Monday, February 2, 2009

The Spirit

The origin story of The Spirit is comparable to those of many other heroes and villains over the years. It seems like something straight out of batman what with the vat of acid changing him into something more than human. I feel like comics these days require more explanation whereas back then the very fact that it was a lot of acid will do just fine. I personally like this approach better because i do not like pretending like a know a lot about science. I mean I know that his face should have been burned off but I do not really care. The Spirit is pretty cool and Im glad we've read some of it because after the movie I was completely prepared to write it off.
The grimy story  of "Lorelei Rox" is like something out of gotham or Sin City, or some sort of film noir. There are serveral other influences out side the realm of comics that helps push the story. Lorelei is an obvious take on the three deadly sirens from the odyssey. The visual style is very dark and sinister almost as to instill a sense of fear into the reader. However it still manages to maintain a level of goofeyness that you only see in the funny-pages of newspapers. Everything from the characters facial expressions to how they pronounce words seems to lighten up an otherwise pretty grim story. I wasnt scared reading it but you get the sense that most of the characters are always on edge, Dolan specifically. Even the spirit at times seems kinda scared, or maybe hes just always mystified with what is going on. As for what I thought about it, I'm not really picky about comics, especially ones that are decades old. It doesnt really make sense for me to pick it apart in terms of what it did right and what it did wrong. I probably wouldn't normally read the Spirit on a regular basis but it definately gives me gold insight into the golden age of comics.

1 comment:

  1. Mike,

    I am glad you enjoyed reading the SPIRIT stories. I was appreciative that you thought the story and style may have influenced SIN CITY.

    I had forgot about the 3 deadly sirens from the Odyseey. Thanks for reminding me!

    Hope you liked the Eisner documentary.

    Cynthia

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