the DCU's essential

 

The mystery man, are at large when superman appears. But who were the Mystery men?

	The Ghost Detective Very little is known about Dr Richard Occult except that he used a mystic amulet along his his mind and knowledge to defeat supernatural threats. He also possessed to some hypnotic abilities and most important the knowledge to transport himself through space using Astral Projections.
There is no Land beyond the law where tyrants rule with unshakable power! it’s but a dream from which the evil wake to face their fate… their terrifying hour.         Inspired by the Crimson Avenger, Wesley Dodds, Millionaire Socialite used his Gas Gun to put his enemies to sleep giving them nightmares as a punish.
	Friend of the needy, foe of the underworld… Lee Travis, Journalist had a young Asian servant called Wing. and used a mask and a crimson gas to make a dramatic entry. The Crimson avenger is best remembered as DC’s first costumed super hero though he was basically the comic book rip-off of the Green Hornet who at this time existed only as a radio show. Both wore similar outfits and weapons as well as were joined by young Asian servants.

   

However the ultimate Mystery Man was the Specter.

 

The dead soul of police investigator Jim Corrigan was given unbelievable powers by The Source. To right what was wrong.

The Origin of the specter was collected in a Secret origins Special .

  However sometimes what the specter did was more wrong than right in today’s standards. As we’ve notice before, back in comics’ Golden Age, it was ROUTINE for superheroes to kill bad guys. They’d shoot them, or throw them off buildings, or burn them alive, or just hurl them into a vat of acid. All in a days work!. However The Spectre might take the killing one step to far, as he took morbid delight in killing the wicked. Even in his first appearance, murdered policeman Jim Corrigan is already up to his notorious and bizarre form of vigilante justice from beyond the grave saying things like "One less vermin to peril decency!" 
 
A popular antic of the specter was growing to "King Kong" like proportions and scooping evil-doers up into his giant hand or teleporting adversaries and evil-doers to some conveniently far-off "astral plane’ to do battle… often konking each other on the head with planets and the like.

Eventually the stories were to much to handle, and the specter stories moved to the JSA comic books, being much less grim and terrifying.

However before that happened  the specter got a chance the chance of featuring the introduction of "comic" sidekick, Percival Popp. An idea, that till this day makes us all roll our eyes. 

Popp was a dorky wannabe cop who kept trying to get involved in Corrigan’s cases. But more often than not got himself into trouble that would distract the Spectre from doing his job.

Not essential but Fun reading::

 

From More Fun 54

From More Fun #66

 

 Geek Factoids to Note:

• The Spectre is probably the grimmest, most horrifying super heroes of the DCU. Having the wrath of god as powers, means you get to be pretty creative about the way you punish criminals.
• Now where else would you publish the adventures of a dead corpse empowered to seek revenge under God’s direct orders but “More Fun Comics”!
• WHAT the Specter is, is not clear at this point. As in some adventures. Apparently,The Spectre is able to separate from Jim Corrigan and do his own bidding. in fact when the world war started, Jim Corrigan went to war and The Specter stayed behind with Popp.. however, the origin story shows us Jim Corrigan, making the costume! In the sowing machine!!!
• One of my favorite Golden Age stories would be the origin of the Spectre. Created by Jerry Siegel (for newbie’s out there he created Superman!), The Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe. Literally the Wrath of God Incarnated.

What makes this Fun

• While this makes for exciting (if some what ambigious) stories, The Golden Age Spectre raises more questions than he answers, and some of these are of a pretty deep metaphysical nature. Here’s just one – If The Spectre is (to quote Elwood Blues), "on a mission from God", an avenging angel fighting evil and injustice, how is it O.K. for him to not only kill these afore-mentioned bad-guys, but torture them as well? While the punishment may fit the crime (as Gilbert and Sullivan wisely said), The Spectre does seem to go overboard more often than not, dishing out his extreme forms of punishment in an out-of-control manner that would do Mr. A proud. There are more, but let’s just leave it there, as i don’t want this to get too heavy… but my point is that he was a pretty scary concept (for a kid) as far as super-heroes go….. I wondered how many kids back in the ’40’s wondered if The Spectre would come after them for stealing some other kid’s lunch money….. I can see it now… he turns the offending youngster into sandwiches of thinly sliced deli-style bully meat. Yum yum! Ok, now i’m just being sarcastic, but you get my drift…

The Specter’s 1 2 3