(More Fun Comics 052, 1940)

What we have here is one of the big boys. Not quite a Tier One super-hero – for that to be the case, remember, your non-comics-reading parents have to have heard of him – but certainly a high-ranking Tier Two. He also might just be the first instance of the “guy who dies too early returned to Earth to do good” origin story. He definitely predates Mr Justice and the Wraith, at least, and though Sergeant Spook debuted earlier, he isn’t exactly alive.

So just who is this Spectre, anyway? Why, he’s police Detective Jim Corrigan, a real jerk of a guy who is engaged to society girl Clarice Winston. After Jim almost spoils their engagement celebration by skipping out to break up a heist, he really spoils it by getting himself and Clarice kidnapped by Gat Benson*, the gang boss whose men were pulling said heist.

*I’ve highlighted Benson’s name here because although he certainly does not qualify as a super-villain in this appearance his role in the Spectre’s origin means that he will crop up again once or twice in the future.

One way in which Gat Benson is not a super-villain is that he knows how to run a deathtrap. There’s none of this putting someone in a deadly situation and then going out for a smoke while they presumably die on-schedule: Corrigan is knocked out sealed in a barrel full of cement and tossed inna harbour in exactly as much times as it takes to perform those actions.

As I mentioned earlier, when Jim gets to the afterlife what is heavily implied to be the voice of God tells him that his work on Earth is not done (despite, unusually for such a situation, his attempts to pass on to the other side) and so he is sent back as an “earthbound ghost,” which is never really defined but seems to be a ghost that is able to become corporeal at will and also has a wide array of supernatural powers at its fingertips, as contrasted with a regular ghost, which is still powerful but limited in its interactions with the world of flesh.

The modern Spectre origin of Corrigan being merged with the Angel of Vengeance is a much more recent development, and the ghost thing will persist at least until the Silver Age if not later. Sadly, it’s a bit hard to say with any precision just when this happens because once something like this has been retconned into existence is gleefully backfilled into the historical record by every wiki editor and their dog. The first appearance of Aztar, the Wrath of God, for instance, is listed in the DC Comics fan wiki as More Fun Comics 052 even though nobody would think him up for 30+ years.

Back to the the origin of the Spectre – so action-packed that it extends across two issues! In More Fun Comics 053 we find the newly-resurrected Jim Corrigan having to rescue his still-living fiance from the dastardly clutches of his murderers, who kidnapped one too many people and now have to do an extra murder. Or would, if the first murder had taken properly.

If there’s one thing that the Spectre is known for, it’s his habit of mercilessly and inventively slaughtering evildoers, and Jim Corrigan really hits the ground running on that front, starting out with a simple death stare (recipient later revived as a soulless husk) and immediately escalating to full skeletonization.

Gat Benson, on the other hand, is merely scared senseless and then shipped off to jail, despite the fact that he shoots Clarice. This sets him up neatly for a return appearance that doesn’t actually happen until the 60s. Clarice, meanwhile, is the beneficiary of the Spectre’s seldom-seen healing powers.

Despite the fact that she is now whole in body, Clarice does not escape the night unscathed, as Jim Corrigan suffers from the same type of self-imposed angst as so many characters in supernatural fiction. “Oh I can’t marry you because I’m dead…” Who says you can’t? At least wait for there to be a problem with your new situation before blowing up your whole life, Jim! The worst thing is that he isn’t even consistent about it – he and Clarice still date on-and-off into at least 1942.

Finally, we see the Spectre make his own costume, though where the chalk-white skin comes from is anyone’s guess.