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Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Batman/The Spirit
The perfect way to enjoy Batman/The Spirit would to be a fly on the wall when Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke were planning on how to mix and match all of "the greatest hits" of both characters. It's not hard to imagine the enthusiasm of the two creators, fans themselves, as they exclaimed to each other "P'Gell seduces Commissioner Gordon! Poison Ivy and Lt. Dolan! The Cossack and Killer Croc!" The sexual tension in that last pairing is a little more downplayed.
Luckily, if you want your fan enthusiasm behind the story to transfer to the reader have Cooke draw and at least co-write your book. Like New Frontier Cooke makes every character look cool with his animated/Jack Kirby/Alex Toth/art deco style. Within the first few pages of the book I was wondering what Cooke's creativity would do with those trademark Spirit splash pages. When it came around I was not disappointed. Cooke pays tribute to one of Will Eisner's greatest aspects of his strip and keeps a lively story moving. I didn't expect an homage to "Death Flies the Haunted Skies" by Archie Goodwin and Toth in the Batman splash but I was glad to see it all the same.
With the Batman franchise Loeb and Cooke had a spectrum of interpretations to choose from. They chose well. The base seems to be the Bruce Timm animated version, not just in Cooke's look for the book but with the vital role Joker and Harley Quinn play in the plot. Then there's bits pieces of the '70s dark detective, Cooke and Ed Brubaker's Catwoman, , even "Stately Wayne Manor" gets a nod. But with the The Spirit there's only one version Loeb and Cooke needed to use. A 48-page story doesn't lend itself to Eisner's greatest triumph, namely the economy of storytelling used in 8- and 10-page stories. What the The Spirit does well here is be an affable, lighter counter-personality to Batman. He's someone who works the same street level superhero territory as Batman but still keeps a level head. The cover says it perfectly. Batman's got some mean teeth gritting going on but good ol' Denny Colt's just smiling. He's in it for a fun and that's reflected in this book, a great little read.
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