The Spectre Of Death!

Before Deadman, DC Comics gave the world The Spectre. The Spectre was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Bailey for More Fun Comics way back in the Golden Age of Comics. The Spectre was an original if oddball member of the Justice Society of America. When DC started to revive those characters with the creation of Earth-2, the Spectre was given a try-out and apparently warranted a series of his own. After the try-outs and the debut issue were drawn by the great Murphy Anderson, DC handed the art chores over to Neal Adams, who at that same time was taking over Deadman from Carmine Infantino in the pages of Strange Adventures. 

The actual first-published image of the Spectre rendered by Neal Adams was the cover of The Brave and the Bold #75. He didn't do the interiors, yet his ghastly presentation is pretty memorable. 

In the second issue of The Spectre, Adams illustrates a story by Gardner Fox about a hood who gets so scared his magical self is separated from him and uses its magical powers to commit crimes while his real self performs magic in public. It takes both the strength and ingenuity of Jim Corrigan and the Spectre to defeat this double menace. 

In a story which is as much about Wildcat and his alter-ego Ted Grant as the Spectre, the duo find themselves fighting against a small-time hood who is suddenly gifted with great powers thanks to some stray magic which escaped from a battle between to other-dimensional magicians. Mike Friedrich wrote this one. 

Neal Adams writes and draws the next issue. Once again, a mere human gets great powers, powers which challenge that of the mighty Spectre. This time it's an evil force which travels from world to world, inflicting anger and destruction in its wake. It inhabits a young boy and after fighting to stop the menace, the Spectre is given a dilemma of killing the host or saving the world. 

Neal Adams wraps up his Spectre run with issue five. This one is a particular fave of mine since I got hold of it when I was a tyro. The art in this issue blew me away and firmly rooted my utter appreciation for Adams. The story starts with a mysterious stranger who kills to get a mystical device he uses to created a rampaging giant. The Spectre responds but finds the crowds are more terrified of him than the actual menace. Ultimately the Spectre uncovers the identity of his foe and the giant as well. Both are dandy revelations I won't spoil here. 

But there is a fantastic double-page spread which still lingers in my memory. 

The Spectre's book was taken over by Jerry Grandenetti, a fine artist in his own way. Neal Adams apparently was shifted over to The Brave and the Bold where he took on Batman full-time for the first time. I'll have more on that next month. Later today, I shift gears slightly to look at the other ghostly hero drawn by Adams for DC -- Deadman.

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