In terms of narrative flexing, King Kohl doesn’t try much. Kohl’s big idea is to use his gang’s criminal might to rob the Central City arsenal and use those weapons to take over the underworld. Kohl’s just out of a year in stir, where he’d been reading of a certain—finally named in the strip—whiny cishet Austrian white man’s perceived struggles. Now, Kohl figures, it’s time to enact a similar plan in the United States.

“But, Boss,” says one of the gang, “what about the Spirit?”

But, King Kohl is no Republic movie serial villain—he’s had the Spirit captured the whole time! Except he hasn’t because the Spirit escaped at some point during Kohl’s villain monologue, even having enough time to tie up his now unconscious guards.

Spirit heads straight to Commissioner Dolan, who’s heading home at midnight, weary from the day. Dolan thinks the Spirit is pulling his leg. Once again, Eisner and studio have no idea what to do with this relationship. It’s been paternal, it’s been sincere, occasionally even tender, but Kohl’s going to have Dolan doing a bait and switch. Spirit thinks he’s not getting any help, so he goes it alone. Dolan then calls in the report, but he wants to be the hero, so he takes only two police units. The petty adversarial stuff could be funny—especially since Spirit and Ellen Dolan are definitely smooching in front of her dad on occasion—but the professional incompetence stuff is a flop.

Instead of intercepting Kohl’s outfit in time, Dolan gets there after they’ve had time to set up. The setup includes baby tanks and armed aircraft. What Kohl needs from the Arsenal is unclear, given the tanks, of course. While they never fire, only crash and crush, the airplane is using its guns. It is spring 1941, after all; you can just buy tanks and military aircraft from your local armaments company. They’ve been making tons of the stuff.

Luckily, the heist, and Spirit and Ebony’s foiling of the getaway are such a visual delight, the strip doesn’t need the narrative to be sensical. Or maybe it’s just seeing the autoplane in action, doing seemingly aeronautically impossible stunts, Ebony non-lethally taking out the crooks, willful transcends to gleeful in terms of disbelief suspension. It’s kind of strange—Spirit and Ebony as action heroes—and the militarization of the Cagney-esque gangster, along with the dangers of fascism undercurrent… It’s a very spring 1941 strip.

And then the ending has Spirit and Ebony leaving baddies hanging from the streetlights, a la Wayne, Grayson, Parker, et al. Well, earlier than Parker but at least contemporaneous with Wayne and Grayson.

Now, I kept forgetting to mention—Dolan and Spirit seemingly don’t remember The Black Queen’s Army when someone tried to take over New York City (when the strip was set there) with a similarly militarized, organized crime force. One wonders if Eisner and studio remembered.

So, again, not the most innovative or original of Spirit, but really darn good.

After her most recent experience in the workforce as a boxing manager, Ellen Dolan has moved on to running her own Detective Agency, presumably under the assumption if her father and the Spirit can do it, she’s got to be able to do it. And, other than a somewhat significant mistake, Ellen’s perfectly capable of playing private eye. She’s a great shot, too; since Spirit doesn’t carry a gun, when the need arises and Ellen’s got villains in her sights, her aim is true.

She is Dead Duck Dolan’s granddaughter, after all.

The splash page announces Ellen’s new vocation, but then the story heads to Wildwood to check in on Spirit and Ebony. Spirit’s reads about a failed military test and—seemingly accidentally—makes a profound observation about the nature of failed scientific experiments in fictional media. If something goes wrong, something must be wrong, because there’s no way the scientist would ever get to this stage without having thoroughly tested. Initially, Spirit’s enthusiasm for his reasoning seems like it’s going to be some jingoism (which is still there), but there’s more to it.

Especially since the military test in question involves Professor Ravel and his formula for a new explosive. Foreign agents would be very interested in getting their hands on that formula, which is why Ravel goes to find himself a gumshoe to protect him. He just happens to select Ellen Dolan Detective Agency.

Spirit’s already on the case; he and Ellen quickly happen upon each other at the professor’s laboratory, Spirit puts his chemistry know-how to good use, Ellen puts her pistol-whipping to good use. It’s a build-up, as the showdown takes place at another location, one where foreign agents have the drop on the good guys.

Spirit gets to do some fisticuffs, Ellen gets to do some sharpshooting, and the strip manages to find its way to two punchlines. There’s the punchline to the mystery plot line, then—on the last page—a punchline to Ellen running her own detective agency. Eisner and studio find a cute ending, but they could’ve turned that last page into a whole strip of its own.

Lots of great art, with Ravel providing some comic relief while also keeping the plot perturbing. The fisticuffs sequences are particularly outstanding; after most of the strip hurries through the action, the fist fight slows it all down and finds Spirit’s visual rhythm. It’s perfectly paced.

And the bantering between Ellen and Spirit is nice. It’d play better if they were talking substantively, but there needs to be confusion and obstinacy to distract from the twists.

Ellen Dolan Detective is an excellent strip. It’s got a nice mix of plot twists, some fun character turns, visually engaging locations, and spectacular art. It’s also some of the strip’s best “wartime” strips to date. There’s the “War in Europe” subtext, which manages to be pronounced without taking up any additional space. Fantastic balance.

However—and lastly—the strip also the Spirit superhuman strength at one point. After going lights out from various pistol whips in the first half, Spirit takes big bruiser punches without flinching.

There’s not not a chance it’s supposed to be how Ellen sees him when he’s saving the day, which actually does work really well in the direct narrative and visual context… but is probably a reach.

Either way, great strip.

The Spirit has had a wider narrative scope as of late, but never before have Eisner and studio attempted anything like S.S. Raven. It’s a phenomenally weird strip, all about a killer Navy boat, with an ornery, lovable sea captain narrating the tale from a dock. The story focuses on the ship’s murderous nature, with the captain—Ferguson—laying on the purple prose, always leaving just enough room to think about the ship’s body count without the assigned agency.

From that point of view, the Raven’s been in some extraordinarily unlucky circumstances–being captained by a series of failures couldn’t have helped. From Ferguson’s narrative stance, however, they weren’t so much failures but the Raven’s annual victim. All of the ship’s captains, whether in the ship’s U.S. Navy days, its subsequent time in an unnamed South American country’s navy, and—well, no spoilers—but all of the captains do die within a year of taking command. Very unlucky circumstances. But a murderous, petty, vengeful boat?

Then, around the fifth page, Ferguson reminds the readers they’re reading The Spirit. Spirit is chasing the bad guys onto their getaway boat, which just happens to be the Raven, now in the ownership of a master criminal. Until this point, the strip’s been either Ferguson telling scary stories from the dock or the Raven’s murderous impulses and impacts summarized in long shots. Now, we get intense fisticuffs onboard, an autoplane sequence for (an otherwise off-page) Ebony, some derring-do from Spirit, and a final punchline. The fisticuffs sequence is excellent, leading into Spirit’s realization of the ship’s malevolent nature (according to Ferguson, anyway; it could just be Spirit pays attention), which resolves with moody suspense, before going into high-flying action, which also has a bit of a tone shift finish. It’s a constantly moving, constantly evolving action strip. It’s glorious.

And that glorious visual pace and the ever-building momentum enable the strip’s particular narrative device to succeed. If S.S. Raven were Ferguson—jovially and affably–telling the story without the visuals being dynamite, the strip simply wouldn’t work. What then stands out is the assuredness of Eisner and studio’s work here. It’s a relatively big swing for the strip, but there’s never a moment where it isn’t connecting. If it were a backdoor pilot for a “haunted ships of the Navy” strip, I can’t imagine that strip not getting the green light. It’s great big boat action, then it’s great Spirit action, and so on.

In addition to being outstanding, Raven’s also in that still small group of strips where Spirit doesn’t show until page five. The strip’s getting a lot more comfortable with the broader narrative scope, but it still hasn’t let Spirit go entirely. And, if this strip’s any indication, Eisner’s going to make sure the Spirit gets a strong set piece, but the strip’s on an established trajectory, now. The Spirit might not always have to be about the Spirit.

Croaky‘s tale is Spirit at its most didactic: crime does not pay. It’s also the strip stretching to center other characters, in this case Croaky and his best gal, Poison Mag. The Perfect Crime title is a tad misleading; Croaky’s crime is robbing some guy of a hundred thousand dollars and killing the poor sap. More appropriate would be Perfect Getaway, but that one spoils a bit.

Because the crime is not perfect–the dying man tells Croaky the Spirit will avenge his death, cursing Croaky thanks to the dying words curse. Mag’s well-aware of the dying words curse, too, so it must be true.

The Spirit, however, will never be aware of the curse. It’s not even clear he ever knows he’s chasing Croaky Andrews for the murder. He’s chasing the bad guy, which leads to a solid autoplane action sequence (Ebony pilots, Spirit waterskis), but it’s nothing personal. Except for how bad Spirit feels about Croaky escaping.

So now let’s spoil a bit about Croaky’s Getaway, which involves a five-year plan: Croaky has purchased a Caribbean island and outfitted it with automatic machine guns, an elaborate security system with booby traps—the whole bit–and built a submarine capable of escaping a flying car.

It’s incredibly impressive, so it’s strange Croaky’s kind of a dope. It’s also weird he was waiting until this particular crime to cut out. Perhaps there’s something in the absent first act, which Eisner and studio wisely avoid.

Instead, we’re straight into the action, then the chase and escape. There are great visuals of Croaky and Mag getting out of Central City, but their adventures in a green hell are much more striking. While still keeping the Spirit involved (mostly immaterially), Crime‘s all about Croaky and Mag suffering for their sins — the strip’s relentless and vicious in its punishment. Crime doesn’t pay, after all, even if the Spirit’s losing sleep over things not his fault.

It’s a moody, tough strip. The Spirit’s bouts of self-depreciation over his failings–to an unusually silent Commissioner Dolan–succeed in softening some of the despair, but at a significant cost. Perfect Crime introduces this previously unknown practice of the Central City citizenry—siccing the Spirit on their killers. A “vengeful” Spirit just seems out of character, but so does the whiny one they went with.

Crime‘s a really good strip. Heavy-handedness included. Additionally, the strip’s a very graphically violent and visually disturbing tragedy. It’s practically a horror comic. And the characters earn their keep and the portent of the narrative–Croaky for his accomplished planning, and Mag for her personal tragedies.

Of course, no answer to the greatest question–what does Croaky need with a hundred grand in cash when living in self-sustaining luxury exile?

They are a superstitious, cowardly lot, I suppose… but, only the Spirit knows.

If you want to explore the peculiarities of Spirit’s characterization and visualization of Ebony White, Introducing Scarlett Brown is probably the most fodder the strip’s seen to date.

Ebony, of course, is the Spirit’s only confidant, best friend, assistant investigator, and occasional savior. Ebony’s single-handedly saved Spirit’s bacon at least two times, probably three. Eisner and studio just happen to draw him Sambo-style and write his dialogue like it’s Amos ‘n’ Andy. Save his second (or third) strip, Ebony has been the only Black character in The Spirit. And that other time it was about the lodge hall (in a visual Amos ’n’ Andy style).

As the book says, yikes on bikes.

This strip introduces Ebony’s love interest, Scarlett, a Black girl who’s dressed like she’s a tween. Spirit met Ebony when Ebony was a cabbie. Now, the strip took place in New York City at that time, and, at that time in 1940, the driving age was eighteen in New York City–sixteen or seventeen with a learner’s permit. Even assuming Ebony’s fourteen…

Not great stuff. Also not great is Scarlett and Ebony’s rival for her affections, the imposingly named Throckmorton, who is also in Sampo style. But then, inexplicably and welcome, Mr. Brown is, you know, just a guy. Like, he’s not the best rendered character in his one medium shot before he’s narrating a flashback, but he’s just a Black dad guy. It’s fine.

Also, his dialogue is fine, no minstrel dialect. And racism doesn’t appear to exist in The Spirit. The strip has been racist—Black people, Mexican people—but none of the characters have ever exhibited any prejudice towards those characters. The creatives are mocking them for the readership.

And that part is actually the worst. Maybe. Because other than the racist caricature and dialect, Ebony’s a great character. As long as he’s twelve because he wins Scarlett in a “game o’ marbles.” Spirit’s surprised about the marble thing—after observing his lovestruck friend with sincere happiness–which also has some vibes. Though without the visuals, the strip would be a lot closer to it being tweenage folly.

Post acquisition, Ebony goes to see Scarlett and finds Throckmorton already there. Mr. Brown wants to meet both boys (the marbles go unmentioned). Except it turns out Scarlett really wants Ebony to talk to her dad about work stuff: spies have been snooping at his munitions factory. And Ebony’s been over-hyping himself—he’s told Scarlett and Throckmorton he’s the great detective and Spirit’s his assistant.

So while Throckmorton takes Scarlett for an ice cream, Ebony gets the lowdown on the case. It’s simple enough work, especially for the Spirit, but Spirit decides to make Ebony do all the work himself because of the lying.

Until things get violent, Ebony’s doing a great job on his solo mission (not his first; he’s saved the day in multiple strips). He investigates the crime scene, finds additional clues, pursues those leads; he’s got a moral purpose (though his courage is from Scarlett’s renewed affection at his acceptance of the case). It’s a great strip for Ebony.

Despite the visuals and dialect. The dialogue’s probably great if cleaned up. It’s infuriating.

Spirit maintains a presence, which works out (and also lends to the niceness). There are some excellent panels, if not full pages. Some fine action beats. Some of them even manage to be racist in how they visualize Ebony fighting in a darkened room. If it weren’t being racist, it’d be a fine strip.

Swell.

But then it’s even worse when you remember Spirit’s a weekly newspaper strip. And it’s so messed up to make a role model character into a racist insult directed at the audience the character should be representing.

So long as when the strip retconned from New York City to Central City, Ebony de-aged to twelve or so. Because if he didn’t, it’s an even bigger layer of f**ked up.

The title gives everything away in this strip: the Central City underworld teams up (principally three gangsters) and successfully captures the Spirit. Not a particularly difficult feat, it turns out. They give Spirit some bad intel, and he walks right into a trap. Art-wise, it’s a beautiful sequence, lots of inky blacks and a fantastic establishing shot of the ominous waterfront. Glorious stuff.

Narratively? Well, given it happens on the second page of the story, another shoe drop seems inevitable. Especially once the gangsters reveal they’re waiting until every criminal in Central City who wants to stop by and see the captured Spirit before they kill him off. They don’t even think to unmask him.

Now, Spirit will eventually take advantage of the delay, but the story focuses on his friends deciding what to do about his capture. The gangsters don’t have a complicated communication system — they just have crooks telling other crooks they’ve grabbed Spirit and to head over for one last look. So the cops hear about it, too, with Commissioner Dolan unable to intercede because the Spirit’s apparently still considered a violent criminal.

I could’ve sworn he was at least not wanted for murder anymore (and has made more friends on the police force than just Dolan). But, no, the cops are thrilled they’ll be rid of the Spirit, and things can go back to them not getting shown up by Spirit solving the cases they ignore. Dolan’s staff sure seems to make his job even more miserable.

Dolan then heads home to find Ellen in tears, Ebony just having informed her about Spirit’s capture and impending execution. She pleads with her father to help; he explains the official position of the Central City Police Department is they’re going to let wanted criminals murder internationally beloved (and wartime government contractor) Spirit.

Ebony hadn’t just been visiting for Ellen’s emotional support; he assumed he and Dolan were going to save the day together. With Dolan out of the picture, Ebony takes it upon himself to get the job done.

Meanwhile, Spirit’s doing social engineering to save himself. Central City’s criminal types aren’t too bright.

It’s an okay enough strip, though, without any narrative weight. Ebony’s rescue attempt is good—and possibly the most inventive story element (Ebony wouldn’t have fallen for a fake tip)—but it’s resolved in a couple of pages, even though it could’ve been the whole thing. Because, instead, Eisner lightens the mood some more. Unfortunately, it’s not straight comedy, which would’ve helped.

The art’s great–good fight scenes (even when Spirit inexplicably disappears from a panel)–and fine (brief) talking heads. The story’s just a little uneven.