Digging into the clues.
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Wagner
Art: Dan Schkade
What They Say:
With Central City feeling the vacuum left by The Spirit’s long disappearance, Ebony and Sammy set out to find out what happened to their old friend. Their trail takes them to familiar surroundings and in pursuit of one of the masked vigilante’s most nefarious foes. Meanwhile, both Commissioner Dolan and his daughter Ellen must face obstacles of their own.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though the actual title character was minimally used within the first installment of the series, The Spiti definitely had a lot going for it thanks to some very fun writing and fantastic artwork from the team of Wagner and Schkade. The Spirit is a title that plays well to the time period it comes from, and the source material itself, so it has this odd mix of humor, darkness and social aspects that makes it stand out from other books on the market today. It also stands out since The Spirit is mostly only seen in some minor flashback pieces in order to establish more of what happened before in context to characters being dealt with now. It’s not an unusual approach as it’s been done many times before, but it is one that does leave you wondering just how long they’ll actually run it that way.
With this issue, it’s definitely one where you can see it becoming a bit more divisive depending on what draws you to the book. For me, as much as Denny Colt and The Spirit appeal, I’m enjoying the way the supporting cast is getting such a plum spotlight here. The focus on Strunk and White for a decent part of it as they continue their investigation has them going to the lair where there’s a whole lot of information and potential clues as to who may have killed him. But it’s really too much information so it’s like a stab in the dark almost as they go after Mister Carrion, a former foe of his that would have it in for The Spirit. Mister Carrion’s still doing his own little things as a two-bit criminal of sorts, so there’s not a lot in the way of leads, but seeing some of his past encounters with The Spirit works well to establish both of the characters in different ways.
Mister Carrion gets some time to himself at first as he works over his current target in a torturous way and the establishing of the character in his present form and then going back slightly helps to flesh him out well. It’s certainly old school villainy but it works better than I might have guessed in some ways. Strunk and White’s encounter with him may not net much information overall, but we see their capability well enough and you have to admire them stepping into The Spirit’s shoes to some degree in doing so. It also really establishes just how much motive that Mister Carrion would have in trying to take out The Spirit as the two have a pretty bad history with each other.
The book also deals with a couple of other things in some minor ways but with potential for fun. One area has the outgoing captain having to deal with his younger replacement drawing all the excitement of the papers as they deal with some punks on a theft and you can see how it really chafes Dolan to be in this position, making it easier for him to walk away when his time is up. It’s not a lot of politics overall but it’s certainly fun to watch. As is the latter segment of the book that brings us to Ellen and Archie as they finally get together for dinner and she just rambles on and on about her day while he’s on the edge of his seat waiting to propose. She’s struggling with her place in the world and all the obstacles in front of it and while you can tell that Archie likely does mean well, you also know that he’s going to present things in some form that are going to make her walk away from it all, or at least defer as long as possible.
In Summary:
The Spirit has a solid second installment that leaves me wanting more of this world – particularly the way Strunk and White walk through it. They’re digging into the recent past in a good way in an attempt to figure out what really happened and that has them unearthing areas that helps to introduce The Spirit and his world to readers in a fun way, at least for me. I imagine it could be easily divisive though. The segment with Mister Carrion himself has its moments, frustrated as I may have been by the lettering job at times, and fleshing it all out even more with the flashback sequence and the time with the father/daughter Dolan aspects helps to keep the book involved in a lot of different areas.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 5th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
