The Spectre's Guide to Ironic Punishment

I am THE SPECTRE. In life, I was police detective Jim Corrigan. In death, I have been charged by a Heavenly entity named The Voice to eliminate all evil from the world. Not bound by humanity's notions of law and justice, I am free to punish criminals in ways you might deem "cruel and unusual", yet at the same time fitting in a deeply ironic fashion.

Yes, irony. For one such as me, punishing evildoers in ways that evoke their own wicked methods and modes of operation is a point of professional pride. A "calling card", if you will. 

Take my punishment of Peter and Eric in Adventure Comics #432 (1974), for example. Hair stylists by day, these brothers and their supermodel associate were assassins by night for corrupt businessman Maxwell Flood. After I preyed upon his guilty conscience, an unstable Flood fled to Peter and Eric's salon and into the choking embrace of Eric's hair dryer...which begged for a fitting salon-themed punishment!

(click on the page for a larger view)

Ironic punishment.  Not for the faint of heart.

 

As for Peter, I turned him into a pile of sand.  

Yes, not especially ironic...but satisfying nonetheless.

Comments

[Ivan Wolfe]

Did you ever read DC comics "Bizarro World" collection (the 2005 collection of comics by "alternative" artists that was a thematic sequel to the earlier "Bizarro Comics")?

There was a great Spectre story in there where the Spectre punishes co-workers for doing annoying things around the office (a guy who wastes paper hogging the copier is turned into a tree and cut down, for example).

[buttler]

The only thing I love more than Jim Aparo's Batman is Aparo's Spectre.

[Mark Engblom]

Yeah, I think Aparo's Spectre edges out Neal Adam's and Murphy Anderson's Spectre.

Boy, I miss the "take no prisoners" Spectre. These "modern, caring, sensitive" versions of late are so silly and pointless. I'll take the "Old Testament/"judgement scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark" Spectre over those weenies.

[John Nowak]

Yeah, this has got to be the next best thing to the EC comics where murderous amusement park owners were slain by their own roller coaster.

Did these Specter stories ever get collected?

[Mark Engblom]

Yes, the Fleischer/Aparo Spectre stories have been collected into the "Wrath of the Spectre" trade paperback. It lists for $15.59 on Amazon (although it says it's now "temporarily out of stock"). If you like grim "ironic punishment" Spectre stories, this is the book for you. If you prefer the "kinder, gentler" Spectre....avoid at all costs!

[greyman24]

Just curious. What'd you think of the John Ostrander take on Spectre?

[Mark Engblom]

"Just curious. What'd you think of the John Ostrander take on Spectre?"

I enjoyed aspects of it (especially the artwork by Tom Mandrake), but overall, I would lump it into the same post-modern, angsty brand of Spectre I don't enjoy. Of course, Ostrander presented a distorted parody of the "off the chain" Spectre and Jim Corrigan as a damaged wing-nut, which presented a sort of straw man argument for the Spectre to alter his mode of operation. In other words, he diparaged the "judgement" aspect of the Spectre to such a degree, that the push for softer themes like "redemption" in the most recent Spectre incarnations was all but inevitable.

Remember that "final judgement" scene at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and how satisfying it was to see Nazis pierced by Holy Lightning? Yeah...that's the level I love to see the Spectre operate at. I don't want to find out about how some of the gathered Nazis were really good guys, or victims of some sort. That's the sort of moral relativism I'm not at all interested in. Keep the Spectre an elemental force of moral judgement....not a fumbling mass of moral ambiguity.

[John Nowak]

Just ordered a used copy; thanks!