Adventure Comics
The Spectre proved quite popular, and was awarded charter membership in the first ever super-hero team, the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics. The Spectre began by seeking bloody vengeance against Corrigan's murderers in a grim, supernatural fashion. Corrigan did not adopt the Spectre persona until late in #53, so the blue costume was never seen in-story. The Specter's skin was changed to chalk-white six stories into the run, and the blue garments appeared first in More Fun Comics #51's aforementioned house ad as well as the cover and symbolic splash panel of #52, with all later reprints of this early material "corrected" to match the official version. His spirit was refused entry into the afterlife, however, and, in the guise of a grey-skinned humanoid being in green cloak, gloves, trunks and boots. The Spectre's career began in 1940 , when hard-boiled cop Jim Corrigan was murdered.
Siegel, limiting Baily to being merely the artist assigned to the feature. The Spectre is a fictional cosmic entity and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. Please consider copy editing to past tense if historic, present tense if not time-based , or future tense if upcoming. This article uses an unsuitable grammatical tense for an encyclopedia. Please relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive trivia, praise, criticism, lists and collections of links. This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. The addition of the Mounties is a nice touch, as it indicates that Aquaman works with law enforcement around the world.
Even the Octopus does not get a name until Adventure Comics #232, despite appearing in both intervening stories. Aquaman has green gloves in this story. And for that matter, how did the Mounties know that the Octopus had apparently screwed up. The Mounties know about the contest, but could the captain of the ship have also known. The whale, like virtually every whale in classic Aquaman stories, is apparently a small sperm whale. Perhaps they didn't want to give their readers any ideas. The superheroes often go after criminals for crimes that are unmentioned or undefined.
This is pretty typical of the Silver Age. Other characters include the two Mounties and their horses, and the captain and crew of the unnamed ship. Observations: Aquaman seems predisposed to choosing the Octopus, and is very disappointed when it apparently fails. Since the Octopus was thinking independently and saved the ship without explicit instructions, Aquaman chooses him as his new partner. Good choice, as the information the captain had was crucial to Aquaman making his decision. This contestant does fine, but Aquaman sends him back to the Mounties with another captured crook and calls in his third creature, the Whale.
With the Octopus eliminated, Aquaman calls in another contestant, the Swordfish. Note how sad the Octopus looks in this picture. The first contestant is the Octopus. Aquaman the best in the next 12 hours will become his regular sidekick. But the Mountie takes his comment seriously, and Aquaman apparently takes the suggestion to pick just one sea creature equally seriously. The splash page shows Aquaman and three sea creatures beating up on four crooks. The Green Arrow story has Green Arrow and Speedy helping a town of people being driven out because their valley apparently has oil. So he settles his parents in Centerville under assumed names to protect them while he thinks of an answer.
The Superboy story has the Kent house being struck by a meteor and blowing up completely. In short, a lot of things happened, but nothing that obviously affected this story. Elvis Presley made the charts for the first time, Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco, and the Bikini Atoll was the site of the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The Summer Olympics were held in November in Melbourne, Australia. The winter Olympics were held in January in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Historical Context: 1956 was an Olympic year. I haven't yet trained my eye well enough to tell Fradon stories inked by Paris apart from Fradon stories inked by Fradon or someone else, so I'm uncertain if Paris was involved in the creation of this story.