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.