DC Comics - First Wave #4 - Frostbite! - Chapter One

Written by DAVID HINE • Co-feature written by MARV WOLFMAN • Art by MORITAT Co-feature art by PHIL WINSLADE • Cover by LADRÖNN

New series writer David Hine comes aboard for the first chapter of "Frostbite!" The ultimate high has arrived on the corners of Central City, and the ghouls who deal it aren't interested in cutting the all-controlling Octopus in on the action! It doesn't take long for hot blood to hit the icy city streets!

And in the co-feature, THE SPIRIT: BLACK & WHITE, Marv Wolfman and Phil Winslade show us what happens in Central City when the lights go out – every last one of them! It's a citywide blackout in black and white!

Good beginning to a new story about a drug-ring pushing a new "product" that's killing off the clientele too fast. Ellen Dolan comes out very aggressive and fearless against the drug dealers of Frost. Getting a glimpse of a different side of her. Commissioner Dolan seems to be letting certain things go on behind-the-scenes to keep the criminals and crime balanced. He knows what is going on with the big crime bosses in Central City and just let's some of them happen to keep control of other parts of it. He isn't working with them but he tries to control some of the going-ons to an extent. The Spirit delivers a couple good beatings here and there, but mostly just does investigating in this one.

Of note in this issue is the introduction to Ebony White for the first time in the First Wave universe of The Spirit. We're introduced to an extremely hard-nosed and strong-willed Ebony White. A lot different than the Ebony White of Will Eisner's time. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention - Ebony White is a girl in this series! She works with the little kids that help The Spirit out getting information on the streets and who sing it to him in song form.

The "Black & White" story for this issue, which is entitled "Connected," reminds me a lot of the old Will Eisner stories. It's got that noir feel to it (probably because of the black and white) and is a "you reap what you sow" type of story. I found myself giggling at the end. This was an eight page story.

This was Issue #4 of First Wave's The Spirit. Still not quite understanding the difference between regular DC and the First Wave tag.    

Detective Comics #30 - The Return of Doctor Death

Cover Art - Fred Guardineer
Pencils & Inks - Bob Kane
Writer: Gardner F. Fox
Background Pencils & Lettering - Sheldon Moldoff

Doctor Death returns from the grave having escaped the fire that burned down his lair. He has begun threatening the wealthy of the city and demanding killing them if they don't give in to his demands. He is poisoning them with something that makes them appear to be dying of a disease that turns them purple. The Batman gets wind of this and begins staking out the homes of the victims-to-be to catch Doctor Death or his evil Cossack accomplice in the act.

There's nothing really of note in this story. It's a good story and has some good action, but it's really just more of the same. Doctor Death ends up being in disguise and when The Batman takes off his mask, he is hideously burned and disfigured.

A couple of points of interest:

1. The car The Batman is using is still the red one, but it seems to have grown a little longer and is beginning to "morph" into the shape of the Batmobile. It's also referred to for the first time as "his special built high-powered auto."

2. He snaps a guy's neck again and kills him by kicking him.

This was a 10-page story that was published in Detective Comics Number 30 in August of 1939.

American Sunday Weekly Comic Book Section - The Black Queen

The Black Queen is a court attorney who apparently is well-known for getting criminals released and their charges dropped. She gets her partner-in-crime and boyfriend Slot Gorgan out of jail to keep running a gang because he's the only guy she's ever met that can kill somebody in cold blood so easily. Unfortunatley for them, The Spirit is in the room and overhears the whole conversation, telling them that he wants some of their stolen money to help support a free lunch program at a school that needs funds. Through a lot of fights and daredevil stunts, The Spirit re-holds the Slot's trial at his Wildwood Cemetery hideout so he can prove Gorgan is a murderer and frame him to get money out of the killer. This is a pretty action-packed entry in The Spirit comics.

Things of note in this story:

1. The Spirit hires Ebony White as his exclusive cabby and chauffeur.

2. Ebony White also helps The Spirit keep an eye on his "guests" at gunpoint in his Wildwood Cemetery hideout.

3. This is the first time that we see the inside of The Spirit's Wildwood cemetery lair.

4. The Spirit uses one of his disguises to sit in on the re-held Slot Gorgan murder trial. He is disguised as an old man in a white wig and mustache and glasses who uses a cane.

Detective Comics #29 - The Batman Meets Doctor Death

Cover Art - Bob Kane
Writer - Gardner Fox
Pencils and Inks - Bob Kane

The evil Doctor Death is introduced to us in this story and reveals his plan to exact tribute from the wealthy of the world or kill them using his "death by pollen extract." But first, he must trick The Batman into meeting with his bodyguard and thugs to clear the way for him to do his evil deeds. This is a pretty simple storyline with no real mystery as to what the villain's motives are. This is the first story written for The Batman by someone other than Bill Finger.

Some interesting things to note in this story are the following:

1. Bruce Wayne keeps his Batman costume in a small chest that appears to be in his study.

2. It's revealed that he carries glass pellets of choking gas in his utility belt.

3. He uses suction cups to climb up walls.

4. The Batman tells the villains that they will tell them who sent them to kill him or he'll kill them.

5. For some strange reason, Doctor Death has pointed ears.

6. Although it appears that Doctor Death burned in his laboratory, it's eluded to that he may have escaped.

This was a 10-page story that was published in Detective Comics Number 29 in July of 1939.

American Sunday Weekly Comic Book Section - The Return of Dr. Cobra

The Spirit once again comes up against the evil Dr. Cobra after Ellen Dolan and her fiancee help him escape from the mental ward. That's really all there is to the second story published for The Spirit. It's still entertaining and nice fast and exciting read.

This story has the first time The Spirit catches a ride with Ebony White in his cab. It seems that The Spirit hangs out in the trees and catches a ride with any cab that drives by Wildwood Cemetery because "taxis don't often pass through Wildwood Cemetery." It just so happens that Commissioner Dolan's daughter, Ellen, and her fiancee are in the taxi. They're heading to see her father and visit the mental ward.

In her first appearance in The Spirit comics, Ellen is portrayed as a bookish student of psychology who is engaged to a complete nerd by the name of Homer Creap. She has her hair up in a bun with a hat on and wears big round librarian glasses. Definitely not the Ellen that we'll come to see in the future of the series.

Also of note is that this is the first issue that The Spirit wears his mask. Also, Dr. Cobra has super-human strength and it is never explained how he got it.

The end is pretty humurous, with The Spirit taking off Ellen's glasses and pulling her hair down to reveal a blond bombshell. He then kisses her and leaves out the window. She tells Homer that she needs "a little more time to think over [their] engagement."

"The Return of Dr. Cobra" was published on June 9th, 1940.