Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks)
Joe Kubert (colors)
Sam Rosen (letters)
Spirit’s been overdue for a nice, wholesome story, so when Thomas Hawkins starts the strip getting out of prison and the guard says, “Once a killer, always a killer,” it’s concerning.
The strip turns around immediately, however, as Spirit drops in to see Dolan and Dolan’s thrilled to tell him about how Hawkins is on his way up and Dolan’s going to remind him the cops have their eye on him.
Spirit, for his part, tells Dolan he’s the bad guy in this situation and is making it worse. And then proceeds to let Dolan hear more of it after Dolan threatens Tommy: crime is a social disease, and criminalizing and ostracizing ex-cons is obviously, objectively perpetuating the cycle. The strip cuts to Tommy at this point, presumably to save the reader from Dolan’s thoughts on Herbert Hoover, again.
And Eisner and studio deliver a one-page visualization of the cycle at work. Tommy comes across an old pal who offers him a job on a robbery; Tommy says, no, he’s gone straight. Except after a series of panels summarizing his attempts at going and, more importantly, staying straight, Tommy ends up at his old friend’s door, having lost a job, found love, lost love, lost another job, over and over.
The page’s didactic—Eisner’s audience for it is obviously the Commissioner Dolan type–but moves well and quickly makes Tommy into a sympathetic protagonist. So when Spirit intervenes and tries to keep Tommy from making a big mistake, it’s hard not to be on Tommy’s side, even as he loses that protagonist positioning.
The strip’s set up as a tragedy. Tommy’s cursed, whether through lack of opportunity or just past association, and only dumb luck and having the world’s only science hero in your corner is the only way to get out of that tragedy. Except even with the Spirit involved, he can’t beat the dumb luck if it’s bad. It’s incredibly frustrating and incredibly tense, and Eisner and studio rather nicely link narrative and visuals around Tommy. Because these frustrations aren’t the reader’s, at least not first. They’re Tommy’s.
The result is Spirit getting away with a wholesome redemption story mostly through summary and exposition. Some of the story events move incredibly fast; others take weeks to percolate. The pacing accelerates and decelerates as needed in quite strong work. Tommy never holds the protagonist slot for long, but he always connects–wonderful intensity to this strip. There’s a passion to it.
Plus, it’s a nice outing for Spirit and Dolan. Regardless of the sociological disagreement (though, let’s be real, one of them is right, the other is not), their character arc is nice. It’s been a while since they’ve had a mutually beneficial outing.
Oh, last thing… Dolan’s first remark to Spirit is the eternal Superman question: Are the glasses enough? Spirit’s leaning into the visual similarities between Clark Kent and Spirit in disguise, which is a fun surprise.
