He useta be a normal Joe. A cop, as I recall. But from the moment he got tapped by the Big G t'be an avenging spirit, he started to lose touch with his human side. Long time ago, he was a super-hero himself. Since then, he's gotten weirder and weirder, and now...well, t'tell you the truth...you can't be sure whose side he'll take in any of this. 
James Corrigan served as an agent of divine wrath since he died in the 1940's becoming The Spectre.
History
He first sought Wesley Dodds due to the dreams that he had of a forthcoming Armageddon with the superheroes and meta-humans, but was unable to do so because Dodds had died. However, the dreams had been passed on to his pastor and friend Norman McCay, so the Spectre appeared unto him instead. The Spectre took McCay to various places in the events that unfolded, guided by the dreams passed on to McCay, but not interacting directly with the events.
At the point in the meta-human battle where the Blackhawk Squadron dropped a nuclear bomb that would destroy most of all meta-human lifeforms, the Spectre allowed McCay to make the decision of whether humans or meta-humans should survive or face judgment. McCay realized that it wasn't his place to judge the events and so allowed the events of the battle to unfold by themselves, resulting in Captain Marvel sacrificing himself to stop the bomb by detonating it prematurely, destroying most meta-humans except for Superman and those protected by the rings of the Green Lanterns Alan Scott and Jade. As Superman flew into the United Nations to exact revenge on them, the Spectre transported McCay there so he could talk some sense into Superman to make him see the humanity he has chosen to neglect all those years he believed he was a god. Superman relented and his fellow superheroes decided to make a pact that they would no longer stand above humans to solve their problems but rather stand beside them to help solve their problems together.
The Spectre was reminded by McCay of his humanity to see things through the perspective as the man he once was and decides nobody is to blame. Returning to his human form of Jim Corrigan, he became a member of McCay's congregation and they become friends.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Notes
- According to character supplement in Kingdom Come / Revelations the Spectre's portrayal was taken from Alan Moore's use of him in Swamp Thing, and his visual came from Neil Gaiman's The Book of Magic and Scott Hampton's painting of him as a glowing, very ethereal figure with a connection to an earlier portrayal of a host of seven Archangels (painted by John Bolton).
Trivia
- A conversation between McCay and Deadman reveals that, with the passing of time, Corrigan has become further and further removed from humanity; in which he now only wearing his cloak to cover an otherwise nude body (similar to Doctor Manhattan from Alan Moore's Watchmen).
- The Spectre had a meal item at the Planet Krypton restaurant named after him called the "Spectre Platter," which consisted of spinach and cottage cheese - echoing the green-and-white theme of his physical appearance. Apparently the Spectre (in his identity of Jim Corrigan) was quite unamused and even furious of his namesake meal in which Norman McKay added that "it's flattering to be remembered somehow."[1]
Related
- 10 Appearances of James Corrigan (Earth-22)
- 6 Images featuring James Corrigan (Earth-22)
- 6 Quotations by or about James Corrigan (Earth-22)
- Character Gallery: James Corrigan (Earth-22)
Footnotes