Writer: J. M. DeMatteisPlot: The Spectre and Abin Sur tangle with Satan on one of her better days.
What's the number one rule in comic books, friends? Right: no one ever dies. It's what makes this real fictional world revolve and evolve. Hal Jordan saved the universe during Final Night, and in Day Of Judgment, he found himself resurrected as the Spectre, God's holy Wrath.
It starts off where else, but in a church, with dead babies and an elderly female murderer. Cycle of life, anyone? In Emerald Twilight, Hal had enough vengeance to go around for a whole party of Azraels, but now he's excised the heart of the Wrath, in an effort to gain more control over his new duty.
Some people like reading The Spectre just to see the often comical forms his retribution takes. But unlike Plastic Man's transformations, or Green Lantern's ring constructs, DeMatteis starts Hal's verdicts off with a mutated fetus. And then a bunch of mutated fetuses.
If you're thinking, "What? A mutated fetus in a DC book? Surely this must be under the Vertigo imprint!" No, but the majority of the issue reads like it's right at home, within that alternative fiction. Hal's companion is Abin Sur's ghost. His previous girlfriend, Carol Ferris, sees visions of him in dreams and mirrors. Hal visits Satan. Sounds like Vertigo material to me. But as the lettercol in the back states, the Spectre isn't your traditional hero. He becomes less of a heroic character, and more of a shadow who continues to be at war with himself. After a lifetime of pain, Hal's new role as the Spectre takes him on a spiritual journey, so that he can atone for his own myriad sins, enact God's will, and understand what life and living means.
Hal might be rid of the Wrath temporarily, but he still doesn't seem to have complete control of his actions. At first, he refused to kill the old woman, but a few seconds later, a silent pair of panels informs us that it wasn't Hal who killed the woman, but the will of God.
Some people have said that God is a woman. Well, in this book, so is Satan. So men, it looks like you're gonna have one heck of an afterlife, no matter which way you're headed.
