by Doc Quantum
The next morning, Kevin Boyd awoke from his slumber when his two little girls pounced on his bed, shouting, “Wake up, Daddy! Wake up! It’s Christmas!”
Opening one bleary eye, Kevin glanced over at the window. It was still quite dark, with only a dim glow from the sun that still hadn’t cracked over the horizon. “Don’t you think it’s a little early, girls?”
“It’s Christmas morning, Daddy!” said Rachel, a redhead like her father, who was dressed in Blue Beetle pajamas. “You said we could open presents before breakfast!”
“Yeah, Daddy! You said, you said!” agreed her little blonde sister, Stacy, wearing Booster Gold Underoos.
“All right, all right,” Kevin said with a smile. It wasn’t as if he was going to get any more sleep that morning, anyway.
Rachel and Stacy cheered and dashed into the living room, where the glow from the Christmas tree was the only thing illuminating the room with any light. Kevin pulled on a housecoat and trudged to the kitchen to make a cup of instant coffee.
“Can I play Santa this year, Daddy?” asked Rachel.
“No, it’s my turn!” complained Stacy.
“But you were Santa last year!” said Rachel, and the usual bickering began.
“Girls, girls, girls! Why don’t you both play Santa?” Kevin shouted from the kitchen. Before they could protest any further, he added, “Or… we could wait until after breakfast, if you two can’t get along.”
He listened for a moment as the children exchanged whispers, and then Rachel said, “We’ll behave.”
“Good,” Kevin replied, grabbing his cup of black coffee. Sitting in the living room, he watched as Rachel and Stacy tore into their presents one by one.
Focusing his attention on his girls’ reactions to the gifts they received, he began writing down what each of the gifts were so the girls could write thank-you cards later on. But by the time they reached the gifts behind the tree, Kevin began frowning as he spotted one particular gift box. He didn’t remember wrapping anything in yellow and black or even having received any presents that looked like that at all. Something else was tugging at the back of his mind — something important that he should have remembered — but he couldn’t quite grasp it. It was simply too early in the morning for heavy thinking, and his mind was still fuzzy from lack of sleep.
And then, as Rachel reached for the large gift and began tugging at it, nudging it out from beneath the tree, it finally hit him.
Jumping out of his seat, Kevin spilled coffee onto the rug as he shouted, “Rachel — Stacy — get back!”
The yellow and black gift box suddenly began trembling and moving in place, and the girls’ eyes widened in a mixture of fright and wonder as it seemed ready to explode. And then it did.
With a loud pop, the gift box burst open even as it transformed into the shape of a full-sized man-like figure in a yellow and black costume who looked just like a crash test dummy come to life.
“TA-DA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!”
Kevin stood in his living room, dumbstruck at the sight before him. He knew at a glance that it was his old friend, the Shape — it could be nothing and no one else — but his first response at seeing a yellow-and-black-colored Christmas present transform into a full-sized humanoid was fear. After all, hadn’t it been years since he’d seen the Shape in person, and even longer since they had been constant companions? It just felt so strange to see the Shape here, in a domestic setting that he had always maintained as a safe, protected zone for his daughters.
“Shape…?”
“Hiya, Kevin!” the Shape said, his arms outstretched and growing longer by the moment. Before Kevin realized what was happening, he found those rubbery arms wrapped completely around him, then several more times around them both for good measure. “How have you been all these years, old buddy, old pal?!”
The Shape squeezed his eyes shut as he hugged his old friend, then opened them comically wide upon seeing Rachel and Stacy, who looked at the strange figure with something akin to shock and awe. “And who are these two little tots?” he said happily. “Why, Kevin, ol’ pal — have you become a daddy?!”
Kevin was finding it hard to adjust to everything that was happening. He had lived a quiet, sedentary life for so long that he had forgotten that, wherever the Shape went, chaos always followed. His living room was no exception. “Uh, yes… yes, I have,” he said, motioning for his girls to come over to him. Indicating his oldest, he said, “This one is Rachel, and…”
“Rachel?!” cried the Shape, turning into a huge ball and bouncing in place on the oak-paneled floor, creaking each time he rebounded. “That’s an awesome name! I just love it!” The redheaded girl couldn’t help but grin.
“A-and this one is Stacy, my youngest,” Kevin said, patting her blonde head.
“Stacy!” Switching back into his humanoid form, the Shape suddenly turned his right hand into a microphone and burst into song, singing his rendition of The Name Game. “Stacy, Stacy, bo bacey — banana fanna fo facey — fee fi mo macey… Sta-cy!”
The blonde girl laughed and began clapping. “Again! Again!”
“How did you fit in that little box?” Rachel asked him, her inquisitive young mind racing to find a logical explanation for the absurdity. “That’s impossible!”
With a chuckle, the Shape replied, “Why, I can change my shape into anything! Squeezing into the shape of a small box is a piece of cake for the Shape!”
“So are you an action-hero,” the redheaded girl asked, “like Blue Beetle?”
“I sure am, Rachel!” replied the Shape, suddenly posing with his hands on his hips as a black and yellow cape fluttered out from his shoulders. “The Shape is the name, and crime-fighting’s my game… though I am also quite partial to Hungry Hungry Hippos if you ever want to play.” He added with a wink of his button-like eye, “And I’m an old friend of your pop’s, too!”
“Daddy, how come you never told us you knew any action-heroes?” Rachel asked, almost accusingly.
“Well, sweetie, it was a long time ago, and I–”
“Can Mr. Shape please stay for breakfast, Daddy?” asked Stacy. “Can he, please?”
“Pleee-eee-eeease?” the two girls pleaded in unison as the Shape began frantically nodding his head, a comical grin spreading across his face.
“Well…” Kevin began, taking stock of the scene for a moment, “…okay.”
“Yayyy!” the two girls and the Shape cried out. As the pliable hero reached out his black-gloved hands, he took each of them by the hand, and they started dancing crazily in a circle in what looked to be the weirdest game of Ring Around the Rosy Kevin could have imagined.
Without any prompting, the Shape immediately began playing with the two girls, their brand-new Christmas presents completely forgotten as Kevin Boyd trudged into the kitchen to cook up a serving of pancakes. Things seemed to be getting a bit out of control, but he wasn’t sure what else he could do right now.
***
The criminal scientist who had called himself Doctor Spectro for so many years breathed heavily, having worked tirelessly throughout the night on his latest invention. Desperation consumed him; he knew his body had only a short time left. Feeling older than his years, he was succumbing to a disease that none of his treatments could cure. This grim realization had followed a brush with unexpected violence some months ago at the hands of a bunch of street punks who had thought him easy prey.
Where had it all gone so wrong? Why was his genius no longer enough to save himself?
Emery Thomas Specter’s journey began innocently enough. As a child, he developed a fascination with color and its effects on emotions. This interest led him to cultivate a deep passion for science, particularly inspired by the groundbreaking work of scientists like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. However, it was Nikola Tesla who captivated Emery the most. Tesla’s revolutionary research in electricity and power transmission had transformed technology, providing the world with essentials like electricity and radio.
Driven by his passion for understanding the electromagnetic field, Emery not only studied the light spectrum but also specialized in it. Unfortunately, his pursuit of this particular field disappointed his family, who had hoped he would become an ordinary family doctor. Throughout medical school, Emery witnessed firsthand the limitations and failures of modern medicine, prompting him to explore alternative approaches.
Conducting experiments on diseased animals and, controversially, a few human subjects, Emery became convinced that the visible light spectrum possessed the power to treat various ailments. He delved into the profound impact of colors on human moods and how they could leverage the body’s immune system and natural healing abilities. Yet, rather than receiving support and recognition from his peers, Emery faced only ridicule and rejection.
Jealousy, combined with their inability to comprehend his unconventional reasoning, led fellow doctors and medical scientists to mock Emery relentlessly. Their efforts culminated in his termination from the hospital and the revocation of his medical license by the overseeing board.
Years later, he would learn that such authorities had been established by a power structure that funded medical schools and associations to produce and sell overpriced medicines. These medications supposedly treated illnesses but often turned patients into lifelong addicts. Dr. Emery Specter was interested only in curing illnesses, not profiting from human suffering as the pharmaceutical industry did.
Deprived of resources and allies, Emery sought assistance from established scientists and potential patrons, including medical technology firms and even the military. However, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Despite his undeniable brilliance and unwavering conviction, Emery lacked the charisma necessary to persuade closed-minded individuals of the truth.
Pushed out of the medical field and stripped of his financial security, Emery found himself in a desperate situation. He couldn’t help but compare his predicament to Tesla’s. When Tesla was swindled out of millions owed to him, he had turned to unorthodox methods to continue his life’s work.
To survive, Emery took on an assortment of odd jobs. However, he refused to abandon his beliefs regarding the healing potential of the visible light spectrum and its ability to influence emotions. Determined to prove his theories to a disinterested world, Emery was willing to explore unconventional avenues, no matter the cost.
Bitter over his rejection by the scientific community, Emery repurposed his experiments and equipment as a sideshow act. His eccentric nature and brusque personality perhaps aided him when he presented the idea to the owner of a traveling circus. Using a variation of his actual surname, the circus billed him as Doctor Spectro, Master of Moods, and set him up in a sideshow, complete with a black and white costume adorned with rainbow-striped arms and legs.
Despite initially finding the act ridiculous, Emery aimed to use popular entertainment to educate the public about the importance of color and thus gain enough recognition to disregard the opinions of scientific and medical authorities. The audience responded positively to Doctor Spectro’s display of colored light altering their moods, but there were also skeptics who disrupted the show. Doctor Spectro used his emotion-manipulating power to silence them. Emery believed that his act could become more popular, allowing him to progress to larger stages and eventually television, where he could spread knowledge about the benefits of light and color, including potential cures for supposedly incurable diseases.
Fate intervened when a criminal named Rodent approached Emery, offering payment to act as a distraction for a bank robbery. Aware of Rodent’s true intentions, Emery declined the offer and demanded that he leave. In response, Rodent punched Emery, causing him to stumble backward into his experimental apparatus. The prisms on Emery’s wrists captured the light, exposing him to its refracted energy. The powerful red rays transformed him, focusing his hatred for the world that had rejected him.
In that moment, Dr. Emery Thomas Specter died, and Doctor Spectro was born. Empowered by the absorbed light, Doctor Spectro vowed to demonstrate his newfound power to anyone who had ever laughed at or mocked him. Rodent and his associates fled in fear as Doctor Spectro turned his rays on them. Fueled by bitterness, Spectro unleashed his white-hot rage to seek revenge. When another unsuspecting individual entered his tent, Doctor Spectro used dark green rays from his prisms to make the person fall ill. Determined to show his control over his own will, Doctor Spectro decided to carry out what Rodent had asked of him.
Emery’s transformation into Doctor Spectro ultimately marked a turning point in his life. No longer content with being rejected, he sought to assert his power and mastery over others. His rejection from the scientific establishment had fueled his bitterness, and now, with his abilities, Doctor Spectro was ready to teach the world a lesson in power.
Outside the bank, Doctor Spectro cast vari-colored light rays onto passersby, paralyzing them in fear. With a mere application of color and light, he commanded the crowd’s response. Captain Atom attempted to intervene, but Spectro turned the crowd against the hero, inciting hatred toward their would-be savior. Having originally sought to be humanity’s savior through visible light, Spectro couldn’t help but note the irony that he had instead become a scourge upon the world.
An inevitable confrontation between Doctor Spectro and Captain Atom ensued. The rabble served as a distraction from Spectro’s battle with the representative of authority. Though Spectro harbored no hatred for Captain Atom specifically, he perceived everything he believed he lacked in this gleaming figure. Captain Atom was a secret weapon known only to a few in the U.S. government at the time, and Spectro remained oblivious to his true identity. When Captain Atom was unveiled to the public the following year, he would be celebrated as the world’s greatest hero, while Spectro would continue to be denied acclaim.
Their battle led them to a remote area away from anyone Spectro could manipulate. In his desperation to end the fight before Spectro could prove his superiority, Captain Atom made a grave mistake. He threw Spectro into high-tension power lines, playing right into Spectro’s hands. Spectro absorbed the immense electromagnetic power, surpassing all known human limits and becoming virtually unstoppable.
However, just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, Spectro failed to recognize his limitations. As he unleashed the full power of color and light, fueled by a lifetime of pent-up rage, his physical body burned up like an overloaded lightbulb. Doctor Spectro’s light went out, leaving nothing but a multicolored spectrum passing through Captain Atom before dissipating.
Though it seemed Doctor Spectro was dead, he miraculously survived in a changed form. His consciousness existed in the electromagnetic spectrum, a ghost capable of haunting the world to the end of time, had fate had not intervened again. (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Doctor Spectro, Master of Moods,” Captain Atom (Charlton) #79 (February-March, 1966).]
Still, that would not be the end of Doctor Spectro. No, he had far too much work to do to let such a thing as a lack of corporeal existence stop him. Then, as now, Spectro would return yet again, and this time he would show the world.
Chuckling to himself as he lost himself in his reveries, something began tugging at his thoughts as he tinkered with an electronics panel over the table, which was covered in old newspapers to protect its finish. A name in one of the headlines seemed to leap out at him, forcefully pulling him back into the present.
Pushing the pieces of his new invention aside, he stood up from a chair and carefully pulled the oil-stained sheet of newspaper up off the table, allowing a few small screws to tumble to the floor. Those were the least of his concerns. The article he now began to scan for information with frantically moving eyes was all he cared about in the world at this moment.
A hideous grin formed on his face as, upon a closer reading, he found what he had sought in those printed words, and he exclaimed loudly, “This is it! Angie, darling! I will be needing your help on this day of all days!”