The Stop Button

The entire strip seems to be just a way to do a panel of Spirit with a Tommy gun taking out the mob. It’s a striking visual, and the strip itself is solid, but Gang Warfare is more like Gang Meddling.

The strip opens with the Spirit saving a gangster from getting rubbed out. Spirit helps him get away—to meet later in Wildwood Cemetery—and deals with the other crooks, then running himself to escape the police because he’s a wanted man (something the strip doesn’t exactly remember as much as not address).

The crook meeting the Spirit in Wildwood is just a way for the Spirit to meet the crime boss, who will then turn out to be the head of an anti-crime society organization. So, eventually, it’ll all be about Spirit trying to take out a corrupt businessman.

One with friends in city hall, which means Commissioner Dolan’s working both sides of the street. The mayor is sure his pal isn’t a crook, Dolan’s sure the Spirit wouldn’t steer them wrong.

Eventually, it leads to limited gang-busting action sequences, with more emphasis on Spirit (and Dolan) uncovering the boss’s guilt.

Ebony will have a fairly significant role in the resolution, since he’s the only friend the Spirit’s got (as Dolan can’t take too active a part; Spirit’s still wanted for murder, after all). It’s another of those strange “Ebony’s a cute character but looks like Confederate propaganda” vibes. The racism hurts the comedic sidekick potential.

There’s also a very strange sequence—entirely done in extreme long shot—where the Spirit pulls a gun on the crime boss in public, presumably to force a confession, only to immediately give it up when someone tells him such behavior’s illegal. For a thin strip, strung together between set pieces, Warfare does all right.

Ebony’s X-Ray Eyes show the problem with caricature, racist and otherwise. At the start of the strip, Ebony gets some of the Spirit’s x-ray juice in his eyes and can see through things. He quickly happens across some crooks who’ve decided to go into the crooked optometry racket. Once they meet Ebony and get a load of his peepers, however, they decide to become bank robbers.

Spirit discovers the lair in a mess (assuming Ebony’s been kidnapped and didn’t just have a damaging reaction to the x-ray juice) and starts tracking Ebony down. Now, Spirit’s not going to learn exactly what happened until the last page or so—and it might be more implied than explicit—so he’s just going to luck into conclusions and discoveries. He’s assuming Ebony’s been kidnapped along with the x-ray juice—the x-ray juice being the prize here.

Ebony will have some ups and downs with the first set of crooks, who will pass him off to a second set pretty quickly. It’s about young Ebony being moved from one traumatizing situation or another. Eisner and studio address that situation in the writing, albeit with more humor than angst, but the reader’s clearly supposed to be sympathetic to Ebony’s plight. Except then he’s rendered as usual, in a racist caricature one wouldn’t want to describe objectively in polite company.

Once Ebony realizes the Spirit is trying to stop the crooks, he takes (some) matters into his own hands, with the rest working out in payroll (i.e. criminals being a superstitious and cowardly lot and not ready for the Spirit). Ebony’s got agency, eventually, even though his clumsiness is a principal characteristic.

Outside being horrifically visually racist, it’s a good strip. It’s well-paced and the comic relief (one of the crooks) is good; Spirit is proving it can scale big action to small and stay nimble with its genres.

Despite the immediate follow-up to last strip, we still don’t get a big Spirit versus Orang scene. Spirit will track Orang to the ends of the Earth (well, Sumatra), but they never have a real, intellectual or physical showdown. Instead, they’re still in slightly different stories; ships passing in the night.

The strip opens with Spirit recounting last week’s conclusion—Orang is apparently dead, at his own hand. No real mention of him killing his creator, which is important since after Orang drags himself out of the river and to a doctor, he’s ready to be released on his own recognizance. His suicide attempt last strip came after he killed his creator, but he’s forgotten that guilt. And no one’s looking for the mad scientist.

Or at least not Commissioner Dolan, who goes to the doctor’s to see the talking ape. Dolan can’t come up with a reason to hold Orang, so instead, he offers him a place to crash while Dolan tries to find a law Orang’s existence violates.

Bored of waiting and seeing an opportunity after Ellen Dolan comes in and passes out at the sight of him, Orang kidnaps her and heads back to the jungle to rule among the lower apes.

All of these events occur in the first four pages of the strip (including the splash page); the remainder is the Spirit tracking Ellen and Orang through the Sumatran jungle and getting involved in the politics of Orang’s found tribe. Now, those politics involve fights to the death and the Spirit tied to a stake, but they’re just political squabbles. Spirit and Ellen are in a riff on a Tarzan story, complete with swinging on vines and (unlikely) punch outs with orangutans.

Then the finale—weeks and weeks after the start of the strip—gives Ellen and Spirit their first private moment (despite implying, you know, weeks and weeks of them).

Orang remains a very sympathetic villain and shirtless Spirit hacking through the jungle is definitely a vibe, so it all works out quite well. It’s just too bad Orang and Spirit never got to talk philosophy.

Orang is a Frankenstein story from the monster’s perspective. The Spirit is still around, but he doesn’t have anything to do with the actual action of the strip. Instead, it’s the sad tale of Orang, an orangutan, turned into a being with human-level intelligence thanks to a mad scientist.

Eisner and studio do a fabulous job setting up the story. There’s a scientist arriving from war-torn Europe, escaped and ready to reunite with his daughter, Elsa, in his friend’s care. Little does Elsa’s father know his friend is a fiend and has used parts of Elsa’s brain to make Orang smarter. He has left Elsa a savage.

So we get a cave girl and an orangutan in a suit for the action here. There ought to be more tripping on tropes, but somehow there isn’t. Eisner avoids sentimentality, even as horrifying tragedies unfold, even as Orang comes to the realization he does not want the burden of reason, and begs his creator for mercy.

There’s some excellent art. Lots of establishing panels this strip, setting the stage, but also giving Eisner a chance to summarize in long shot. The strip’s rapidly paced; once Orang decides he wants to devolve, it’s pretty much all action. Fight, chase, fight, tragic finish, with the Spirit only arriving to provide commentary on the sad situation.

Without ever having met Orang himself.

The Spirit’s subplot is very moody. He gets drawn into Elsa’s father’s troubles, having gone to meet the scientist to ask about some experiments. Long shadows as he enters and exits through balconies and so on. The father’s anguish gets some attention, too. Not verbalized like Orang’s will be, but very carefully visualized. Orang’s got its Frankenstein ambitions and whatnot, but the strip excels because of the craft on display, where Eisner and studio flex, where they do not. It’s tragic. And lovely. Just excellent work all around.

Orphans is about the Spirit taking a young orphan, Billy, slumming in the underworld. Spirit comes across Billy and his friend, Barney, in the cemetery smoking cigars and getting sick from it. Barney’s trying to convince Billy to join a gang with him. Spirit interrupts; Billy thinks Spirit’s swell, Barney thinks “crimefighters” stink.

After Barney heads off to join the gang, Spirit takes Billy back to the crypt lair to get some information on Barney’s future mob boss. Once they’ve got that information, they head out, with the Spirit busting heads until they get to the big boss.

The “boss fight,” which barely involves the boss, has Spirit fighting a dozen opponents. It’s a beautifully choreographed punch-out, starting with Spirit escaping his restraints and knocking heads. The Spirit moves between panels gracefully, almost patiently, working his way through one thug or four. It’s a beautiful sequence. And then it keeps going. And keeps going again. It’s an incredibly long, absolutely fantastic action scene. Eisner keeps coming up with something new; even some of the familiar poses, with Spirit’s sockless ankles visible, are fresh; Eisner’s figured out how to string the visuals together, finding the rhythm of the scene, and it’s sublime. Orphans has some of the best art in the strip so far, even if the splash page is an almost hokey picture of the Spirit, looking like the cover of a country western album. It’s a combination of the concept, the pose, and some very stiff lines.

Then, the art of the boys is very expressive and fun. Eisner and studio exaggerate their expressions, particularly when sick from cigar smoke, giving the strip some extra pizzazz.

Until the mega fight starts, Orphans is just Spirit lecturing Billy about how crime doesn’t pay. He shows him some examples, but they’re exaggerated ones involving comic strip gangsters. Billy’s eventual reckoning doesn’t even involve any “organized” crime. It’ll be an emotional reaction, which is weird. But it’s also a very thin message—kids always need to remember to tell other kids: crime doesn’t pay.

It’s a gorgeous strip, with some solid writing on the kids (Barney’s a fun little shit), and the didactic stuff can’t overwhelm the strong comics.

Morger Boys has maybe one bad moment, some missed opportunities, a peculiar finish, and fantastic action. The strip opens twenty-five years ago—so, you know, 1915–with the execution of a notorious murderer, Morger. Mrs. Morger makes their four sons promise to avenge Papa’s death twenty-five years later.

The story jumps ahead, revealing the Morger Boys all look alike—kind of jovial so their murderous ways contrast—and are ready to execute their plan. One of them reveals the targets, and the brothers get to work. Never explained are their preparations for this plan. Nor if they’re all dressed the same as a bit or because it’s just a good visual idea (for Eisner).

The brothers only drive the strip for the first few pages, then one of their targets hires the Spirit as a bodyguard. The Morger brothers are ready for Spirit, who is very much not ready for them. After the quick fisticuffs, Spirit is knocked out.

Luckily, from his criminology studies—which did not include clearing a room, based on this strip—Spirit remembers the Morger family had a weird old stone cabin near the jail and it’d be the perfect place to execute your enemies.

The contrived eureka moment gives way to Spirit busting into the house just in time to save hostages and kick ass. There are some startling panels this strip; sublime work, with the lines getting more and more assured. Spirit is coming into its own, visually, week by week.

Eventually, Dolan will arrive and follow up on one of his own related leads. Dolan and Spirit don’t talk about the Spirit being wanted for murder, instead they kick the Morger Boys’ asses. I think it’s the first time Dolan ever starts busting heads in the strip.

The finale is bizarre, involving what could possibly be considered character development for Spirit but also maybe isn’t; it’s notable primarily because it tries to leverage the “grateful dame” trope.

Maybe only in the funny pages.

It’s a solid strip, with that bad moment—pointlessly flexing supernatural—sailing past for another fine action thriller for the Spirit.

Daisy Kay’s kidnapping involves a lot more action than the setup will imply. The strip opens with Homer Creep (renamed from the previous, presumably French spelling, Creap) bursting into the Spirit’s crypt lair with a pistol at the ready. Spirit handily disarms Homer and invites him into the lower portion of the lair—the living quarters and laboratories.

Homer even asks about the renovations.

Since we last saw Homer in the second Spirit strip, his fiancée has left him. The fiancée is Commissioner Dylan’s daughter, Ellen, who the Spirit gussied up at the end of that strip in a profound act of misogyny. He and Homer discussing it here explicitly objectifies the character again, and Ellen has clearly internalized it. She’s no longer interested in criminal psychology, she’s going to be a chorus girl.

The Spirit has a plan, however. He’s going to kidnap Ellen and then Homer will come and save her. She’ll think Homer’s a hero, Spirit’s a sap, and everything will be jake.

Except Ellen is working for a gangster. But that gangster—who’s producing her show on Broadway—doesn’t know about it until opening night, when one of his flunkies recognizes her. She’s there under a pseudonym—Daisy Kay. There’s a quick scene to establish Dolan’s worry that she’ll ruin his reputation as police commissioner, which is precisely the gangster’s plan. Reveal her true identity, humiliate the commissioner, get the mayor to fire him for having a low-class kid.

So the gangsters don’t like it when Spirit swings down onto the stage and grabs Ellen, running off with her over his shoulder. They give chase, which results in a fantastic series of action sequences. First there’s an autoplane bit, then there’s a Spirit fighting guys in a car bit, then there’s Ellen and Spirit under siege in a remote cabin with gangsters circling them firing on the cabin bit. It’s all glorious, it’s all beautifully visualized, even if the interludes are just Spirit being a mega-jerk to Ellen for Homer to capitalize on eventually.

Will Homer save the day and get the girl? Or are things more complicated in love and war?

More importantly, what happened with the last big action panel—despite all the two-fisted fisticuffs, Eisner and the studio can’t render the slightest dodge?

Maybe they just didn’t have the space. Doesn’t matter; it’s an excellent strip. Minus the active and passive misogyny, of course.

While The Death Dolls do play a part, the most impressive element of this strip is the proto-Nazi killer robot. “Proto” because Eisner wasn’t willing to be too explicit in 1940. But there will be a robot shaped like a German soldier (the helmet is the giveaway) who tries to destroy New York.

But that raid is in the last couple pages….

The strip begins with the Spirit tracking evil munitions engineer Yagor to a small New England coast town. The overly verbose—but finding its charm—introductory exposition has the Spirit arriving by boat, giving the town an isolated vibe. The isolation is just to provide the moody setup. And possibly just some Spirit showing off with his motorboat pursuit.

He’s tracked Yagor from the city, the obvious culprit in the murder of another weapons engineer. Yagor stole his plans to sell to a German guy. Again, the strip’s not explicit—the guy just happens to be named Emil Kampf, but he could be representing any global superpower with a name like Emil Kampf in 1940.

Instead of just shooting the Spirit on the spot, Yagor lets Spirit douse him with some exposition about the murder case in the city, which involves Spirit catching wind of the deal with Kampf. So Spirit’s going to hang around and watch the deal, thereby witnessing Yagor selling secrets to a foreign power, which is just good business when you think about it.

Except Kampf thinks the robot Nazi is a bad product (he shoots it a couple times, causing oil leaks), and storms out. Then Yagor unleashes the death doll, which tracks Kampf back to his hotel in New York City—walking across New England, which totally means Spirit could’ve driven—and detonates when it reaches Kampf.

Spirit tries to stop Yagor, but the robot is still functional and it kicks his ass. As Yagor and the robot leave to start their reign of destruction on the world for refusing to buy his stolen arms (why was a U.S. company making robot Nazis… oh, never mind, Spirit takes place in a reality close to ours), he leaves a death doll to take care of Spirit.

Obviously, the Spirit will foil the doll, escape, and save the day. However, when the robot hits the city, it’s fighting an army of cops, forecasting a fifties sci-fi monster gone amuck. Spirit concentrates on Yagor, and negotiating a temporary truce with Dolan.

It’s another great strip, with a few pages of sublime lines, and a fun finish after some phenomenal action; the studio just can’t unlearn the reliance on dotting for inking fast enough.

Since the last strip, when the Spirit confessed to a murder he did not commit to save Commissioner Dolan’s reputation and career, he’s apparently been taking it easy. The strip opens with a gorgeous, gigantic splash of the title character–Palyachi, introduced by a ringmaster as “a killer clown.”

We get Palyachi’s story—he gets laughs at the circus, but Marka—the maybe belly dancer (it’s never established)—still won’t return his affections. Maybe if he’d kill for her she would, starting with one of the trapeze acrobats. Palyachi’s reluctant, but once he gets going with his criminal ways, he can’t stop himself, going on a rampage around the city.

Despite the first panel after the splash establishing the circus is right near Spirit’s hideout in Wildwood Cemetery, he and Ebony have no idea it’s there. Days into Palyachi’s crime spree (he’s trying for a million bucks to sway Marka), Ebony brings a recent crime to Spirit’s attention in the newspaper.

Spirit immediately deduces it involves a circus, and to their surprise, there’s a circus out the window (of the crypt) they hadn’t noticed for days on end. It’s a little thin, even for a comic strip, but once Spirit gets to the circus—where Marka is going to literally strip down to seduce him, very risqué—it turns into an excellent action strip, and the occasional bumps don’t matter.

The Spirit goes into the situation entirely clueless as to what he’s uncovering and lets Marka convince him Palyachi’s the mastermind. Well, maybe. Spirit definitely plays along with Marka (who gets naked waiting for Spirit to return after dealing with Palyachi), but when he starts suspecting her involvement isn’t clear despite him finding her in possession of all the loot from Palyachi’s heists.

The fight scene has the two running around a circus, including trapeze action, and even a killer gorilla. Lots of beautiful panels, with phenomenal flow, even as the inking is uneven. Someone in Eisner’s studio still thought dots were going to win over lines.

The finale involves the police, who are after Spirit (the opening origin blurb even includes Spirit being an outlaw now) and don’t care he’s trying to solve a crime spree for him.

It’s rather good, even with the occasional thin plotting, or, in the case of the ending, thin sentiment.

Eldas Thayer is the name of a miserly old rich guy who’s refusing to pay for his niece’s medical treatment. Thayer’s doctor has just given him the bad news—he’s got a day to live. The Spirit shows up just after, pleading for the niece’s life. Thayer doesn’t appreciate the Spirit’s tone, especially since Spirit heard the doctor’s report.

“No,” says Thayer. “I’d kill you,” says Spirit, “but morale code blah blah.”

Thayer then concocts a Rube Goldberg contraption to kill himself and blame Spirit because screw that guy. Thayer’s not just a bad guy, he’s visually unpleasant. Thayer will have some fantastic action sequences, strip-best dialogue, and—I believe—the first significant Spirit character development. But the art’s rough at open. Dots instead of lines. So Thayer’s, like, repugnant in his close-up.

He successfully frames Spirit for his murder, Spirit goes to visit Commissioner Dolan, unaware he’s wanted for murder, the mayor just happens to be there, tells Dolan to arrest Spirit, Dolan pleads with Spirit to proclaim innocence and Dolan’ll quit the force for him to fight for truth.

Upon hearing his only confidante’s pledge, Spirit decides he cannot deprive fair Gotham of her police commissioner and says, “No, I killed him.”

So then begins the chase portion of the story, which—remember—is called Eldas Thayer–cops are after Spirit, Spirit is trying to save the dying niece. Thank goodness someone remembered her.

Panel after panel, there’s great art and brisk storytelling. The art’s never quite sublime in terms of line work (except the splash page), but the composition and the writing establish a beautiful rhythm. Tiny panels composed like classic Hollywood montage shots; the panels get downright exquisite for the last few pages. At nine panels a page. It’s some genuinely exceptional art this week.

And then the writing.

Having to deceive Dolan (for his own good) immediately opens up a whole new layer to Spirit. He’s gone from white knight to dark knight. I did check: Gordon did appear in Detective before Spirit… but, based on a cursory look, that work marriage wasn’t anywhere near this far along yet.

Spirit makes the move fearlessly, the Spirit announcing (addressed to Dolan but for the reader) they’ve got to break up so Spirit won’t drag him down. But don’t worry, if the forces of evil should rise again, to cast a shadow on the heart of the city, the Spirit will be there. Just as an outlaw.

It’s a gorgeous finish, too. Extreme long shots, clean lines, sublime composition.

Easy strip best to this point.

There’s a lack of consistency to Mr. Midnight. After a gorgeous splash page, featuring the dramatically posed new villain, with the intro text recapping the Spirit’s origin segueing naturally into the exposition’s start, the art seems to go from Eisner’s drafting table to someone else’s in the studio.

Many other someones, in fact. Midnight barely maintains style between panels, much less pages. The lines go from busy and erratic to clean to busy. There are some ingenious panels throughout, like when Spirit is facing off against Midnight and they’re both just little stick figures in the distance.

Even at its worst, the art only ever seems way too rushed, never bad enough to slow the pace of the story.

The story involves Mr. Midnight taunting the Spirit with a perfect crime. Midnight’s going to murder someone in front of Spirit and Commissioner Dolan and they’re going to let him go. I could also mention here Mr. Midnight is Smurf blue, which is barely a plot point and seems like something just done for the visuals… or another of the seeming miscommunications between writers and artists—pin in that one.

Eisner ratchets the suspense during this sequence, having Dolan, Spirit, and Midnight having to wait around for Midnight’s victim to arrive. So there are two full story beats before Spirit even has anything to do on his own. And even when does something, it’s not a lot. He just follows Mr. Midnight home, and, thanks to his autoplane, gets there before Midnight.

Some villain monologuing and sinister chess playing ensue; it’ll eventually get around to fisticuffs and high action.

Eisner (and Spirit) save the mystery resolution for the last few panels after the action has been resolved. It’s an engaging ride, even if Midnight’s not a good villain (he’s just Smurf blue), and Spirit and Dolan kind of let him kill that guy in the first scene. They sure didn’t try to stop him.

And that sequence—with Midnight taunting everyone before (ostensibly) committing a murder—is where the strip gets confused on details. The script says there should’ve been a visual tell, but there’s no visual tell when you go back.

It’s an odd, uneven, entertaining outing. And that gorgeous splash page is gorgeous.

Eisner and studio tell one heck of a full story in these eight pages. The splash panel gives the Spirit origin and shows Wildwood Cemetery very close to New York City proper, with an airplane below the cemetery. But the story of The Black Queen’s Army begins with a stool pigeon getting shot dead and the cops unable to make an arrest. Even though gangsters from all over the country have been coming to Manhattan, no one can figure out what they’ve got planned.

Well, they’re going to rob the Federal Reserve Bank (or something) of a million dollars in gold bullion. And they’re doing it for that notorious female mouthpiece The Black Queen. Since her last appearance, she’s gone full Bond villain—note, the Spirit should’ve known she was the gangland mastermind but missed that one—and has a straightforward plan. Block the bridges, take the police headquarters hostage, and parachute hundreds of gangsters with Tommy guns into the city.

The visual execution of the mega-heist is sublime. Eisner doesn’t deal with the large-scale assault, instead zooms in on Commissioner Dolan’s losing fight for headquarters and the police radio’s message reaching the Spirit and Ebony. Also sublime this strip is the art. Eisner and the studio have gotten their line work down. They’re still a little sharp, but there are fewer of them and they’re doing more work. There’s some excellent detail in this one.

Including—awkwardly as ever—on Ebony’s caricature features.

Ebony’s a full sidekick this strip but doesn’t get anything to do except give the Spirit a conversation partner. He doesn’t even appear as the third act action takes over—oh, forgot—Spirit is putting together his flying car this strip. Thanks to the car he can get to Manhattan to save the day. The flying car stuff is ridiculous, but the rendering of it is so gorgeous it doesn’t matter. Eisner’s packing this strip. Dolan gets whole kidnap and rescue scenes, Spirit takes out multiple bands of crooks; it’s a full-on action comic. And it’s fantastic.

Eisner showcases the strip’s ability to do exciting—all in eight pages—and it’s glorious.

Johnny Marston’s splash panel has a short blurb explaining the Spirit’s origin—of note because it’s a strip standard from now on. It’s also the first strip where the Spirit stumbles into an ongoing adventure.

Johnny Marston is a blue-blood fallen on hard times. Dad gambled away all the money, now Johnny’s wife is deathly ill and he can’t afford to get her out west, where the dry air will save her. With their last thirty bucks (not even), he goes gambling. Successes don’t turn out to matter because the gangster running the joint isn’t going to let Johnny cash out.

The gangster’s muscle beats Johnny close to death and they dump the corpse-to-be in Wildwood Cemetery. Luckily, the Spirit happens to be on a walk when he sees the body being dumped and can gather enough information to try to take down the gambling establishments. Ever opaque about the Spirit’s actual skills, Eisner and studio do not explain how someone can have a whirlwind night at the casinos without ever losing. Maybe it’s the Spirit’s blue top hat, which he dons for the outing.

There’s some great art. Not much in the way of fisticuffs, with gambling antics and a big car chase sequence providing the action this time around. There are still some fisticuffs, of course, but not only fisticuffs. The panel layouts with the Spirit getting interested in taking down the gambling dens and the car chase are particular standouts.

There’s also the Spirit getting mad at Dolan for the police department not coming through right, which is an interesting detail if a throwaway. And the last sequence, with a postal delivery person having to go to Wildwood Cemetery, is cute.

Outside the dumb luck factor—tying Johnny and the Spirit—being a tad slight (Eisner spends so much time on Johnny’s setup, he doesn’t have the space to tie them better), it’s a good strip. Sympathetic characters, determined Spirit, it works out.

And we get to see a little more of Spirit’s crypt lair. He’s at least got a bed down there.