The Spectre #11

“The Mission”

Cover Price: $2.50
Bargain Price: $0.25
Cover Date: January, 2002

Hal Jordan’s a really bland character. He’s brave and confident and fearless and whatever and, while that’s great for the Silver Age, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for complexity today. Hal has been GL since the late fifties. It’s probably about time we told new and interesting stories about someone new and interesting. J.M. DeMatteis’ Spectre series, however, is a surprisingly refreshing take on Hal. Here, Hal is over his head as the new Spectre, unsure and downright distrustful of his powers. He’s dealing with the wrath of God, judgment, and his own guilt over his time as Parallax. He’s still the brave Hal Jordon, but here there’s a little more depth as we see Hal dealing with his recent troubled past in a heroic and human way, while dealing with situations that are completely new to the jaded space cop. DeMatteis adds a really nice sense of wonder to the proceedings of this particular issue, which deals with Jordon learning that there are different aspects of himself and his personality that even he wasn’t aware of, wandering the world to bring the wrath and redemption of God to people of different cultures and faiths, allowing the Spectre to be in multiple places at once and to cater to a variety of different faiths and expectations. It’s a pretty clever twist on the idea of the GL Corps that leads to some interesting ideas and a nice, refreshing take on a well-worn character.

Secret Origins #10

“Tarry Till I Come Again” “…And Men Shall Call Him Stranger” “Revelations” “Footsteps”

Cover Price: $1.25
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: January 1987

I’ll be honest, The Phantom Strange is one of those characters I love, but whose origin I couldn’t care less about. What makes him interesting is the enigma, a stranger to reader and character alike. Editor Robert Greenberger apparently felt the same way as, when tasked to dedicate an issue of Secret Origins to the Phantom Stranger, he commissioned four unrelated stories, each telling a distinct origin without ever confirming which, if any, was the true one. It’s an intriguing idea from the get go and one that benefits from a dazzling array of talent, including Jim Aparo, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Paul Levitz, and Alan Moore. Each story is really solid, with at least three of the four interestingly rooted in Judeo/Christian mythology, including portrayals of the Stranger as both a Lot analog and the Wandering Jew of folklore. Unsurprisingly, though, Moore’s is the most intriguing, thanks to a parallel story in which the Stranger watches a modern Street Angel vigilante fail to choose sides between warring factions of his own association. The segments set in the celestial city are the most interesting, though, particularly a glimpse of the angel Etrigan and a fascinating, even probable explanation for the deformed forms of the fallen angels. The best part, though, is that the story wisely embraces the tone of the whole issue, with Moore only ever implying that the Stranger and the half-fallen angel are one and the same, never stating so explicitly and leaving the story open to interpretation.