Review: The Spirit #3

THE SPIRIT #3
Written by Mark Schultz; art by Moritat. Backup story written by Michael Uslan, F.J. DeSanto; art by Justiniano.

I know that comic book have a long tradition of putting stuff on the cover that doesn't happen inside the issue, but it seems to me this isn't really an acceptable practice with modern comics. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but I expect covers to actually have some relation to the story inside. So far, all three issues of The Spirit have featured pretty cool covers that had absolutely no relation to the story. Maybe it's got something to do with the fake "retro" feel that the First Wave titles are going for. In any case, I find it dishonest and annoying. Fittingly, though, this third issue shows a bunch of hands doing a "thumbs down" gesture. My guess is that these represent the hands of the readers expressing how lame this book has been.

In this issue, Schultz' first (and last) story arc comes to a conclusion, while Moritat's art continues to get uglier and uglier with every panel. Next month, another writer is taking over the title, but Moritat continues on the art, so I doubt the quality will improve. I couldn't care less, because I'm dropping this title and never coming near it again.

I regret buying even a single issue of this series. It's been a total waste of money. If anything, it's taught me a valuable lesson in comic book consumerism: Don't put titles on your pull list without sampling at least one issue, especially if you're not familiar with the creative team. I'll never make that mistake again.

The backup black and white stories in the first two issues were not as bad as the main feature, but definitely not worth the cover price. This issue's backup is again the best thing within these pages, and probably stands out as the best of the three issues so far. The art is really quite impressive and the short story is simple, but effective.

Still, I can't recommend this based on one short back-up. My advice to you is to pretend this title doesn't exist and wait for its inevitable cancellation.