The Spectre Becomes Wrath in More Fun Comics #53, at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Bernard Baily, jerry siegel, spectre

Jim Corrigan embraces his mission and makes his costume as his origin story continues in More Fun Comics #53.

Every serious collector knows that The Spectre first appeared in More Fun Comics #52, but it might be underappreciated that the next issue is a key part of his origin story by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily. More Fun Comics #53 picks up right where the story left off in the previous issue. In More Fun Comics #52, we see Detective Jim Corrigan take a detour on the way to announcing his engagement to Clarice Winston. Corrigan gets a tip about a robbery, the gang gets the best of him and ends up encasing him in cement and dumping him into the wharf. What happens next is essentially a religious experience: he is denied passage through the gates of eternity, and while a voice tells him, "Your mission on Earth is unfinished. You shall remain earthbound, battling crime on your world with supernatural powers, until all vestiges of it are gone." Corrigan is reluctant, but he is abruptly returned to Earth as a spirit of some sort, and to drive the point home in the story, he even sees his own dead body. The story closes with him hearing his fiancée's screams.

Vintage comic book art showing the Spectre-like figure Wrath crouching dramatically in a room, with two startled people nearby. The yellow burst behind him emphasizes the action scene.

More Fun Comics #53 (DC, 1940)

More Fun Comics #53 picks up just a moment later. Corrigan displays a seemingly limitless range of powers in rescuing Clarice Winston from the gang that killed him. He then saves her from certain death after she's shot in the chest simply by willing her to heal, and moments later, realizes he must embrace his new destiny: he tells Clarice they can't get married, makes the now-famous costume, and vows to fulfill his grim mission so that he can someday receive eternal rest.

Complete unrestored copies of this Golden Age DC Comics key basically never come up. The last recorded public sale of a low-grade but complete copy was nearly 15 years ago. But if you're looking for an affordable copy of this issue, this More Fun Comics #53 (DC, 1940) CGC FR 1.0 copy is up for auction in the July 9 – 11 Comic Books Signature Auction #7467 at Heritage Auctions.