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.

It’s a good thing Spirit cleared his name since he needs Dolan’s official recommendation this strip.

FDR has just signed the Selective Training and Service Act—a peacetime draft—and, being a good jingoist, the Spirit wants to sign up. He’s got some conditions, however. He doesn’t want to reveal his identity and he wants to be put to good use (based on his skills).

The Army thinks he’ll make a good espionage agent, especially when the Spirit immediately uncovers a spy in the Army recruitment office. As a try-out for the Army, he roots out the rest of the spies, who call him “Americano” but also have guys named Adolf. Spirit still isn’t willing to be specific about which foreign powers are the baddies.

The action’s pretty straightforward, with Spirit tracking the bad guys back to their hideout and taking them out. He’s got Ebony along for backup, so there’s some comedy action involving Ebony flying the autoplane and seeing trouble on the ground.

Dolan’s particularly pissy about Spirit this strip. Dolan’s jealous about Spirit breaking all the big cases, a bit of character development Eisner’s had on a slow boil for a while now, though it never made sense when Dolan was lowkey protecting the Spirit from the rest of the police force.

The jealousy just leads to banter—and whining—as the Army comes to realize having the Spirit on the payroll will work out, after all.

While it’s an interesting attempt at being timely—though the draft was for twenty-one to forty-five and the Spirit says it’s just until thirty-five, so they needed some copy-editing—it’s also just propaganda. At times well-illustrated propaganda, to be sure, but there’s no oompf to the story.

And Spirit mansplaining the United States being the only place on Earth where a man can live in freedom and peace to Ebony (thankfully in long shot in one of those pretty propaganda panels) is one hell of a flex.