The Stop Button

The splash page for this strip is a newspaper article about the Daily Press declaring its mission to uncover the Spirit’s identity. The article gives a rundown of (some of) the strip so far, including the Spirit being wanted for murder.

That murder will get discussed a few more times—and its “solving” is so simple one wonders why the Spirit waited so long to get it cleared up—and Eisner and studio clearly did not think all their readers were getting through that newspaper article. Every time it comes up, we get extra exposition on the subject. At one point, the mayor makes Commissioner Dolan tell him all about the murder charge only to remember he was in that scene so knows all the information.

Separate from the Spirit’s quest to clear his name, a gangster decides to impersonate the Spirit (all it takes is a blue suit, after all) to commit crimes and taunt the police. Oh, and the Daily Press reporter—in from the war in Europe, but this story’s bigger—gets help from a cop to uncover Spirit’s secrets.

The three subplots never quite converge—the reporter’s adventures stay mostly distinct except when the plot needs to move along a little—and then Dolan gets the ending. In some ways, it’s an entirely functional strip: the Spirit’s (false) murder charge gets resolved. Along the way there’s some humor at the reporter’s expense (Ebony’s contribution) and a variety of action. Besides the Spirit going around town, the gangster impersonating him is out causing trouble. It all leads to some glorious fisticuffs.

While the strip itself isn’t particularly ambitious, Eisner has several art flexes. The repetitive exposition usually gets some inventive panel composition. Even with the heavy-handed finish (Dolan talking about the Spirit being the dark knight the city deserves), it all works out. The art and narrative choices put the relatively slight story over.