Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks)
Joe Kubert (colors)
Sam Rosen (letters)
Five Passengers opens on a moody airstrip with an unlikely cast. A local schoolteacher’s favorite assignment is to bring the youngsters to watch the flight to Washington D.C. Each student gets to pick one of the passengers they’re watching board and write a fictional biography of the person. Given the strip will eventually involve foreign agents and other ill-intentioned folk, it’s strange no one ever thinks the schoolteacher’s off. The pilots even comment on the teacher and his class; it’s a regular field trip.
The school field trip is just a bookending device, however, and the action quickly gets underway with the incredible events aboard the airplane once it is in flight. There’s a mobster turned FBI informant on the plane, and the only way the mob can get him is to take him out on the plane, then for the hitman to parachute. A concerned older passenger observes, dressed entirely in blue, but can’t possibly be Spirit in disguise because he’s not just wearing glasses, he’s also got an old man white hair tuft beard.
It’s the Spirit, of course, who’s there on an unrelated case. Also, on board on an unrelated case is that foreign agent, who aids the mob hitman in his escape before turning to his own, now easily attainable, business. So everyone’s got their own agenda, there’s the potential for numerous double-crosses, and as long as the knocked out flight attendant doesn’t roll out of the plane, every Passenger will have either died or killed another passenger.
Then there’s a surprise after all that intrigue—which already will have involved parachutes, multiple disguise reveals, and a possible logic error in the narration text—but it’s not enough for Eisner; there’s got to be a comeback reveal. Then the bookend finish. Then something appropriately pro-British, because there’s a war on and everything.
Even the reveal at the end is basically just a cameo guest appearance, with some entirely functional dialogue to pass the time. Eisner and studio turn everything up to eleven with this strip—the opening has the class on the field trip to appeal to same-age readers, followed by almost immediate intrigue, violent mob action, and airplane peril. It’s a showcase of extremes, except there’s minimal Spirit fisticuffs. It’s not a Spirit action showcase, it’s a soft pilot for Spy Spirit’s Mystery of the Week. And it’s interesting to see Eisner and studio flex with narrative promises over visual ones. The strip’s a very accessible Spirit, especially in a newspaper full of war news.
The art’s entirely solid, with some moody panels but no real standouts. The timing is excellent, with Passengers using comedic comic strip timing in an intrigue setting and such. The strip’s successful; it just lacks any particular oomph, which is a choice given the guest star’s identity.
