Tren wrote:

I have a theory that the more spirits you link with over your life, the more unstable your mind gets.
Mr. Spondee is getting old and I assume he's been possessed by a LOT of spirits.

Not a bad theory, actually. I could see something like this being the case.

Spender's probably fairly young. 20s or 30s.
Some common explanations I'm hearing that are supported by what we currently know about spectrals and spirits.

Spender's hosting one spirit, but it's got an unfortunate personality. Maybe it's really jealous and possessive. Maybe it really hates Spender, but will tolerate him provided that it can feed off of a healthy supply of spectral energy. Whatever it is, accidentally communing with another is likely to elicit an unfortunate response from his spirit. Like dragging him into a seance and eating or hurting him.

Eragon also mentioned this one: Spender's hosting more than one spirit, but is carefully managing them so that they won't hurt him/each other. I don't know why he'd do this since it's obviously dangerous, and Spender's fairly cautious and by-the-book. If, as is the common explanation, he's directly possessed by one, and another's tooled up in his glasses, he'd probably set aside the shades until his mediumship is done.

The explanation of he's possessed and his glasses are a tool as well is far more likely, but I still like my little pet theory that there's a spirit in each lens of his glasses.

Tis the end of chapter 3.

Max isn't very subtle, he even said 'she'

When it comes to his late mom, he's never subtle. Notice in chapter 2 how he immediately cut PJ off to ask about the possibility of his mom being a ghost...

I'm starting to think his mom died suddenly, tragically, and probably horrifically.

I'm going to bet, what with the Shoneny style the comic has, that she was killed in a way involving a spirit.

I wouldn't be surprised if what caused max to become a spectral being a near-death experience, and his mom happened to die because of that experience, though that might be a bit too obvious...

I'm going to bet against that. It seems to me like the mother's death wasn't a recent event, so Max wouldn't only be getting creepy powers now.

...although, I could be wrong. We've gotten no actual information on the time frame of her death. Interesting...

Latest page pretty much confirms how I think Medium powers would work.

Yup, I was thinking the same thing. Although the description makes it sound like eightfold was being sarcastic, so who knows...

Von Aardvark wrote:

I'm going to bet against that. It seems to me like the mother's death wasn't a recent event, so Max wouldn't only be getting creepy powers now.

...although, I could be wrong. We've gotten no actual information on the time frame of her death. Interesting...

Actually in one page when max asks pj about how long a ghost stays after death, he says 5 years, implying that she died around 5 years prior to the story. Though mr. spam-eater didn't say how long exactly it takes for someone to become a spectral, so, as far as we know, it's a viable theory, though kinda unlikely.

-edit-

I forgot to mention, it's page 9, of chapter 2 where max asks pj.

I know it's been forever, but I've translated what doorman was saying to max on page 39 of chapter 3. Well, not Max, but the spirit inside of him. Here, I'll write it down:

Doorman:"YOUR RETURN CHANGES NOTHING SCHEMER. MY MASTER DOES NOT FEAR BROKEN GODS."

"Max": She should. Would if she could. The comedy your ignorance breeds is wasted on my ears. Well, not my ears, exactly-"

Doorman: "ARROGANCE. YOUR POWER IS NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF, RIDDLESAND WORDGAMES."

"Max": From which speaking esoteric languages won't protect you. And I wasn't referring to my faction, though you do underestimate us."

...This just got a whole lot more interesting.

It's impressive that you managed to figure that out yourself, it kinda looked like gibberish to me untill I found the diagram posted in the comments (back when those were still a thing). After that I kinda facepalmed because it's actually pretty obvious >_>
You can also find the diagram here on the forum along with some information on the language those respawning doglike spirits spoke here. In case you need it... That one's really complicated and I have no idea how anyone actually managed to figure that one out :0

I know! It's amazing that someone took the time to figure out those languages. I actually found a guide for Doorman's language when surfing on the internet instead of doing schoolwork, which was very helpful. It would have been difficult to translate efficiently, though, if I hadn't realized that they sort of framed normal letters, so I didn't have to refer to the guide for every letter.
So, I didn't figure it out all by myself. I'm not that impressive.
Thanks for the links to the diagrams! Very useful.
(P.S. Welcome back!)