The splash page for this strip is a newspaper article about the Daily Press declaring its mission to uncover the Spirit’s identity. The article gives a rundown of (some of) the strip so far, including the Spirit being wanted for murder.

That murder will get discussed a few more times—and its “solving” is so simple one wonders why the Spirit waited so long to get it cleared up—and Eisner and studio clearly did not think all their readers were getting through that newspaper article. Every time it comes up, we get extra exposition on the subject. At one point, the mayor makes Commissioner Dolan tell him all about the murder charge only to remember he was in that scene so knows all the information.

Separate from the Spirit’s quest to clear his name, a gangster decides to impersonate the Spirit (all it takes is a blue suit, after all) to commit crimes and taunt the police. Oh, and the Daily Press reporter—in from the war in Europe, but this story’s bigger—gets help from a cop to uncover Spirit’s secrets.

The three subplots never quite converge—the reporter’s adventures stay mostly distinct except when the plot needs to move along a little—and then Dolan gets the ending. In some ways, it’s an entirely functional strip: the Spirit’s (false) murder charge gets resolved. Along the way there’s some humor at the reporter’s expense (Ebony’s contribution) and a variety of action. Besides the Spirit going around town, the gangster impersonating him is out causing trouble. It all leads to some glorious fisticuffs.

While the strip itself isn’t particularly ambitious, Eisner has several art flexes. The repetitive exposition usually gets some inventive panel composition. Even with the heavy-handed finish (Dolan talking about the Spirit being the dark knight the city deserves), it all works out. The art and narrative choices put the relatively slight story over.

The Spirit tries—very gently—a “whodunit,” with the reader getting as much information as Spirit or the cops; more, actually. The whodunit aspect seems half-baked, similar to the rest of the strip. While The Mastermind avoids any of Spirit’s problematic pitfalls, it’s also barely a story.

The strip opens with a mayoral candidate’s aide dying by poison gas, which the coroner can’t figure out. When the candidate visits Dolan to demand action, the Spirit shows up and the candidate remembers Spirit’s wanted for that murder from months ago. The candidate demands Dolan arrest the Spirit, but obviously the Spirit escapes.

One more murder and then the “Mastermind” is after the Spirit too, hiring a kid to deliver a bomb to him. Spirit will enlist the kid’s help, intentionally putting him in harm’s way at one point, as he unravels the case. Except he’s just operating off that early clue the reader also got, so it’s not a lot of unraveling.

The last few pages have the Spirit getting in a fight with the villain. Lots of empty backgrounds as they punch it out. Even the finish is slight, with Eisner and studio wrapping the whole thing in the last couple panels, including the villain’s motives. Given the strip starts promising a “Mastermind”—standing over a pile of skulls on the splash page—having the villain not just be a done-in-one, but also be far from devious and really just in possession of explosives and poisons the cops can’t identify.

There are some nice establishing shot panels of the city—long shots with good angles and nice line work. The action at the end is fine; it just dawdles through action and hurries through the exposition.

Even as the least impressive of Spirit so far, it’s still rock solid work, technically speaking. Eisner just seems like he’s run out of things to try this one.

Outside that gorgeous splash page, of course.

Despite the (already) ominous title, Oriental Agents’ main cringe-factor doesn’t involve the titular spies. Instead, wow, does The Spirit think very little of Ellen Dolan, and in general, the female of the species.

The strip begins with Ellen dumping Homer Creep (née Creap) because he’s not the Spirit. Homer goes off and gets drunk, gets picked up by a spy, and kidnapped. Ellen’s mortified at the thought of him… finding another woman. Just because she doesn’t want him doesn’t mean she wants some other girl having him.

This generally gross vibe continues throughout the strip, whether when Ellen tries to tag along with the Spirit to investigate or when she gets to the resolution and finds no one cares about her feminine wiles.

The spies—from the “Asiatic Embassy”—kidnapped Homer to hypnotize him and get him to kill an industrialist. Despite them being the title characters, until the Spirit arrives at their lair—a remote castle—they’re barely around. Most of the time is spent with Ellen, Homer, or the Spirit. Dolan’s got a little time fretting over Ellen’s romantic decisions and expositing about Homer being a murderer (he’s not the first guy they’ve hypnotized into murder). Ebony’s also around for a few panels; he was out doing investigating for the Spirit, who isn’t as disinterested in the case as he conveys to Ellen. He just doesn’t want to be cleaning up her love life.

Once it’s clear their cases are entwined, Spirit will relent and take Ellen along in his pursuit. That pursuit will involve the Spirit putting on a disguise. The disguise is on his face: muss to make him look old and a ruffled hat. Otherwise he does not change his blue suit. No one can recognize him with that face makeup, despite him wearing the same suit as the scene before.

It’s an okay strip, certainly the least in a while. While the Oriental aspects of the story seem like they should be in the spotlight, they’re very mild. Ellen being an unlikable, shallow harpy, however, is a problem. Especially since the strip itself seems to dislike her.

Big “he-man woman haters club” energy here.