In the Spirit

Will Eisner's The Spirit
Part of DC's First Wave series. While not as awesome as Darwyn Cooke's 12 issues of sheer Spirit delight, this is much better than what Cooke's successors did with the short-lived book in its most recent incarnation. Where Cooke maintained a perfect balance of mood, madness, humor, and seriousness, Mark Schultz and then David Hine, along with more realistic art from Moritat, presents a more serious Spirit, although not as dark as the Doc Savage title in the series. The cast so far is pared down, with Dolan and his daughter Ellen, plus a young woman (Ebony White) and a group of kids who feed The Spirit information. The authors have played nicely off the rumor that The Spirit died once and can't be killed again. So far, I'm really enjoying this. I hope the quality is maintained this time around, because even the best talents don't always seem to know how to write for this character. When he's played too much for laughs, he becomes a caricature instead of a character (fun or not). So far, this new take on him is hitting the right tone, and the January white background cover is nifty.s