>>107093387The "Weaken the Spectre" was apparently what Steve Gerber wanted when he was set to write The Spectre after CoIE. He asked Moore (for Swamp Thing) and Thomas (Last days of the JSA) to weaken the Spectre.
Then he got kicked off the book because he was chronically late with scripts, and decided to visit the Howard the Duck film set instead of do his deadlines. Moench replaced him.
Ironically, a similar thing happened years later with Doctor Fate. Gerber had been pitching a Doctor Fate series for years, and Infinite Crisis gave DC the opportunity to let him write it. Hector Hall got killed off for Gerber's new OC to replace him. Only, Gerber was so sick that the new series kept getting delayed. DC rushed out that "Helmet of Fate" set of one-shots to fill in time for Gerber to be ready.
"Countdown to Mystery" finally came out as a TIE IN to "Countdown to Final Crisis," and Gerber died a few issues in, leaving others to write the ending.
>>107092274Hector wasn't really chill in Infinity Inc. He was kind of a douche because he didn't have a soul, and then went full villain before his death and resurrection as Sandman. Then Gaiman came along and retconned the circumstances of his time as Sandman a year later.
