History ComicBook / TheSpirit

* BellyDancer: Plaster of Paris.

The Spirit, which premiered in June 1940 and ran continuously until October 1952, was the brainchild of Creator/WillEisner, arguably one of the most important men in the history of comic books. Originally, it was created and distributed as a weekly insert for more conventional newspapers of the Register and Tribune Syndicate, rather than as a traditional comic. These stories have been reprinted by many publishers in numerous comic book and graphic novel series.

Currently licensed by [[Creator/DynamiteComics Dynamite Publishing]] for a new series written by Matt Wagner, the creator of ''Comicbook/{{Grendel}}''.

* CrossOver: With everyone from Franchise/{{Batman}} and Literature/DocSavage to [[ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark Cerebus]] and ComicBook/OmahaTheCatDancer.
* DeadpanSnarker: Denny can get as snarky as [[Franchise/SpiderMan another superhero from a rival company]] in battle, but in the reboot it's Ebony White who plays this to the hilt, delivering caustic comments while almost never, ever changing his dour expression.

* DeadpanSnarker: Denny can get as snarky as [[Franchise/SpiderMan another superhero from a rival company]] in battle, but in the reboot it's Ebony White who plays this to the hilt, delivering caustic comments while almost never, ever changing his dour expression.

In addition to comics, the character appeared from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1941 through 1944]] in a conventional NewspaperComic strip, in a [[TheEighties 1987]] [[ThePilot TV Pilot]] ([[WhatCouldHaveBeen which did not produce a series]]) and, as of December 25, 2008, a theatrical release movie written and directed by Creator/FrankMiller.

* CrossOver: With everyone from Franchise/{{Batman}} and Franchise/DocSavage to [[ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark Cerebus]] and ComicBook/OmahaTheCatDancer.

First licensed to Creator/DCComics, the series was written and drawn by Creator/DarwynCooke, who distilled elements of the previous series, and set it in the modern day. Creator/DCComics later rebooted the series to fit into their ComicBook/FirstWaveDCU universe, and is now written by Creator/MarkEvanier and Creator/SergioAragones, having taken over for Darwyn Cooke, and is set around the [[TheForties 1940s]] or [[TheFifties 1950s]].

First licensed to Creator/DCComics, the series was written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, who distilled elements of the previous series, and set it in the modern day. Creator/DCComics later rebooted the series to fit into their ComicBook/FirstWaveDCU universe, and is now written by Creator/MarkEvanier and Creator/SergioAragones, having taken over for Darwyn Cooke, and is set around the [[TheForties 1940s]] or [[TheFifties 1950s]].

* AmericaSavesTheDay: In one issue, The Spirit

* HardHead

* OddShapedPanel

* PunnyName: Her name is Plaster and she's from Paris.
** Actually, most people's names are puns, even the Octopus's real name is a reference to a medical bath. More info on the other wiki.
* RealTime: Eisner timed "Ten Minutes", which covers [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the last ten minutes]] of the life of a punk who killed the candy store owner he was robbing, to take ten minutes to read. It even begins with the sentence, "It will take you ten minutes to read this story."
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: For quite a while, Ellen Dolan clearly thought of The Spirit as her boyfriend, while The Spirit himself spent much of the time avoiding her and denying it.

* FemmeFatale: Sand Saref the best example of this. (There's no chance of P'Gell ever reforming, but we hope for Sand.)

** Another noteable one involves a convict put in jail by The Spirit who is freed by Santa Claus on Christmas Eve as a christmas present, and given Santas clothes and a false beard to be able to wander around undetected. His original intent is to get to his stash of stolen money, then track down and kill The Spirit, but he ends up being sidetracked by three boys, one of whom is blind and who all three had asked Santa to give the boy his sight back for Christmas. The criminal ends up giving his money to a back-alley doctor he knows, to perform the needed surgery on the boy, then returns to prison and gives Santa his outfit back and resumes his sentence, with only him and Santa himself knowing what actually happened that night.

* DeathByOriginStory:
** The Spirit himself, though he didn't stay dead. He was put into a death-like coma for 24 hours and used being declared dead as an advantage.
** [[spoiler:Alvarro Mortez AKA 'El Morte']] in the DC reboot is a better example. He was unfortunate enough to die TWICE before confronting the Spirit personally.

* FauxDeath: See "Death By Origin Story".
* FedoraOfAsskicking
* FemmeFatale and TheVamp abound. P'Gell is the best example of TheVamp and Sand Saref the best example of FemmeFatale. (There's no chance of P'Gell ever reforming, but we hope for Sand.)

* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Eisner liked to use this trope on occasion, but one that really stands out is "Gerhard Shnobble", which can be a somber TearJerker for some.

* CoatHatMask

* CoolMask
* TheCowl

* {{Chiaroscuro}}

* BadassNormal
* BellyDancer: Plaster of Paris
* BewareTheSillyOnes: One of the most shocking examples of this in the Golden Age of Comics comes when the villainous political fixer Autumn Mews tricks comic relief foil Sammy into revealing the (unused!) secret identity of the Spirit in the classic story [[spoiler: The Death of Autumn Mews]]

* WarIsHell: Several stories dealt with this trope in the post WWII era. In particular, "The Killer" is about a man named Henry who was pushed around by society before being drafted, becoming a war hero in Europe... and then subsequently being discharged back into "normal" society where once again he's pushed around, ignored and abused. Henry becomes the titular character when, by chance, he's accidentally given a gun and he kills his criminal wife and brother-in-law, and is taken in by the Spirit. Dolan and the Spirit have mixed feelings with Henry, but civilian onlookers judged the scene, seeing that a killer was a veteran, wherein another veteran nearby comments that they just don't know.

----

* UncleTomFoolery: Ebony White, verging on outright EthnicScrappy. Averted in [[SocietyMarchesOn Darwyn Cooke's run]].

** Averted with the Spirit in the reboot. Denny's unmasked face is show in the flashback to the night of his "death" and several times in the Cooke-helmed issues in intimate moments with Ellen after.

* ChristmasEpisode: Issue closest to Christmas nearly every year in the original run. Usually ended with a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.