“Ice Ginger Coffee”
Writer: Darwyn Cooke
Artist: Darwyn Cooke (p), J. Bone (i), Dave Stewart (colors)
Publisher: DC Comics
This is the beginning of the anticipated new series featuring Will Eisner’s comic-icon from the 1940s. A few weeks ago, Batman and Robin joined the festivities in Batman/The Spirit #1 as Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke cracked the bottle of champagne on the “S.S. Spirit” with “Crime Convention.” Now Cooke assumes the responsibilities as writer and artist, appropriately enough since Eisner himself pulled double-duty as the Spirit’s auteur. The Spirit may work best with a single creator, walking the fine line between cinema-style comics and pulp-inspired prose.
NNN-News anchor Ginger Coffee promises viewers that she will expose Amos Weinstock, alias The Pill, a leading drug trafficker in Central City. Since this is a comic book, he is appropriately mysterious and – as we later discover – appropriately grotesque. He could have stepped right out of Chester Gould’s Unused Ideas file. A “special guest” will blow the whistle on a live broadcast – but Coffee is kidnapped and held captive, while the Spirit employs a variety of stealthy tricks to rescue her. Now they’re on the run, hoping the police will find them before the hired torpedoes.
The chase goes over rooftops, through back-alleys and sewers, much to the perfumed Ginger Coffee’s distaste. To complicate matters, the reluctant damsel-in-distress undermines their escape attempt for the sake of a live exclusive. Bullets fly in this fast-paced, hardboiled thriller, and the chase sequence is exciting.
There’s a wonderful noir atmosphere, evocative of films like D.O.A. and Gun Crazy, which was desperately needed in the Batman crossover. The whacky hi-jinks of “Crime Convention” are dumped for more sublime humor, as Denny Colt faces off against criminals who are realistic and vicious. One jarring moment in the story, however, comes from one of the thugs. They’re far more realistic in this story, but I wasn’t expecting salty language. I assumed that Cooke would avoid PG-13 dialogue, in keeping with Eisner’s style. Well, this is the 21st Century …
Another concession to the 21st Century is Ginger Coffee, an African-American television news anchor. She’s a ratings-winner and quite spunky. However, her willingness to jeopardize her safety, and that of the Spirit, suggests that she’s not as street-smart as Lois Lane. Ginger probably gained her reporting chops by surfing the internet and sending the interns on latte errands. It’s hinted that she could become a recurring character.
Ginger carries most of the story, and prepares readers for the first appearance of Ebony, the Spirit’s young assistant. This dreadfully unfunny stereotype was the one major blight on Eisner’s corpus. In this new series, Ebony is no longer an Al Jolsen-caricature, speaking fluent “mammy” dialogue. Now he’s presented as a competent, young African American sidekick who isn’t above ribbing the lead character. Some fans felt that he was an anachronism, but Cooke’s make-over seemed a no-brainer to me. At least, he doesn’t resemble Samuel L. Jackson – who, recently, seems to be the model for every black male in comics.
Having cleaned up the supporting cast, the “Ugly Caricature” task falls onto the villains. The Pill is a distorted version of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, covered with canker sores. He speaks in a courtly manner, before disposing of an interesting stoolie. Mr. Wang’s “memory-card” brain is mentioned in passing, before The Pill’s “acid touch” is demonstrated in passing. Unless these characters are going to surface in future Spirit tales, why did Cooke even bother? The standard “underworld boss” would have sufficed.
For that matter, was it really necessary to kidnap Ginger Coffee? She boasts that she’s “the nation’s TV crimefighter,” but posed no more threat to The Pill than the weather anchor. Once Mr. Wang is fried, Coffee is a reporter with no story, forced to resume arresting internet predators on hidden camera. Besides, killing a beloved television personality, especially one as sexy as Ginger, is bad for business. There’s the possible public outcry to consider; on the other hand, there are the law enforcement officials who feel publicly humiliated.
After making a disparaging remark about The Spirit, one cop gets an earful from Commissioner Dolan, who is presented as far crustier than usual. He doesn’t appreciate witnessing crimes live via satellite, but there’s more than embarrassment behind his gruff exterior. A quiet moment in Dolan’s office demonstrates his concern for Denny Colt, the masked man who could have been his son-in-law. His paternal fear, and the mistrust of the other officers, suggests that these events are occurring early in The Spirit’s crimefighting career.
This series shows tremendous promise, especially Dolan’s quiet reflection on the Spirit and his daughter, in simpler times. Could Darwyn Cooke be planning to explore Denny Colt and Ellen Dolan’s relationship? If he can make Ebony more palatable to modern readers, perhaps Cooke can move past Eisner’s simpler characterization of her as the swooning, unrequited love interest.
This self-contained story is a straight-forward “hero-on-the run” plotline, but it’s also fast-paced and fun. Now that the Spirit has made the leap into the 21st Century, here’s hoping that he finds a new audience.
*Originally posted on www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com as part of the "Sunday Slugfest")
No comments:
Post a Comment