Soaring angel

I've done a brief bit on Peter David & David Lopez's last collaboration - Supergirl - Many Happy Returns - and was quite impressed by that volume. In reading reviews of that, I noticed a number of them pointed out the new series Fallen Angel which seemed to be a successor to that Supergirl series. With that endorsement, I checked out the first collection of Fallen Angel.

First, let me mention that this is not a comic book for children. It deals with sexual situations, complex morals, sometimes graphic violence, and adult themes. And it's an excellent start to a series. There's still work to be done, but it's a good start.

We find ourselves coming into the middle of the scene, the Louisiana town of Bette Noir which is a true den of iniquity watched over by no government, no polic force, and only one protector - the Fallen Angel herself, a dark force with her own moral code. Her past is hinted at throughout the volume - at times, a little too obviously - and we are told - again, a little too blatantly, perhaps - that there is more to this situation than meets the eye. The Angel can be vengeful and caring, violent and tender in subsequent pages and panels.

The artwork is a bit dicey at times but is generally a nice relief from the pneumatic fanboy drawings that seem to pervade a number of titles these days. The dialogue could ease back a bit to a less forced tone of neo noir, but the tone matches what the author is trying to create.

My one complaint in this title is that David seems a little less than patient with the reader. His last series - Supergirl - was cancelled just as the title was beginning to find its way, and David seems eager to not let this title do the same. To prevent this, he is throwing in so many "hints" that there's more here than meets the eye, so many notes to force us to keep coming back because we haven't found out the answers (where did Angel come from? why are there two scars on her back? what the the relationship between her and the governor of Bette Noir?). It seems a little forced.

All that being said, the series does achieve a nice balance of good and evil with most of the characters falling into the grey area between the edges. And, as an added bonus, Brian Stelfreeze does an incredible job on the covers for this series. Amazing visuals...