Comics I Bought This Week: July 7, 2012
I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got eight new comics:
And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.
”Fatale” Issues 1-5 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
I’ve been following the work of this writer/artist team since “Point Blank” came out from Wildstorm about ten years ago. I’ve reviewed their comic series “Criminal” (the last book of which I still have to read) here at this blog before so I knew I was probably going to like this series by them as well but I didn’t realize it would be my new favorite work of theirs.
“Fatale” is the story of a man who meets a woman at his grandfather’s funeral. That meeting immediately leads to trouble for him as he has a run in with some mysterious men at his grandfather’s house. He discovers that the woman was a friend of his grandfather when his grandfather was young. How dis she not age? We then get his grandfather’s story from an unpublished manuscript that he wrote. A dark detective story with some mysticism then unfolds.
I’ve read where Brubaker says that this is his take on a Femme Fatale story only without all the usual tropes that go along with it. He’s also written that he’s finding it really to write a Femme Fatale story without all the usual tropes that go along with it. In the end he looks like he’s pulled it off to me. The villains are dangerous and interesting, Brubaker makes me believe that the heroes are in real peril, and sometimes the unheroic characters surprised me with their heroism. Good stuff all around.
Phillips knocks it out the park with his artwork. I’ve always liked his work but he’s using more darks in this noir story and he’s really using them effectively. His drawing and storytelling are top shelf and he does a great job setting the mood. Dave Stewart doing the coloring is also doing his usual bang-up job.
This is A level stuff here. If you’re in the mood for a dark story of cops, reporters, mystical cults, and a femme fatale then check out this series.
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