"And then I introduced The Spectre, I had just been mugged in broad daylight on upper Broadway, where I was living at the time. The feeling of helplessness and anger and loss of manhood (my wife was with me at the time). As I watched the two muggers strutting away with my wallet gave me the Walter Mitty idea of fantasy revenge. "That's what i'll do to you bums, i'll bring back The Spectre!". The Spectre will rid the world of the evil vermin that preys on upstanding hard-working middle aged comic book editors."
- Joe Orlando [Amazing World of DC Comics #6 : May '75]
He then goes on to gush about Aquaman (who replaced The Spectre), but statements that Orlando made later, however, showed a somewhat more bitter, cynical and world weary point of view about the series cancellation, and indicated that DC was somewhat uneasy with this new "Blood and Guts" version of "The Spectre" (which is, in reality a return to the characters' roots) and were only too happy to replace him in Adventure with Aquaman: "Something clean, in water" quipped Orlando. Well at least he was replaced entirely, rather than having the character demeaned by the likes of Percival Popp. But for a while there, particularily when it was "Weird Adventure" The Spectre was the most extreme of superhero/vigilantes in comics. Just like the criminals he stalked in the funnybook pages, it seems that DC and the Code were scard of The Spectre... or perhaps just what he represents.
Fleischer (one of the more innovative comic scripters of the time) was well aquainted with the original 1940's stories, and mystery-line editor Joe Orlando was more interested in pushing the horrific aspects of the character. When you add art by Jim Aparo, who was really hitting his stride at DC, this short run seems to have been remembered by many folks, even to the point of DC reprinting the run (in Wrath of The Spectre 1-3) and then having Aparo illustrate 3 scripts completed by Fleischer before the plug got pulled in the 70's.
Since then, The Spectre has kind of bounced around the DC Universe in one form or another, but to me, this 70's incarnation was the character's high point.....
Adventure #431
Adventure #432
Adventure #433
Adventure #434
Adventure #435
Adventure #436
Adventure #437
Adventure #438
Adventure #439 & Adventure #440
Those comics represented the first time I had ever encountered the Spectre, so they pretty much set up the character's template in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really liked anything featuring him since, not even Ostrander's acclaimed run because I thought he explained too much about the Ghostly Guardian's past.
Oh well ...
My own first encounter with the Spectre was issue 3 of his 60s run, which did more to consolitate Wildcat in my mind than the Spectre.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you on the 70s version of the Spectre was the greatest the character ever saw, but...for the existence of the Jerry Grandenetti issues (especially 6 and 8). The stories are kinda nutty, but Grandenetti shows that he's the only guy who can match Ditko in the realm of arcane dimensions. Nearly everyone else (Brunner, Atkins, Colan) just draws other dimensions like they're plain old outer space. Yawn.
And if you like issue 8, "The Parchment of Power Perilous" (Schwartz's silly title, not Skeates'), check out Skeates' recycling of the editor-rejected aspects of his plot in a wonderful Dr. Graves story in The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #12, "The Ultimate Evil".