Ed Brubaker, the guy who made me give a crap about Captain America with his Winter Soldier story arc, tells a crime story with deep roots in writers like Chandler and Hammett, as well as the horrors of Lovecraft. This is the sort of thing I want to read, that comics can excel at, and that is often overshadowed by capes and spandex.
Death Chases Me
The first volume starts out with a crazy, over the top action sequence involving a mysterious woman and a kamikaze prop-plane that may be a bit too much, frankly. However, once that’s over and Nicolas Lash begins his quest to understand things left by a dead relative, the story starts getting interesting. The cast of characters and the depth of history expands quickly, jumping back to the 50s to follow reporter Hank Raines, who has also met the mysterious woman from the opening, looking no different. It doesn’t take long to find some ghoulish deviltry afoot. Dangerous cults, weird things in the shadows, and all the time, the mysterious, beautiful woman, the Fatale. I don’t love Sean Phillips art, but I think it’s appropriate for the comic, giving enough of a classic, 50s look to help authenticity. And Brubaker’s writing captures the tone of the hard boiled detective stories as well as the existential dread of Mythos dangers.
The Devil’s Business
Moving forward to the decadent and disenchanted 70s, the second volume finds the Fatale living as a recluse, while cults, collectors, and…other things search for her. I enjoy this story of broken and sad people dealing with religious nuts in the ugly aftermath of the 60s. The jaded tastes of people with too much money and no direction. Gross. And while the past unfolds, in the present, Nicolas Lash’s life spirals out of control. Nobody seems to be having a good time of it. The building story is fascinating. Each reveal increases tension, while making me more and more curious about what will happen and what has happened, and who everyone really is. And of course, at the heart of it all, who is the femme fatale? Who is Josephine? What is she?
West of Hell
The third volume looks into the history of Josephine, going back a long, long way. Each chapter (each issue) finds her in a different time, expanding our understanding of who and what she really is, and of the many strange and painful events of her long history. And as her history unfolds, hints and innuendos about the truth behind it all come to light. I find myself enjoying this series quite a lot. It feels like a comicbook version of the classic roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. In fact, reading it got me very much in the mood for that game, and in the mood to read more mythos tales of various sorts. I’m very curious to see where this all goes and how it works out. One of the best comics on the market today, it is a must read.
Fatale Book One: Death Chases Me
Author: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Philips
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-563-0
Fatale Book Two: The Devil’s Business
Author: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Philips
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-618-7
Fatale Book Three: West of Hell
Author: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Philips
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-743-6
-Matt
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