I've been uncertain about Fallen Angel, starting off a little shaky, growing to love it and then settling into a groove of not being sure about it again from month to month. However, having now reread the six issues that comprise this trade I can say two things for sure: One is that Fallen Angel absolutely reads better in trade paperback form, and the other is that I was completely wrong to doubt that this is anything but some of Peter David's finest work in comics. The mysterious setting of Bete Noire is a fascinating creation, the cast of characters delightfully morally ambiguous and the many mysteries, both small and large, that populate the series make it a deeper read than I at first gave it credit for. If you're a Peter David fan, you'll probably enjoy this for a more subtle but still plainly evident sense of humor and style that permeates the book, and if you're not, you'll be surprised to see him tackling a book with such a dark and mysterious tone. Either way, you've got to be happy with the artwork by Lopez, Blanco and Eyring.
David opens the book with an introduction to our mysterious protagonist, and in these first six issues, he explores the character but still leaves a lot unsaid about her as well. She's got a terrific visual, a deceptively simple redhead in a cloak with piercing eyes, but the way she is spoken of in her place of business or the confident way she carries herself marks her as far more dangerous from the outset, and that impression just grows as stories go on. The first time we see her, she uses impossibly keen senses and undefined abilities (telekinesis?) to avoid a sniper attack and warn the man behind it against doing such things again. The next time we see her in action she's taking on physically formidable foes without much of a problem. And then we see her face down an honest-to-God monster, and throughout we're starting to wonder, what are the limits of her abilities? It's clear she has them, she's not a boring indestructible supergirl (*wink*), but the exact extent of her powers, like so much of the character, is left unsaid. She's a strong heroine, a laconic tough chick, like the female flipside of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca or any number of other noir lead characters, 99% of them male. But she also has a wicked sense of humor (it was only in the trade that I realized that her "'Kay" was sort of a catchphrase for when she was about to do something heartless to the bad guys) and more than a little vulnerability that she hides away from everyone, and as we start to see hints of in the final storyline, she might not always be on the side of the angels in these stories.
As much as I love Lee, the titular Fallen Angel of the book, however, I would be remiss in not mentioning the strong supporting cast of the book. Doctor Juris, who is Lee's arch-enemy and lover and who seems to be playing a big game at all times, is a fascinating antagonist, although he really won't be truly developed until we see some defining moments in the second set of stories (hopefully soon to be collected in a second trade). Shadow Boxer and Black Mariah are an interesting little power couple, although again Mariah really comes into her own in the second set of the stories, while Boxer serves mostly as a physical antagonist for Lee in this one. Her true foes are her smarter ones, the delightfully sleazy and fun Asia Minor and the obviously intelligent and sly Slate. Both play out as much as difficult allies as they do antagonists, and that's another aspect of that enjoyable moral ambiguity that makes the book such an intriguing read.
However, probably the number one character in Fallen Angel that keeps me coming back is Bete Noire, the city itself. I love the fictional cities of the DC Universe, but David has created something else here, a city that is of the real world and yet undeniably a tad bit disconnected from it as well. Dolf and Benny, owner and regular at the Furors bar, respectively, map pretty easily onto long-dead dictators and war criminals, and notions like the city actually changing at night or having no police force make it clear that this is not just some run-of-the-mill burg with a crime problem or an affinity for the strange. There's something else going on in Bete Noire, and while the stories of drug dealers, prostitution and murder could pop up in just about any gothic city in the DC arsenal, they take on a different tone in Bete Noire than they would in say Gotham or Opal City.
Lopez and Blanco's art is interesting and pretty fluid in style. Depending on the page, the work sometimes reminds me of realistic work from Darick Robertson, shadowy and abstract work by Phil Hester or even the straightforward work of someone like Jim Calafiore. As the book goes on, you can see the artwork becoming more consistent and improving, and in addition to a strong design for the many characters, the artists have to be credited with some very memorable scenes, including some of the horrific elements in the "Little Better Than A Beast" story and with pushing the edge on mature titles as DC decided whether or not the book was mature readers or not.
Fallen Angel is not at all what I expected when I heard Peter David was doing a new book for DC, and while I'm a long-time David fan, I mean that as a compliment. David's story is a blend of psychological horror, super-hero and noir crime, and there's a sort of haunting H.P. Lovecraft touch in the second half of the book that fits right in with that weird mixture of ingredients. As with many of DC's trades of late, there's also been a decision to include a few extras, nice little bonuses that add value to the book, including a very funny and sharp introduction by Harlan Ellison that sets the tone perfectly and some interesting looks at some of the design sketches for the characters by David Lopez.
