Customer Reviews

The Spirit Archives, Volume 24

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Spirit story to follow in this volume is the Spirit going to the moon with art by EC comics master Wally Wood. Will Eisner was getting tired of producing the weekly Spirit section and took on Wally Wood in the hopes of him doing the art. They embarked on the ambitious moon exploration story line where Denny Colt (The Spirit) would be in charge of a group of convicts who would explore the moon. However, deadlines were missed forcing a filler story and Eisner having to take the artistic reins again when he did not want to.

The story is fascinating showing showing where the Spirit might have gone under other hands (something we would not see until the recent DC Comics relaunch). These stories were reprinted in the 80's in The Outer Space Spirit, trade paperback and hard cover (both long out of print and in black and white).

After these stories the Spirit just ran down and went out with a whimper. However the Outer Space storyline alone is worth the purchase of this volume.

The stories in this volume are mostly trite, boring, and very disappointing.
Several are very "out of character", too. One story, for example is built around the Spirit stressing about finding a grey hair!
Don't forget, these stories are the reason the Spirit was dropped from many papers then cancelled.
Even the celebrated Wally Wood stories are great art, but a tedious plot.
The only fun is in artist spotting. Eg Wood, Elder, Ditko.
If you haven't got them, buy earlier volumes instead, esprcially 14 - 19.

Will Eisner's film noir style is refreshing, the storytelling is highly entertaining, and the character of the spirit has shown great promise as a timeless entity that will go down in history as one of the greats.