It’s an all-action strip, opening with a thug on the run from the Spirit, desperately clamoring to be let into the hideout. Moments later, the Spirit breaks through the door.

The thugs have kidnapped Ebony in order to lure the Spirit away from his hideout, so they can then torture the location information from Ebony and go plant a couple bodies there. The police will find them and the Spirit will be a wanted man.

Now, as ever, none of the thugs think about just shooting Spirit dead when they have him standing idle, listening to their schemes. Instead, Ebony’s able to get Spirit a pistol—in what, visually, seems to be a racist caricature gag but we’ll not dwell—and so Spirit can start kicking butt.

Despite being restrained for some of it, Ebony plays a big role in that butt-kicking. It’s a good “dynamic duo” strip for Ebony and Spirit. The thugs’ plan is entirely based on their partnership and friendship, and even though Ebony’s not two-fisted like Spirit, he’s got some moves when it comes to putting down the gangsters. And he never squeals, even though they’re torturing him.

Juxtaposed with this extended action sequence is the gang’s seemingly legit boss trying to convince Commissioner Dolan and the mayor to investigate the Spirit’s hideout for bodies. The boss just doesn’t know where the hideout’s located… yet.

The scenes at Dolan’s office—at least after the first one, which sets up the strip—are breaks from the relentless action. And even though it is just action, Eisner and studio turn it up as far as panel composition and choreography. At one point, Ebony is swinging on a hanging light and we get some great POV shots of the floor. Even that opening chase sequence has a lot of angle work. It’s a great looking strip.

Spirit’s such a delight. Minus the occasional Ebony visual cringes.

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.