The Spirit #1 – Review

By Darwyn Cooke (writer, art)

I am a huge fan of Will Eisner’s Spirit. Eisner’s newspaper sections were, and are, hugely influential to several generations of artists and writers. He set a tone in graphic storytelling that will stand as long as the medium does. How do you improve on perfection? Simply put, you don’t. To be blunt Eisner did more in his short sections than this book even begins to do in 22 pages.

The story reads like it was in progress before the first page and is a bit boring from start to finish. It follows a news reporter who plans to out a mob boss in a shocking expose. Instead, she is captured mid report and taken to be “silenced”. The Spirit swoops in, Commissioner Dolan yells at some cops, etcetera.

The colorful backgrounds and immense detail that were Eisner trademarks have been exchanged for rather mundane criminals and lackluster settings. To me this incarnation of the character lacks the pizazz of previous outings and leaves something to be desired. Darwyn Cooke has a cool artstyle but it really didn’t get a fair shake in this first issue. Trying to follow in the footsteps of a legend is tough and there are a few cool scenes scattered about, but ultimately, I really couldn’t get into this book at all; It just didn’t suck me in like the originals. Maybe someone without that baggage would see this differently.

I will read issue #2 in the hopes that my above complaints are simply first issue jitters and that things will work themselves out. Fingers crossed on this one. (Grade: D+)

– Chris Williamson