Book / Week 28 - Fatale (Compendium - 2024)

2024/09/01

FATALE

Written by: Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by: Sean Phillips

Synopsis:

Josephine is cursed, and in a series that darkly blends American crime noir with unnamed Lovecraftian horrors, we follow her from 1950s San Francisco, where crooked cops hide deeper evils, to mid-'70s L.A., where burnt-out actors and ex-cult groupies are caught in a web around a satanic snuff film, then back through the ages of time...and in the middle of it all is Josephine, with a power to die or kill for.

//

I didn’t discover Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips until 2019 when I read ‘My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies’. Which is crazy because that’s more that almost 30 years after Brubaker started writing. I followed that with “Bad Weekend”. After those two books, I knew that I liked the creative due enough and continued to pick up their new works, including the series of Reckless books, as well as Pulp, Night Fever, Where The Body Was, and most recently, Houses of the Unholy.

Which brings me to Fatale. I saw this compendium on the ‘new comics’ shelf at my LCS recently, boldly displaying the due’s names, and obviously had to have it. Not only was this not in my collection as previously released trade paperbacks, but I found out this is their earlier work, prior to my discovery of the team.

This compendium packages the comics that came out between 2012 and 2014. While reading through it, it did feel like earlier work. “Mostly in the art” was my initial impressions, but realized in error that the books and art style I have become accustomed to, was due to Jacob Phillips colour. Fatale was before Jacob, and thus a slightly different style. So while it still read the same, the look was just slightly different. Still great, consistent visuals.

// The Story

The story follows Josephine, or “Jo”, who is our femme fatale lead. She has a curse where she can’t die. She can get hurt and feel pain. But death results in rebirth - and sometimes without memories. She also has a power to control men; make them do her bidding. As soon as they get a look of Jo, they are immediately enraptured by her appearance, and filled with the urge to help her in any way they can to please her. This never ends well for the men, as they either end up dead, or left crazy and mindless.

The compendium is broken up into 5 books, but its more like three parts.

Part one (books 1 and 2) is in San Francisco, 1950’s. Jo is on the run from a former lover. One who had fallen under her spell, but then, resorting to magic and the occult, had severed his ties to her but wants her power, and her head. This part focuses on a cop trying to help Jo.

Part two (book 3) goes back further in time, and tells short stories of Jo, before she was Jo. The many name, lives, and deaths of Jo, throughout the years.

And then part three (books 4 and 5) returns us to Jo, in the 1970’s, and this time, focusing on a band, and actors, and focuses on a satanic snuff film, and all the ways Jo gets helplessly involved in so many lives, just by being there.

// Between the pages

This book feels both like a noir, and a horror.

Jo is not an innocent bystander in these stories. She may be an unwilling participant, as she manages this curse, and she does lose a lot of love interests along the way, but there is a side to her where she will use her curse and powers to get what she needs, to the detriment of the many men in her path. And she is left with a lot of guilt. She knows what the curse is, which is why she’s not a true femme fatale stereotype. She feels bad, feels sorry for the foolish, helpless men trapped by her web. Bad things happen to them, and they keep coming back for more.

Thats the noir. The horror is with the satanic and occult themes. And the tireless monster-like creatures that are chasing Jo throughout the years. Wanting her powers. They kind of looks like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but mostly just scary teeth and tentacles.

The story does come to an end - a happy one, in the case of Jo, where she gets to break the cycle and the curse, and grow old finally, and free. The Lovecraftian monster chasing her throughout the series gets its expected end as well.

// Thought bubble

This series is really good, and definitely holds up among the other Brubaker/Phillips books I have in my collection. And another example where I bite off a little bit more than I can chew. Where instead of just tackling one book for a week, I feel the urge to read a compendium - 5 books! - and then subsequently fall behind not only on my reading, but writing too.

C’est la vie.

I also wanted to do fan art for this series, and probably still will, but nothing for this publishing date - I’m late enough as it is. I’ll likely just add it later, and write up a quick note to complement the effort.

Also, funny coincidence: I am reading the Deluxe versions of The Walking Dead, and issue #92 (July 3rd, 2024) has the historical letter columns from the original release (December 14, 2011), and the letter column was promoting the release of Fatale, and how Image was very excited to have Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips under their publishing umbrella.

Next read:

Book 29: Far Sector - N. K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell
Book 30: The Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Previous read:

Book 27: CHU Vol. 1-2
Book 26: The Hard Switch
Book 25: Phenomena - Book One: The Golden City of Eyes
Book 24: Newburn Vol. 1
Book 23: Suicide Squad: Get Joker / Wolverine: Rot