Having recently been reminded just how good Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips can be with their latest Criminal run, I wanted MORE! So I went back to revisit one of their few titles that I’ve read almost nothing of because the first book didn’t click for me: Fatale. Lovecraftian horror meets classic LA noir - how could it be anything but a hit, right? And yet…
Nope! Just like the first Fatale book, the second was plain bad! So this is the part where I usually try to summarise the plot - and that’s part of the problem: I wasn’t totally sure what was happening! There’s a snuff film doing the rounds and people are after it and there’s a Satanic cult doing stuff and want our heroine - though I’m not sure why she’s that either - for a ritual to do something.
Ugh. Besides the occasional murder of a non-character, nothing much happens for the vast majority of the book. Characters bumbling around, talking moodily - it’s not interesting at all. I have no idea why Josephine is involved in any of this seeing as she doesn’t seem to do anything but sit in her house smoking and watching old movies - this is why I wonder why she’s the title character given how passive, unmotivated and boring she is! Like all the characters, she’s a total yawner to read about and her romance with the failed actor was forced and unconvincing.
My bafflement was only further underlined in the final act when she clutches a book saying that she was now saved. What?! Maybe it was established in the first Fatale what that book was and how it relates to her but it’s been seven years since I read Volume 1 and I was completely lost!
The Satanic cult/Lovecraftian mumbo-jumbo was as corny as a Hammer horror but totally unoriginal and bland. They’re evil and they’re out to do evil things because evil - I dunno, take over the world or something stupid like that. Brubaker simply doesn’t write horror well and it’s not a good fit alongside his normal brand of crime noir fiction.
The noir is cliched and unpleasant for the sake of being unpleasant. If you want to read about the sinister machinations of old Hollywood, this very same creative team did it way better in The Fade Out.
Sean Phillips’ art is the book’s only saving grace and it’s dependably strong, particularly coupled with Dave Stewart’s colours. Unfortunately though, while the Brubaker/Phillips partnership is one of comic’s finest creative teams, they’re not immune from putting out the occasional pile of crap which Fatale, Volume 2: The Devil’s Business definitely is.
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