It’s another political intrigue strip, with a European writer arriving in the U.S. after escaping growing fascism in his country. He’s immediately confronted by secret police from his country, who taunt him with the news they’ve captured his daughter and will execute her unless she returns. So he plans to return immediately, but not quick enough the Spirit doesn’t confront him and offer a plan. What if the Spirit poses as the writer, goes in his place, and gets the daughter out?

Being an American, the Spirit doesn’t give the writer any choice in the situation, and they start prepping Spirit for the mission.

Once in the (fictional) European country, the disguised Spirit has a brief meeting with the daughter—long enough to discover the country’s dictator isn’t going to free her in exchange as promised—and then goes about breaking out of his cell. There are a couple escape-related gags, with Eisner and studio hurrying things along so they can get to the action.

In addition to escaping the guards in the palace, Spirit’s going to have to do some swashbuckling, some flying, and some reassuring (the daughter has never heard of the Spirit, being a European gal and all). There’s also the “world domination plans,” which Spirit and the daughter decide to grab before they leave, leading to a few more panels.

The strip moves briskly, never slowing down too much for an action sequence, though clearly reveling in the swashbuckler sequence. It’s a good sequence. They’ve also got the Spirit in disguise for a good few pages of the strip, leading to the disconcerting moment when they do some beefcake of Spirit punching his way around the castle. It’s fun stuff, if a little slight. This one’s how you do the overt jingoism (save the obnoxious American superiority business, obviously).

The last page is mostly post-resolution, with Ebony getting his own quick adventure. However, it does draw attention to the strip not knowing what to do with supporting cast when the Spirit’s ostensibly on a six week mission and whatnot.

Minor gripe for an otherwise solid strip. And it’s not like the finale isn’t amusing, it’s just… nonsensical, too.

The Black Queen’s back again, this time fully in her supervillain period, wearing a skimpy outfit and a cape. Far cry from when she was a “notorious female mouthpiece.” But also a far cry from her scheming in the shadows to take over the city with an army of gangsters.

Now she’s just seducing men, getting them to betray their employers (and wives), then killing them for good measure. With killer lipstick, something Commissioner Dolan really should figure out before the last page of the strip.

It’s mostly an action strip. After some setup with Black Queen and the connection between her victims, Spirit starts chasing her, and then there are only occasional interruptions to their action sequences. They have a big showdown on a bridge, with Eisner and studio getting to do a lot with the angles not to mention the actual fisticuffs (or whatever the equivalent since Spirit doesn’t want to hit a lady).

While Black Queen becoming a supervillain is certainly a surprise character development (especially since her plotting has downshifted from robbing the federal reserve to robbing a jeweler), the strip’s got so many great moments one doesn’t slow down to think it through especially since there’s so much humor running through it.

One of Dolan’s cops is convinced—always—the Spirit has done it. So every once in a while, someone will have to remind him, but no, it’s obviously not the Spirit. But the recurring humor gag works, especially once it’s clear they’re not giving it up just because Spirit didn’t do it.

There’s also some “Spirit invents” this strip, with suction cup shoes playing into the chase sequence at one point. Again, despite Black Queen putting on a leather bikini, a cape, and some stilettos—it’s a great kitchen sink of Spirit. There’s personality from Dolan (contending with his dimmer bulbs), Spirit getting in some banter, and a nice “first act” setting things up.

And the art, obviously. The art’s so dang good. And the exposition’s working on getting witty, too.

The splash page is Ellen Dolan with a black eye, reading The Manly Art of Self Defense. Given Ellen’s last appearance in the strip, it’s a sensational and not unconcerning opener. But it’ll all work out, with Self Defense possibly the best Spirit strip so far.

We open in Wildwood Cemetery, Spirit running into the crypt, begging Ebony to hide him. Ebony wonders what could have the Spirit so scared… why, it’s just Ellen Dolan. She’s told the Spirit she loves him and he’s run away. She decides to catch a criminal to prove herself worthy of his attention.

Except the criminal she goes to catch is dead, and an enforcer is just arriving to find her there. Luckily, the Spirit convinces the thug Ellen’s not the killer, except she then wants to identify herself as the commissioner’s daughter, which would complicate matters.

The Spirit will eventually find the killer, defeat the gangsters, and generally save the day. Ellen will get that black eye. And, then, in the glorious last page, pay the shiner back in full. Along the way, there are multiple action and suspense sequences. The line work is gorgeous, as are all the shadowy panels. Eisner and studio really go for mood this strip and it pays off. They also play with color in the last action scene, setting it in the dark (blue), and it’s a dynamite visual. The Spirit’s got a lot of gangsters to get through before the day’ll be saved. The strip’s seven pages, not including the splash, and three of those pages are superlative. The flow between the panels, the change in angles and distance, the expressions, the fisticuffs… it’s all just fantastic.

But what will put it over is how the strip deals with that first plot line—Spirit and Ellen—things have gotten a little more complicated and there’s not exactly a lot of time to wrap it. Still, Eisner leaves the couple’s relationship in a far more interesting place than it’s ever been before. And without being crappy to Ellen.

Maybe minus her naïveté in going after the criminal at the beginning (the strip has forgotten she’s in school to be a criminal psychologist or whatever).

Anyway.

Manly’s a beautiful piece of work.