Id Ego

My Psyche Screams

Let’s just be honest and Frank Miller here for a moment, in the world of comic book superheroes, The Spirit is a poor man’s Shadow and no more intriguing than The Phantom.

Do I really need to drive it home after that because if memory serves me, blockbuster movies based on those old-timey heroes did not do particularly well either. At a time when comic movies are rampant and fans are aching for a decent Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash or Green Lantern film, we get The Spirit.

Will Eisner wrote damned good comics, but in the modern mainstream mind The Spirit does not register as a notable hero, super or otherwise. I am sorry fellow nerds, but it is the truth. Buy all the trades you want The Spirit will never mean anything more to the mainstream consumer than a hope to see Scarlett Johansson get banged on screen again. Samuel L. Jackson doesn’t help either despite being one of my favorite personalities, it is not like his presence makes for good films all the time.

I will not list.

Add in the fact that Frank Miller is projecting the same hard-boiled nonsense from Sin City into The Spirit enough to have it compared to the travesty that is All-Star Batman and Robin and the formula is just bad. There is a time for editing and saying no, even to big dick swingers like Frank Miller.

Back to the point on notability, what are The Spirit’s orgin and powers? Is he a slick detective with gadgets? Oh, he just wears a mask, red tie and bangs chicks… let’s sell people on the banging chicks power.

No. Boring. Dull. What is the point? Who? Is The Punisher playing across the hall? Yeah, I get that guy. Mobster slays his wife and kids so now he kills mobsters because he is a badass Navy Seal.

Gun fights or CGI necktie. Hmm.