Fictional Character Biography
"Gentleman Ghost" Jim Craddock is the son of an English gentleman who abandoned both Jim and his mother, forcing them into poverty. Craddock grew up to become a notorious highwayman and robber who terrorized England in the 1800s after a prophecy from a gypsy said he would be a highwayman. He encountered the ghosts of other highwaymen and Dick Turpin left him a horse. He journeys to the United States and encounters the gunslingers Nighthawk and Cinnamon. The hot-headed Nighthawk lynches Craddock after wrongly assuming that he sexually assaulted Cinnamon, but Craddock somehow eludes death to rise again as a phantom.
The Gentleman Ghost learns he must wander the earth until the spirit of his killer moves on to the next plane of existence. Unfortunately, Nighthawk and Cinnamon turn out to be the reincarnations of Ancient Egyptian royalty Prince Khufu and Chay-Ara: their souls (due to their exposure to the Thanagarian Nth metal) can never truly pass on. Both are eventually resurrected as Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and the Gentleman Ghost becomes their recurring nemesis during the 1940s. Craddock has over the decades menaced other heroes, including Batman, The Atom, The Flash, The New Teen Titans, Max Mercury and Stargirl, but the vengeful Ghost always returns to his main foes, the Hawks, sometimes as a foe and sometimes as a friend.
Gentleman Ghost has clashed with Batman and Superman on different occasions. In JSA Classified, issues 5-7, the Gentleman Ghost is a member of the Injustice Society. In Villains United #1, he joins the Secret Society of Super Villains.
His origin is explored and altered in the pages of JSA #82-87 (2006). The natural son of an abusive father and a poor mother, young Jim Craddock soon slips into a life of crime, making contacts with the supernatural. After a gypsy prophesies that he will be able to transcend death and return to life fighting and killing his enemies on English soil, his villainous career is put to an end when he is captured and sentenced to death by hanging after he is tricked by a woman he is trying to seduce who summons Redcoats. Returning as a ghost, he battles the JSA, hoping for the prophecy to come true.
The Ghost is briefly seen in the Infinite Crisis, during the Secret Society of Supervillains' attack on Metropolis and its dozens of superpowered and human defenders. Afterwards, the Ghost becomes involved in a fight with Alan Scott. This ends badly for Scott, leaving him in a coma.
When the rightful time arrives, the Ghost gains the additional power of summoning vengeful ghosts from his enemies' (the JSA) past, like someone Scott accidentally killed with an electrical accident, although this is a fake, and other highwaymen. His plan is foiled by Stargirl, who, as a virgin girl, is impervious to ghostly attacks, an army of ghostly nobles who attack his army, and Wildcat, surprisingly a descendant of the Royal House of England, who decapitates him. Vanquished, he disappears.
Gentleman Ghost is seen as one of the villains sent to retrieve the Get Out of Hell Free card from the Secret Six.
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