The Golden Age Spectre Archives #1

A mutual friend, Dr. Morgan, tells Jim Corrigan that the death of another man, Ralph Granger, in a seemingly innocuous automobile accident came just after he had informed Morgan of a bizarrely delivered death threat. Using the supernatural powers of the Spectre to make the event repeat itself before his eyes, the Grim Ghost sees disembodied hands grab the steering wheel. Returning to headquarters, Corrigan finds another man, Carl Munson, reporting an occult-oriented death threat, made because an organization he joined for fun, the Crimson Circle Mystic Society, demanded a large portion of his income and he refused. The Spectre invisibly stands guard and sees a vaguely human-shaped shadow approaching the man, but another supernatural being intercepts the Astral Avenger as disembodied hands carry out the threat. Corrigan infiltrates the group, but one member recognizes him as a policeman and reports this to the leader, Bandar. An attempt to kill Jim predictably fails, but he conceals this from his assailants and, as the Spectre, trails them back to Bandar, where he overhears conversation confirming that they are responsible for Granger's death. Bandar's astral form, recognizable as the being that prevented the Ghostly Guardian from saving Munson, emerges from his body. The two mystical entities fight, and the Spectre must resort to the Ring of Life to escape and destroy Bandar's physical body before he can return to it, an act which flings his other form helplessly across dimensional space.

Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).