I'm a huge fan of the comic character The Spectre and the potential stories that could be told based on the idea about the avenging spirit of God roaming the Earth. I enjoyed the rise in visibility he got during Infinite Crisis time, even if it was in a villainous role.

So needless to say when I saw that there would be a new Spectre mini-series following up the open plot from Infinite Crisis I jumped at the chance to buy it. While the first issue did what it set out to do, establish Crispus Allen as the new Spectre, it did so in such a long convoluted way that set aside past Spectre history and even the events of Infinite Crisis.

One of the best parts of the whole Infinite Crisis storyline was when God finally took notice to what the Spectre was doing and forced his essence into the body of recently slain Gotham PD officer Crispus Allen.

Good Origin

A nice quick and accurate Spectre origin that the mini-series completely ignores.

Bad Origin

At the beginning Crispus Allen is dead and is not the Spectre. The Spectre makes him an offer of joining, which he refuses. The Spectre then gives him a year to reconsider the proposition, so this is a One Year Later story then. During the year Crispus watches in on his family, discovers Batman's identity, so it isn't a One Year Later story since Batman is active, and witnesses a ritualistic murder that piques his interest. At the one year mark he agrees to join with The Spectre, to be the spirit of God's vengence and we get treated to a nice Spectre style killing, a child molester being eaten by his child-like dolls, “You have preyed upon children now children will prey upon you.”

Why did they cast off such a great origin for one of much lesser strength? Was it to play up the human side of the Spectre? Was the planning for this mini done further in the past but needed an event to kick it off? Does DC Comics just hate continuity?

Finally what has The Spectre been doing during this year? Last we saw he wasn't quite sane and was being punished by God for his deeds. I'd imagine he was being tortured for his many actions, or even had his memory wiped.

Tags: comics, crispusallen, dccomics, spectre