The Spirit (July 6, 1941) “Agent 24”

Agent 24 is an espionage thriller; Spirit goes over to occupied France on an impromptu rescue mission—one with many surprises in store. The strip itself sets a few precedents, including the first direct use of Germans as Spirit fisticuffs villains. A couple strips ago, Eisner and studio did a fable about Hitler finding his humanity and, while the Germans were villains there, Spirit didn’t interact with them the same way. It’s no longer vague European baddies; it’s Nazis with German phonetic dialect dialogue. Though not too much of it, because the Nazis aren’t the main foil in Spirit’s adventure, which involves two love interests, a newborn babe, and an unexpected sea voyage. The first love interest is Ellen, who’s headed to England to help out in the war effort. She’s going to drive ambulances. Her father disapproves. The Spirit doesn’t find out about Ellen’s plans (and trip) until he runs into her aboard ship. He’s there after trying to save a good spy from some bad spies. The good…