Will Eisner's The Spirit

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 741 EAN: 9781401214616 ISBN: 1401214614 Label: DC Comics Manufacturer: DC Comics Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 192 Publication Date: 2007-10-24 Publisher: DC Comics Release Date: 2007-10-24 Studio: DC Comics
Customer review of: Will Eisner's The Spirit Customer Rating: Summary: Cooke is just the man to bring back Eisner's star character. Comment: Will Eisner's "The Spirit" is one of the classic works of the Golden Age of Comics, famed for the legendary artist's use of interesting angles, inventive plots, and a vast array of classy and dangerous women for the main character to deal with. The hero himself, a blue-hatted fellow who wears a domino mask as a token nod to superhero conventions, was mainly a vehicle for telling these stories, as opposed to a really exceptional character in his own right. This made the act of reviving "The Spirit" somewhat more challenging than it might have otherwise been, since it isn't mainly a matter of getting a grasp of the character's detailed personality; to resurrect this property, you need to resurrect a style of storytelling. The Spirit is a nondescript figure whose success or failure depends on how clever the stories he appears in are. Darwyn Cooke, as a writer and artist, is one of the clear choices to have a go at reviving the Spirit, being perhaps the preeminent retro-ist in the current comics world. His "DC: New Frontier", which I personally found ot be more then a bit overrated, is regarded as a classic, and his art style borrows much from the Golden/early Silver Age art look. He is a well-known advocate for a light-hearted approach to stories, which suits the Spirit well. This strong colletion contains seven stories by Cooke: six issues of the regular title, and the "Batman/The Spirit" specia that he collaborated on with Jeph Loeb. The main series mixes standalone detective plots with an ongoing mystery that is just getting going at this volume's end. Briefly, the stories are: #1, "Ice Ginger Coffee", introducing us to the Spirit's wrold, and reassuring audiences that Cooke can do silly puns on female characters' names just like Eisner (the titular reporter, 'Ginger Coffee'). #2, introducing the roguish and likeable Hussein Hussein, and revamping the classic Eisner femme fatale P'Gell. Cooke supplies her with a sympathetic backstory in order to explain her black-widowing ways, which you can debate the merits of. #3, wherin Cooke revisits the origin of the Spirit for this series, telling it from different points of view, encompassing virtually every character involved. This is probably the most effectiv dramatic piece of the lot. #4, with the return of Hussein Hussein and the updating of another of the Spirit's gals, Silk Satin, now a tough CIA agent out to prove she isn't an affirmative action case. We also get the return of the Octopus, the Spirit's Blofeld-esque arch-foe whose face is never seen. #5, an oddball semi-satire of the consumer food industry that also contains some of the more violent moments in the series so far. #6, probably the weakest story of the lot, about a group of musicians who get dyed blue by a meteorite. The Spirit himself is mainly an observer here. Finally, there is the "Batman/The Spirit" special, which is almost entirely about two groups of villains teaming up, as well as the interactions between Police Commissioners Gordon and Dolan. This makes a lot of sense, since the supporting cast in "The Spirit" was always the life of the party. The result is a great deal of fun, and Cooke draws some very nice Bat-villains, in particular adding Harley and Ivy to his list of femme fatales. Overall, Cooke is to be commended for his quality reimagining of Eisner's work; he expertly smoothes over the great embarassment of the classic stories (Ebony White), and touches up other characters in ways that make them a bit modern without losing their classic charm. I must, however, join in with another reviewer here in noting the poor design of the dust jacket on this hardcover; in particular, the pieces that help define the "s" in Spirit seem destined to become bent or rip off. Customer Rating: Summary: This is not The Spirit! Comment: No one can do the Spirit like Will Eisner and this book tries to hard to be an up to date version but, it falls short. Customer Rating: Summary: Awesome. Comment: Will Eisner's original "Spirit" stories are kind of a cult-favorite thing -- they had a very peculiar rhythm and offbeat sense of humor to them and they were also lighthearted parodies of the superhero and detective genres, so they don't necessarily appeal to everyone. But they are also brilliant, funny, richly detailed and deservedly legendary. Author-illustrator Darwyn Cooke has done an absolutely ingenius job of capturing the kooky charm and sensual feel of the original "Spirit" stories, while at the same time modernizing them and streamlining the action in ways that are quite satisfying. Fans of the old series will be pleased, as will any open-minded, intelligent comicbook fan. And if this delightful set of slam-bang, pure fun adventure tales also gets new readers to go back and check out the old Eisner stories, more power to 'em! It would be great if Cooke would continue the series, 'cause he's definitely got a feel for it, and opportunities like this don't come around too often. I read a lot of graphic novels and then pass them on to others -- this one, however, is a keeper. Highly recommended. (ReadThatAgain book reviews) Customer Rating: Summary: Darwyn Cooke brings The Spirit back to life Comment: Darwyn Cooke's telent continues to entertain in this fresh take on The Spirit. His artwork is absolutely beautiful with the help of J. Bone's inks and Dave Stewarts colors which never cease to shine. Hopefully this art team sticks together on every project from now on. OK, so now that you know how good it looks, how about the stories? Cooke proves to be as adept at telling a good story as he is at penciling it. The first couple stories are decent and worthy of The Spirit in the 21st century. The first one that really took off was the retelling of The Spirit's origin. There's another great story about Spirit meeting up with Silk Satin, a female special agent who can match wits and brawn with The Spirit. My all time favorite story in here was Almost Blue, where The Spirit has most of the story told to him as a flashback. This tale harkens back to the old Will Eisner stuff where Spirit doesn't even play that big of a role in it, and its just a great story all its own. The last story, and the one I was most looking forward to was The Spirit/Batman one shot where Commishioners Dolan and Gordan recall the story about the first meeting of Spirit and Batman. This story is co-plotted with Jeph Loeb, who we all know is one of the best Batman modern Batman writers out there. However, I was slightly dissapointed with this one. It's basically just a big Spirit/Batman rogues gallery team up, where the artwork is more interesting than the actual story. One critism I read of Hush, was it felt like Loeb wrote in every Bat villain just to give Jim Lee an opportuity to draw them, which was a fair assesment. It seemed like a similar situation here, except done in a much shorter amount of time. Either way, it wasn't terrible, just too much all at once and not much of a mystery. The biggest improvement Cooke makes over the Eisner's original is completely revamping Spirit's sidekick, Ebony, who no longer talk like a southern slave and is a much more appropriate modern take on him. Much praise on a job well done, hopefully Cooke will continue giving us many more Spirit adventures to come. Customer Rating: Summary: refreshing Comment: I am very familiar with French comics and found it refreshing to read a US comic like the Spirit. I knew the Spirit from the past and it was very good to see some new stuff.
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