Summer on Earth-2 part one

In the last post, we looked at Neal Adams' iconoclastic work on Deadman's Strange Adventures in the late Sixties, where he blended his photo-realistic style with psychedelic designs and motifs of Eastern mysticism. This time we're revisiting the DC Showcase adventures of the original Earthbound ghost, The Spectre.

The Spectre had his trio of tryout adventures in early 1966. Having published three summer "Crises" with the Justice Society, DC had already dedicated a pair of comics each to revivals of Dr. Fate/ Hourman/and Starman/ Black Canary. The third Earth-2 team-up was originally planned to be Dr. Mid-Nite/ Spectre; in the end the Medical Manhunter was ditched and Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson produced three solo adventures for the Discarnate Detective. Incidentally, why they hadn't done so with Dr. Fate still baffles me.

These are lush, playful, genteel tales, where Fox shows off his encyclopaedic knowledge of occult lore: the Black Mass of Secaire and the Soul Houses of Ecuador. He fuses that with cosmic forces more familiar from Marvel's Dr. Strange. Finally, there are touches of Lovecraft in the Black Gardens of Tholagga and the chanting cultists of Shathan:" Sthuglu Thalla Othulkahu..."

The great Carmine Infantino supplies the art for a typically offbeat Bob Haney Brave and Bold tale of WWI vengeance, guest-starring the Flash. Infantino's liquid style is very apt for the Spirit Sleuth; Ross Andru, six months later, not so much...


Such was The Spectre's popularity, however, that in true Silver Age style, his own title was launched. Adams is an astonishing change of pace for four issues: the Spectre is still a sprightly ghost with a panoply of supernatural powers but his world becomes more technological and "widescreen". A team-up with Wildcat (in which, ironically, the Feline Fury fears losing his edge) is so dynamic that it actually burns the boxing crimefighter into fan consciousness to the extent that he has five B&B team-ups with Batman over the next decade, despite having no strip of his own.

The final phase of the Spectre's 60s career is really the point where I first encountered him. Jerry Grandenetti becomes penciller for five surreal, Ditko-esque issues. This period begins with the Lovecraftian "Pilgrims of Peril". Three years after his "triumphant return", however, The Ace of Shades is reduced ignominiously  to hosting an anthology of weird mystery tales, not unlike the later Destiny. 


Despite having sacrificed himself, Red Tornado-style, in Denny O'Neil's campy second attempt at a summer Crisis in 1970, Spectre was subsequently seen in Golden Age reprints (as we've seen on the 'optikon). I don't know if this is true but I read editor Joe Orlando decreed a revival as a response to being mugged. The series in Adventure Comics has a darker, cynical sensibility that was more Marvel than the kitschy Silver Age homages of the Schwartz-edited DC titles in 1974.

The main reason I bought this collection was to read these infamous exploits of the Grim Ghost since I had only seen one issue of Adventure before, in the late 70s. Aside from the moody Aparo art, two things strike me. Firstly, this series surely must have inspired Ghost Rider's Nineties revival as "The Spirit of Vengeance". Secondly, many of these strips read like Golden Age stories with their mad scientists, killer apes and alligator pits.But in this regard, they're very true to the,er, spirit of the character.

The series becomes very repetitive but it blends horror with dark humour and tragedy. The storyline climaxes with Corrigan regaining his mortality, only to become the target of a gangland execution. The shock factor is not therefore in the ghoulish methods of The Spectre but in the emotions of the characters: Aparo really sells the second slaying of Corrigan.

The collection ends with a couple of 80s appearances  for the Man of Darkness in Brave and Bold and of course, the Wein/Starlin DC Comics Presents story where he intervenes in Superman's quest for Supergirl. In this mythic tale, Starlin employs Ditko-esque motifs and the Spectre resembles one of Marvel's unknowable cosmic entities, like Eternity. It's a convincing role but the story clearly demonstrates how the Marvel style had come to dominate DC by the end of the Bronze Age.


So whither the Spectre in the New 52? Having appeared on tv (in the B&B animated series where he sounded like Lurch from the Addams Family and turned Prof. Milo into cheese for the rats!) it seems to me his implacable mission of vengeance would be tonally appropriate in that sensationalist, "X-treme" world of Nineties retro. He'll doubtless be sporting that hipster goatee he grew last decade.


Coming soon: The Fourth Doctor and Leela and the All-Star Squadron

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