The Spirit #1

It's funny that a character who was so often roughed-up in his comics adventures has been just as badly thumped by the companies who have carried on his stories.

The Spirit (Denny Colt) was created by the great Will Eisner in 1940 as a man who apparently died and came back to life. He wears a simple blue mask and a regular suit and fights the bad guys in Central City.

His adventures continued for a dozen years, and from time to time he was brought back again in (mostly) reprints of his classic adventures. And, I should note, that the last half of those dozen years resulted in some of the best comics stories ever told - Eisner was a genius.

While (mostly) stellar under Eisner, The Spirit hasn't always had as much luck under other creators.

At least not until 2007, when the character was revived by DC Comics and placed in the hands of Darwyn Cooke, who produced about a dozen outstanding issues. After that, the character fell on hard times again under an assortment of writers and artists who seemed to think the comic should be either a sitcom, a murder mystery, or both. (And don't get me started on the movie - a sad misfire of an idea.)

Now the Spirit is back in a new comic and a new line - DC's First Wave series, which takes non-superpowered heroes from comics and the pulps and places them in their own "reality."

DC has wisely turned the comic over to two outstanding talents - writer Mark Schultz and artist Moritat. The issue's only failing is that it has to spend so much energy setting up the characters and the conflict (but at least they didn't go through the trouble of recapping his origin). Basically, The Spirit is fighting to uncover the plans of the Octopus and his family of crime.

The art is quite good - moody and dramatic, detailed and intense - excellent work. But so far the comic is just a good start - we'll have to see how the story goes from here.

The backup story is also a treat. It's a short Spirit tale as written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by the great Bill Sienkiewicz, and it's much more in the style of the original Spirit stories - short, lean, creative and expressive, it's a neat "done-in-one" tale of love, hate and revenge.

So this issue's off to a good start, with a few reservations - but it's great to see this character back in the hands of writers and artists who "get it." Here's hoping for more of the same in the months ahead!

Grade: B+