The Spirit #16 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), John Paul Leon (artist), Daniel Vozza (colorist)

The Story: Cosplaying may not all be harmless fun and games…

The Review: I’ve actually been in Paris this past week for work, and let me tell you, it’s a beautiful town with some good eatin’ and mostly fine people.  In fact, my estimation of the French really went up a notch this week when I found to my dismay over the weekend that I hadn’t bought a copy of this week’s The Spirit.  Not one to shirk my reviewing duties, even overseas, I went on an internet search blitz and found Arkham, the best and possibly only magasin des bande dessinées Americaines in Paris.

It was there that I bought this issue for a blistering four euros (thank God DC “held the line”, or else I’d have had to pay the equivalent of an Olive Garden meal for the comic).  Still, you can’t beat taking the Metro to a quiet, ancient corner of the City of Lights, grabbing a fresh peach from a corner fruit and vegetable vendor, and perusing graphic novels in a Parisian LCS with French heavy metal playing in the background.  Call me a romantic, but that’s a life I can get used to.

But enough with praising the French, and let’s get on with praising an American.  I often hassle writers who use excessive narration mostly because they like the sound of their own ideas.  Hine sticks to giving you the facts, allowing the dialogue, art, and your imagination to do the rest.  He just channels that pulp language evocatively.  Ovsack: “A cool million bucks and the eternal gratitude of the Octopus to whoever brings me the Spirit’s head.”  Doesn’t get better than that.

The Spirit #13 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabe Bautista (colorist)

The Story: Do I choose the super-hot puppet, or the super-hot real lady?  Decisions, decisions…

The Review: When it comes to fiction, you can’t (or you shouldn’t) really expect incredible realism, but you do expect whatever it is you’re reading or watching to mimic reality as best it can.  But when it comes to genre fiction, you’re much more willing to let certain things slide.  For romance, it’s the ludicrously chosen lovemaking moments; for sci-fi, it’s all the pseudo-science babble; and for pulp, it’s the private eye’s rambling, uber-macho monologues.

The opening pages have the Spirit staking his claim on Central City against all the mobster vermin that threaten to take it over.  His speech, in almost any other circumstance, would be incredibly corny, but in this title, with Hine’s expert handle on pulp narration, you just get pumped up to hear the Spirit say, “They’re all wrong.  Dead wrong.  This is my city.”  The smash cut to our hero giving the beatdown to thugs across the red light district is icing on the cake.

Hine also brings his characteristic twist of drama into the proceedings.  The Professor’s puppet fetish is of course driven by personal tragedy from his past, although Hine smartly leaves events open-ended: was Esmerelda (the model for the Professor’s first lady-bot) really his first sweetheart, or just love from afar?  Did she betray him, or was he just paranoid of her doing so?  And was her subsequent death truly “an accident,” as the Professor states?

These are some juicy questions, but Hine never answers them—at least, not directly.  He sprinkles the issue with subtle clues you can weave together for your own conclusion: how the eyes in Esmerelda-bot’s disconnected head follow the Professor around the room; how he covers her unblinking face while trying to seduce Ellen Dolan; and the haunting final embrace between him and the restored automaton (“I love you…I’ll always love you” never chilled you more).

The Spirit #11 – Review

By: David Hine (writer), Moritat (artist), Gabriel Bautista & Pia Guerra (colorists)

The Story: The Spirit takes on Central City’s illegal immigrant problem, mafia style.

The Review: A good story can be told given any length.  In fact, when page or word limits constrain a writer, it forces the writing to cut the fat and keep only the material that works—which, given the babbling style of some writers, can be a very good thing.  But you can’t deny the benefits of getting more room for storytelling: it allows you to get better immersed in more detailed, richer settings and characters, and seeing how they evolve.

With the second feature now cut from the title, Hine has more freedom to deliver a more involved, plot-driven story, unlike the character pieces he’s given us before.  Not that those weren’t good, but they did end up relegating the Spirit to a kind of symbol in those people’s lives.  In this issue, the Spirit gets a sticky, but fairly clear-cut case, giving him a more active role in showing why he’s the hero of choice in Central City.

What’s more, the supporting cast also gets involved.  Usually Dolan gets relegated to expository duty, delivering the newest details of a case for his vigilante partner to tackle.  Here, Dolan’s balancing act as ally of both justice and crime lets him use his own brand of power to take down the human trafficking ring popping up in his city.  Kudos to Hine for getting Ellen involved by way of her ties to progressive community action groups.  In one issue, you get the vigilante, government, and citizenry working together to remove the same plague.

The addition of the Octopus’ manpower to their efforts is a surprising element, but great for bringing some character to these Zoot-suited bozos.  It goes to show that even in the crime world, there are degrees of despicable behavior.  You got to love Mr. Ovsack’s explanation of how he’s on the high road here: “Our drugs are clean, we don’t sell guns to kids, our girls are all over eighteen.”  But Hine wisely reminds us that mobsters are mobsters, as the factory explosion (with all the immigrant workers still inside) grimly shows.