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Spirit, The #2

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    Ian Jane
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  • Spirit, The #2



    Spirit, The #2
    Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
    Released on: August 5th, 2105.
    Written: Matt Wagner
    Art by: Dan Schkade
    Purchase From Amazon

    Picking up where the first issue left off, we start this second installment with a very Eisner-esque splash page as we see a couple of 'ace detectives' strolling through the cemetery where one Denny Colt has been laid to rest. Strunk and White pull back the headstone and head into the secret lair that they know lies beneath, hoping that they'll find their friend The Spirit down there still breathing - or at the very least, some clues as to what might have happened to him. The start digging through the treasure trove of files and folders and quickly come to the realization that every one of those he fought against would have loved to have been the one to off him.

    Cut the harbor where the cops show up just in time to bust some thugs attempting to covertly unload a freighter. Dolan tells Klink that he knows had The Spirit been there, he'd have been on top of this faster than they were and that the big-wigs crooks behind the operation wouldn't have escaped the way that they just did. Councilman Palmer, however, takes full advantage of the situation and uses it as a PR opportunity, taking full credit for it in front of the press.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Carrion is skulking about an old apartment building, creeping out an old lady and happy to return to his beloved vulture, Julia. It turns out that the old lady in the apartment, bound to a chair, fell for his marriage scam and now he and the bird are basically squatting in her apartment. What he doesn't know is that Strunk and White have made tracking him down their first priority - they want to know where The Spirit is and are surprised when he asks them the same thing. They manage to take Julia hostage and coerce Carrion into spilling his guts and through the magic of the comic book flashback we learn of their last encounter.

    As this transpires, the lovely Ellen Dolan meets current boyfriend Archie at a fancy restaurant, exhausted by her new gig on city council…

    A worthy successor to the solid start this new series got off to with its first issue, Wagner's script builds very successfully on the mystery previously laid out while keeping us guessing as to what has really happened to our titular hero. The dialogue is in keeping with the period in which the story is set and with what the original Eisner stories had going on, and we get the right mix of humor, action and suspense here.

    Dan Schkade works well here too. He pays tribute to Eisner's approach in nice ways and stays true to his character design but does so with less exaggeration in facial features and with his own sense of style. Some great shadowy layouts help keep things dark and mysterious when need be and Brennan Wagner's coloring really works quite nicely alongside the pencil and ink. And how about that positively freakin' gorgeous cover from Eric Powell? Top notch stuff. So far, at only two issues in, this series is doing Eisner's legacy proud in every possible way.






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