If Darwyn Cooke exploited Will Eisner's Spirit for leftist propaganda, that's disturbing and devastating

There used to be a site called Comics Bulletin, which was in operation until about 5 years ago. Now, it appears other sources in the UK have since bought the domain and put it to use for what's basically a new specialty site with a blog format. And here's one of their entries from over a year ago, which most unfortunately is leftist apologia for the post-911 era, and tells something rather eyebrow raising about the late artist Darwyn Cooke's run on the new Spirit volume from the late 2000s, adapted from Will Eisner's famous comics from 1940-52 by DC Comics, which apparently had acquired a license for it 2 decades ago, after Eisner's passing:

While not as well known as Batman’s or as colorful as Dick Tracy’s, like other masked heroes the Spirit has a long, well-established list of rogues. The differentiating factor, however, is that The Spirit’s rogues gallery is primarily made up of femme fatales. This is one of the few things the terrible Frank Miller movie got right, but even then it overlooked the most prominent of them all, P’Gell. From her first appearance in The Spirit Section #332 (October 6, 1946), she made an immediate impression thanks to her striking beauty, which Cooke gives a modern update in The Spirit #2.

Before proceeding any further, the character of Hussein must be discussed. Islamophobia was rampant in the post-9/11 world of the Bush Presidency. As a result, it would be easy for this character to be a racial caricature and no one would bat an eye. Given their introduction on the issue’s very first page, that may be the initial impression given. He’s smarmy and vile, but also depicted in such an unserious manner where readers feel he can be dismissed out of hand. But as the story unfolds, Hussein proves again and again to be a worthy foil to The Spirit – while also being much more than he initially presents himself.

The issue’s end when he and the Spirit walk off together in a Casablanca homage is Cooke’s exclamation point on this character’s inclusion – that the rampant and accepted Islamaphobia of that time was just as wrong as the offensive depiction of Ebony in the original Eisner comics. A welcome addition to The Spirit lore, Hussein would resurface throughout the duration of Cooke’s run.

First off, I don't think the Spirit was comprised "primarily" of femme fatales, even if there were several such notable characters there. It did have male adversaries too. That potential flaw aside, I can't remember if I'd fully considered it earlier, but if Cooke was applying a far-left vision to a comic originally created by a guy whose last GN gave focus to Islamic antisemitism as much as any other form...that's very disturbing, and easily worse than dumbing down the character design for a gal like Catwoman. It can also make one wonder if the focus on femme fatales in this new comic by Cooke has a different meaning to it than previously thought. And, lest I forget, is the character of Hussein an allusion to Saddam?

As for what's said about Ebony White, the writer - doubtless totally deliberately - obfuscated the differences between race and religion, and it should be pointed out that save for the unfortunate character design in the Golden Age comics, Ebony was depicted respectably and heroically, and Eisner himself wrote in his introduction to his Fagin the Jew GN some time before his death that he hadn't considered that the character design for Ebony was the same thing he took issue with when it came to antisemitic propaganda caricatures. None of which is brought up in the modern puff piece, and the writer should be ashamed of himself for giving his backing to a story that could've been written out of contempt for somebody who was more successful than Cooke ever was.

It shouldn't have to be pointed out that the writer of this puff piece insulted 911 Families when he wrote this retrospective, and provides no concrete proof to explain why disapproval of the Religion of Peace itself is wrong. I remember when the original Comics Bulletin site once posted a ludicrous declaration they didn't want to read Dynamite publishins any longer. Which was stupid enough, but now we have a new bunch that's turning even worse propaganda than their predecessors. And that's not good for the medium's reputation.