debuted in the John Ostrander 1990s Spectre run of all places. I can't imagine that Popp was remembered fondly enough (or practically at all) to have been brought back for The Spetcre's Silver Age revival, but going by what was written about him in Fact File #8 within the final issue of the 1960's Spectre title - "stuck out like a sore thumb", "decline of the Golden Age", "The Spectre a subordinate in his own strip" - opinions hadn't softened on him over time.

He doesn't appear during Fleisher's run, of course, and I suspect that he didn't even get a passing mention in, say, All-Star Squadron in the 1980's. Not that I'd expect Roy Thomas to be that detailed, but if you had told me that Percvial Popp would return at some point, this isn't where I would have imagined I'd find him. Although, it was the 90's and you'd get the occasional "cutesy" reference to the past so... hey, why not?

OK, so who is the Post-Crisis Popp? Well, he isn't anything like the actual Percival Popp to start with.

The Spectre #24 (Dec. 1994) has the Post-Crisis Spectre finding himself drawn to a cemetery in the dead of night for reasons even he cannot explain. Flying past the various markers, wondering just what it is is he's doing here, the ghost of Percival Popp appears before him. Offended that hos old pal doesn't instantly recognize his old partner, "Percival Popp, Super-Cop!", The Spectre assures him that this is not the case. A flashback to the days of "Gat" Benson when Jim Corrigan's status amongst the living had no reason to be called into question follows.

Popp is a beat cop who has only achieved that rank due to his father's connections to the police force as an alderman. Though he's regarded as a joke and it's certainly hard to imagine any situation in which he'd be of any use, he's an honest cop and as such, has Jim Corrigan's respect if no one else's. In fact, in the above flashback, we see Popp rushing into battle to help Corrigan out and while he quickly dives for cover when he realizes that he's no match for "Gat" Benson and a warehouse filled with his men, it is possible that the distraction he provides the lawman just happens to save his life. A little detail which Corrigan isn't oblivious to. Popp's admiration for Corrigan - hero worship, in fact - only rises when he overhears his "partner" sticking up for him.

Though Corrigan already has a partner - named Waylon who I suspect is meant to be the Post-Crisis Wayne Grant - that isn't to say that the two always agree. From within their shared office, the two speak.

Waylon: The guy's a moron and oughta be fired!
Corrigan: Relax, Waylon -- the kid's not all bad!
Waylon: Says you! Th' only reason Percival is on the force is because his father is Alderman Poplaski who pulled a few strings to get him on board!
Corrigan: Look, the kid may have saved my life over in that warehouse. That makes him jake by me. Besides, he's an honest cop.
Waylon: Think so? His father is as crooked a politician as they come. "Percival" is probably his departmental spy.

Cue Corrigan kicking Waylon's chair out from under him.

Corrigan: Ah, put a sock in it, why don'tcha? You're just sore that he's better looking than you?

Popp walks on beaming with pride knowing that Jim Corrigan thought well enough of him to defend him.

Shortly thereafter, Popp is called aside by a shady looking fellow who requests that he tell Corrigan that Louie Snipe is looking for him. Yes, it is Percival Popp who passes word to Corrigan that fateful evening...

Still, concerned that Corrigan is going off on his own after Benson (we learn early in Ostrander's run that this is due to Corrigan hoping that by catching the gang on his own, he'll earn a promotion which will, in turn, make him financially self-sufficient enough that he won't have to live off of the wealthy Clarice Winston to whom he's engaged) and also wanting to see how his hero operates in action, Popp follows the detective.

So Popp sleeps through Corrigan's murder and transformation into The Spectre, but he doesn't miss it all.

From a window he watches the Post-Crisis Spectre make his debut (sort of the same as real Spectre did/sort of different)

And so they talk. It takes a while - so long, in fact, that Popp even wonders whether Corrigan had forgotten about him - but they talk.

And thus, The Spectre is born. It's interesting that while the real Pervical Popp "stuck out like a sore thumb" he was very much a late addituon to the mythos, where as here he's kind of/sort of re-introduced and stuck right into The Spectre's origin. You could ignore the Golden Age Popp if you wanted to eliminate him from the series, but from this moment on (at least until the next re-boot) you wouldn't be able to explain how The Spectre became The Spectre without bringing this guy up. Funny that the grim and gritty 90's ensured that they'd be stuck with having to include a comical sidekick anytime they wanted to retell how and why Jim Corrigan decided to become a super-hero following his death.

OK, so that's the past, how about the present?

Well, it's 1994 and Popp has been dead thirty years to day which accounts for The Spectre being drawn to this graveyard on this particular evening.

The Spectre-Popp pairing didn't seem to last long. The Spectre Annual # 1 references it briefly with The Spectre reflecting "We formed a weird team, Popp and me. Effective for the most part, but it involved me saving his butt a lot and I started to get antsy. I started going out more on my own". According to Popp, once The Spectre joined up with The JSA, he didn't see much of the guy and after the war, he himself was let go from the force to make room for "returning heroes". Popp accepts this and a position with a security firm and dies in 1964 alone in a cheap hotel where he still occasionally thumbs through a scrapbook he kept on his hero. His body is discovered a few days later.

So why is he still here? Well...

Popp would return once more (aside from a flashback in The Spectre Annual #1) for The Spectre #29. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure what's going on in this issue, but The Spectre's fighting for his life against Azmodus (remember him?) and whether he realizes it or not, his friends could use a lot of help elsewhere in the city.

"Listen, when you see Spec, tell him Percival Popp the Super Cop said hello, okay?" he says before vanishing.

So, not really Percival Popp - I mean, you could have called him anything really and no one would have guessed there to be a connection between the two - but a Percival Popp which, I have to admit, I really like.

My thanks to zaku for the post and apologies if I'm getting back to you a little on the late side.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 25, 2021 8:24:16 GMT -5 chadwilliam likes this

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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 25, 2021 8:24:16 GMT -5

I'm sure it's not the case for Ostrander, but this version of Popp seems like what you'd extrapolate the character to be from reading only the one-line, dismissive references to the character that would come up occasionally in the text pieces, without having any of Popp's actual stories to consult. In fact, it's almost exactly like I remember imagining the character had been like in the days before there were any reprints or other ways to conveniently and economically sample that much-maligned era of the run: a cop (obviously) who was a bumbling goofball, probably on the portly side ("Popp" certainly doesn't suggest a string-bean to me).

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 25, 2021 19:59:08 GMT -5

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 25, 2021 19:59:08 GMT -5

Feb 25, 2021 8:24:16 GMT -5 MWGallaher said:

I'm sure it's not the case for Ostrander, but this version of Popp seems like what you'd extrapolate the character to be from reading only the one-line, dismissive references to the character that would come up occasionally in the text pieces, without having any of Popp's actual stories to consult. In fact, it's almost exactly like I remember imagining the character had been like in the days before there were any reprints or other ways to conveniently and economically sample that much-maligned era of the run: a cop (obviously) who was a bumbling goofball, probably on the portly side ("Popp" certainly doesn't suggest a string-bean to me).

That he makes his entrance as an apple pilching, "Top o' th' morning to you!" spouting, baton twirling cliched Irish cop, makes it clear that Ostrander wasn't so much interested in introducing a new, fully fleshed out character as he was in indulging in a bit of fun. Why? Perhaps the series and Corrigan had gotten too dark for him and he decided that now would be a good time to cast a light upon a heretofore unexplored softer side of Corrigan while giving readers a bit of a breather from all of the fire and brimstone. I just can't figure out why Ostrander traded one cliche for another. I can understand not wanting his Spectre to have a comic sidekick in the Popp mold, but why have one cast from the "Sufferin' Snakes! It's The Green Hornet!" Mike Axford one instead? Not that I don't love Mike Axford, but if Ostrander thought Gardner Fox's Popp took things too far, what did he see with the Axford template that was "just right"?

I wonder if Ostrander was familiar with Popp before this story. Fleisher certainly was, but he was planning on writing an encyclopedia on the character and had to immerse himself in the folklore. I think it's possible that Ostrander wrote/prepared his story not knowing who Percival Popp was and only gave his character the Popp moniker as a tip of the hat after the fact. Probably not, since Ostrander seems like the type who'd be pretty thorough with his research (and even if he wasn't, he'd likely had a fair share of "Hey John, I hear you're doing The Spectre! You gonna have Percvial Popp in it, too?" ribbing before he reached his two year mark with the title.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Feb 27, 2021 0:14:20 GMT -5 MWGallaher, Slam_Bradley, and 2 more like this

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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 27, 2021 0:14:20 GMT -5

Alright, so with my little Percival Popp update and the abrupt cancellation of the Fleisher run, I have reached the end of these Golden to Silver to Bronze Age reviews. I want to thank all of you for contributing - whether with a thought or simply a 'Like' - and encourage anyone with opinions, questions, knowledge, whatever about anything even remotely connected with this thread to post when the mood strikes them. Not an easy thread to follow along with given the fact that the earliest stories reviewed date back some 80 years now, but if you're reading this in the far future after just getting into any of the tales contained herein, please, by all means, resuscitate this thread. Or if you want to keep things going, do so with my blessing.

I hope you enjoyed.

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Mar 2, 2021 4:23:06 GMT -5 chadwilliam likes this

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Post by zaku on Mar 2, 2021 4:23:06 GMT -5

Feb 27, 2021 0:14:20 GMT -5 chadwilliam said:

Alright, so with my little Percival Popp update and the abrupt cancellation of the Fleisher run, I have reached the end of these Golden to Silver to Bronze Age reviews. I want to thank all of you for contributing - whether with a thought or simply a 'Like' - and encourage anyone with opinions, questions, knowledge, whatever about anything even remotely connected with this thread to post when the mood strikes them. Not an easy thread to follow along with given the fact that the earliest stories reviewed date back some 80 years now, but if you're reading this in the far future after just getting into any of the tales contained herein, please, by all means, resuscitate this thread. Or if you want to keep things going, do so with my blessing.

I hope you enjoyed.

In few word, how was the Moench's comic? It gives me the impression that it is considered little more than a parenthesis between Fleisher's and Ostrander's runs. (Obviously if you read it!

)

Thank you for your reviews!

Last Edit: Mar 2, 2021 5:36:07 GMT -5 by zaku

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Peer into the Eyes of The Spectre - Golden Age Reviews Mar 2, 2021 17:17:47 GMT -5 shaxper and chadwilliam like this

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Post by MWGallaher on Mar 2, 2021 17:17:47 GMT -5

chadwilliam , I want to thank you again for such a thorough and engaging overview of The Spectre's published adventures through the 70's. I appreciate the exhaustion such an effort can bring on, and the satisfaction of reaching a suitable stopping point. You had so many excellent insights and observations, and with The Spectre being one of my very favorite characters, it was a great joy to be along for the ride.

Since you have given your blessing, I'll take up the baton for one more entry that I think deserves attention in this thread. I don't pretend I'll do justice to the approach you took to the material, but I'll give it my best!

The Spectre and Dr. 13 in Ghosts

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, it was looking to DC like their anthology mystery/spooky comics were on track to usurp the superheroes as the top sellers on the comics stands. HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS and UNEXPECTED were selling very well, after being retooled to feature short monster/horror/supernatural stories. Additional titles were introduced, such as WITCHING HOUR, and the superhero comics began to incorporate more and more elements from the scary books, even on such unlikely prospects as SUPERBOY.

By the end of the 70’s, superheroes had regained dominance, and the weaker-selling mystery line began to look to the adventure heroes to hang onto the readership. The anthology titles would introduce continuing features, with protagonists who would specialize in battling supernatural and horrific foes rather than super-villains.

DC had five ongoing mystery anthologies in 1980. Of those five, two would remain anthology titles for a while longer: HOUSE OF MYSTERY would eventually bring I, Vampire! as the lead feature, and WEIRD WAR TALES would host a rotating roster of leads including Creature Commandos, G.I. Robot, and the War That Time Forgot. The other three would be the trailblazers for the new strategy, all introducing continuing characters the same month, with comics cover-dated December, 1980.

SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #31 brought us the first installment of Mister E, from writer Bob Rozakis and artist Dan Spiegle. Mister E was a newly created character, a blind investigator of the paranormal.

Returning to the THE UNEXPECTED as of issue #205 was Johnny Peril, written by Mike W. Barr. Johnny had previously been featured in this series starting back in issue #106, dated Apr/May 1968, continuing through #114, then again in issue 117, with most installments also drawn by Jack Sparling, who was handling the revival. Johnny went back even further than that, having debuted in 1947 in COMIC CAVALCADE #22, when he became the continuing main character in Howard Purcell’s “Just a Story” feature.

And following suit, with issue #95 of GHOSTS came Dr. Thirteen, the Ghost Breaker. Dr. Thirteen had been introduced in STAR SPANGLED COMICS #122, dated November 1951, running through the title’s cancellation as of issue 130, with an inventory story left behind to be published in an issue of HOUSE OF MYSTERY. The character remained forgotten until he was revived with SHOWCASE #80, dated February 1968, as a co-feature in the revived PHANTOM STRANGER. In both the SHOWCASE debut and in the ongoing PHANTOM STRANGER series that followed, a framing story would surround reprints of both characters’ stories from the 1950’s, when the original 6-issue run of PHANTOM STRANGER had appeared on the stands. The reprints stopped as of issue 4 (fortunately, since there were not many Dr. Thirteen stories to recycle), but Dr. Thirteen continued both as a supporting character in many of the Stranger’s adventures as well as in a solo backup feature that appeared frequently but inconsistently.

Dr. Thirteen’s gimmick was his skepticism. He would investigate supposedly supernatural events and reveal them to have natural if unlikely explanations...which is pretty much the same thing that the Phantom Stranger did in his 1950’s stories, making the pairing of reprints a rather boring approach, and its abandonment a good idea.

Dr. Thirteen’s feature had eight installments before GHOSTS returned to its original anthology format. Of those, issues 97 through 99 are of interest here as they co-starred The Spectre.
The Spectre had not appeared in as prominent a role since his series concluded in ADVENTURE COMICS #440. He had appeared as part of the JSA in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #124, DC SPECIAL #29, ALL-STAR COMICS #70, and WONDER WOMAN #241-243, as well as being part of the horde of characters featured in the landmark SHOWCASE #100.

Part 1:

GHOSTS #97 cover by Jim Aparo

“Dr. 13 the Ghost-Breaker and The Spectre”, 7 pgs
Paul Kupperberg, writer
Michael Adams and Tex Blaisdell, artists
Shelly Leferman, letterer
Jerry Serpe, colorist
Jack C. Harris, editor

Dr. 13 disrupts the phony Swami Rishni’s seance, revealing that Rishni was trying to bilk the widow Estelle Phillips with ventriloquism and a projection of her late husband John. Rishni storms out, but he’s turned back by the approach of a group of domestic terrorists, the Peoples Freedom Army, who announce that they are kidnapping the assembly of weathy spirit-seekers. When Mrs. Phillips maid calls the cops, she’s gunned down in cold blood, as is the cowardly Swami who tries to flee.

Arriving on the scene is none other than Lt. Jim Corrigan, who orders the SWAT team to hold back while he tries to enter the mansion. Inside, Dr. 13 has no luck convincing the terrorists to surrender to the surrounding police, and 13 fights back when the partiers are ordered to line up for execution.

Emerging from the smoke in the fireplace comes our old friend, The Spectre. The clearly fantastic essence of what we the readers know to be a true agent of the supernatural shakes the skeptical Dr. Thirteen, who doesn’t see an easy explanation for the horrific punishment The Spectre unleashes: “the freedom of the running waters” that melts the terrorists into liquid.

Afterwards, Corrigan and his men come to the “rescue”, and Corrigan dismisses Thirteen’s “little ghost story”, leaving Thirteen vowing to bring The Spectre to justice, whether spirit or man.

Kupperberg’s clearly taking his cues from Michael Fleisher (if only he’d added ellipses after the ‘and’ in the story title!). The story recycles a lot from the ADVENTURE COMICS run: a phony medium in stereotypical “swami” getup, an organization of kidnapping terrorists, and the liquification of The Spectre’s enemies. For those who weren’t around a few years earlier, this might have seemed interesting. For those who were, there’s not much to get excited for here, especially since the mystery books served as a training ground for inexperienced artists. Mike Adams never hit it big a comics artist, and old-school inker Tex Blaisdell isn’t able to elevate his work to the quality that readers of 1981 expected. At least they invested in assigning Aparo to the cover!

Part 2:

GHOSTS #98 cover by Jim Aparo

“The Haunted House and The Spectre!”, 8 pgs
Paul Kupperberg, writer
Michael Adams and Tex Blaisdell, artists
Shelly Leferman, letterer
Ben Oda, colorist
Jack C. Harris, editor

Dr. 13’s been doing his research, and from the clippings he’s collected, with headlines reading “Death in Dallas” and “Mystery in Mississippi” (where we can read in the fine print that “a wooden statue in the shape of well known criminal S.O. Doe was found cut in multiple pieces just outside of…”--it seems The Spectre’s reliving some of his favorite punishments!). Thirteen is confident that he’s not dealing with the supernatural, but with some kind of murderous trickery.

Doc’s got one of the best informants he could hope to recruit: Earl Crawford (who’s now sporting contacts and a hip new haircut)! But Earl’s not as interested in rehashing his encounters with the wrathful wraith as he is in talking about Daryl Sonntag, the one-time partner of Dr. Thirteen’s father. Daryl’s under investigation for his role in selling faulty construction materials that contributed to a deadly building collapse. Doc’s father is apparently clean, but Sonntag’s been crooked throughout his career. Doc’s willing to share his dad’s papers in order to confirm things, so it’s time to pick up his wife, Marie, and escort Crawford to the closed-up family estate at Doomsbury Hall on Long Island.

Meanwhile, Lt. Corrigan arrives to interview Sonntag. Daryl’s sweating it, worried that Corrigan’s found “the evidence”, so he beats it out of there to make sure the evidence is safe where he left it...on Long Island!

At Doomsbury Hall, Doc shares his family history: his dad preceded him as a debunker until his premature demise in a car accident, after which his son Terrence Thirteen took over the ghost-breaking. But just in case, the senior Thirteen had arranged for one final test: a la Harry Houdini, he’d attempt to return on the fifth anniversary with a secret message to his son via seance. The message was delivered...but proved to be a tape recording, intended to test his son’s investigatory skills and his commitment to skepticism.

Also present at Doomsbury Hall, lurking in the file room, is Daryl Sonntag, who confesses to arranging Thirteen Sr.’s “accident”. The evidence of Sonntag’s crimes was hidden among his partner’s papers, as readers probably guessed.

Doc tackles his father’s killer as his father’s image appears in the smoke around them before that image transforms into the face of The Spectre.

After compelling Sonntag to commit suicide, The Spectre disappears, and Corrigan arrives. But his appearance triggers new suspicions in Thirteen and Crawford: “How were this police officer and The Spectre connected?”

While Jim Corrigan’s current home base appears to be New York now, it’s interesting to see that he has been branching out, delivering his punishment below the Mason-Dixon line. Forcing a victim to shoot himself in the head strikes me as a little more disturbing than the fantastic fates he’s tended to deal his prey. That could strike too close to home among some readers, and seems like something the Comics Code should object to.

Paul Kupperberg brings back Earl Crawford, but drops the ball in order to use him to segue into Dr. Thirteen’s origin. Dr. T is on the trail of The Spectre, and Earl's the closest thing there is to an expert, but Earl's too interested in this other case? And Terry's happy to put his quest on hold to indulge Earl? Convenient for the plot, but not for the characterization of Dr. 13 as a man on a mission.

And one more cover from Aparo, returning to not only The Spectre, but Dr. 13, who, I should note, is a character Aparo had a past with, but who hadn't featured on any of the PHANTOM STRANGER covers Aparo had drawn, just in some of the stories.

Part 3:
“Death...and The Spectre”, 8 pages
Paul Kupperberg, writer
Mike R. Adams and Tony De Zuniga, artists
Shelly Leferman, letterer
Jerry Serpe, colorist
Jack C. Harris, editor

Dr. T and The Spectre don't rate a cover appearance this time. Maybe that's an early indication that this continuing feature approach wasn't panning out as hoped.

As the conclusion of this 3-parter begins, Terry 13 and Earl Crawford are discussion their suspicions with an old teacher of his, Dr. Paul Geist (who just so happens to be a recurring narrator in an ongoing feature elsewhere in this comic), who reports having heard of The Spectre since the 1940’s. Paul’s not ready to rule out a supernatural explanation, but his main concern is that Thirteen is making himself a target for The Spectre. Crawford bows out of tangling any further with The Spectre, leaving 13 to head off on his own. He understands their reticence, since they don’t understand they’re not really dealing with a ghost!

Conveniently, Doc hears about a hold-up in progress. Expecting Jim Corrigan to be called, he heads to the location, in time to spot Corrigan, who soon mysteriously disappears from sight! Hearing horrific screaming from inside the bank, Terry busts in to find The Spectre dealing death to the criminals, who have murdered the bank guards:

Dr. Thirteen awakens in a strange nightmare-scape, where he is finally face-to-face with his target. Is it a hallucination, or is The Spectre real? Terry wants proof, and The Spectre offers a tour of this realm of horrors, answering Dr. Thirteen’s accusations--”What in the name of heaven makes you think you can appoint yourself the arbiter of men’s lives?”--with the claim that he is a reluctant servant of a higher force for good...after all, who would choose to dwell with death as his companion unless he were under a decree to do so?

Terry’s skepticism remains strong, even when his father’s ghost appears, expressing pride in his son’s work, and convincing him that the realm of the spirit is for real…

...momentarily! In anger, Terry rips a very tangible strip of cloth from the “ghost”. “You almost had me, Spectre, but it’s not going to work!”

At which point, Terrence Thirteen comes to, on a stretcher, with his wife Marie. He tripped and hit his head on the way inside, the crooks apparently escaped. Was it real, or the fantasy of an injured brain? Well, he still holds a scrap of cloth in his hands…

And “nowhere”, as the caption puts it, The Spectre and the ghost of Terry’s father walk together toward...a flame-filled cavern?! “The one called Thirteen has returned to the path chosen for him by fate! His faith has been tested--and he shall not rest until he has answered to himself!”

Kupperberg seems to have written himself into a corner, presenting Dr. Thirteen with as convincing a piece of evidence for the supernatural as it would be possible to come up with in the form of The Spectre. I’m still not sure I understand how he ends up recommitted to his skeptical foundation after everything that’s happened, or exactly what The Spectre was trying to accomplish with their tete a tete. And I sure don’t understand why he and Pa Thirteen appear to be walking into Hell at the end of the story! But at least Tony De Zuniga brings a bit more flair to Adams’ rookie artwork.

The fate of the bank robbers is not quite clear, but it seems as if Kupperberg is again having The Spectre repeat one of his punishments from ADVENTURE COMICS, aging them into decrepitude and death.

So while ultimately it didn’t amount to much, this is our last encounter with a Spectre very much in the vein of Fleisher and Aparo’s interpretation. In this out-of-the-way corner of the DC Universe, The Spectre got one last fling of gruesomely dispatching evildoers, at least until the later publication of the "lost tales" from Fleisher and Aparo in 1988.

Last Edit: Mar 3, 2021 9:40:13 GMT -5 by MWGallaher