I love Darwyn Cooke, and his adaptation of The Spirit does not disappoint. It's humorous without being silly and stylish without descending into self-parody. Unfortunately, my only prior knowledge of the character comes from the trailers for the absolutely terrible-looking movie that just came out, so I can't say if Cooke's done the character any favors.

Here, he comes off as sort of a low-rent, low-tech, light-hearted version of Batman, which makes his pairing with Batman at the end of the book a stroke of genius. The Joker's line about the fact that Batman never laughs is a perfect grace note, even if I'm not sure about the reasoning behind the strategy adopted by Batman and The Spirit at that point.

My only real quibble about the book may not even be fair, but it's always been my understanding that Eisner's version of the character was a watershed moment in comics history, creating and exploding a variety of comic book techniques (like a comic book version of Eisenstein, Welles, or Altman), but Cooke demonstrates no ambition beyond the desire to create a classic and classy crime-fighting caper. I suppose I'd have to read some of Eisner's work to decide whether or not its fair to deride Cooke for not pushing his boundaries a little. ( )

The art was somewhat - simplistic, shall we say, but the stories were engaging and I enjoyed the book. It definitely helps to know the back story before you start reading, as the author apparently presumes his readers are all male comic book fans from way back (don't you hate it when authors do that?)...A fun, quick read, but not one that left a lasting impression or about which I have much to say. [full review on my bloghref>] ( )

Will Eisner is a comic book artist's artist, and I'm a mere comic book reader. So I haven't much explored his ouvre, though I did once read A Contract with God. I hadn't read Eisner's own Spirit comics (much-reprinted in the 1990s), but I was intrigued by the trailer for the recent film that Frank Miller based on them. I had also noticed that the 21st-century DC "reboot" of the character had received some critical praise. This reprint volume containing the first six issues of the latter I borrowed from the public library on a lark.

So I don't know how "faithful" it is to Eisner's character, but it sure is fun. Darwyn Cooke's art is vivid and accessible, and his stories are wide-ranging. The Spirit is a vigilante of the amazing-but-not-quite-super hero type, like earlier pulp protagonists such as the Shadow and the Phantom Detective. He's more fallible than his archetype, especially when it comes to women. Both Cooke and his Spirit have a sense of humor.

Appended to the initial run of the DC series, this volume includes a reprint of the Batman/Spirit crossover story that served as a prequel to it. This piece, a collaboration by Cooke with writer Jeph Loeb, highlights the parallels between the two heroes to an almost painful degree. A telling exception is the omission of the Spirit's counterpart to Robin the Boy Wonder. In the 1940s Spirit comics, a sidekick named Ebony White was largely a blackface stereotype that could only be read as racist if rendered that way today. Evidently, Cooke hadn't yet come up with his solution to the Ebony dilemma, although the later Spirit issues introduce the character as an updated stereotype: a streetwise black kid with plenty of criminal experience but a good heart.

Cooke's willingness to trade in today's stereotypes may leave him open to certain types of criticism, but it is one of the features that make the comic fast-paced and diverting. No one will be particularly enlightened by this fare, but anyone with a fondness for the fantasy detective story will be entertained by it.

"The Spirit" is Will Eisner's most famous creation, and one of my personal favorites. There aren't many creators that I think could have taken over Eisner's mantle and done the Spirit, but Darwyn Cooke has impressed me mightily by so doing. Not only that, he has remained true to the original "comic noir" of Eisner's creation, matching Eisner's style of writing, humor and art, while injecting a style of his own. There are six stories here, of good to fine quality, and a guest shot by Batman in the final story. I think Eisner would've approved. ( )