A couple of years ago, I did a post spotlighting covers revolving around the Spectre, one of DC’s most aesthetically remarkable creations. As a character, this mega-powerful spirit of vengeance is not that easy to write, but his spooky looks do tend to bring out the best in artists, including the ones responsible for the series’ covers. In fact, the Spectre is such a strong visual presence in the DCU that, when his alter ego Jim Corrigan was finally allowed to move on (at the climax of John Ostrander’s and Tom Mandrake’s magnificent run), in 2001 the company ended up reviving the character with a different human host – former Green Lantern Hal Jordan, of all people (who, in seeking atonement for his villainous actions as Parallax, shifted the Spectre’s mission by focusing on redemption rather than vengeance).
Say what you want about that era, but at least it gave us its fair share of truly amazing covers. Because it was now Hal Jordan behind the Spectre, the character’s design was tweaked, incorporating elements from Green Lantern’s costume. Artists like Ryan Sook and P. Craig Russell ran with this, making the most out of the new look through beautiful covers that combined lyrical fantasy, horror imagery, and a dash of surrealism:
