NORAH BLANE

Real Name: Norah Blane

Class: Human

Occupation: Ghostbreaker

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Paul (brother)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile, 1940s era

First Appearance: Flash Comics #90 (December, 1947)

Powers: Norah Blane was an expert ghostbreaker who used investigative skills and deductive reasoning.

History(Flash Comics #90) - The Society of Spirit Research had a standing offer of $1000,000 to anyone who could give them proof of ghosts. Conman Lawrence Clay invited society members Mr. Neff and Norah Blane to a supposedly haunted house where his flunkies, dressed as a pirate and a cowboy flew out from a fireplace aided by strings. The Ghost Patrol showed up, claiming to be ghostbreakers to show Clay was a phony. Clay had a number of trapdoors in the house, and used them to capture the Ghost Patrol, claiming ghosts had made them disappear. The Ghost Patrol overcame Clay and his flunkies, exposing him as a fraud. They got a laugh out of keeping the Spirit Research society from getting ripped off by disproving ghosts existed when they were the real deal.

(Flash Comics #91) - Ghostbreaker Norah Blane was on her way to the hairdresser when she fell into a daze and regained her senses in a curio shop where the proprietor gifted her with a mysterious box. She opened the box at home, releasing the ghosts of a Roman gladiator and French musketeer. Norah insisted they were fakes, and detailed how they could have created a puff of smoke and snuck in through her window. The ghosts weren’t interested in Norah’s theories and flew off. The Ghost Patrol arrived to help norah, knowing the freed ghosts had gained control of her to obtain and open the box that held their powers. They were set on finishing crimes they started in life to gain control over their ectoplasm and remain on the material plane. Pedro stopped the gladiator from murdering a boxer during a sporting exhibition, and Fred prevented the musketeer from robbing a train, banishing both ghosts back to the afterlife. Slim kept Norah company, but they were both knocked out and tied up by Spandro, the ghost of a medium Norah exposed as a phony. He wanted revenge on her for ruining his career and told her he died in a police shootout, but Norah refused to believe he was a spirit. Fred and Pedro arrived in time to save their friends, and with his mission failed spandro dissipated. Norah still didn’t believe in ghosts or ectoplasm, showing the Ghost Patrol how she could fake her own ectoplasm using only a little hydrogen peroxide.

(Flash Comics #94) - The Ghost Patrol decided to visit their friend Norah Blane, still amused that she dedicated her life to being a ghost-breaker but was friends with the real deal. Her brother Paul was a reformed gangster trying to go straight, but told Norah he was being haunted by the ghosts of his old gang members who’d died. His former associates Muggs and Basher showed up, saying he’d stop being haunted once he pulled one last job and helped them crack the safe of the Jason Jewelry Co. Norah said it was obvious Muggs and Basher were trying to hoax him using tricks to bring him back into their gang. The Ghost Patrol arrived to rough up the gangsters with their spectral powers, and when Paul asked Norah if her friends were real ghosts she replied that they were merely masters of illusion. Basher knocked out the Ghost Patrol and put them and Norah in a remote-controlled plane, threatening to crash it if Paul didn’t play along. The Ghost Patrol revived in time to save Norah and foil Basher’s attempted robbery of the jewelry company. The Ghost Patrol and Norah explained to Paul that the ghosts he’d seen were only dummies on strings that Basher was flying over his house and Norah was overjoyed that Paul could finally cut his ties to gangland.

Comments: Created by John B. Wentworth & Carmine Infantino.

In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DCU Norah Blane lived on Earth-2.

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