I've been collecting this particular run of The Spectre for years now, but I'm nowhere close to having the series. On my list of comics I'm looking for (which I might, one day, post here), I have series that are high priority and those that are low priority. The Spectre, though interesting, has always been low priority.
I'm not sure why. I began tracking it down when I read somewhere a review that compared it favourably to Gaiman's The Sandman. The thought of a series of that quality situated firmly in the DCU was alluring, especially to someone who had recently discovered Robinson's Starman. But all things Morrisonian or Gerberian took precedence, and The Spectre was relegated to the back burner. Having re-read this opening issue, however, all that might change. The creative team of Ostrander and Mandrake are not entirely unfamiliar to me, but they're not entirely familiar either. The art definitely has that early Vertigo feel to it, and the deployment of the surreal aspects of the character are really fantastic. I wrote on the character a while back, an older iteration of the hero by Jim Aparo, and while the Mandrake and Ostrander version seems to be keeping with the spirit of vengeance origins of the character, Mandrake's art is far less superhero than Aparo's, which, I find, it appropriate.
I don't have issue #2, so we probably won't see any more of the series until I've got a bit of a run to get through. But it might also be moving to the medium urgency priority list.
(I don't know who I'm kidding. All comics are high priority for me. Isn't that evident by now?)
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