Davy Jones’ Locker is a straightforward strip, but only because Eisner doesn’t allow it to get bogged down. There’s plenty of potential for it to drift, and Eisner doesn’t want any of it; any tangents would affect the verisimilitude.

The strip opens with a group of sandhogs (underground urban construction workers) deciding they’re sick of the politicians and builders taking credit for their work, so they decide to become underwater robbers. The Davy Jones of the title is their leader, who presumably came up with the idea to steal a section of the underwater tunnel they’d been working on, and use it to destroy and loot merchant vessels.

The story takes place over eight weeks (as usual, presumably the Spirit has other cases during those weeks, but they’re unacknowledged). Jones and his crew convert their tunnel section into a base, loaded with mines. Whenever a large ship full of gold goes over them, they send up a mine, sink the ship, and collect the gold at their leisure.

Those activities raise numerous unanswered questions Eisner avoids asking. He also avoids explaining how the Spirit, inserting himself into the investigation and taking advantage of Dolan’s reluctance to be benched when the FBI arrives, somehow commands a team of Central City’s finest. Who are armed with rifles capable of firing underwater.

There’s lots of underwater battling, but nearly all of it happens off-page. The first skirmish between the cops and the bad guys quickly goes topside, where Ebony and Dolan worry about the Spirit. These sections are good, but nothing compared to when Spirit encounters Jones himself and the two face off. There’s a lot of mood to the art, and there’s a lot of mood to the interaction. Spirit’s at a disadvantage, so’s Jones, and they’ve got to resolve their hostilities (one way or another) before the police’s depth charges find them.

The finale’s got a surprising amount of heart, with Eisner leaning into it to a fine result. Even though the undersea battle only gets cursory attention from the creators, it’s all the characters have been thinking about.

Very little jealous Dolan here, and even less foreign intrigue. There’s just a single mention musing about foreign powers being behind the sinking of the ships. And we get to see the west side of Central City (at least the river) and the plains beyond. Nice landscape work throughout, too.

Locker’s finely executed.

The strip takes place in Mexico, where the Spirit foils an attempt by some treasonous Mexican army folks to side with foreign powers to overthrow the government. The foreign powers are presumably German, but Eisner’s still not being specific.

But Spirit doesn’t show up until page three, with the strip opening instead on a young man named Pedro arriving in town to tell everyone about enemy aircraft. No one believes him, so he keeps trying; the sequence gives Eisner and studio the chance to do some slice-of-life panels for the village. Lots of good little panels establish the setting before the action turns to the villains.

Using their silent bombs, the bad guys take out a different village, which is explained in the expository text, but, visually, it seems like it’s the opening village. These silent bombs do all the damage and exploding of regular bombs, only with no sound whatsoever. All of a sudden, Spirit’s flying car becomes a lot less far-fetched.

The Spirit arrives and tries to take on the baddies himself, only to get captured and dropped out of a flying plane. Luckily, he’s got those gymnastics skills and is able to save himself; he then comes across Pedro and enlists him in the effort.

There’s a somewhat complex setup involving Pedro using the silent bombs against their makers while Spirit goes in for the direct approach. The last few pages have some wonderful art, whether Spirit’s fisticuffs or the bad guys walking around the ensuing wreckage.

The strip feels a little forced with its politics, and, despite the villains being indistinct, spends a lot of time with them. Spirit’s never really the protagonist (it’s either Pedro or the bad guys running scenes); he’s presumably in Mexico on assignment from the U.S. government. It’s never clarified. Missed opportunity for a very humorous scene of Spirit gassing up the autoplane for his approximately two-thousand-mile trip.

Eisner’s characterization of Mexico has the accent and portrays all of the villagers as so layabout they literally do nothing but layabout, while also putting Mexico as comparable to the United States as both countries threw off the imperial yoke. A 1941 version of ahistorical good vibes.

The art, action, and timing make up for the rockier bits.

Eisner wastes no time getting this strip started—the first panel has Commissioner Dolan asking daughter Ellen what ever happened with her former beau, Homer Creep (né Creap). She hasn’t seen him since he was last in the strip, getting some loving attention from a nurse after Ellen threw him over for the Spirit; she never wants to see him again.

So, of course, he knocks on the door with a wife in tow, one Peppi Tamale. Eisner and studio are introducing Cubans this strip, which—outside making fun of the accent—doesn’t require much buckling up.

Homer and Peppi got married in Havana and are now on the run from her murderous thug brother, Pancho the Bull (spelled Bool because accents are funny). Pancho is on his way to Central City to find the man who’s run off with his sister.

Hearing all this drama, Commissioner Dolan orders police protection for his house (Peppi’s going to stay with them until things blow over). The Spirit (and Ebony) hear that order on the police scanner and, thinking Ellen’s in danger—despite telling Ebony she’s a “silly” and not a love interest—Spirit zooms to her rescue.

At the same time, the gangs in Central City are running up against Pancho and his men. And losing. So they all plan to band together and take out Pancho, except the cops know they’re planning on banding together. Dolan’s able to counter their attempted attack properly.

Meanwhile, things at the Dolan house get complicated when Ellen pretends she’s the one in danger to get the Spirit to swoon over her—Ellen and Peppi sadly don’t pass Bechdel, but it’s nice for Ellen to have a pal for once. Except then one of the gangsters comes to the house, actually looking for Ellen as retribution for Dolan launching the counterattack on the gangs. And Ebony may not know what he’s looking for when standing guard for Pancho.

There’s a lot of iffy sight gags for the finale (Eisner’s got a bit lined up for Pancho, not racial; the strip thinking the accent’s a laugh riot doesn’t help the bit), but also some absolutely beautiful action pages, as well as just great narrative building. It’s the first strip of the year to flex, albeit in some problematic ways. It also gives Dolan a full arc separate from his Spirit jealousy, which is nice. Well, maybe not for Dolan. The last page’s a lot of fun.