This gal is bad news!
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Wagner
Art: Dan Schkade
Colors: Brennan Wagner
Letter: A Larger World Studios
What They Say:
In the penultimate chapter of this critically-acclaimed story arc, the noose tightens as The Spirit’s quest finally leads him to confront Sachet Spice, daughter of the internationally feared criminal mastermind, Mikado Vaas! A desperate chase brings all parties to the very precipice of disaster. Meanwhile, Ellen Dolan must deal with both her convalescing father as well as figuring out how to cleanly end things with her former paramour, Archie Shales. Will Mikado Vaas allow his beloved daughter to suffer prosecution at the hands of Central City law enforcement? Or will the infamous crime lord take steps to wipe out his former prisoner?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we get to the second to last issue of this storyline, The Spirit does what it needs to in closing out some of the loose plot threads while narrowing its focus to the core pieces. This works out well even with all the action that we get – something that Schkade just excels with. I just love the visual design and dynamism that he brings to it, such as the one panel of the cab speeding along that captures the look and feel of the period but also the right kind of cartoonish layer that just adds its own spin on personality here. Mixing that with Wagner’s dialogue, from “This gal is bad news!” to Ebony commenting on how he’ll never get used to baseball games being played at night, it all feels like it fits the time well without trying to bang our heads with it.
The loose ends aspect is nice here as we see how Ellen is working her side of investigating what’s going on and that leads her to Palmer’s office where she overhears some juicy tidbits that definitely will draw things together. That it deals with the assassination side and shifts those players away is welcome too. When she’s sorta almost caught out it actually leads her to learning about Archie getting shot, which sends her into her own panic since she realizes she hasn’t thought about him for some time. While it’s a bit easy and pat, there’s a lot to like in seeing how Archie is getting attentions from someone else at the hospital as it opens his eyes to someone who actually is into him. Granted, we never really got to know him well in this book and weren’t invested in the relationship, plus you knew that it would cycle back to the Spirit anyway because that’s one of the core pieces of the property. She may be a little too satisfied in seeing things go like this but it eases her conscience to be sure, as well as what she’ll have to fill him in on later.
The other dangling plot thread is the bigger one from the last few issues with Sachet Spice. As she’s getting ready to get out of town since things have gotten hot there, it’s a lot of fun in seeing how it goes badly for her with the Spirit arriving and then the car chase that ensues. Car chases are damn difficult to illustrate in an engaging way, but between the excellent artwork and layouts from Schkade and the dialogue, it really works nicely – especially the expressions of those involved as it gets tense and scary. Sachet has been a fun enough character but I like how it plays out for her and the last minute save that also dovetails into her reveal about Mikado Vaas and why everything that happened to the Spirit played out as it did. It’s so strangely appropriate and personal without the Spirit even realizing it!
In Summary:
With the finale up the next time around, The Spirit sets the stage well here. We get a few things drawn down and closed up, some nice moments that reinforces the period in a solid way, and the big reveal as to who Mikado Vaas is and why things are about to get truly serious. The book has played out well with the smaller stories within the larger one and everything is tying together really well here and has me excited and fearful to see how it will come to a close. Wagner completely gets these characters and how they should feel and sound while Schkade has been a true revelation here for me, making me crave a lot more of his work in the years to come no matter the property. It’s just spot on perfection here.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: June 1st, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
