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Okay, as I mentioned in my bits about The Spectre (now in paperback), I love Day of Vengeance and Day of Judgment about as much as I love getting smashed in the spine with a hammer and being forced to listen to Country/Western music while being fed refried beans¹. But why? These are good stories that show The Spectre beating the ever loving hell out of everyone and everything because he’s The Spectre and that’s what he does. Surely I have a just reason, and I’m not just some fanboy who’s pissed off because my favorite character isn’t acting the way I feel he should be–that’s juvenile!

You’re half right.

I am a fanboy who’s pissed because he isn’t acting the way I feel he should be, but it’s mostly because of a violation of continuity [that I feel should be upheld. MY OPINION MATTERS, DAMNIT]. I understand, however, that in most cases continuity is overwritten by later authors and things like that–that’s what happens in contradictions between past and present comics–but at the same time some of the stuff just irritates me to the point that I want to scream.

The Spectre Cannot Act Without a Human Host

It says multiple times within The Spectre[v3] that The Spectre, being an entity of Heaven and the Godhead, cannot act on Earth without a human soul bound to him. This is as a result of the Godhead “having taken mortal form”.² Although the Phantom Stranger mentions to Richard Craemer that The Spectre did remove himself from Limbo–where he goes when not bound to a human host or when Jesus was walking the Earth–during the time known as “The Day of Wrath”, wherein The Spectre exploded out in a fit of rage due to Jesus having just been crucified. It is almost immediately AFTER this action that Michael placed the first human host onto The Spectre–the man who would later become Azmodus.

This isn’t mentioned in the previous all the previous comics involving The Spectre because it’s quite obvious that, prior to John Ostrander, The Spectre *was* Jim Corrigan, to an extent. He was bound only to that body. There was no mention of “previous” variations of The Spectre, because the character was creating the 1940s to be Jim’s superhero identity. Our Astral Avenger is simply a ghost attached to Jim for the majority of their career, until Ostrander livened up the mythology.

But we have the establishment of this new mythos: If someone casts out The Spectre, The Spectre is to go to limbo where he is held until a soul is attached to him and he may deliver vengeance.

The “rules have changed.”

So what does this have to do with these two things? Only EVERYTHING.

Judgment starts with several absurd notions compared to the continuity of The Spectre two of them being:

• The Spectre can be attached to a non-human soul³.
• The Spectre can act without a host

Not only is it ridiculous in that The Spectre acted in Heaven after a “false cry of vengeance” but he was bonded with a creature that he could not technically bond with. The establishment of Asmodel to bond with The Spectre only served as an excuse to return Hal Jordan to the spotlight, I believe. I could spend about five pages on why I think Hal should stay dead, but that’s another thing.

Vengeance works in a similar aspect. As I mentioned, the entire concept behind it is the Spectre attacking WITHOUT a host. There is no explanation for him being out, floating about in everything, delivering vengeance–especially considering in 52 he points out his inability to act due to not having a host, even though Crispus is there, but simply thinking about the consequences of becoming The Spectre. The human hosts acts as more than just the establishment of “mercy” and similar concepts, the human host there is because it was determined by The Presence⁴ that he’s fucked without one. That’s why there’s ALWAYS been one, and that’s why at the end of v3, the Spectre just kind of floated off instead of sitting there going “O HAY GUYZ.”

The Spectre Does Not Know His Past

It says that right on the first page of the last issue of v3 that The Spectre does NOT know who his previous hosts were, but “knows” they were there because of faith. The notions of “going easy” on people because the Spectre “remembered” them as Corrigan or Hal is silly, anyway. The host is the one with the memories, they are merely using The Spectre as a tool–which is what he is. That this spirit, who before was barely even conscious of himself and never actually talked without a host once becoming the Spectre (he spoke as Aztar, but not as The Spectreforce) somehow manages to not only have proper thoughts but REMEMBERS people irritates me.

This is used most in Vengeance, where the hostless Spectreforce somehow decides that since Corrigan and Hal knew these people, he wouldn’t kill them as hard⁵ and would even be nice enough to not totally destroy everything they’ve done. He may have also done the same thing with the Phantom Stranger, but I can’t remember that part exactly. Suffice to say that if Corrigan had a rather strong connection with the person, they weren’t going to be turned inside out and set on fire, but merely set on fire and given several burns.

The Spectre has gone through countless hosts since the death of Christ, the idea that he remembers EVERY SINGLE person from these is absurd. Especially considering there are instances with Corrigan in v3 where Spectre was greeted by people who wound up being part of The Spectre’s history, yet Corrigan had no idea who they were. This could be explained simply by error of writers, and happens frequently. But Vengeance is a MAJOR mini-series. It sets up for the creation of the new age of magic, a new host for The Spectre, and who knows what else that hasn’t even occurred.You would think they would make sure to get all the DETAILS right on it. Instead, they have to fuck EVERYTHING up for the sole purpose of making a cheap mini-series tying in to a worthless Crisis that seems to be all but meaningless now.

One of the more irritating parts of Vengeance is whenever Eclipso Loring is seducing Spectre and he’s all fuzzy in the head about who she is–but in a JSA issue he somehow manages to know who the members of the JSA are, and leave them be. Call me crazy, but I would assume that Spectre’s knowledge of one of the entities who’s been TRYING TO KILL HIM SINCE HE WAS CREATED would overwrite that of “Hey, that guy who shoots green magic out of a ring looks vaguely familiar.” I mean, hell, if you’re going to go one way with how The Spectre’s brain works, you might as well go the whole nine yards instead of pussying out because of a different writer on the series.

The interesting thing is, in Tales of the Unexpected, Crispus seems to have no idea just WHO the Phantom Stranger is! But, wait! Previous incarnations of the Spectre dealt with him! He was the one who led souls to…wherever the hell they went in the 80s. He talked with Jim in the 90s. He babysat Helen Jordan!⁶ But for some reason The Spectre didn’t know who he was whenever they met with Crispus as the host.

Did the Spectre somehow lose the memories from Jim and Hal? Why?

Other Crap

What the hell was even going on in Vengeance? I mean, seriously.

One of the more interesting things is when Black Alice shows up, and uses her special ability to “borrow” the Spectre’s power. In doing that, The Spectre turns into an empty soul. And, again, instead of just going to limbo or even somehow disappearing, he can somehow stick around. He’s also apparently unable to be touched by ANYTHING while in that state, which is pretty ridiculous. If the Spectre has the ability to GRAB A SOUL THAT’S IN HELL AND THROW IT FURTHER INTO HELL then she could have surely acted against him. He’s supposed to have all sorts of powers in this special, what stops her from using them?

And, furthermore, if the Spectre is an entity made entirely of magic, he shouldn’t have even existed after Black Alice’s theft of power–or the power-theft shouldn’t have occurred. But, it did take place. That suggests, to me, that he wouldn’t become just a husk of a thing, he would have stopped existing on this plane of existence and taken over Black Alice while she was in control of his powers, since his powers are all he is.

In the end, though, a mini series like Day of Judgment or Day of Vengeance isn’t really meant to appeal to the broad fanbase. Though there are some great scenes in them, the overall quality of them is poor and only worth looking at if you’re trying to keep up with events or you’re a die-hard fan of The Spectre and must own everything he’s ever done, ever.⁷ Vengeance needed to exist because there had to be something involving The Spectre. He’s been a major part in both Crisis on Infinite Earths and his part in Zero Hour, while ludicrous, did serve its purpose. I just wish he wasn’t always the fall guy in these.

Day of Vengeance in the end, served to give the Spectre a new host. Something he needed to continue. It was just done poorly.

Day of Judgment is the same, but I stand by that it was a means for Geoff Johns to bring back Hal Jordan.

And there you have it. Not-entirely comprehensive complain concerning my less-than-approving attitude regarding these two things. I hope you got something out of it. That something? I’m a huge fucking Spectre fanboy.

1. Note: I don’t like any of this. [↩]
2. He means Jesus. [↩]
3. Some might argue that the Eclipso/Spectre combination negates what I’m saying here. However, The Spectre and Eclipso are not only the same basic entity [That is, the spirit of Wrath and Vengeance] but The Spectre was also attached to Jim Corrigan for a majority of the time this occurred. The issue wherein Eclipso was in total control of the Spectre can be seen more as a possession than a bonding of the soul [↩]
4. God [↩]
5. Yes. Kill them as hard. [↩]
6. Seriously. The Phantom Stranger babysat Helen Jordan while Hal was out delivering vengeance and shit. I don’t get it either. Do you see yet why I don’t like this run? [↩]
7. Which is why, despite hating this, I feel compelled to by them. [↩]