In Will Eisner's universe - that he created around the Spirit - there is the central story of a man who is thought to be killed by Doctor Cobra, but lived, and made the choice, in spite of his 'normalcy' to use his "death" to his advantage. He has had a longstanding relationship with the Comissioner's daughter, Ellen, who ran for public office, and was the innocent girl-next-door.
Denny Colt, now called the Spirit and donning a standard blue suit, red tie, and traditional, eye covering mask, has a rogue's gallery that consists of a lot of women, who seem to have a knack for catching his eye, but he always overcomes their traps in the end, and gets the job done.
His archnemesis, the Octopus is a crimelord, whose face is NEVER seen, and his trademarks are his gloves, and his penchant for dropping grenades before making his exits.
In Frank Miller's Wonderland, Denny Colt is KILLED by a former coroner, who also happens to be a world class geneticist... and now a super-invincible crimelord, called the Octopus. The Octopus is responsible for the death and resurrection of Denny Colt, and is also responsible for endowing him with not one... but two... incredible powers! Denny is now a living Loony Tunes character, and can take any kind of punishment... including the oversized cartoon wrench that we have seen Octopus beating him with in a clip! As a bonus, Denny also has pheremone powers that make every woman he meets desire to have sex with him! Sex powers! How great is that!?! Women have no choice but to want to give their bodies to this tough, invincible manly man!
And, by 'great', I, of course, mean... 13 year old boy locked in the bathroom-ish.
Of course, there's one woman who needs a little extra prodding, and that's tough as nails Ellen Dolan, medical expert and daughter of the Commishoner, who doesn't have a pre-existing relationship with Denny in this faithful adaptation.
The Octopus, who is seen by everyone, and wears eccentric, silly costumes (varying from samurai garb to a Nazi Commander's uniform) leads an army of fat, bald clones (which he has made... remember, he is a supergenuis geneticist) into battle with Denny, also utilizing a crack team of ****es to distract the hero... who has the power to make said ****es want to have sex with him.
All the while, there's a 'ghost' ****e, named Lorelei, who floats around in bong smoke and tries to lure Denny to a real death, while she spits him out of her mystical mouth and shows him Mt. Rushmore configurations of the Octopus' ****e-squad. "On your knees then", "come to me, lover" lol Great advertising for a cop turned hero, everyman story.
As written by Eisner... and later Darwyn Cooke, who actually can write more than one type of character... and actually respects the source material... Denny is the average guy, with a great sense of joy and humor... in spite of how filthy the city is becoming around him. He has a sense of whimsy and talks like the average guy.
Now, he talks (in Frank Miller's pretentious phrasings and in his endlessly recycled style of having his male leads monologuing) to himself... just like Marv... and Daredevil... and Batman... only this time, he's talking to himself about how his city is his mother... oh, and also his lover... I suppose if Miller swings that way, that's his business, but leave Eisner's work out of it.
Oh, and on a minor note, Miller changed the entire overall appearance of the character by making his suit, hat, and mask black. But, that one is easily explained away as him being into cliches.
So, really... it's just minor changes...
...to anyone who is in denial or just simply doesn't have an actual clue what they're talking about.
Hope this helped.
Agreed.
Start with the Best of The Spirit. Miller wouldn't let the actor playing the character read it... so you know it's a good representation of Eisner's work.
The Archives are actually the best collections, but they are pricey if you don't have a great income.
The collected hardcover of Darwyn Cooke's run for DC is also really good, although not done by Eisner himself. The good news, is that, unlike Miller, Cooke respects the source material, and also doesn't inject his own ego into the work... so it's a really faithful update on the characters.
But I'm going to see if I can order it. They do have a lot of the Archives but you're right they are expensive. Hopefully when the movie comes out the material will become more available.I called a couple of my local comic shops and no one has the Best of the Spirit.
What's your favorite story featuring the character?
In Will Eisner's universe - that he created around the Spirit - there is the central story of a man who is thought to be killed by Doctor Cobra, but lived, and made the choice, in spite of his 'normalcy' to use his "death" to his advantage. He has had a longstanding relationship with the Comissioner's daughter, Ellen, who ran for public office, and was the innocent girl-next-door.
Denny Colt, now called the Spirit and donning a standard blue suit, red tie, and traditional, eye covering mask, has a rogue's gallery that consists of a lot of women, who seem to have a knack for catching his eye, but he always overcomes their traps in the end, and gets the job done.
His archnemesis, the Octopus is a crimelord, whose face is NEVER seen, and his trademarks are his gloves, and his penchant for dropping grenades before making his exits.
In Frank Miller's *********or's Wonderland, Denny Colt is KILLED by a former coroner, who also happens to be a world class geneticist... and now a super-invincible crimelord, called the Octopus. The Octopus is responsible for the death and resurrection of Denny Colt, and is also responsible for endowing him with not one... but two... incredible powers! Denny is now a living Loony Tunes character, and can take any kind of punishment... including the oversized cartoon wrench that we have seen Octopus beating him with in a clip! As a bonus, Denny also has pheremone powers that make every woman he meets desire to have sex with him! Sex powers! How great is that!?! Women have no choice but to want to give their bodies to this tough, invincible manly man!
And, by 'great', I, of course, mean... 13 year old boy locked in the bathroom-ish.
Of course, there's one woman who needs a little extra prodding, and that's tough as nails Ellen Dolan, medical expert and daughter of the Commishoner, who doesn't have a pre-existing relationship with Denny in this faithful adaptation.
The Octopus, who is seen by everyone, and wears eccentric, silly costumes (varying from samurai garb to a Nazi Commander's uniform) leads an army of fat, bald clones (which he has made... remember, he is a supergenuis geneticist) into battle with Denny, also utilizing a crack team of ****es to distract the hero... who has the power to make said ****es want to have sex with him.
All the while, there's a 'ghost' ****e, named Lorelei, who floats around in bong smoke and tries to lure Denny to a real death, while she spits him out of her mystical mouth and shows him Mt. Rushmore configurations of the Octopus' ****e-squad. "On your knees then", "come to me, lover" lol Great advertising for a cop turned hero, everyman story.
As written by Eisner... and later Darwyn Cooke, who actually can write more than one type of character... and actually respects the source material... Denny is the average guy, with a great sense of joy and humor... in spite of how filthy the city is becoming around him. He has a sense of whimsy and talks like the average guy.
Now, he talks (in Frank Miller's pretentious phrasings and in his endlessly recycled style of having his male leads monologuing) to himself... just like Marv... and Daredevil... and Batman... only this time, he's talking to himself about how his city is his mother... oh, and also his lover... I suppose if Miller swings that way, that's his business, but leave Eisner's work out of it.
Oh, and on a minor note, Miller changed the entire overall appearance of the character by making his suit, hat, and mask black. But, that one is easily explained away as him being into cliches.
So, really... it's just minor changes...
...to anyone who is in denial or just simply doesn't have an actual clue what they're talking about.
Hope this helped.
)
