by Dan Swanson
At the League of United Nations Building in New York City, there once occurred a battle between the now-forgotten team of super-heroes called the Super Squad and a team of fantastical super-villains known as the Jailbirds and Legbreakers Assembly. The villains, who until then had merely been fictional characters from a popular role-playing game, were brought to life during the Halloween of 1964 as several innocent civilians ended up as host bodies for the villains. (*) And one of those villains, Ghast the Ghostly Avenger, would end up making a rare mistake that would ultimately cost him the new life that had been created by a strange mystical spell. This battle has already been told from the heroes’ point of view, but the Ghast was a villain and had a decidedly different perspective on things.
[(*) Editor’s note: See Super Squad: Times Past, 1964: A Halloween Hullabaloo.]
Exposed electronics spilling from the shattered bodies of demolished battle androids smoldered, filling the air with acrid gray phenolic smoke, tearing at the Ghast’s nose and throat and causing him to gasp for breath. The crashing thunder of the battle battered his ears, making it difficult to even think. Most of the lights in the room had fallen victim to stray bullets and energy beams; the dim light that remained alternated confusingly with brilliant strobe-like flashes from energy beams and projectile explosions. Something flickered in his peripheral vision; the eidolic evildoer instantly launched himself into a flat dive and was only singed by the deadly, blinding energy beam that ionized the air where his chest had been. With his gray costume, gray cowl with cat-like ears, and the tattered gray-ribbed cape spread behind him, the spectral shadow strongly resembled a giant bat landing on the tattered battle-scarred carpet.
While he was in the air, his hand slapped his utility belt with unnatural speed, flickered to his face, and then stretched out ahead to break his fall. The self-adhesive filter now covering the mouth and nose of the spectral shadow eased his breathing as he rolled behind the dubious cover of a smoldering pile that had been a massive roll-top desk less than five minutes ago. As he snapped back to his feet, three of the hulking battle droids hemmed him in against the wall.
With almost invisible quickness, his hand flashed to his utility belt again, and in the same movement he dashed a pellet to the floor. Before the flare of the minor explosion faded, the four figures were engulfed in a billow of hot, dense black smoke. Guided by his natural ultrasonic echolocation, the Ghast launched himself toward a small gap between two of the massive droids. The haunted heel was buffeted by an impossibly powerful blast of air, which instantly cleared the smoke and impeded him just enough that one of the droids managed to snag his cape with a powerful hand.
Reacting instantly, he instinctively slapped the quick-release to the skull-shaped clasp on his chest and shrugged out of the cape and attached costume.
The rest of that story unfolded as we’ve already seen, with the Super Squad triumphant over the JLA, and the villains’ innocent host bodies freed from temporary possession. But that would not be the end of the Ghast.