Art: Murphy Anderson
Review: Will Dubbeld
It was more like a $7.99 box, but sue me. The Spectre is a favorite of mine, and I’ve always loved that cover.
What’s not to love about The Spectre walloping a big, fat, red Satan in the gut whilst being himself bonked over the head with the Earth?
I’ll wait...
In any case, Silver Age DC books run the gamut of quality. On one hand you’ve got Rainbow Batman fighting flying saucers over Gotham City and on the other books like Weird War Tales and Swamp Thing.
Rainbow Batman is cool and all, but also holds the dubious honor of being what I like to call Goofy as Shit.
All things to all men, I suppose, but I prefer my Batman a little less technicolor.
Silver Agers like Weird War Tales and Swamp Thing, though, are fantastic in an all-different way.
Along with books like House of Mystery and numerous horror books, DC blazed a trail in somewhat higher-brow sophisticate horror and supernatural fiction.
Like Haunted Tank...
In the midst of it all, The Spectre straddled the line between Silver Age superhero and the above mentioned horror comic.
Iconic cover aside, Showcase #61 wraps up a real mindbender in the pages.
An otherworldly, demonic force named Shathan the Eternal is plying worship from hapless, down on their luck souls in order to invade Earth.
The more powerful belief his worshippers have, the more influence and tangible existence Shathan has.
Not on The Spectre’s watch.
In the enormously overpowered battle through space and time between Shathan and The Spectre, we see just how over the top these characters are.
They do battle in the heart of the sun, at ground zero of a nuclear test, the Tunguska Event and Krakatoa’s eruption.
And that’s not even the finisher.
This comic has an abundance of high-concept ideas and some outright insanity within.
At one point The Spectre grows, “...hundreds—thousands—millions of light years large!”, as he bebops through space, flying between galaxies.
Shathan is from the Psycho-Matter realm of Dis, a universe created by the implosion following the Big Bang.
“For every action must have an equal and opposite reaction”
All of the greatness therein came from the intellect and imagination of Gardner Fox. Admittedly I’ve not read much of his work, but I’m certainly familiar with his resume.
Fox created, or had a hand in creating, The Flash, Sandman, The Justice Society, Hawkman, and The Justice League of America, among others.
Ringing a bell?
This comic doesn’t read like some of its sillier contemporaries. It’s got some ludicrous moments, but they’re never played for laughs. Rather, they illustrate the inconceivable magnitude of power and cosmic horror possessed by the characters. As silly as the front cover may appear, the idea of astronomically large combatants crushing planets over one another reinforces the idea of man’s insignificance in the universe.
Cosmic horror indeed.
This book is phenomenal. It falls, as previously mentioned, in that sweet spot of vintage DC. It’s the kind of story that begat Vertigo, the kind of story that Grant Morrison would roll up and smoke, the kind of story I’d read again and again.
This just goes to show how far the Big Two have backslid into mediocrity. There are books that take some risk, but the reader base and editorial staff haven’t done much to leave the comfort zone. With any luck, the status quo will shift at some point and we’ll again see cerebral books from the Big Two taking chances.
Closest recommendations?
Ultimates (Marvel Comics)
Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye (DC)
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