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.