The Spectre's Guide to Ironic Punishment (Part 3)

 

I am THE SPECTRE. For the third and final time this month, I will extole my principles of Ironic Punishment upon the teeming hordes of evil. You see, it is not enough for me to simply punish an evildoer...because true justice demands that the punishment should not only fit the crime, but echo it as well. As I made clear with evil hairdressers and a swindling swami, a criminal's punishment should ideally share the same theme, settings, or implements as his evil deeds...thus producing obvious and cosmically-satisfying levels of irony!

This final example, originally chronicled in Adventure Comics #434 (1974), involved a twisted craftsman named Ezekial Borosovitch. "Zeke", as he was called, worked for J.R. Monarch creating mannikins for department stores. Hating humanity as much as he loved and cherished his artificial people, Zeke commanded his legions of mannikins to butcher the living beings in their presense... such as these unsuspecting truck drivers...

 

Zeke's macabre, expressionless killers then systematically massacred the customers of area stores, even attacking me in my human guise of Detective Jim Corrigan! With so much innocent blood crying out for justice, I paid a visit to the twisted old man and his brood of unholy plastic...

 

Thus, another suitably ironic end to an evildoer!

Comments

[John Nowak]

Note to self: ensure that all evil, murderous plans are designed in such a way that ironical justice will be lame and unspectacular.

Isn't it interesting that these "Spectre" stories seem to mirror the "Stardust" stories, in a quality inversion of the way that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" has the same plot as "The Day the Earth Stood Still?"

[ShadowWing Tronix]

So how addicted to the Twilight Zone was Mr. Corrigan, anyway? Or am I thinking of Outer Limits, One Step Beyond...