Title: Fatale: Death Chases Me Volume 1
Author: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Genre: Suspense / Horror / Noir / Crime / Supernatural
Year Published: 2012
Year Read: 11/23/2014
Series: Fatale #1
Publisher: Image Comics
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 16+ (Strong Language and Gory Violence)
Introduction:
Now, I will admit that I have
not read much of Ed Brubaker’s
works, other than one of his stories from his brief “X-Men” run, “Divided We
Stand” which I kind of liked. So
when I found out that Ed Brubaker
had produced some well-acclaimed independent works, I just had to check them
out! So, I guess you could say that the
first comic book of Ed Brubaker’s
independent works I had checked out was none other than “Fatale: Death Chases Me Book One” and man, was I blown away by
this volume!
What is this story
about?
The story starts off with a young man named Nicolas Lash
going to the funeral of Dominic H. Raines and it was there that he meets up
with a mysterious beautiful woman named Josephine who also happened to know
Dominic Raines. Later on, Nicolas
decides to explore Dominic’s old house and he finds an unpublished manuscript
that detailed Dominic’s life back in the 1950s.
It was then that Nicolas discovers that Dominic was harboring a dark
secret back then that involved Josephine and a corrupted cop named Walter
Booker and Josephine seemed to be connected to the tragic events of Dominic’s
past life.
Who is this mysterious Josephine woman and what kind of secrets is she
keeping from the men who are mesmerized by her great beauty?
What I loved about
this story:
Ed Brubaker’s writing: Now even though I had read
plenty of comic books that were either horror or noir themed, I had never read
a comic book that managed to combine both noir and supernatural horror into one
story before and I enjoyed it immensely! Ed
Brubaker had done a brilliant job at making this story both horrifying and
exciting at the same time and I loved the way that the story first started off
as a mystery noir as we are trying to figure out what was going on between Dominic
Raines and Josephine to supernatural horror as demons suddenly start popping up
midway through the story, when Josephine’s mysterious nature starts overtaking
the story. I was really into the mystery
element of this story as I was trying to figure out throughout the entire story
about what Josephine’s true motives are and why do men suddenly fall in love
with her as I was wondering to myself about whether or not Josephine is even
human or a demon in some way.
Sean Phillips’ artwork: Sean
Phillips’ artwork is just amazing in this volume as the characters are
drawn in a truly realistic way and I really loved the scenes where the
characters are in dark places at night and you can see the shadowing around the
characters’ bodies. I also loved the way
that Sean Phillips gives the artwork
a creepy atmosphere with the majority of the stories taking place during the
night as it really provides a scary mood to this story.
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
For anyone who does not like strong language and gory
violence in a comic book, this volume does contain some strong violence, which
includes characters getting cut in half and blood spraying everywhere. Also, there is some strong language including
several instances of the “f” and “s” words being dropped throughout the volume.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Fatale:
Death Chases Me Book One” is definitely one volume that fans of both crime
noir and horror should check out immediately and I am definitely looking
forward to reading more of this series!
