In this edition of The Full Run, we look over DC Comics‘ The Spirit #11, written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, inked by J. Bone and coloured by Dave Stewart.
Throughout much of Darwyn Cooke’s run on The Spirit, an undead criminal known as El Morte has brought chaos to Central City. It has presented an opportunity for Cooke to take the fantastical elements of the original Spirit, where such things were played with ambiguity, and fully commit to them without apology. This is made clear from the cover, where Cooke depicts The Spirit in a Dia de los Muertos aesthetic, and the first page where it is clearly stated that this issue takes place on November 2nd.
Unfortunately, Cooke does fumble this initial promise by making this issue a full on zombie apocalypse story. While this does make sense in capturing the cultural zeitgeist of the time, where The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, and other zombie media were prominent. But conflating the cultural celebration of Day of the Dead with zombies is a miscalculation. It’s not done maliciously, but rather a case of someone making a surface level connection between two concepts that don’t really mesh well once you take a deeper dive into the concepts. It’s understandable why Cooke would add this in, with the holiday tying into El Morte’s heritage. But in the end, it’s a creative swing that just doesn’t work, which is a shame because as a straight up zombie story – even one with mystical elements – the issue works.
The Spirit #11 is by and large an action tale, and it pulls no punches from start to finish. Pick up from where Issue #9 left off, the Spirit is still physically recovering from his last altercation with El Morte. Seeing how poorly their last encounter went, there are immediate stakes that is only compounded when El Morte raises an army of the dead to raze Central City. But as is the case with most Spirit stories, victory comes from an unexpected source in Ellen Dolan’s ex-fiance… who just so happens to be an expert in the undead. It’s a touch too convenient for the story’s sake, but Cooke does squeeze some solid character moments from this development to make it somewhat worthwhile.
In truth, The Spirit #11 just isn’t that meaty of an issue. As primarily an action tale, the pages are full of the beautiful, well constructed sequences readers have come to expect from Darwyn Cooke and company. But there isn’t much else beyond that. The El Morte tale gets neatly wrapped up, and the final pages provide a touching moment between The Spirit and Ellen. To that end, as a penultimate issue that wraps up a major story arc, it’s fine – just like the rest of the El Morte issues. It’s clear that The Spirit is at its best in done-in-one issues than in multi-part sagas.
