Spectre (Volume 3) #23 is an issue of the series Spectre (Volume 3) with a cover date of November, 1994.
Synopsis for "Consequence"
Movie star B.J. Thompson murders his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Thompson flees, shooting at the Spectre. However, the Spectre causes Thompson's white SUV to explode. The Spectre is concerned that he felt the bullet pass through his head. He discovers a thread tapping into his power and vows to learn what the thread leads to.
In Manhattan, the NYPD are investigating the attempted murder of an old woman. Nate Kane has been reinstated to the force, and he suspect that the old woman's son is guilty. Jim Corrigan turns up at the crime scene and meets a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Clarice Winston, his fiancée from the 1940s. The young woman informs Jim that she is Clarissa Marchebank, Clarice's granddaughter. Jim tells Clarissa that he needs to speak to Clarice; however, she is bed-ridden and unconscious, so that prospect is unlikely. Jim orders Clarissa to leave, and he enters Clarice's soul. All these years, he had thought she was dead.
Once the Spectre is inside Clarice's soul, she explains to him how she blames Jim for ruining her life. She recalls the day he left her. She never knew the real reason for his leaving, so she blamed herself. Since she couldn't marry the man she loved, she married for social status, to a man named Douglas Marchebank II. She gave birth to their son, Douglas Marchebank III. He was raised in a series of boarding schools, as she never felt anything for him.
After her husband died in the war, she moved to Hollywood where she met her second husband, movie star Jeffrey Kane. When Jeffrey Kane died in a car crash, Clarice moved to Europe and had a series of lovers. When her looks began to fade, she attracted men with her money.
She then returned to America in the 1960s and hired a private investigator to find Jim Corrigan. But the detective only found a "younger" Jim Corrigan. She felt betrayed and 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. She realized something was wrong with her when she was the sole survivor of a plane crash.
While still inside her soul, Jim explains that he brought her back to life the night she was shot by Gat Benson. A small fraction of him seems to have kept her alive all these years. She then demands that he cut the thread and let her die, but he says that's not a good idea because of the state her soul is in: she would go to Hell.
Suddenly, Clarice begins to choke. In the real world, her granddaughter Clarissa is smothering her with pillow.
The Spectre quickly exits Clarice's soul and confronts Clarissa. She explains that she wanted her grandmother to die so that her father could finally stop taking care of her and begin living his own life. The Spectre cannot kill Clarissa, for she has not actually committed a murder. But as punishment for her crimes, he switches Clarissa's soul with her grandmother's old body, and puts Clarice's soul into Clarissa's young body. Asking if he should sever the thread that keeps Clarice's old body alive, Clarice (in her young body) says no; she hopes her granddaughter's soul may someday change. Jim leaves, telling Clarice that he will never see her again: "You are still living, and I am not. Stay with the living, Clarice."
Appearing in "Consequence"
Featured Characters:
- Spectre (Jim Corrigan) (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:
- Lt. Nate Kane
- Clarice Winston (Flashback and main story)
- Clarissa Marchebank
- Douglas Marchebank III
Antagonists:
- B.J. Thompson (Dies)
Other Characters:
- Police Captain Taylor
- Douglas Marchebank II (Dies in flashback)
- Jeffrey Kane (Dies in flashback)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
Cover price:
- $1.95 US
- $2.75 CAN
- £1.25 UK
Trivia
- B.J. Thompson is an analogue of O.J. Simpson, a former football star, who in June 1994 was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her boyfriend.
See Also