Clarice Winston was the girlfriend of Jim Corrigan during the 1940s.
History
When Corrigan was kidnapped by mobster Gat Benson and his gang, he was left for dead in a cement barrel which was thrown in the river. Now deceased, Corrigan's spirit was then offered a chance to seek justice, as the ghostly Spectre. Corrigan returned to Earth as a "Spirit of Vengeance" to fight evil with his new supernatural powers. On his first mission, he exacted justice by rescuing Clarice Winston (his fiancée at the time) and Waylon Grant (his partner) who were captured by Gat Benson.
When he entered the warehouse to save his friends (as the ghostly Spectre), he killed Benson and his men. However, Clarice was shot. Her soul was heading to Heaven, but the Spectre intervened and struck a bargain with Michael the Archangel, her soul for his. Thus, Clarice was brought back to life as Jim Corrigan's was destined to roam the universe bound with the Spectre-Force.
Soon after, Corrigan broke off the engagement with Winston and left her life forever.
She never knew the real reason for his leaving, so she blamed herself. She later married Douglas Marchebank II. She gave birth to their son, Douglas Marchebank III who was raised in a series of boarding schools, as she never felt anything for him.
When her husband died in the war, she moved to Hollywood where she met her second husband, movie star Jeffrey Kane. He would later die in a car crash. She then moved to Europe and had a series of lovers. When her looks began to fade, she attracted men with her money.
She returned to America in the 1960s and hired a private investigator to find Jim Corrigan. But the detective only found a "younger" Jim Corrigan. Feeling betrayed, she believed that Jim had met another woman and had a son, so she attempted suicide. This caused her to be in a coma for weeks, and the doctors could not explain how she survived. Other suicide attempts were equally unsuccessful and she realized something was wrong with her, she could not die.
For several decades, the ageless Corrigan believed that Winston lived a good life and must have passed on. However, the two met again in the 1990s.[2] She was now a frail grandmother. When they met, he realized that a small fraction of him somehow kept her alive all these years when he saved her from Benson's bullet. During their meeting, the Spectre entered her soul. She demanded that he cut the thread and let her die, but he understood that her soul was in a bad state -- she would go to Hell.
Suddenly, Clarice began to choke. In the real world, her granddaughter Clarissa Marchebank was smothering her with pillow. The Spectre quickly exited Clarice's soul and confronted Clarissa. She explained that she wanted her grandmother to die so that her father (Douglas Marchebank III) could finally stop taking care of her and begin living his own life. The Spectre couldn't kill Clarissa, for she had not actually committed a murder. But as punishment for her crimes, he switched Clarissa's soul with her grandmother's old body, and put Clarice's soul into Clarissa's young body. He then asked the "young" Clarice, if he should sever the thread that kept her old body alive. Clarice said no; she hoped her granddaughter's soul (who was trapped inside her grandmother's frail body) may someday change. Corrigan left Clarice, once again stating that he would never see her again.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Immortality (Post-Crisis only) (Formerly)
Related
- 34 Appearances of Clarice Winston (New Earth)
- 1 Images featuring Clarice Winston (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Clarice Winston (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Clarice Winston (New Earth)
Footnotes