The Ghost of Springdale Hill

Origin

The Ghost of Springdale High was a notorious cat burglar named Fred Caskey and was hired by a man named Otto Clase to retrieve a strongbox containing important information after the bones of Alex Bow was discovered inside a school wall. Madeline Naylor and Justin Baldwin were linked to the victim and was hounded by the media and the police. Robbie Baldwin wanted to help his parents and would encounter the Ghost of Springdale High on the school campus one evening. The Ghost wasn’t able to get what he came for due to the Masked Marvel’s interference. The Ghost reappeared at the high school the next night and was able to find the strongbox in its secret location. The Ghost subdued the Masked Marvel when he came to investigate and choked out Baldwin. The Ghost freaked out when he ran into the cleaning crew and ran back toward the Mask Marvel’s location. Baldwin was recovering when the Ghost kicked him and the Masked Marvel started to bounce around the room. The Ghost tried to escape through a window on his feed line but the Masked Marvel tackled him. The Ghost of Springdale High got tangled up on his feed line and apprehended by the cops. Baldwin’s parents were cleared of any wrongdoing regarding Alex Bow’s death and Caskey turned in the strongbox as evidence to avoid murder charges. The box revealed kickbacks and massive fraud in the construction of the school addition involving Otto Clase. Alex Bow worked for the contractor and police speculated he was killed when he learned about the kickbacks. Police went to the home of Otto Clase and discovered he had committed suicide by poisoning himself.   

Creation

The Ghost of Springdale High was created by Roger Stern and Steve Ditko in 1988 and first appeared in Speedball # 4.  

Story Arcs

A resident of Springdale named Clyde broke free a number of Speedball’s former foes from jail including Sticker, Bug-Eyed Voice, Ghost of Springdale High, Bonehead, Leaper Logan, the Basher, Two-Legged Rat and the Harlequin Hit Man to form the Speedball Revenge Squad. Clyde wanted the squad to capture Niels and Speedball for one of his greatest experiments. Harlequin shot Niels the cat but it was protected from the kinetic field surrounding the feline. However the cat was propelled forward and its body hit the Sticker and the feline was unable to escape. Speedball would come into conflict with the Revenge Squad at the Hammonds Research Center but he was taken out by Clyde’s gas gun. Clyde was planning to drain the kinetic energy from Speedball and Niels but they were able to escape from their shackles when the cat coughed up a hairball that took down the entire Revenge Squad. Clyde, the Ghost of Springdale High and the rest of the Speedball Revenge Squad was defeated and placed into police custody.  Â