Let’s face it, what made Will Eisner’s The Spirit so awesome wasn’t its regular cast or profound themes, but the way in which Eisner kept coming up with innovative narrative techniques, exploring the potential of sequential art. This is why it’s kind of pointless to keep reviving the franchise, especially since even talented writers like Darwyn Cooke, Mark Waid, and Brian Azzarello have failed to do anything exciting with it. Notably, Frank Miller’s infamous movie version featured several recognizable characters while completely missing the tone of the comic (you can get a much a better sense of what Eisner was going for by watching an actual film noir from the period).
That said, among the countless attempts to exploit The Spirit’s brand recognition, there have been a few cool additions to the cannon. Here are my top 5 post-Eisner stories:
5. Fabian Skimp
The Spirit: January 6, 1952
From the time when Eisner was still signing the comics but had already handed over the scripting and art duties, this is a nasty little tale by Jules Feiffer and Manny Stallman. It’s set in the world of newspapers, in the tradition of fine film noirs like Ace in the Hole, Scandal Sheet, and Deadline U.S.A.
4. Crime and Punishment
The Spirit (v3) #17
Although not wholly successful, DC’s attempt to reboot The Spirit in 2010 was at least kind of interesting, putting a spin on several concepts from the original series (Commissioner Dolan as a corrupt cop, the Spirit’s kid sidekick Ebony White as a young woman, the Octopus as a supernatural crime lord). You could read it either as an amusing Elseworlds take on the material or just as a somewhat surreal crime series in its own right (much like the Gotham TV show, if it wasn’t for the terrible directing and dialogue).
While reimagining the city and characters, writer David Hine nevertheless included a number of homages to Will Eisner’s work, most notably in the penultimate issue, made up entirely of splash pages that integrated the words ‘The Spirit’ into the picture (just like Eisner used to do at the beginning of each instalment). My favorite, though, is ‘Crime and Punishment,’ Hine’s take on those classic stories told from the point of view of paranoid criminals who start obsessively seeing the Spirit everywhere.
3. Art Walk
The Spirit (v3) #17
By contrast, Will Pfeifer and P. Craig Russell capture the feel of the original’s more lighthearted escapades in ‘Art Walk,’ an extended chase and fight scene through a gallery that generates all sorts of amusing visual puns related to Art History. Besides being clever and fun, this comic also recalls Will Eisner’s occasional metafictional incursions back in the day.
2. Cursed Beauty
The Spirit: The New Adventures #5
Taking a different approach, Paul Chadwick grimly recreates the original era with revisionist self-awareness. On the surface, ‘Cursed Beauty’ reads like a bare-knuckle, hardboiled yarn that could have just as easily starred Philip Marlowe. But the point is in the contrast, as the issue delivers a more mature, realistic depiction of the 1940s, for example by stripping the black character Ebony White of his minstrel speech patterns and looks while highlighting the period’s problematic race relations.
1. Last Night I Dreamed of Dr. Cobra
The Spirit: The New Adventures #3
In Alan Moore’s version of events, the liquid that left Denny Colt in suspended animation in the origin story also granted him immortality (which would explain how he survives getting brutally beaten up and shot at all the time). ‘Last Night I Dreamed of Dr. Cobra’ then takes place in the distant future, where the Spirit has become the stuff of legend, and a guided tour through Central City manages to both misremember his adventures and inadvertently expose much of their symbolic subtext. Moore, who has always worn Eisner’s influence on his sleeve, delivers a charming and powerful tribute (certainly more heartfelt than any of Moore’s Batman comics), brought to life in wonderful detail by Daniel Torres.
Finally, here are some nice, if hardly essential, honorable mentions:
The Spirit: The New Adventures #2, 7; The Spirit (v2) #13, 19; The Spirit (v3) #5, 14
NEXT: Batman talks dirty.