Ghost Woman

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human ghost

Occupation: Unrevealed

Affiliations: John

Enemies: Werewolves

Known Relatives: None (see comments)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: None

First Appearance: Star Studded Comics (Cambridge House Publishers, 1945)

Powers/Abilities: Immaterial and invisible to normal humans (but these are more disadvantages than powers). Visible to other supernatural creatures and able to touch them. By "concentrating her ectoplasm" she can move solid objects slightly. Able to instantly teleport to the location of any person she wants to be near to.

History: When John heard that his wife and young daughter had been killed, he became despondent and eventually planned to enlist and go overseas, possibly never to return. A female friend of the family discovered that contrary to the reports, the daughter was still alive and in a foundling home in New York. Knowing there were only hours to go before John left, the woman raced through the night on sleet covered roads, but her brakes gave out and she crashed off down a steep incline. Not realising initially that she had been killed, the Ghost Woman tried unsuccessfully to flag down a lift. Wishing she was with John, she found herself instantly transported to his side, but he was unable to see or hear her. Realising she had no reflection, she finally figured out the truth. Still wishing she could console her grieving friend, she accompanied him as he took a walk, despite James' butler advising otherwise, pointing out the "mad dog" was still out there. The pair wandered down to the graveyard, where a man spotted them - both of them! Able to see ghosts because he was a werewolf, he transformed, intending to kill John, but Ghost Woman intervened, grappling with him. Though he soon overpowered her, and threatened to make her a werewolf too by finding her dead body and "crossing it," the disturbance had alerted John, and though he could not see his rescuer, John came to her aid, using a heavy branch to strike the lycanthrope unconscious from behind. Seeing the man change back to human, John realised there was evil in the wind and raced home, unaware Ghost Woman was still by his side. While the angry werewolf woke and summoned his pack to attack the house, Ghost Woman struggled to focus her ectoplasm sufficiently to move first an old blunderbuss and then some silver cutlery. Getting the hint just as the werewolves broke in, John shot the lead wolf, killing him, and the others fled. John looked at the corpse and proclaimed "Now I'll hunt them down and destroy them...That will be my mission in life." Hearing this, Ghost Woman decided she had not died in vain, as John would live and fight, and so now she could rest...completely forgetting that she still had to somehow tell John about his daughter.

Comments: Ghost Woman was one of four leading superhero characters for Star Studded Comics, a 1945 imprint by Cambridge House Publishers. The other three were Captain Combat, Comandette and Red Rogue. Thanks to Andrew Norris for this information.

Ghost Woman dies trying to let John know his daughter is not dead as he believed, and later he risks his life going outside despite there being a "mad dog" in the area attacking people because "my wife and daughter are both dead." It might seem from a casual read of these facts that John is Ghost Woman's husband, and I know some sites have said as much. However, Ghost Woman had only just died in an accident that John knew nothing about, so he can't have been referring to her death on the road. Maybe he thought her dead in some earlier incident? But then why was Ghost Woman only heading to the house to tell him his daughter was alive, and not her as well? She clearly didn't expect him to think she was dead. And if Ghost Woman was John's wife and so John's daughter was also her daughter, why did she leave the child in a foundling home in New York while she went to tell John, rather than just take the girl home? Ghost Woman tries to tell John that "your baby is still alive" - not "our baby." The kid isn't hers, and she's not John's wife. John's wife and kid were reported dead to him, presumably in some incident that happened when they were away from him in NYC. Ghost Woman was a friend who had discovered otherwise.

Additionally - no, the werewolf had not killed the wife. If she'd been killed by the "mad dog" afflicting the area, John would have been out hunting it, not out wandering and unconcerned if he got attacked. That John was intending to enlist comes from his comment "what difference does it make if I die from the bite of a mad dog or an enemy bullet?" That he had not yet enlisted comes from the fact that he had the choice not to go overseas still. And why, so late in the war, would a physically fit man not have been drafted? He's rich, so he may have owned some business that was important to the war effort.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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