After inventing a series of prisms that could alter human emotions, a scientist was kidnapped by a gang of criminals and forced to use his invention to commit a bank robbery. When the scientist refused to help, the criminals pushed him into his experimental machinery. The strange energies of the machine reacted with the prisms, giving the scientist the ability to control emotions directly. The energy also affected his mind, causing the scientist to embark on a crime spree as Doctor Spectro. The superhero Captain Atom confronted Doctor Spectro, who was disintegrated when he came into contact with a high tension wire. Doctor Spectro managed to survive and returned to fight Captain Atom.
DC Comics
Doctor Spectro became part of the DC Universe after DC Comics purchased the rights to Captain Atom and other characters. He appeared in issues #9 and 10 of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Post-Crisis, Doctor Spectro was re-introduced in Captain Atom Vol. 3, #5, in a story written by Cary Bates and drawn by Pat Broderick. In the new version Doctor Spectro was really Tom Emery. A newspaper reporter discovered that "Doctor Spectro" was the creation of General Wade Eiling to act as a fake supervillain whose exploits were used to provide a cover story for the Captain Atom project. Once Captain Atom went missing, Doctor Spectro reverted to the life of a small-time super-crook. Doctor Spectro has made guest appearances in other DC titles, including Underworld Unleashed, JLA #34, Action Comics #760, JSA #28, and Superman/Batman #3. In the Green Arrow comics, the Green Arrow family often claim that Doctor Spectro has the worst supervillain costume. In Green Arrow #26, Green Arrow confronts saboteurs at a construction site saying “What are you doing?! When a guy twice your size in a costume tells you to stop doing something--you stop! Unless it’s the Riddler. Or that moron Doctor Spectro. ‘Cause they’re just…sad.”. In #46, Speedy quips to a villain “Dude, that is one sorry outfit. You make Doctor Spectro look cool. You know how hard that is?” In the recent novelized version of Infinite Crisis, Doctor Spectro was killed by Superboy-Prime alongside the hero Gunfire. This was a scene notably not shown in the illustrated Infinite Crisis mini-series, and occurred at the same time that the death of Blood Pack was shown.
Powers and abilities
Doctor Spectro uses his special light powers to control people's emotions.
