Broken Frontier

Someone is murdering doctors in Central City and the Spirit sets out to catch the killer before someone else dies.

Fan-favorite writer/artist Darwyn Cooke brought his own take to Will Eisner’s famous character for eleven issues. With his bow-out on issue #12, a new creative team takes over here. Mark Evanier is well known for being not only a comic book writer but also a comic book historian and his writing partner is certainly no stranger to the field either. Sergio Aragones has left his stamp on comic books from DC’s original Bat Lash series to his previous work with Evanier on the indie darling Groo. Now this duo step into the big shoes of Will Eisner to pick up The Spirit’s famous blue fedora and mask.

The Spirit gets word of a doctor murdered outside a hospital – the second such in only a couple of days’ time. This is enough to cause the news media to declare a serial killer on the loose. Of course, Commissioner Dolan thinks he has the whole thing wrapped up with the murder weapon and a set of fingerprints but the Spirit is not so sure. Investigating the dead men, the Spirit finds a hidden link and a decades old murder that maybe won’t stay buried…

On one level Aragones and Evanier succeed admirably on this tale, but on another level fall a bit short of the mark. The earliest of Will Eisner’s original Spirit stories were, indeed, action packed crime dramas filled with odd and unique characters – many with remarkable names. As time progressed, though, and Eisner polished his craft the stories and the characters grew deeper and richer despite the short length of the tales. What Aragones and Evanier give readers here is a rather straightforward story in the mold of Eisner’s earliest tales. Many of the familiar standards are here – Dolan haughtily telling the Spirit that the vigilante won’t be needed and then the police commissioner getting the wrong suspects entirely, odd and quirky supporting characters, and of course murder. The thing is, this writing duo do not reach for anything beyond the straightforward. Although both are more than capable of crafting something deeper and richer there is a sense of trepidation here – going with the familiar and safe.

Joining the writing team is penciler Mike Ploog. Also a familiar favorite to many comic fans, Ploog has been known in the past to occasionally get a little rubbery and outrageous with his style. Here he wisely keeps things reigned in and produces a comfortable, cartoony look that suits the story well – particularly the more humorous parts.

While "The Medical Murders" is an entertaining story, it does not reach for much beyond that. Hopefully, as Aragones and Evanier grow more confident with the characters they will be inspired to follow in Eisner’s footsteps and craft stories that entertain while also providing deeper insights into this strange human condition we all share.