Another great series that I read again recently was The Spectre. John Ostrander’s brilliant handling of the many religious issues tackled in this series is one reason why it works so well, and it showed that you can still write a superhero comic set in a well-defined universe but still deal with spiritual issues. Of course, it helps when the book is as action-packed and bloody, which Tom Mandrake was able to do so well.
Although past stories of the Spectre were interesting, this iteration benefits from Ostrander, who figured out some crucial stuff about the character. In the past, writers focused on the ground-level punishment the Spectre meted out. These were interesting stories, but they left the Spectre somewhat benign and just another ghost with magical powers. Ostrander took the idea of the Spectre being the “Wrath of God” and went to its logical extreme, which tied the Spectre into a Judeo-Christian framework far more than he had ever been before. In the early 1990s, the comics audience was mature enough to handle Ostrander bringing in deeper concepts than the Spectre killing bad guys in inventive ways.
Ostrander also figured out that the Spectre wasn’t a terribly interesting character because of its nature – it could never really change, because it’s an aspect of God that serves a specific purpose. Ostrander decided instead to focus on Jim Corrigan, because Corrigan, as the human part of the Spectre, could change – even though he was dead. By focusing on Corrigan, he could bring far more nuance to the adventures of the Spectre than most writers could prior to this series. Ostrander certainly didn’t neglect the Spectre, but he was much more concerned with showing how a man can become sanctified, as Corrigan has to understand what evil is before he can enter heaven.
Ostrander was able to blend the idea of accepting God’s forgiveness with the idea of achieving grace through good works, a dichotomy in Christian thinking that has never quite been resolved (and isn’t really here as Christians continually obfuscate the two), so that Corrigan is able to leave this mortal coil behind, finally, and move on. The Spectre can’t, because that’s not what it’s made for. So Ostrander can indulge in the extreme justice that the Spectre enjoys employing (presumably this was done partly because Mandrake draws it so well), but he can also make the book about far more than that.
Corrigan is as he’s always been, a tough guy completely out of place in the world, an honest cop who brutalized criminals. There’s a chance for change as Corrigan takes out the snitch who helped get him killed 50 years earlier, but he’s still unsatisfied. By the end of issue #4, Corrigan, with the help of Amy Beitermann has seen that his mission isn’t quite what he thought it was, and he needs to comprehend as well as confront. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t know how to do this.
Madame Xanadu became an integral part of this book. At one point she even assumed the mantle of the Spectre, finding that the tainted spirit was too much for her to handle. The essence returned to Corrigan where it belongs.
Re-reading these two trade paperbacks was a great trip down memory lane. The stories truly demonstrate how skilled Ostrander is as a writer. The pencils of Mandrake are beyond reproach where this book is concerned. No other artist could have made this book as incredible as it was.
Life's a Banquet 
