Batman: Caped Crusader Continues Its Supernatural Streak With The Debut Of A DC Comics Antihero

This article contains spoilers for "Batman: Caped Crusader" Season 2, Episode 5, "The Spectral Hand."

"Batman: Caped Crusader," as spearheaded by "Batman: The Animated Series" co-creator Bruce Timm and bearing his distinctive art style, pitched itself as a superhero noir the same way "Batman: The Animated Series" itself previously had.

But "Caped Crusader" Season 1's pulpy storytelling also veered into supernatural directions, too. In Episode 6, "Night Ride," Batman (Hamish Linklater) battled the Gentleman Ghost (Toby Stephens), the ghost of 17th century Gothamite Jim Craddock, who robs from the poor to give to the rich. To defeat Craddock, Batman had to cast a spell. Episode 8, "Nocturne," then featured a vampire villain: Natalia Night/Nocturna (McKenna Grace). (Nocturna almost appeared on "Batman: The Animated Series" before censors stepped in.)

While Batman himself has no superpowers, his gothic aesthetic means he can drop easily into supernatural horror stories. "Caped Crusader" Season 2 keeps this trend going, with Episode 5, "The Spectral Hand," featuring an undead vigilante.

During the episode, the imprisoned former Gotham Police Detective Jim Corrigan (Roger Craig Smith) volunteers for a prison experiment to get an early release. The experiment seemingly kills Corrigan, but he's soon up walking again, because he died with unfinished business. Resembling a zombie, Corrigan shambles through the streets of Gotham, out to punish criminals he'd once arrested who slipped through the cracks, only with the lethal force that Batman himself never employs. 

DC fans will recognize this character: Corrigan is The Spectre. Since his debut in 1940 (when he was created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily) the Spectre has been depicted as an angel of vengeance bound to a human host, usually, but not always, a police detective named Jim Corrigan. The "Caped Crusader" interpretation is a little different.

The Spectre in comics is typically depicted as a ghostly pale man clad in a flowing green cloak. "Caped Crusader" instead portrayed Corrigan like a decomposing corpse, with a scarred face and green rags for a costume.

"The Spectral Hand" makes no reference to an angel possessing Corrigan. His being subject to "Frankenstein"-esque experiment also offers plausible deniability that his return is only because of unnatural science. But when he kills, his pupils twist into skulls, just like the comic Spectre's eyes do. If you know the comic Spectre, you can infer something indeed possessed Corrigan. "The Spectral Hand" is set at Christmas time, so it evokes "A Christmas Carol" by having a ghost pay unfriendly visits to sinners. But not all of Corrigan's targets are evil.

The writing staff of "Batman: Caped Crusader" Season 1 included comic writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, who worked together on the "Gotham Central" comic that spotlighted Gotham's Police Department (and which you need to read if you like "Batman: Caped Crusader"). So, "Caped Crusader" used some characters from that book, including Corrigan. "Gotham Central" featured a second Jim Corrigan, a corrupt crime scene unit tech, who does not become the Spectre and, rather, is the final villain of "Gotham Central."

In Season 1, the "Caped Crusader" Corrigan is seemingly the "Gotham Central" one. In the episode "Moving Target," he tried to kill Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown) to claim a criminal's bounty. But now, "The Spectral Hand" merges the two Corrigans and gives this one redemption. His last act isn't attacking Barbara again, it's begging for her forgiveness. The Spectre is the embodiment of God's vengeance, but he reserves revenge for the wicked.

"Batman: Caped Crusader" is streaming on Prime Video.