10 DC Supervillains That Vanished Without A Trace
3. The Spook
In the 1970s, one of Batman's most recurring villains was the sensational supernatural spectre, the Spook. Decades later, barely anyone has ever heard of him. So who is he?
Before he was a supervillain, Val Kaliban was an architectural engineer for a maximum security prison. After his boss learned Kaliban was inserting escape tunnels in the prison cells, Kaliban murdered him to cover his tracks. Sadly, he was caught and sentenced to the electric chair. Believed to be dead for years, Kaliban seemed to return as a supernatural entity called the Spook.
In reality, Kaliban has no paranormal powers whatsoever. He faked his death and pretended to come back as a ghost to exact his revenge on everyone who ever wronged him. He relies on gadgets, hypnotism, and escapology to give the impression that he has supernatural abilities.
If you think he sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain, you are not alone. After Batman's son, Damian, decapitated the Spook, the character has been retired in the main DC Comics timeline and has only appeared since in Scooby Doo comics. Since his death in 2006, the Spook has fittingly vanished into thin air.