The Spirit is a character created by Will Eisner. However, a new series of his exploits has been produced, and the first six issues gathered together in Graphic Novel format.
The Spirit is Denny Colt, a newspaperman who was killed by a mind-control gel created by villain Dr. Cobra. Cobra intended to control all of Central City with the gel released into the city's water supply, but Denny's interference, along with the incompetence of the henchmen hired by Cobra, foiled the plot.
Denny, however, hadn't really been killed by the gel, just put into a state of suspended animation, and he was laid to rest in his family's mausoleum, which made it possible for him to survive. However, he'd had time to think while he was in the mausoleum, and he decided to become a vigilante and fight crime. The only person he confided to was Dolan, the chief of Police and father of Denny's longtime flame, Ellen.
Unlike many, The Spirit has no superpowers and doesn't wear a spandex costume. He has a blue suit, a fedora hat, a red tie, gloves, and a harlequin mask to hide his identity. He also has a young kid who drives a taxi and who serves as his unofficial chauffeur, named Ebony White.
This graphic novel contains the first six stories from the new series, and a crossover, The Spirit and Batman. Many femmes fatale and villains are introduced from the original series, including Silk Satin, P'Gell, Hussein Hussein, Dr. Cobra, Cossack, Carrion: an emo villain rather too attatched to his vulture, Julia and more.
Th last story is the best, with all of the villains who usually plague both the Spirit and Batman going to Hawaii to take on the Policemen's annual conference to take out a substantial portion of the world's top cops. Can Denny Colt and The Batman overcome their combined foes? Superman also makes a cameo appearance in the tale.
As a graphic novel, this does a wonderful job of updating the spirit to a modern sensibility while retaining the 40's-style underpinnings of the original, and the team up is simply inspired! Teaming Batman, who has no superpowers other than his mind and perfectly trained body, with the Spirit, who also has no superpowers, was an inspired choice for the team-up. It's also amusing that the Spirit doesn't believe Batman is really Batman, even at the end of the story when they have fought the villains together and seen Supermen fly them off back to Arkham Asylum.
The best part is replacing Ebony White, originally depicted as an outright ape (chimp or gorilla or something else, but definitely an ape) with an actual African American kid, which is an incredible improvement on the original. Ebony is streetwise, but young, and despite being only in hie early teens, he finds in Denny someone to believe in.
This is miles better than the original when it comes to appealing to modern tastes and sensibilities, and I can't wait to see how they update some of the Spirit's other femmes fatale, like Sand Saref and Silken Floss.
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