Merciless Justice

 

cover art by Jim Aparo

I wonder what Jim Corrigan's fellow cops think of him? From their point of view, he often fails to catch the crooks. Of course, he is catching them and administering a ruthless form of justice as the Spectre, but the other cops don't know that. What does the chief put in his performance evaluations?

In Adventure Comics #431 (Jan-Feb 1974), we see how this might be a problem. Michael Fleisher writes a by-the-numbers tale of supernatural revenge and Jim Aparo's art brings the story to creepy life. This story is, by the way, the Spectre's Bronze Age debut--the first of a ten issue run in Adventure Comics. 

Four crooks rob an armored car and ruthlessly kill all four guards. Their leader also shoots one of his his own wounded men to make sure he doesn't spill anything to the police. The three surviving bad guys get away.

Jim Corrigan is put on the case and finds a clue--a business card for an antique shop--in the pocket of the dead bad guy. So he pays a visit to that shop.

He finds one of the crooks, who immediately pulls a gun. But trying to shoot the Spectre isn't an effective tactic. The crook flees. The Spectre follows invisibly until the crook calls one of the others in the gang, then he runs the crook's car off the road. One bad guy dead. Two to go.

Spectre tracks down the second bad guy and... well, he melts him.

The story is unclear on how Spectre finds the last villain, who is on a plane fleeing the country. This guy tries to take a hostage when he sees the ghostly vigilante, but the lights go out for a second and we discover he's been skeletonized.

According to comic book historian Les Daniels, the Spectre was brought back to his own series after editor Joe Orlando was mugged and decided it was time to bring back a ruthless hero.

The trouble with the Spectre is that he's pretty much omnipotent. He zips through this story without effort to take vengence on the crooks, so there is no real suspense or drama. The story still works--primarily because of its short 12-page length and because Aparo's excellent art makes the story pop. 

At the conclusion, though, Jim Corrigan's chief is asking him about the "escaped" crooks and Jim merely replies that the city is sealed off and they'll be caught eventually. Of course, they are now dead and thus will never be officially caught. So what does the chief write on Corrigan's performance reviews?

Next week, we'll visit with another relentless police detective--Dick Tracy.