The Specture: Wrath of the Spectre Omnibus

The Spectre: The Wrath of the Spectre Omnibus by Michael Fleisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When detective Jim Corrigan is murdered, he returns to bring justice to evildoers everywhere as... The Spectre!

I'm a big Jim Aparo fan but I missed out on this omnibus before it quickly went out of print during the early days of the pandemic and the price skyrocketed. Fortunately, I recently discovered the B&N website was still selling it for cover price. Fuck off, gougers!

It's interesting to see the evolution of the Spectre as a character during the various runs. For the Gardner Fox penned ones, Corrigan and The Spectre operate as separate beings but in the Michael Fleisher stories and beyond, they are one and the same.

Since the stories were one and done and episodic, they tend to fall into patterns. The Gardner Fox stories all fall into the pattern of The Spectre being weakened, having to take refuge in Jim Corrigan's body to recharge, and figuring out how to beat his enemy. The Michael Fleisher stories generally have Gwen get into trouble and The Spectre show up and kill the bad guys by some gruesome means at the end.

There is an all star team of artists on this. Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Jim Aparo, Ernie Chua, and even Jim Starlin take up the pencil, among others. In addition to Gardner Fox and Michael Fleisher, Paul Kupperberg, Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, and Zany Bob Haney take the writing reins, among others.

If this trade was only the Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo issues, it would be an easy five. I'd put their run up against the Wein/Wrightson run of Swamp Thing any day of the week. The Gardner Fox stories drag it down for me a bit. I think Paul Kupperberg's three stories continue the spirit of what Fleisher and Aparo were doing pretty well.

The Wrath of the Spectre omnibus is a must buy for Spectre fans and contains one of the best DC runs of the 1970s. Four out of five stars.

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