(Action Comics v1 039, 1941)
The Ghost is one of Superman's earliest superpowered foes, being Brett Bryson, a chemist who was accidentally irradiated while conducting an experiment and, having found himself with both a burning radium touch and a short time left to live, set out to steal enough in the time he had left to provide for his family once he was finally gone.
But there is a twist to the Ghost's story! The lab accident? Planned by Bryson's greedy partners! The stolen money? Was never going to be delivered to Bryson's family! I like this because this is the earliest example of the On Purpose Lab Accident Origin that I'm aware of in comics and that's a reasonably common origin! (Brett Bryson does not like it and murders his partner before dying himself)
