3 out of 5

Well, I gotta’ tell ya – the magic’s sorta’ gone for me at this point.  Brubaker and Lark had absolutely grabbed me with ‘Scene of the Crime’ back in the day.  I still think its a prime example of crime comics, although the ending, re-reading it with a more seasoned eye, has turned out to be typical of a lot of Ed’s endings: not a let down, per se, just no real climax – a logical conclusion to matters that somewhat ignores the whole comic concept of splitting a story up into bite sized pieces.  Following Ed to Gotham Central and Batman and then, wow, Captain America, it was awesome to see noir pop up in ways and with characters you wouldn’t quite expect.  Cap was a kick because it also seemed to do a lot of fanboy service.  But I did exit out of that series later when, as with Criminal, and now with Fatale, I started to see all too clearly that there wasn’t really a status quo Brubaker planned on affecting – regardless of the flash in the pictures, he was just retelling genre tropes in different ways.  I guess you could say every writer does this to a certain extent, but often it seems like the stereotypes can be vehicles for fresh ideas for the story or character; with Brubaker it seems to be the reverse – finding different ways to shoehorn his books into these same structures.

‘Fatale’ initially impressed me as it seemed like a truly new direction for our ‘Criminal’ crew, doing what I suggested above – taking a setup as a springboard for something truly new… and even the springboard seemed freshly, er, waxed and… sprung… as it was a funky blend of Lovecraftian horror and noir.  But with Book 4, the curtain’s been pulled back – from Lowlife, to Scene, to now, this is still just the same tale.  I’ll give Brubes credit for honesty in advertising – the book is definitely all about a Fatale, but that’s all it’s going to be about.  A Femme Fatale.

In this arc, we’re still tracing, in present day interludes, the fallout of Nicolas Lash’s unfortunate interaction with grandaddy’s ‘missing’ book, ‘The Losing Side of Eternity’ and the titular Fatale, Josephine (the former apparently about the latter… and both with the power to drive men mad), while we slowly follow Jo’s history… now into the 90s, post some memory loss, shacking up with a grunge bad who’s slumming it after one hit.  This gives Brubes a chance to divert and focus on the boys crazy for women tales he loves so much – with the extra knife twist of the insanity causing Jo – and things escalate somewhat predictably by now as Jo’s memory returns and the baddie demons who’re after here re-pick up the trail.  Phillips is as reliable as ever with his art, but on occasion he’ll stop on some larger compositions – several 1/3rd page panels catch the eye throughout the arc – where it almost seems like he slows down for a minute, nails an emotion that isn’t one of his typical fuck-off-sneer/in ecstasy/confused grimace looks, and perfectly juxtaposes it against a motion-filled background… and it makes you wish you could see a whole book like that, transformed, in the same way that Cameron Stewart has matured with his style over the years, whereas Sean has gotten tighter but has definitely stuck to his scene.  (And hey, it works for him, so who am I to criticize.)  I must admit that I’m preferring Elizabeth Breitweiser’s more mottled colors to Dave Stewart’s blends; Stew is the perfect match for the Mignolaverse’s focus on negative space, but Sean’s art needs something a bit more grounded, and Elizabeth meets that need.

But, as mentioned, the story just doesn’t do much for me by this point.  The book is just another component of The Fatale, who’s just another noir trope, demon-fueled or not.  I like that Fatale, for all its bloody overkill, has been much more focused than Criminal and more professional (less purposefully crass) than ‘Incognito.’  However, I miss feeling like Brubaker could surprise me.  Instead, I feel as though I could suggest any Criminal / Incognito / Fatale arc to give a random reader the entire gist of what’s what.  If you dig it, by all means jump on board.  Book 4 was lighter on back material than other arcs, but Brubaker’s editorial pages speak true to the man’s excitement for this stuff and his appreciation of his fans, so I’m glad he has a nice base of followers who are picking this stuff up.  (Makes me feel like it’s safe for me to bail…)