EL ESPECTRO (Jaime Sanchez)	BIOGRAPHY
Created by Denny O'Neil and Don Heck

El Espectro; Art by Don Heck

PERSONAL DATA

Real Name: Jaime Sanchez
Occupation: 16th century Spanish conquistador
Homeworld: Earth
Space Sector: 2814
Gender: Male
Eyes: Unknown
Hair: Black
First Appearance: Green Lantern Vol. 2 #120 (September 1979): "Double Danger, Certain Death"
Creators: Denny O'Neil and Don Heck

HISTORY

In 1513, famed explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida, seeking the fabled "Fountain of Youth". He and his lieutenant, Jaime Sanchez, argued regarding their quest. Sanchez and two others went off in a different direction than de Leon. After two days travel, the explorers found a stream that glowed like gold, but Sanchez had little time to enjoy it. He was hit over the head by his companions, stuffed in a coffin and buried alive.

His two attackers never knew Sanchez had succeeded where de Leon had failed. They were killed by Indians watching from nearby. Sanchez had found the fountain of youth. This would be more a curse than blessing for the conquistador. For almost five hundred years, Sanchez' world was the inside of a coffin.

In the late twentieth century, the terrible winds of Hurricane Arachne uprooted a tree, and unearthed the buried explorer. His "return from the dead" frightened a local man, Juan Pinto, causing him to run into the path of an oncoming truck. He named the dead man "El Espectro," Spanish for "the ghost." The driver of the truck lost control, but its driver saved Pinto from injury. The truck driver was Hal Jordan, Green Lantern.

El Espectro later had a violent exchange with Green Arrow and Black Canary, dropping his helmet before he left the fight. Kari Limbo, a psychic, touched the helmet to learn El Espectro's origin.

The five hundred year old man had absorbed the gold from the water, rendering the power ring ineffectual against him. He possessed great strength and his sword had absorbed gold making it a deadly weapon against the emerald gladiator. A tidal wave from the hurricane allowed El Espectro the opportunity to escape. - Green Lantern Vol. 2 #120

The conquistador found his way to the local airport, and hijacked a jet belonging to Carol Ferris. He wished to return to Spain to offer the flying machine to the Queen. Their trip was cut short when they flew into a U.S. Navy fleet on maneuvers.

Ferris and her hijacker were rescued by helicopter and brought on board the USS Rutherford. El Espectro mistook the sailors for English officers and attacked. Green Arrow and Green Lantern arrived just as the conquistador's sword cut into a helicopter's fuel tank, igniting the aviation fuel. The fire was quickly extinguished by Green Lantern, but his enemy had taken advantage of the situation.

El Espectro took Green Arrow as a hostage, believing Green Lantern was also immortal. The emerald crusader dropped his power ring to prove himself weaponless, but controlled the ring from a distance. When the conquistador raised his sword to strike Green Lantern the deck gave way, plunging them to the hanger deck below. Jordan hit El Espectro with a hard blow to the head, knocking him out. - Green Lantern Vol. 2 #121

The current activities of the Spanish Conquistador are yet unknown.

CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of El Espectro in chronological order click here