Review- FATALE: BOOK ONE- DEATH CHASES ME

FATALE: BOOK ONE- DEATH CHASES ME (Image, 2012; Softcover)

Collects Fatale Nos. 1-5 (cover dates January- June, 2012)

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artist: Sean Phillips

Colorist: Dave Stewart

It must suck to be Ed Brubaker. You wake up in the morning, put on a pot of coffee, and shit out another great script. The guy really does seem to make this all seem so effortless, you know? Fatale is an unholy marriage of crime/noir and occult/Horror overtones. It works as both, and is just a swell read. At the onset, it all seems rather formulaic. Boy meets girl, girl is bad news, girl convinces boy to do things against his better judgment...yeah, on the surface this is something that we've all seen a million times. It becomes quickly apparent that this girl named Jo is far, far more than she seems, just like everyone else in this story. I love how it bounces back and forth between now and the '50s. 

Sean Phillips' artwork is a treat, and I must give props to Dave Stewart's extremely tasteful coloring. Every word and brushstroke in this book have meaning, and I even re-read this before filing it away. Brubaker is leaving Marvel to focus on his creator owned titles, and while I am sad to see his reign on Captain America come to an end, it will be worth it if we get more Fatale.

At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, I'd like to say that Fatale is the best series on the market today. I can not say that, however, because I am too far behind on my reading of current titles. Suffice it to say, Fatale is easily as good a read as you can hope to find, and as far as I can tell, is head and shoulders above the rest of the titles on the racks today.

The OCD zone- This book has some great paper. It feels and smells nice, a coated stock with a slight sheen. My only gripe about this book is that the covers are in back in a gallery section rather than as chapter markers, the way that Godzilla intended.

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