Thursday WHO’S WHO: Dr. Spectro
Any discussion of Dr. Spectro…
…no, sorry, I’ll start again. When considering Dr. Spec…
sorry… uh… Dr. Spectro is worth talking about because…
…OH GOD HE LOOKS LIKE A FUCKING DISCO BALL.
That is his superpower. He is a walking disco ball. He uses bright lights to confound and hypnotize his enemies. And that’s all he can do. The entry takes pains to point out that he is completely useless in a fight beyond being a walking disco ball of evil.
You know what this means? Daredevil doesn’t even have to try hard to beat him. Lucky thing Daredevil’s a universe or three to the left, but even so.
There are a lot of DC supervillains like this, who are technical geniuses but can’t throw a punch to save their asses. You’d think at some point some of them might figure, “hey, maybe one day I’ll have to fight Batman. Maybe it would be good to last more than three seconds against him.”
I want to make more fun of Dr. Spectro, but I’m pretty sure he died in an issue of some comic John Ostrander wrote. He sort of has that feeling about him. “Yep, this guy’s gonna die in an issue of Suicide Squad.” It just seems cruel to pick on him, even if he does have the fucking ugliest costume of all time.
June 12th, 2008 la 9:34 am
I am going to make fan art of Dr Spectro.
June 12th, 2008 la 10:00 am
Just FYI - the Wikipedia entry for Dr. Spectro (yes, Dr. Spectro has his own Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia is nerdtacular!) suggests that he was not, in fact, killed off by John Ostrander in Suicide Squad but rather was still around at the time of Infinite Crisis. Apparently in the “novelization” of Infinite Crisis, Evil Superboy killed him (this apparently didn’t happen in the comic book, though).
Also, the original Dr. Spectro had much better powers, though by my measure an equally lame costume. If they bring back the mind controlling prisms and ditch the disco-ball lights Dr. Spectro could actually be a fairly decent villain. Maybe not Superman-level, but someone who could give Flash or Blue Beetle a run for his money…
June 12th, 2008 la 10:04 am
He ‘fought’ Captain Atom…
Now, see, if you’re a smart man, you give up the fucking second the living atomic reactor flies in. This is a given. You are lucky to walk away from a fight like that fertile.’
But, dude, seriously, if you’re outraged about the government lying to the people, like…. protest or something. Spread the word. Sell your story to Keith Oberman. Print pamphlets. There are any number of infinitely more productive things you could do.
June 12th, 2008 la 10:10 am
I’m really starting to doubt your Rex the Wonder Dog scale. 17%? I was SURE this dork would rank below 10%. I mean, he barely outranks my little brother running around the living room in his underwear with a towel around his neck when he was four.
June 12th, 2008 la 11:13 am
Actually Cary Bates did a great job on his origin: you have to read the original comics to appreciate it. Even Maggie Thompson called it one of the most believable villain origins she had ever read, IIRC.
June 12th, 2008 la 12:00 pm
The saddest thing about him is that he obviously knows he’s just a schmuck with a pool hall and too many lightbulbs on his hands, so he clearly overcompensates by calling himself “Dr.” When the government has to think about how to say that you’re completely unimportant without making you sound at least important enough that they knew what your name is, you know you’ve got some problems.
June 12th, 2008 la 2:06 pm
I can’t believe Amalgam passed on the million dollar idea of The Spectro Hustler!
June 12th, 2008 la 3:27 pm
I said I would and I did
June 12th, 2008 la 3:29 pm
Joecab is right: his origin story in the early Bates’ Captain Atom book is actually pretty terrific. I think there was always a little lameness intended with him.
June 12th, 2008 la 4:04 pm
Give him Color Kid’s powers and he might be interesting. When I first read his name I thought he was the guy who used to fight Dr. Solar in Valiant for some reason, even though i have no idea who that is.
June 12th, 2008 la 4:33 pm
Bates (and Weisman) did a terrific job with Captain Atom for fifty issues. Awesome late-80s, early-90s DC superhero comic.
Then John fuckin’ Ostrander came in, ignored everything that had come before, and rode the book into the ground finishing off his leftover Firestorm plotlines. Plus it set up the Monarch debacle. Bah.
June 12th, 2008 la 6:17 pm
my screen was scrolled down just enough to make his name on the bottom of the page look like
“Dr. Erecton.” Laughed my balls off before I realized he was even lamer.
June 12th, 2008 la 6:46 pm
No fair, Jaap. Even with the awkward male pattern baldness, your little man looks like he might actually be competent.
June 12th, 2008 la 8:42 pm
I have only seen this guy once, and it was in a Joe Kelly Superman issue, I believe. He showed up looking like that to take down Superman, only to find out that the black market Kryptonite he’d picked up was fake. Since that time, I have not been able to confirm his existence again until right now.
June 12th, 2008 la 9:50 pm
I could SO remake this character. The problem is that light based weaponry are so over done in comics. How would someone remake light and sound technology so that it takes a new and cunning edge? But his personality.. a guy that decided to be a supervillain for raw attention and a quick buck. Its so basic that I could take that idea in a number of different directions.
I’d give him a leisure suit of doom, the ability to fly (or strut in the sky), and army of 4-inch high, living light constructs and call him Dr Discotech.
June 12th, 2008 la 9:55 pm
The only time I can remember seeing Dr. Spectro was in that huge scene in Neron’s realm in [i]Underworld Unleashed[/i], and he was comparing outfits with Crazy Quilt.
June 13th, 2008 la 10:48 pm
Since Batman was mentioned, I give you - Dr. Spectro vs. Batman:
DS - Sees Batman
DS - “Oh shit, it’s Batman”
DS - pisses himself
DS - shorts out his suit and tasers himself