Agent 24 is an espionage thriller; Spirit goes over to occupied France on an impromptu rescue mission—one with many surprises in store.
The strip itself sets a few precedents, including the first direct use of Germans as Spirit fisticuffs villains. A couple strips ago, Eisner and studio did a fable about Hitler finding his humanity and, while the Germans were villains there, Spirit didn’t interact with them the same way. It’s no longer vague European baddies; it’s Nazis with German phonetic dialect dialogue.
Though not too much of it, because the Nazis aren’t the main foil in Spirit’s adventure, which involves two love interests, a newborn babe, and an unexpected sea voyage. The first love interest is Ellen, who’s headed to England to help out in the war effort. She’s going to drive ambulances. Her father disapproves.
The Spirit doesn’t find out about Ellen’s plans (and trip) until he runs into her aboard ship. He’s there after trying to save a good spy from some bad spies. The good spy gives Spirit the Agent 24 rescue mission.
Except Ellen and Spirit can’t just get to England (or occupied France) without incident; they’ve got numerous hurdles to jump over, most done in summary, with one major exception. The strip slows down to emphasize the destruction and loss of life the Nazis are causing. Spirit’s a newspaper comic, read before and after news of real sinking ships, concerns of real sabotage, and so on.
So when Ellen and Spirit get captured, putting Ellen in a spot to engineer their escape (thanks to Spirit’s reluctant but unfailing devotion), it’s also a spot for expanding the scope of the story. Ellen and Spirit—and the other love interest (no spoilers)–exist separate from the war. Ellen and the other love interest, until this strip, have existed entirely separate from one another; now the strip’s able to bring them together with the war. The war supersedes The Spirit, and Eisner concentrates on the human factor.
Of course, these human factors can only exist because of the war. All the secrets, whispers, and lies mix and create this definitely peculiar outing. Spirit’s knocked out for a bunch of it, too. It’d be more of an Ellen strip if it weren’t for the whole Agent 24 angle; actually, no… Ellen gets very involved with the Agent; she’s just sharing space with the other love interest at that point.
And since there’s only so much story for the end of the strip, Eisner shifts gears again to examine how Spirit feels about capable women.
Art-wise, it’s rote. The action’s all well-choreographed, and the panels flow, but the action’s just for the narrative; no exuberance. A few rather nicely composed panels, even if the detail work isn’t there. Also, the humor—limited but present—comes across well.
It’s not exactly a war comic, but it’s closer than Spirit’s gotten before. Maybe a war espionage comic. Something along those lines. Somewhat more notable for its precedents than its content.