The Spirit of St. Louis Returns! (World War I Biplanes, Part 2)

Last week, we looked at a Batman story in which the Caped Crusader ends up fighting a mid-air duel with World War I vintage biplanes. Well, it seems that when battling evil, heroes often end up in adventures that involve biplanes.

It happened to Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, U.N.C.LE.'s top agents, during "The Spirit of St. Louis Affair," as recounted by an unknown writer and artist Mike Sekowsky in Gold Key's Man from U.N.C.L.E. #9 (November 1966). It should be noted that the two agents didn't actually fly a biplane during this adventure, but they flew amidst a gaggle of such planes, so I'm counting it.

The adventure begins when a THRUSH double agent manages to steal microfilm containing important information about U.N.C.L.E. secret bases. A pursuit of the traitor leads to the Smithsonian Institute. The bad guy manages to conceal the microfilm aboard The Spirit of St. Louis. He's shot and wounded while making a getaway, but manages to tell THRUSH where he hid the film before he dies.

So THRUSH steals The Spirit, but then can't find the microfilm aboard. That's because it was actually hidden aboard a duplicate of The Spirit, which was being stored at the Smithsonian until it was time for it to serve as referee plane in a Paris-to-Rome air race featuring vintage aircraft.

By the time both U.N.C.L.E and THRUSH figure this out, the duplicate plane is already in Paris and the race is about to begin. Both bad guys and good guys rush to Paris. Events shake out in such a way that Solo and Illya are forced to take off with the duplicate plane before being able to search for the microfilm. THRUSH pursues them in the real Spirit, with both planes weaving in and out of the vintage biplanes taking part in the race. The bad guys have no problem shooting at the duplicate plane, but the U.N.C.L.E. agents can't return fire without possibly destroying a national treasure.

What follows is one of the most entertaining chase scenes I've ever run across. Eventually, Solo and Illya find the microfilm and land the duplicate plane in a field. But the THRUSH agents in the real plane are still pursuing them and shooting at them. They commandeer a passing car, driving by a pretty French girl named Denise, but the THRUSH agents remain persistent.

Further shenangians ensue, in which the U.N.C.L.E. agents eventually steal back the real Spirit (bringing the microfilm with them), while the enemy agents steal the duplicate. Then both planes are back in the air again, once more dog-fighting amidst the planes taking part in the race. When the real Spirit is damaged, Solo and Illya come up with the idea of lowering Denise (to whom they give the microfilm) into one of the race planes.

With both the girl and the film safe, they can now concentrate on fighting the THRUSH agents. The two Spirits go up against each other in a final showdown, with THRUSH ending up the loser.

This issue is more fun than a barrel of Lewis machine guns. The bulk of the issue is the unusual chase scene involving the two Spirits, which is exciting, visual engaging and full of humor. And panels stuffed full of World War I planes can't help but be fun to look at.

Next week, we will conclude our World War I biplanes series with a look at a story that is actually set during World War I.