Something fun for fans of comics at Google!

So, I went to Google this morning as I do many mornings. Instead of the usual logo, I saw this:

Pretty cool, huh? It's a take-off on the neat logos that graced so many of the title pages on Will Eisner's most famous creation, "The Spirit" from the 1940s and early 1950s and Google did this in observation of what would have been Will Eisner's 94th birthday.

The company also posted an article from writer/artist and critic Scott McCloud about Eisner on their official blog.

If you click on the logo on the actual Google page, there's a pre-made search that lists several top sites devoted to Eisner and "The Spirit". If you're not familiar with Eisner's work, but love comics, you owe it to yourself to visit some of them and read up... and perhaps even think about getting one or two of the many different reprint volumes that collect some of Eisner's celebrated, groundbreaking series.

The same is true if you love old movies. Few creators nailed the femme fatale type character more effectively than Eisner did in his writing and art. If you enjoy crime dramas from the 1940s and 1950s, I suspect you will LOVE "The Spirit."

'Batman/Spirit' is a team-up for the ages

Batman/Spirit (DC Comics, 2006)
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When police commisioners from all across America converge on Hawaii for their annual convention, the mysterious criminal mastermind known only as Octopus organizes a "convention" of his own. He the most dangerous criminals from around the world and both Gotham City and Central City to Hawaii so they can kill all the top law dogs of the United States with one single bomb. Good thing Batman and the Spirit happen by to save the day!

"Batman/Spirit" was a comic book that was inevitible once DC Comics acquired the publishing rights for the late Will Eisner's signature series, "The Spirit". It was also a great bit of foreshadowing of the great things that Darwyn Cooke (whose work I had previously praised in the masterful graphic novel "Catwoman: Selina's Big Score") would do in the early issues of DC Comics' new monthly The Spirit comic from the late 2000s.

"Batman/Spirit" is a fun little story in the mold of traditional superhero team-ups: The heroes are brought together when villains from their respective "rogues galleries" team up for a grand masterplan. There's some misunderstanding that leads to the heroes fighting each other at first, but that is soon cleared up, and they get on with the business of busting the bad guys.

In this story, The Spirit and Batman do indeed end up working together (and Robin helps out, too), but the running gag of Spirit refusing to believe Batman is real ("he's just something the Gotham City P.D. made up to scare criminals") is a highlight of the tale... and a great way to keep the two "universes" seperate despite their cross-over here. Other highlights are the seduction scenes, as a femme fatale from the Spirit (P'Gell) uses her charms on Commisioner Gordon, while Batman foe Poison Ivy turns her feminine wiles toward Commisioner Dolan, all in an effort to set up the masterplan.

Other villians who get their turn in the spotlight are the Joker and Harley Quinn (here more in their 'Batman Animated Series' personas than the comic book titles), Catwoman (who cons the Spirit into thinking she's undercover with the FBI), Killer Croc and the Cossak (who become the common ground for the Spirit and Batman when they are subjected to "extreme" interrogation techniques). Just about every major Batman and Spirit villian get a smalll apparance, and alll either get a dramatic moment of a nicely done laugh line.

The way the story resolves itself is also clever and funny. It's even one of the few times where a deus ex machina ending seems satisfying and wholly appropriate.

Fans of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" will get a kick out of this hilarious comic book, and lovers of the more lighthearted Batman of the animated series or the comics from the 1970s and 1980s will find an atmosphere that will inspire nostalgia. And every reader who likes a good superhero team-up romp will find this title a worthy of their time and money.

'The Spirit' is lacking

The Spirit (2008)
Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eve Mendes, Scarlett Johannson, Louis Lombardi, Dan Lauria, Stana Katic and Paz Vega
Director: Frank Miller
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

The mysterious protector of Central City, The Spirit (Macht) squares off against the villainous Octopus (Jackson) over the secret behind The Spirit's powers and the key to world domination. But will triumph mean defeat for The Spirit? Has his long-lost childhood sweetheart, Sand Saref (Mendes), really joined forces with the Octopus?



I've been a fan of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" since the very first story I read. It's a series that's unique both artistically and story-wise, and it's one that is well-deserving of the place of honor it holds in the minds of well-read comic-book fans and scholars who study the genre.

It was for this reason that I was a bit concerned when I heard that Frank Miller was going to be adapting "The Spirit" to the big screen. Miller has shown himself to be a one-trick poney when it comes to story-telling, and I was afraid that he would "Sin-Citifie" The Spirit by reshaping the property into the sort of stuff he usually does.

The fact that Miller has long been a very vocal admirer of Eisner and his work made me hold out hope, however. I hoped that Miller understood enough about "The Spirit" to recognize that he had to take a different tack than he did on "The Dark Knight Returns" or "Ronin" or any of the Sin City graphic novels (and especially the Sin City movie).

Unfortunately, I held out hope in vain.

While it's clear from the film that Miller has looked at the gorgeous art that Eisner produced--the Eisner hallmarks of falling snow/rain, the splashing water, the plunging buildings, the femme fatales dressed in clothes that will fall off if they sneeze are all present in the film's visuals--but I can't believe he actually bothered reading the stories.

Miller has imported some of Eisner's trademarks (and The Spirit's red tie) into a world that is visually Miller's, but he completely missed the... well, the spirit of Eisner's work. Either that, or Miller isn't half the admirer of Eisner that he claimed to be, and he figured that he knew how to "do it right."

Miller also seems to have misunderstood a number of Eisner's characters, or he viewed them through his "Sin City" lense. How else can one explain the merging of master criminal Sand Saref, black widow con-artist P'Gell, and international jewel thief Silk Satin into one character and failing to include the humor surrounding P'Gell, Silk Satin's honorable nature, or Sand Saref's fundemental vulnerability? How else can one explain him taking three great characters are reducing them to nothing more than a beautiful dame in a skimpy dress?

"The Spirit" movie is an empty shell of a movie that rehashes, poorly, the visual approach taken in "Sin City" and Miller's writing style on Sin City. What little that remains of Eisner's creation are echoes so distorted that they barely warrant mentioning. Even worse, the film is boring. It is, quite possibly, the most boring movie I've sat through this year. (And I did sit through the whole thing; I kept hoping it would get better.)

Take my advice: Instead of wasting money on this crappy movie, spend it on one of the collected volumes of the real "The Spirit." The series was at its best during the years featured in Vols. 12 through 19. The forthcoming Vol. 25 will feature the story that first made me fan of the strip, a near-wordless fight between The Spirit and Octopus, a fight that is far more powerful and engaging than anything that's featured in this film.