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The Spectre was an ongoing series featuring The Spectre. It was completely written by Doug Moench and illustrated by several artists throughout the run.

The series started following the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #50, in which Spectre played a prominent role. As a consequence of these stories, Spectre is stripped down of his powers and sent back to Earth where he could no longer deal with cosmic threats and instead, was forced to deliver retribution to mortal evildoers. Madame Xanadu became the primary supporting character of the series, as she guided Spectre until a romance was developed between the two. There were also a small number of minor supporting characters, none of which achieved any significance.

The series was mildly successful during it's initial storylines, which were heavily focused on the supernatural aspect of the Spectre as well as the conflict between Spectre and his human host, James Corrigan. For the first time in the character's history, Spectre and Corrigan were separate beings, capable of existing without the other. However, this novel approach was soon reverted in issue #18; where Spectre and Corrigan started sharing the same body as they previously had.

This sudden change also marked a change in direction in the stories, which shifted from the supernatural and became more oriented towards regular criminals and mysteries. The series struggled to develop interesting storylines and soon it became clear that writer Doug Moench was the only creator committed to the project, as the series didn't have a regular artist for the second half of the run and there were also editorial changes.

The last arcs of the run are notoriously bad, as they abandoned most of the initial supporting cast members and introduced new, odd characters to fit a new narrative between crime and supernatural stories. Without proper character development and being unable to establish an engaged readership, the series was cancelled in issue #31; without even developing a proper ending to the series.

Issues

Spectre Vol 2 15

Spectre and Xanadu - Strange Lovers Spectre #15

Spectre Annual Vol 2 1

Spectre and Deadman - Spectre Annual #1

Annuals








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