The Stop Button

The strip opens with Ebony and a lodge brother in Wildwood Cemetery looking for the Spirit. They find him, appearing out of smoke, and request his assistance–their lodge building seems to be haunted, can Spirit investigate? After some whinging, the Spirit agrees. The scene reveals some of the Spirit’s setup at his underground crypt lair. Just stairs and a chemical lab, but it’s something.

The Spirit misses the lodge meeting and arrives afterwards so he can investigate without anyone around. The lodge meeting—a secret society supporting Black orphans, which makes no sense—isn’t great—lots of racist caricatures.

The Spirit showing up to investigate works much better, even with the panels leading up to it. He spirits (no pun) Ebony away from a lodge brother, which leads to a “running away” gag. Eisner and studio open with scary cemetery stuff, move into “comedy” with lodge meeting, and then into an action strip.

It doesn’t take much investigating for the Spirit to uncover the culprits. Spirit’s got to punch his way out of a couple tough situations, finding the Harlem mansion full of secret rooms and underground water tanks.

The water tank’s especially important because we get the Spirit out of his shirt for the last few pages of the strip, showcasing the beefcake (which, it turns out, is a very cold way to go around).

The exposition is a little purpler than last time; it’s mostly for mood and works. The action is pretty contained, some fisticuffs, breaking through walls and floors in the mansion, plus the water tank sequence.

The resolution with the villain leaves some questions unanswered. Spirit has his theory of the case, and nothing exactly contradicts him, but because it’s so rushed, motive questions go unanswered.

Given the constraints of setting and scope, the strip does an excellent job showing how The Spirit can do big things in a small story.