All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940)



And so we come to the first appearance of The Justice Society of America. While significant though this comic certainly is, it doesn’t present much of a drastic change to the two issues which preceded it at least in terms of how it affects The Spectre. What was an anthology title beforehand, pretty much remains an anthology title with the difference being that all stories contained herein are somehow connected. Taking a page from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in which an assortment of pilgrims pass their journey by relating a tale of their own so as to earn a feast at the end of their voyage, this story has essentially the same set-up.

An unnamed hotel serves as the location for the first meeting of the Justice Society. Johnny Thunder is sore that he hasn’t been invited but an idle remark expressed in combination with the words “Say you” (or more precisely “Cei-U!”) which when spoken, enables his every wish to come true for an hour, explains how Thunder winds up amongst such an illustrious crowd as Doctor Fate, The Sandman, The Flash, Hawkman, The Green Lantern, The Atom, The Hour-Man, and yes, The Spectre too.

The group meets, Johnny bungles a few things here and there with various offhand comments about the size of his head, about The Flash not being so hot, and even earns himself a stern, intimidating look from The Spectre who demands to know how he brought the group together so quickly, yet nevertheless receives an invitation to stay for dinner.  Thunder botches that too when, by voicing skepticism that is even is a dinner, the meal laid out for the team vanishes. However what Johnny breaks, Johnny can fix.  Thunder restores the meal and when asked by The Flash what he intends to contribute for his share of it, he suggests “an idea”.

“Suppose you each tell the most exciting experience you ever had?”

And so sets up the premise for the first published adventure of The Justice Society (which isn’t really an adventure since they’re just sitting around eating turkey, but regardless…). The Flash tells his tale which leads into, well, a Flash story; Hawkman follows and we get a Hawkman story drawn in the style of a Hawkman story. Once Hawkman’s story concludes, the floor is turned over to The Spectre.



Synopsis: A Night Watchman making the rounds of The Central Building is strangled by an unseen assailant during a full moon. Whoever his killer, he possesses unnatural strength and exercises it during every subsequent evening which has a full moon. Assigned to track the killer down, Jim Corrigan does just that. Following that strange sixth sense of his which we’ve witnessed before, Corrigan heads towards The Central Building, scene of the first killing.



Descending from one of the buildings in the area, is a bronze figure which to passerbys, would appear to be no more than one of the statues adorning the edifice. Sneaking up on Corrigan, the gargoyle grabs the detective and whips his body towards a wall in the hopes of smashing him to a pulp. Corrigan instead passes through the wall.  It is his alter ego who comes out the other side and who watches his attacker from a distance as he enters a nearby park.

Confronting the creature, The Spectre learns that this Bronze being is “Oom, from the dark side of the moon!” Furthermore, Oom has a history of indulging his craving for “violent death” which, though satiated at one point, has reasserted itself hence his return to Earth. Rejecting The Spectre’s demand that he return to his slumber, Oom offers a counter proposal. “Whoever first brings the red moon stone of Yzgartyl to Earth, will be given the lot of remaining!” Accepting these terms with the understanding that whoever fails in their quest must leave the planet forever, The Spectre and Oom head off for space.





Oom throws the usual underhanded tricks The Spectre's way – a dimensional current here, a henchman there – but The Spectre prevails when he snatches the stone from Oom by rendering it too hot for the villain to hold onto. Unfortunately, Oom sees no reason why he should stick to the terms of their bargain and simply refuses to leave Earth. What follows is an outlandish battle consisting of The Spectre and Oom just chucking whatever’s within arm’s reach at one another – benches, trees, lamp posts, fire hydrants, etc. – until Oom admits defeat. Acceding to his demand that he return to the pedestal from which he came, The Spectre extracts his evil spirit, locks it into the stone of Yzgartyl, tosses it into space, and hands the table over to Hourman. By issue’s end, The Flash has relayed word to the team that they are all to meet with the Chief of The F.B.I on the following Tuesday. “I wonder what we’re going to learn in Washington?” wonders The Spectre.




Thoughts: There isn’t enough stage sharing going on here for me to really delve into the fact that The Spectre is now part of a team. The Justice Society is here to bookend a group of solo adventures and to eat dinner – they acknowledge one another but don’t really interact. Introductions aren’t really made between the members (beyond Johnny Thunder and much of the team) and no one seems all that perturbed to be hanging around with a walking dead man. This is a group of friends all sharing a common purpose. The Spectre is a wanted felon who has also received an invitation to help out the F.B.I. A man of mystery who, depending upon how much of what we see on the page is a faithful rendition of what The Spectre is relating to the team, speaks casually of also being Jim Corrigan (is Johnny Thunder really someone you want having that knowledge?). Continuity simply means that The Spectre is The Spectre and that’s about it.

And it works just fine.

This is a fun little tale which doesn’t really cover any new ground for the character in terms of plot – we’ve seen the super powerful entity from afar who challenges The Spectre a number of times before – but it does add a richness to The Spectre’s world in little ways that Siegel always handles well. In Center City or Cliffland or wherever the hell he lives, there are supernatural secrets hiding in plain sight. That strange looking gargoyle you pass by all the time on the way to work? That’s Oom, former denizen of the dark side of the moon. Similarly, there’s something unsettling about hearing the common wail of a baby in the deepest reaches of space. That The Spectre hears this cry and doesn’t think it out of place reminds us that there are sinister going ons out there which we know nothing about just as there are on terra firma.

Though presented as a regular six and a half page Spectre adventure, the whole “each tell the most exciting experience” premise means that it is our hero who’s narrating this yarn. That the opening narration of this piece reads “MIDNIGHT!! A FULL MOON!” amuses me. Is The Spectre really the type to try and set a mood when relating a tale? Does he also provide “Pweee! Pweee!” sound effects while holding a flashlight under his chin, too?

eh, a small point, but I like the idea of him trying to spice things up like that.

Oom has an effective look – sort of a deranged looking six foot monkey – but Baily permits us to glimpse only his shadow during the opening montage of murders which also sets the mood nicely.

As already established, when in a tight spot The Spectre has a tendency to resort to brute thuggish strength rather than his wits. Oom refuses to stick to the terms of their agreement when he declares his intention to stay on Earth and The Spectre decides that he has no choice but to start throwing whatever he can at him. There’s no trickery on The Spectre’s part, no ploy by which he, for example, makes Earth an unappealing prospect for Oom, instead his whole plan for dealing with his opponent is to simply hit him again and again until he gives up. For a being well versed in the ways of magic, you’d think he’d be able to use his brains once in a while.

Still, this one has enough of what I want in a Spectre story – mood, weird happenings, a strange looking foe, a good introduction – that I can’t really fault it. It opens and closes in that down to Earth style of Baily’s which would perfectly suit a detective story, turns the corner into the supernatural, veers off into a sort of sci-fi fairy tale with a dragon in space, and then returns to the streets all within the span of a little more than six pages. Who can argue with that? 

Now we know what motivated the otherwise unexplained change to the helmet that stopped halfway down his face.

(Actually, I contend that the change was because the writer decided that Fate's weakness would be vulnerability to inhaled gasses. The revised helmet allowed the artist to visually depict the inhalation of fumes.)

Doctor Fate actually points out that neither he nor The Spectre actually need to eat when Johnny Thunder makes their meal disappear.  As for the others, I'm guessing that the food gets put through a blender and they just drink it through straws.  I believe that J Edgar Hoover even comments on the "deplorable and suspect" condition of their clothes when they show up in his office next week with turkey and gravy stains all over their masks and shirts.

More Fun Comics #63 (January 1941)


Synopsis: Philanthropist Amos Gantry is gunned down outside his office after refusing to give in to the demands of racketeers. Corrigan is assigned to the case. A set of footprints is all his occult abilities require to summon up a vision of Gantry’s killer and unfortunately for ‘Trigger’ Daniels, Corrigan recognizes the face.

Arriving at the office of Bugs O’Leary, The Spectre finds the pair dickering over the money Daniels is owed and with the proof he needs acquired, our man of mystery tackles the hitman as he leaves the building. A sock on the jaw renders Daniels unconscious and when he revives, it is at police headquarters. Though guilty, Daniels has no intention of conceding this fact, but Corrigan is working on that. The Spectre, in shadow form, arrives back at O’Leary’s office and compels the mob boss to confess to his role in the killing, which he does. Things move quickly from here – Daniels is put on trial, found guilty, and placed in the electric chair. Last words? A few…

“I’m dying, and yet I’m not dying! I’ll come back and make the guys who sent me to the chair pay! Figger that out!”



Corrigan’s Chief (who still doesn’t have a name) laughs at the remarks. Corrigan himself (who is secretly The Spectre – have I mentioned this before?) isn’t so sure. What follows is a killing spree carried out against those who crossed Daniels. O’Leary is the first to die – by a shadowy assailant in his cell. “No! No! Don’t do it Trigger! Please! Please!” he cries. At the same time, the Public Prosecutor delivers a radio speech announcing his intention to run for governor. A pair of hands materializing out of thin air puts the end to that idea as the strangled cry from the Prosecutor goes out over the airwaves . Hearing the broadcast is Jim Corrigan who transforms into his ghostly alter ego and heads over to the studio. Arriving as Corrigan (I guess he transformed back) and detecting the presence of ectoplasm in the atmosphere, our detective knows that he’s on the trail of a ghost.

Meanwhile, add Stanley Newton to the list of Trigger’s victims for it’s he who dies by electrocution when he speeds his car away from the city. Who’s next? Why, Jim Corrigan as a matter of fact.

Materializing in his car, Trigger gleefully informs Corrigan that he’s about to die horribly when he takes control of his car and directs it towards a tree. “Brother, are you going to be surprised!”, remarks the lawman. The car phases through Trigger’s target and Corrigan reveals his other identity to his would-be killer. Though The Spectre gives chase when Trigger flees from the car, he is unable to secure the fiend after they briefly battle in the clouds. Any doubt The Spectre might have with regards to his next target though fades when Trigger gloats that he’ll be killing Judge Carlyle next.



When The Spectre arrives outside his home, he finds the judge preparing to leave for a bridge dedication. Knowing that he must stop him, he commands frost to spell out a message reading “DO NOT LEAVE THE HOUSE!” upon his window. Carlyle dismisses the occurrence as a joke just as he similarly disregards the phone call he gets from The Spectre advising him to stay home “if you value your life”.

When the judge does arrive at the ceremony, Trigger drops a girder on him, but its journey is reversed through the magical interference of our hero. Attempting to escape as he did before through some manufactured darkness, Trigger finds this counter measure stymied when The Spectre uses The Ring of Life to part the clouds. With that done, The Spectre reduces Trigger in size until he pops into nothingness.

Back at headquarters, The Chief chalks the preceding deaths up to “coincidence” and while Corrigan assures him that his guess is as good as his, he turns to the reader to remind us that Trigger’s next victim could have been any one of us.

Thoughts: Man, those were some pretty feeble attempts to keep the judge from leaving his house. I mean, you’ve got all these occult powers but using condensation and a phone call somehow exhausts all the tools of your trade? A shy child could have done more. In fact, Jim Corrigan could have done more. Not sure why The Spectre is being so secretive given it being established that the general public knows of his existence – why not just show up in his home and command him to stay (although I do wonder what special protection his house offers that nowhere else achieves).

While I wouldn’t say that The Spectre has been neutered, he does seem to now serve at the behest of Jim Corrigan rather than vice versa. In the past, it seemed implied that Corrigan’s job as a police officer would help The Spectre in his mission to rid Earth of crime. Now however, it seems that The Spectre is there to assist Corrigan. Punishing criminals in a distorted, poetic fashion seems to have taken a back seat to simply upholding law and order - certainly not the mission one should associate with our star feature.  The Spectre finds Daniels at O’Leary’s office and could easily deal with the pair of them then and there in his own macabre manner but instead, Corrigan plays things by the book by arresting Daniels. Extracting a confession from O’Leary through his powers might not exactly be legal, but the courtroom trial, the sentencing, the electric chair, is all very much done by the book. Even The Spectre tackling Daniels and then punching him on the jaw screams ‘tough guy detective’ more than it does ‘supernatural dead man who could turn you into a bug’. He does deal with Trigger in his own inimitable way, but I suspect that’s only because the law can’t really imprison a ghost. I’m wondering if some sort of implied deal is going to be established between Corrigan and The Spectre whereby depending upon whether they’re going after a regular killer or an otherworldly being, one identity will be expected to take a backseat to the other. It’s a bit disappointing to see such a return to normalcy for a character who was shocked to discover in his first appearance that he no longer even breathes or sleeps.

Not sure why Trigger is so certain that he’s even going to return from the dead. It isn’t as if we see him being given any reason to believe that he’ll come back – there’s no visitors offering him such a deal in his cell, for instance; no indication that he studies the occult – he just knows.

Some nice touches:

1. When Corrigan leaps through the pane of glass separating his home from the outside world, Baily has him in his suit and tie for the parts of him still in the room and in his Spectre outfit for those bits which have already passed through. A really nice touch.

2. Trigger getting spooked by The Spectre when he finds that crashing Jim Corrigan’s car into a tree isn’t going to do anything is a nice reversal of the set-up the killer has established. There isn’t much that a ghost shouldn’t be able to do and to see one shift from ominous figure in the shadows to slack-jawed dumbfoundedness in the next is a cool bit.

3. When Corrigan gets a vision of Trigger at the start of the tale it isn’t some vague, brief impression in his mind, but a seemingly literal parting of the clouds behind which his giant head appears. Pretty cool also.

Can’t really complain about this tale – the dead killer back from revenge trope is always a fun one (though Trigger does look fairly bland in his robe and pale skin) – but it is leaving me a little worried about where things are headed for the title from here. Will The Spectre be calling the shots next time or Corrigan?

I find that I don't really miss the more ruthless Spectre, because Siegel and Baily were still delivering the pulpish, Weird Tales kind of stories that I think are the core of the concept. In the same pages, Gardner Fox, no stranger to the pulps himself, although frequently delving into Lovecraftian concepts in his Dr. Fate stories, still couldn't keep up with the parade of bizarre conflicts that Jerry Siegel was coming up with. 
Playing at being Roy Thomas, there are plenty of ways to explain this evolution of the Spectre's modus operandi. Perhaps the Spectre realized he couldn't keep offing villains once he was operating publicly as a superhero. Maybe the Ring of Life was actually doing nothing but slowly and subtly changing the Spectre's nature from that of a death-dealing vengeful ghost to that of a life-affirming guardian angel. Maybe the increasingly frequent unexplained cosmic interruptions of the Spectre's missions were interventions of The Voice intended to correct his behavior. Since the stories are leading to a clear depiction of Jim and the Spectre as separate entities, maybe Jim's law-abiding nature is simply rubbing off on the inhuman Spectre. 
But the real reason remains: corporate policy frowning on murderous super-heroes. And I think this element was written out of the series without (yet) fundamentally damaging what was working best in this strip.