The Dynamite Spirit!

In 2015 Dynamite Comics picked up the rights to produce new Spirit stories. More famous for their unending alternate covers, on this project they restrained themselves in that respect, save for the debut issue. The story which ran in all twelve issues was written by Matt Wagner and drawn by Dan Schade with colors by Brennan Wagner. Covers for the series were produced by Eric Powell, and those are uniformly magnificent. 

(Matt Wagner)

(Alex Ross)

Formally titled Will Eisner's The Spirit, the series returns to the vintage world of the classic series. It opens after two years have passed since The Spirit was last seen. The world has moved on as best it can. Commissioner Dolan is considering retirement, being pushed out by a seedy politician named Weatherby Palmer. Ellen has found romance of a sort with a district attorney named Archibald Shale, and she's found meaning as a member of the city council. Ebony White and Sammy Strunk (Sammy gets a last name at long last) have formed a partnership as detectives and at the end of the debut issue decide it's high time they investigated the disappearance of their friend The Spirit. 

We see The Spirit only in flashback as the detective duo interview past friends and enemies of the missing hero. P'Gell and The Octopus come into the story in fascinating ways as do others. Finally, we discover, at least in part what has become of Central City's defender, but I want to remain relatively mum on those details so as to not spoil it. Suffice it to say that he's come into conflict with a deadly and mysterious enemy named Mikado Vass, also known as the Crimson Tiger. Vass is a villain of such stature that few will even discuss him. Also on hand is a new femme fatale named Sachet Spice, a woman who takes a very special interest in our hero. 

This is as it turns out a very compelling mystery. The creators keep our hero off the board long enough to actually create some real mystery about his whereabouts, and the payoff makes sense. Schade's art becomes increasingly cartoonish, perhaps owing to a style choice or the pressures of production, but it's not as strong at the end as at the beginning, or maybe I just tired of it. 

This has been collected and that would be the ideal way to enjoy this story. I could only get the original issues from back issue vendors as I didn't follow this series when it came out. This one is recommended for Spirit fans, especially the early issues. 

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