The animation, like those of the Green Arrow and Jonah Hex that I previously reviewed, is some of the best animated work these folks have done over the past twenty years. Here the Los Angeles setting makes the animators strive for and nicely achieve a noir look.
Jim Corrigan is an LA cop who was murdered by his partner and something brought him back as a ghostly avenger of those who get away with heinous crimes. When we first meet Corrigan here, he’s a cool as can be apparent mortal — nice suit, sunglasses, tooth pick. A friend of his has been brutally by a bomb under the diving board at his swanky hilltop residence.
Corrigan as the The Spectre knows something’s wrong but needs to figure out who’s responsible. He first checks out a sleazy designer and builder of creepy animatronics. Though he’s not the killer, The Spectre murders him using his own creations which he brings to life. Another person involved in the crime who attempts to drive away from LA dies at the hands of his car that stalks him like a deadly predator. The killer is found by him and her death is quite fitting. Messy too.
(A dgression for a minute. Simon R. Green in his Nightside series named Hadleigh Oblivion, the Detective Inspectre, who feels to me like a homage to The Spectre. He’s just as ruthless, can and does kill those he thinks need killing, and who scares the fuck out of damn near everyone just like The Spectre. Neither is an avatar of justice, but instead is an avatar of vengeance.)
It’d be nice to think a live action feature Spectre film will happen some day! It’s also one of a number of shorts bundled together as the Superman and Shazam versus Black Adam feature which is now streaming on HBO Max. Quite a number of other DC properties, live and animated, can be found there.
There’s also a stellar look at the Spectre in Ray Fawkes’ Gotham By Midnight series that DC did nearly a decade back.
(Warner Animation, 2010)
