We're now on issue two of the first multi-part story in Fallen Angel, and once again I find myself not entirely certain what's going on and yet completely enraptured by the book. Honestly, I could have used a bit of recap, because even having read the last issue, I felt like I couldn't quite picture what I saw before, but David's story remains approachable, and more than anything the not knowing made me want to go back and reread the previous issue, which is a sign of something being done right. Lopez and Blanco continue to provide artwork that is consistently good if not consistent in terms of style, and this may be as much as I've enjoyed Peter David's work since the early issues of Captain Marvel or his renowned run on the Incredible Hulk.
David shows a few of his familiar stylistic tics here, largely in the form of a couple of snappy lines from his protagonist that seem a little out of place in the overall dark tone of the story. Actually, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Angel's flip responses about dropping someone into a passing truck come across as her pretending to be a badass rather than making her seem like a dangerous and potentially deadly person. And yet, when she pulls much the same flippant attitude out on the folks charging into Dolf's, it's a little more chilling, and we get more of a sense of the dangerous, possibly even crazy, attitude that Lee represents.
I'm actually surprised that the mysteries in the book still have such a hold on me. Though we're only four issues in, it feels like we've been hearing things for longer, and that's the sign of David putting a lot into this book for readers to appreciate. My early feelings were that he was holding out on us a bit too much, not giving us some more clues or outright answers, but now I feel like the mystery is such a part of this book that it would be a shame to dispense with it too early. Instead, better to provide a few more examples of Lee working within her mystery persona, with capabilities that even the reader doesn't know the extent of, or to hint a little more at the nature of Bete Noire and clearly indicate that it's more than just an average city without telling us exactly what it is.
One of my favorite mystery elements in this issue comes in the conversation between Slate and Lee. It's a nice bit of writing, letting us learn a bit about the origins of an important character while also introducing a parallel to the situation that is threatening Lee and Bete Noire at the moment. We don't know what the creature looks like or entirely what it wants, but we know what it's capable of, and given that Bete Noire shares the same sort of otherworldly nature as Maristan, Slate's former home, the implications for what might happen are very effective.
Though Lopez and Blanco could use a bit more consistency in their models for the characters, that's really the only complaint I can find in their artwork. Certainly the storytelling is strong, with some impressive displays of power and skill from Lee that succeed in large part thanks to the effective layouts and some disturbing, even horrific, elements that make the threat of the arc seem more deadly. I also love the way that the artists, with help from Eyring, create a sort of constant night in Bete Noire, reinforcing the noir feel that David is going for in the scripts.
