The Stop Button

A week has passed since last strip, and the Spirit still hasn’t let Commissioner Dolan know he’s alive. Ebony points out he’s being unkind to a friend, and Spirit’s surprised to realize he’s got affection for Dolan. Now, despite Dolan constantly trying to pull one over on Spirit, Dolan’s always concerned for him. They’ve been pals since the first strip; the strip’s used to open with a preamble mentioning Dolan being his only friend; not to mention they spent Christmas together. Spirit not thinking they’re friends is profoundly weird.

And Ebony can’t convince Spirit otherwise, either. Spirit is happy to let Dolan think he’s dead the rest of the strip.

In addition to mourning, Dolan’s got a concerned citizen with money very upset the cops aren’t doing anything about the fake yogi fleecing his wife. Spirit doesn’t get a pass for the racial and religious caricatures, because although the yogi is indeed a fake and completely ignorant, Spirit’s going to do accent work. So it’s cringe but less offensive than if anyone weren’t knowingly conning. Ish.

And the “Eastern” visuals are additionally complicated by the gorgeous damn art in the fight scene. Eisner and studio do a big Buddha statue fight panel. Breathtaking page.

Most of the strip’s great looking. Eisner intersperses the yogi mystery with Dolan and some other cops getting it in their heads—independently of one another—they should wear all blue, don some distinctive masks, plop on a fedora, and fight crime as the new Spirit. None of them are very good at it, though some of them are worse than others. The bumbling leads to a nice constraint—visually and narratively–then to the Spirit and the fake yogi’s showdown.

While the fight is the central visual spectacle, the last couple pages are quite good, too, particularly as an example of Eisner and studio’s accomplished flexing. Spirit’s got an idea for keeping himself dead; great panels, but also a very nice visual callback to early Spirit attempts at stagecraft.

With the humor threaded throughout, the strip moves at a fine pace. The cops get their setups—though one of them is Dolan’s assistant, Finnegan, who’s multiple times tried to arrest the Spirit, and his decision to carry on the good work is bewildering. It’s hilarious because Eisner’s only ever used Finnegan as comic relief; the implication he’s a secret Spirit fan is profound.

The other cop, O’Rourke, may also be a returning character. He gets some very funny material, but is only interested in the Spirit II gig because he can’t get any respect at work. So he’s doing it as an ego thing, Dolan’s doing it as sincere homage, and Finnegan’s doing it for his own reasons.

It’s an outstanding strip. The bumbling pseudo-Spirits contrast the relative calm and very moody temple, giving the strip a lot of energy.