Name: Spectre
Universe: Post-Crisis
Alter Ego: Jim Corrigan
Occupation: Police Detective
Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: New York City
Known Relatives: Justice Society of America, All-Star Squadron
Height: 6 ft. 1 in.
Weight: 184 lbs.
Hair Color: Red with a white streak
Eye Color: Blue
First Appearance: All-Star Squadron #67

History:
Jim Corrigan was born the only son of a fire-and-brimstone styled country preacher, a fervent revivalist who frequently and vividly spoke of the horrific punishments waiting for sinners. Corrigan was raised "by hand", where any deviation from the straight and narrow path as defined by his father meant a whipping.

Corrigan ran away from home as soon as he could and eventually wound up in New York City, where he became a hard-nosed, hard-boiled detective back in the thirties. When Corrigan went after criminals, he went after them with both fists – or both guns. He didn't care why someone committed a crime; that was something for the courts or God to handle (if they surrendered, they got the court; if they put up any kind of fight, Corrigan sent them to God). He was righteous, arrogant, and stubborn; everything he hated in his own father. Eventually, these qualities got him killed. He was captured by "Gat" Benson, tossed into a barrel filled with cement, and then dumped in the East River.

In the afterlife, Corrigan raged; his killers seemed to be getting away with his murder. Corrigan wanted to get them himself. So a Voice pronounced his doom: Corrigan could wander the earth as a spectre of justice but he was condemned to do so until he understood human nature – why crime was committed, why there was evil, why people chose cruelty.

Returning to Earth, and influenced by the "mystery men" who were starting to emerge, Corrigan took on a similar look and became the Spectre and took his vengeance on Gat Benson. Although a ghost, he found he could gather enough of his ectoplasm to appear as a normal living human. Walking among men but not of them, the Spectre found companionship after a fashion as he gathered with other heroes of that time as part of the Justice Society of America and, later, the All-Star Squadron.

Corrigan's participation in World War II opened him up to a depth and breadth that human evil can take. After the war, as the years started to weigh upon him, Corrigan/the Spectre turned to mysticism, trying to find a way to freedom – to his final rest – through sorcery. That failed and his anger took over; the Spectre became little more than a grim nemesis, a being that killed killers in horrible ways. Finally, filled with self-loathing and prodded by a tantric sorceress with her own hidden agenda, the Spectre actually separated the two parts of his life; as he had often done in the past, the Spectre solidified enough of his mass to appear real, both to himself and to others. It appeared that Jim Corrigan lived again, was human again. He split his nature between his two halves – the one that desired to be human and the one that demanded bloody justice against those who committed evil in his sight. His two natures were frequently at odds with one antoher until, in a tale that has yet to be told, they melded together again and he abandoned the life woven around him.

Once again, Corrigan withdrew from the mortal plane. He now understands that he must confront his own anger if he is ever to be free. In death, Corrigan must now learn what it truly means to be human. If he can learn that lesson, he may at last be able to find the peace, that he has so long denied himself.

Powers:
The Spectre can fly, is intangible, and can turn invisible, solidify his own ectoplasm, and inhabit and animate inanimate matter. He can pull people into his own being, where all laws of reality are subject to his will. Here he is supreme. He can also invade a person's mind, or their very soul, but this is far more dangerous as these psychic battles occur on his foe's "home ground" and it is here that the Spectre may be the most vulnerable.