A question about the Silver Age Spectre

[shaxper]

I just finished reading every appearance ever made by the Silver Age Spectre, and there's one thing I still don't understand about him. In the golden age origin, the Spectre was originally just the ghost of Jim Corrigan (Corrigan even designed the costume to protect his own identity). In a later issue that I've never read, Jim gets his body back, but still has the Spectre ghost. By the time of the silver age, Jim and the Spectre appear to be treated as two seperate personalities (which occasionally even disagree), with no revised origin that I know of to explain this. I know how the post-crisis retcon origin explains all this, but does anyone know if there was a golden or silver age explanation?

[Oggar]

The only Spectre I've ever read was the Ostrander run (which is fantastic until about issue 50). This is what I understand his origin to be. A Dirty Harry type cop Jim Corrigan get's offed by a mobster. While waiting around in Limbo his enraged spirit cries out for justice. He hears a voice that give him the option of returning from the grave as a "spectre of vengence."

I think that previously he went about as simply a "regular ghost" who transformed into the Spectre in the presence of injustice. Somehow (your guess is as good as mine) he did get his old body back and even started working as a cop again. It was my understanding the Spectre was always an outside type of entity that he weilded with various levels of influence.

[shaxper]

That's true in post-Crisis history. The Spectre is its own being that gets paired up with human hosts (as we've seen in Infinite Crisis), but that definitely wasn't the case in the begining. At first, the Spectre was just the ghost of Jim Corrigan. Corrigan, himself, invented the costume and Spectre identity.

[Cei-U!]

I can't track down the specific issue number just now but about midway through the "Spectre" run in More Fun, Corrigan was resurrected. From that point on, he and Spec existed as separate manifestations of the same personality, one of living flesh, one of ectoplasm, each capable of independent existence. This was still the status quo when the character was revived in Showcase #60 (though in later Golden Age stories, Spec was permanently invisible to mortal eyes and could barely interact with the material world, aspects ignored for the Silver Age version).

Hope that's helpful.

Cei-U!
I summon the Spirit Sleuth!

[shaxper]

So maybe, over time, the two developed different personalities?

Yes, that was helpful. Thanks.

[Bordnlazy]

Stupid question :confused: does the spectre do anything on any other planets or is his base of operations just earth and the afterworld(and the occasional Crisis :D ) Cause it would be cool to see how the spectre delivers vengeance on other planets! does he change his form to be reconizable by the planets in habitants? Does the spectre even care about other planets and if not, they Why?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

When Hal Jordan was The Spectre, it was revealed that there was a Spectre Corps operating out in the universe of various alien Spectres that were actually just manifesitations of Hal's subconscious--like everything else in that series was.

Who knows if someone else will pick up on this idea again. Prior to that, The Spectre was Earth-based.

[Agentum]

I hope nobody ever picks up any ideas from that worthless spectrerun.

[K'Nort]

When Hal Jordan was The Spectre, it was revealed that there was a Spectre Corps operating out in the universe of various alien Spectres that were actually just manifesitations of Hal's subconscious--like everything else in that series was.

*bangs head repeatedly on desk*

[Guts/Batman]

When Hal Jordan was The Spectre, it was revealed that there was a Spectre Corps operating out in the universe of various alien Spectres that were actually just manifesitations of Hal's subconscious--like everything else in that series was..

Holy God that is freaking hilarious...

[Oggar]

When Hal Jordan was The Spectre, it was revealed that there was a Spectre Corps operating out in the universe of various alien Spectres that were actually just manifesitations of Hal's subconscious--like everything else in that series was.

Who knows if someone else will pick up on this idea again. Prior to that, The Spectre was Earth-based.

Yet another reason Hal should be broiling in Hell.