[BOOK REVIEW] Fatale: Death Chases Me Volume 1 by Ed Brubaker

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  Later on, Nicolas decides to explore Dominic’s old house and he finds an unpublished manuscript that detailed Dominic’s life back in the 1950s.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!