JSA in the 90s – Spotlight on Jim Corrigan The Spectre

It’s a Spotlight episode of JSA in the 90s covering JIM CORRIGAN THE SPECTRE!  Justin from The Fanholes and The Irredeemable Shag discuss The Spectre’s significant appearances across the 1990s – with special focus on THE SPECTRE #1-4 (1992-93) by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake!  Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback!

 

 

 

 

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22 responses to “JSA in the 90s – Spotlight on Jim Corrigan The Spectre”

  1. I’m so happy this podcast finally got to one of my favorite topics: Madame Xanadu naked. Keep up the good work!

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    1. I literally shared a story about that issue a week or so ago on this forum. lol I got in trouble at school for it more or less. I can’t remember what episode it was on.

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        1. Hello,

          Hey Shag I just finished listening and wow thank you for sharing my story. You know, after I had my own children in school whom we also sort of treated more like tiny adults in some ways. Essentially if they could read a book they were allowed to read it. My wife and I answered questions if they had them etc. Similar to how my parents were, and my wife’s parents were the same way with her and her siblings.Anyways both of my kids are on the spectrum and started reading early and for my now 16 year old reading was one of her hyper-fixations so to speak. If it was in the house she wanted to read it. Anyways I successfully prevented a similar experience happening to my now 16 year old when she was younger lol. She read my copy of “Identity Crisis” and wanted to either take it to school or write a book report on it in 3rd grade. I was like no, your teacher and/or fellow classmates don’t need to hear about the raping of Sue Dibney or her murder. I have my opinions on that book but not really necessary to share here, but TL:DR it is a well written book full of misery and sadness.

          With that said, something relevant to the JSA. Have you been checking out “The New History of the DC Universe”. The first issue covers the creation up to the JSA being brought before congress more or less. It has some JSA goodness and some things which are interesting to me, *spoiler* such as Dr. Occult now being the first masked super hero *end of spoiler*. This seems to be a change as the super hero has been Crimson Avenger since post-Crisis on Infinite Earths but doesn’t get a mention now in the “New History of the DC Universe”… Oh well. Anyways it does have some good JSA stuff in the book over all and I am enjoying it, everyone has to like Mark Waid more or less right?

          -Dustin (Fa†e)

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  2. a rare dc from the 90s i had a full run Those of you that know me will understand I never pitched a spectre story (yes of course I wanted to a WHY the hell any Batman bad guys are still alive if the spectre is around but I wanted the real guy to do that.
    and Yeah Spectre is a LOT like Ghost rider. But Ghost Rider’s Penence stare gives pepole EXACTLY what they gave other people. IT’S just math you cant argue. Spectre makes up his own punishments and he is often mean.
    We find out later Corrgan is not the kind of dirty cop that takes money HE JUST REALLY LIKES BEATING SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE

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  3. My introduction to the Spector comes from the brave bold cartoon the same episode where I would first meet the phantom stranger the chill of the night . I would learn more via dc showcase collections of both characters .
    Random JSA fact as you know I’ve bin reading dc finest Justice society collection the first collection.
    In issue 10 Al prat reveals
    That Hawk man taught him and some of the other members how to talk to birds . The atom never says who Else the only others I can think of would be Doctor midnight having a pet owl it would be a use full skill to have and maybe Johnny thunder as in the same issue it shows he took a mail away engineering course so I can see him taking the lessons from hawk man as way to better him self and to impress peachy and daisy by being a able to call over talk to some friendly birds .
    Here’s a question not a secret one just a question in the 90’s series does Al prat ever use to this ability it’s seems if the writer had know about it would have bin a big help on the island.
    Also here’s a secret question: both Wonder Woman and Jessie have bin brought in as secretaries to the justice Society of America. But later became full fledged members so here’s my question if you where to choose a modern female super heroine to fill that position know at some point she would graduate to full membership. Who would you choose?

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  4. The Spectre is one of those characters that I absolutely love…in concept. In reality, not so much. Not sure why. I put him in the same category as The Phantom Stranger. Fun but a bit heavy at times when you need escapism.

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  5. Hey Shag. Another great episode!

    I have a couple of possibilities regarding your memory of the Spectre turning someone into a candle.

    The first is from “Wrath of the Spectre” from Adventure Comics 431. At the end of that story, the Ghostly Guardian ‘melts’ one of the bad guys – his hands elongate and drip off like hot wax.

    The other, and I think more likely option is from “The Nightmare Dummies and the Spectre” from Adventure 434.

    That story is about a guy who uses animated waxwork dummies to go on a killing spree. The Astral Avenger hunts him down and transforms him into a waxwork dummy which is scheduled for destruction.

    The final panel of the story is a close up of his horrified face melting in the flames – just like that guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark (spoilers for 1981).

    We’ve covered both those stories, as well as the rest of the Spectre’s Adventure Comics run last year on the Earth-2 Podcast.

    Keep up the good work!

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  6. Fun show, guys! A few years ago, one of my best friends, a fellow comic book fan. loaned me the first four issues of the Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre series. I really liked it, but never got around to reading any more of it. Thanks for the kick in the pants that I needed to seek it out.

    Also, I love the DC/Marvel/Amalgam stuff from the 1990s. Matching The Spectre up w/ Eternity was a good call. In the Amalgam universe, however, he ended up merged w/ Nightmare as Night Spectre.

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  7. Absolutely love this character! I’m kinda late to the DC party so I didn’t read this when it came out.( which means I missed out on the glow in the dark cover) I’m so glad that is was brought to my attention. I genuinely like the art work and had to make the cover to #1, the screen saver on my phone. As much as I liked the art work in the 4 issues, the other images you posted are even better,(I think?) Seeing The Spectre mix it up with Parallax is always a favorite of mine. But the image from Armageddon: Inferno is absolutely amazing! Who doesn’t love to see Spectre and Firestorm blasting away, doing their thing? Loved the show as always, keep up the greatness. Now I’m off to add to Shags comment count on FW Team Up. Love everything you do.

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  8. Great show as always, guys. I didn’t think I’d have much to say about this, since I never read this version of the Spectre. Then, near the end, Shag mentioned how there might have been more minis of the JSA like the New Golden Age ones, if they had sold better. Shag, are you aware of the interview Johns did with Popverse around the time he left DC?

    He said he had met with editorial about the future of his New Golden Age and there was quite a lot of enthusism about it. There was talk of several more minis, since the sales were so good, according to him. A new series was in the works that would expand the Justice Society into a JS Global. He made it sound like he and DC had come to mutual agreement about the fiture of the franchise. And then, he took six of DC’s top artists with him when he left.

    I don’t know how much of that interview was mostly Johns’ self-promotion, or if he really did have an agreement with DC when he left. Something obviously happened, if his version of the story is true. In any case, currently none of that seems to be happening other than a new JSA series. But so far, at least, there doesn’t seem to be any hint of them expanding globally.

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    1. It’s weird because by the end of his last JSA run, he really felt burned out on the whole thing, whether it’s because he just wanted to do his own thing of DC screwed him over, is something I guess we’ll learn when everyone is good and ready!

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  9. I was in this series from issue #1, since I loved the Ostrander/Mandrake Firestorm, and was glad to get more. Whew! What a ride! I have re-read it on occasion, but it has been a while. I think my frame of mind has to be just so, because honestly, I don’t gravitate to horror stories in general. I must be too tender-headed for them. So I have to be in a good positive mood to jump into this series, so I can enjoy the ride rather than overly focusing on the scary parts.

    That said, it’s been tickling in my head for a while even before this episode, so it might just happen between other reading projects. And yes, this series is amazing. So much of the first 18 issues live rent-free in my head, like Corrigan’s face at the end of issue #12. And the characters that get me through the book are absolutely Amy and Father Craemer. They bring so much heart and compassion to offset Spectre’s VENGEANCE. Oh, and the issue by guest artist Jim Aparo is incredible, with a simply delicious twist to the story. MWUH-HUH-HAAAA!

    Thanks for bringing up such great memories, Shagg!

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  10. Good stuff, Gang! I never made the Freddy Krueger connection before listening to this episode. The similarity with ironic kills is strong, especially for the later Elm Street films.

    Ostrander/Mandrake is certainly a high water mark for The Spectre. I fell off around the midway point and need to finish it on Infinite. My July was spent reading the Moench run which was…a choice. As flimsy as the back half of that run got, I’m still disappointed in the retcons for Madame Xanadu and Kim Liang.

    BTW Diabolu Frank, lay off Wojtkiewicz & Miehm. They did some fun stuff along the way! 😛

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  11. Whilst I was at the time deep into the Vertigo line at the time ironically, I’ve never really been into the horror side of comics. So I only really know the Spectre when he’s being the Ghost of Christmas future in things like Kingdom Come!

    That said, it was really fun to listen to you both wax lyrical about the Spectre series, even if to me it sounds like they’re telling the same basic story of some bad person get ironic punishment whilst someone seems to fancy Corrigan even if they can never have true love! 😉

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  12. mensch : Yiddish מענטש; more or less “a good man/stand-up guy.” Also, how you say Doug Moench’s last name, Shag, FFS.

    I like boobies, so I went to the (baby’s got) back episode of JSA in the ’80s to check out the Moench/Morrow Spectre run. I’m trying to figure out why that book existed, and all I’m coming up with is “to keep Gene Colan working” and “let’s throw stuff at the wall now that Moore’s leaving Swamp Thing.” You’d figure that it would have launched out of an event or something, but looking at the schedule, it seems more like a desire to get another #1 out in the good will wake of the Byrne/Miller/Perez reboots and Charlton 2.0 (The Question, Captain Atom– although Blue Beetle was already floundering nearly a year in.) Going through a few issues, it’s like that internet meme of “yeah boss, I made it real horny, just like you asked.” I realize The Spectre is one of the few male comic characters to be as under-dressed as a bad girl, but I guess vengeful bloodless corpse isn’t my kink? I first got turned onto (not “by”– to) Gray Morrow through Mark Hazard: Merc which I assume he quit to do Spectre, because the New Universe paid the lowest rates of any big two title. Still, Morrow was a way better fit on the “real world” title versus the mystical one, which does to DC dark fantasy line what seeing actual swingers does to any interest in Satanic orgies. These are not the sights I was hoping to see based on the premise. Put it away, Anton LaVey.

    I’m not sure why I burned through the first eight issues of the Ostrander/Mandrake series, but I probably wanted to brush up on the Spectre before covering him on the third episode of my DC Secret Files podcast. You guys really should have done the same, since that was a more natural stopping point in the story, and was very Madame Xanadu heavy, in support of the boobie talk. That run does the True Blood thing where each issue is a brisk read with a cliffhanger ending, so you just naturally progress to the next issue. I was a big fan of Grimjack, and enjoyed the same creative team’s run enough to swipe images from it for my own drawings in class when I should have been listening to my teachers. In 1992, I was still buying all the X- and Image titles, so the only DC books I budgeted for were Sandman and the Titans line. I only ordered the first issue of Spectre, as a sample and for the gimmick cover. I didn’t know much about the character, and that debut didn’t really make me care. I had recently dropped Ghost Rider because I’d bought that book more for the Texeira art and the visuals overall. Skeletons on fire in spiked leather with chains riding motorcycles is cool, especially when you add a glow-in-the-dark cover. What gets boring is surrounding that with one-note supporting characters/victims, disposable adversaries, and monotonous declarations about vengeance. The Spectre was better than that– but by degrees, and there’s a coolness trade deficit involving booties.

    Reading the rest of these issues as a proper adult at decades remove, I can certainly see the Freddy Kruger of it all, but it lacks the gleeful gruesomeness. It’s po-faced in it’s EC revivalism, and all the depressive biblical allusions aren’t nearly as fun. They intentionally try to straddle the line between DC and Vertigo, but a lot of it is gross demon boobies and graphic violence married to ham-fisted melodramatic moralizing. I mean, I like that the book isn’t judgmental toward Amy, but it’s not exactly progressive or sex-positive, is it? “Amy was so traumatized that she was driven to promiscuity– and paid a terrible price!” Bleeehhh. Plus, they do try to sexualize Amy, particularly the dripping wet shower call pick-up in #6, but a cheesecake artist, Mandrake ain’t. Like, the anatomy is exposed, but it’s matter-of-fact, not erotic. There’s some technique overlap with Morrow, but no thirst. There are some fantastical/horror images here, but not the most imaginative, and Mandrake can’t sell it like Aparo or Anderson could. I also like the moon bullets, but that’s just a play on the smashing planets from the ’60s. The two page spread in #6 demonizing gun violence is mostly just literally turning firearms into goofy demonic things. It’s just not that imaginative. For a liberal, Ostrander’s politics are awful reactionary in this book. Like, all the mixed race gangs that do some ripped-from-the-headlines bad thing, and get mostly very blunt comeuppance, but it’s just an action beat to jazz up an overall story about the doings of white people? Knee-jerk and exploitative. Dark skin as meat for the fire, but not as meat on the story.

    I wish there was more conflict in the Jim Corrigan portrayal… more anything, really. He mostly pouts and then throws tantrums, and that’s his emotional spectrum for those eight issues. The book is all about him– his drive, his lust, his fear and anger– but Corrigan doesn’t make me feel anything. He’s a collection of elements to drive the narrative, but there’s no person there. Corrigan is the loudest, scene-chewingest cypher that I can immediately recall. I spent the better part of three years stewing in real time resentment of this team’s work on J’Onn J’Onzz. I have neither the investment nor the degree of reservations about them on The Spectre, but I do think that I mostly preferred this team on Grimjack rather than as an ongoing concern elsewhere. For whatever reason, I think Ostrander just cooks better with other collaborators, and too much of this stuff feels like Wolfman/Barreto to me. These guys have done work apart that I’ve loved, and I’ve even liked some of the collaborations. I don’t even hate what’s being done in their most notable joint effort, but it’s a thing that I’m inclined to take or leave as I please. I started it, and it was alright. I set it down, and may pick it up again, but I don’t think my life will be significantly affected whether I do or don’t.

    I actually really like Chuck Wojtkiewicz’s late career work, but it’s probably a better fit for a modern/sci-fi team over a retro one like the JSA. For instance, the unpublished New Gods pages he was selling for $250 at SDCC 2000, when he told me it’s pronounced “Voight-kev-itch.” I don’t know how to say Miehm because why would I be at that table? I’d assume you can’t say Miehm without “meh.”

    You’d think I’d be certain of the phrasing after Shag recited words to the effect of “something to consider” 15 friggin’ times regarding my various contrarian stances, but the Fire & Water Network’s HR/PR Department’s anodyne auto-reply just doesn’t hit the same as “what’s this mad bastard on about now?”

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  13. Frank’s right about Moench. FFS, Shag!

    Another show about The Spectre and still no mention of Percival Popp, the Super Cop. Shameful.

    The Spectre can do anything, after the bad stuff happens. Victim: “Help me! I’m being attacked!” Every hero ever: “Here I come! Take that you ruffian!” The Spectre: “I’ll wait until the ruffian has done what he wants to do. Then I will devise an appropriate response.” Victim (dead): “That doesn’t help me at all!”

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  14. Great episode, guys! The 90s Spectre run was really something special. I’m actually glad they don’t make it a Vertigo book. For some reason, keeping his horror-tinged stories grounded in the larger DC Universe made them more terrifying and powerful.

    Also, this has to be one of the earliest comics to make HIV a plot point in a more serious manner, right? I know that Extrano in New Guardians and Northstar’s “elf-flu” got there first, but they were more surface level. It’s nice to see such a prevalent social issue make its way into the DC Universe. While some may find elements problematic now, I think it’s handled deftly, especially for the time.

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    1. Jim Wilson, the Hulk’s early 70’s sidekick, resurfaced in INCREDIBLE HULK #388 (12/91) with an HIV diagnosis and died three years later. But, yeah, mainstream comics often skirted around the topic before these stories..

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    2. And of course, New Guardians also had the villainous Hemogoblin who was not only a vampire whose bite transmitted HIV, but also worked for a pro-apartheid group in late 80s South Africa.

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  15. Great spotlight on the Spectre. I was always conflicted by this character. Partly because he doesn’t really work in a group dynamic (can’t really see the wrath of god hanging by the JSA water cooler talking to Jay Garrick about last night’s football game), and mostly because he’s a supposedly scary dude running around in a speedo and booties. I always thought if any DC character was in need of a design update, it was the Spectre. Anyway, I enjoyed the conversation, and that’s what counts. Tom Mandrake’s art is unique. His pencils are like if Gene Colon was a 90’s artist. Lots of mists and flowing movements but with a heaver line and more imagery packed in.

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  16. Great episode Shag! Between vacation and breaking down the DC History Mural in Superman for my blog I just got around to listening. I had a handful of Spectre issues growing up. I mostly grabbed them out of bargin bins. When I finally decided to pull the book my LCS informed me it would be the last issue. I enjoyed reading the first 12 issues and I’m going to continue on reading the rest of the series to fill in the blanks. While it is a great read it does seem dated in some ways, especially how they talk about Amy sleeping with other men before she realized she was HIV positive. But it seems informative about how the topic was treated at the time. I’m going to hit pause on Spectre and jump to the Batman/Catwoman/Wildcat books before Sunday!

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