Wrath of the Spectre #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

This issue reprints four stories which originally appeared in four different issues of Adventure Comics. The main character in the series is New York Police Detective Lieutenant Jim Corrigan.  He is actually a ghost called the Spectre. Murdered by gangsters, Corrigan has returned from beyond the grave to hunt down criminals. And when he locates people involved in murders, their death is nearly guaranteed. The first story originally appeared in Adventure Comics issue 431 (February 1974). The title, “Wrath of the Spectre,” is also the title of the mini-series. The story opens on a secluded stretch of a highway. An armored truck with $1,000,000 is hit by fire grenades. The armored truck driver stops the burning truck, and the four guards are forced to vacate the vehicle. One of the guards calls out a plea, “Don’t shoot!” But Fritz, one of the armed robbers, unleashes a hail of gunfire from a submachine gun. Bullets riddle the four guards. One of the masked robbers complains to Fritz afterward about killing the guards, but Fritz is unphased. As the gunmen collect the money, they hear a police siren. They rush for their getaway car. One of the robbers, Pete, is wounded by an arriving police officer before he can make it to the door of the getaway car. Rather than aid his partner in crime, Fritz shoots down Pete, and the car speeds away. New York Police Detective Lieutenant Jim Corrigan is one of the investigators at the scene of the armored truck robbery. On the body of Pete, the dead robber, Corrigan finds a business card from an antique store, which is operated by one of the surviving armoed truck robbers, Charlie. At the antique store, Hank and Charlie, the other two armored truck robbers, again confront Fritz about shooting the guards and their own man, Pete. Fritz flippantly replies that now each person gets a greater share of the money stolen. After Fritz and Hank have left the antique store, Corrigan arrives and confronts Charlie about the armored car...