Chronicles of a Dark Angel


Fallen Angel TPB is now available.

Fallen Angel may not be a comic you'd usually attribute to me. It's dark in both theme and visual style, with morally ambiguous characters and plots that may take one or two reads to be clear. But then again, it stars a kick-ass, mysterious young woman who is both beautiful and complex.
FA is the story of Lee, a cloaked, red-haired woman who is part enforcer, part vigilante, part bounty-hunter and all-around femme fatale in the steamy, shadowy city of Bete Noir. In the span of the 12 issues released so far, we haven't been given too much knowledge about her. She answets to a nun, is super strong and invulnerable, and has acrobatic agility to let her clamber all across the rooftops of the city like a cat. She has some sort of psychic power similar to telekinesis that can, if she wants, tear someone inside out. And finally, she has a creepy ability to just hover slightly above the ground, the soles of her feet never touching the ground. Is she an enhanced human? An actual angel? Only the writer knows, and he's not telling... yet.

So far Lee has shown she's not above getting in bed with the criminal elements of Bete Noir. She's not above using torture to get what she wants- a moral point that both subtly hits at the US Army's treatment of prisoners in Iraq, and shows that our heroine Lee is all too human. She's battled street thugs, criminal masterminds, sorcerous underworld figures and bloodthirsty beasts, but her most deadly foe just may be her own inner demons. It's not always a pretty sight, but for some reason watching the Fallen Angel as she walks her danger-filled path is a gripping read.

This series is one of those kinds of comics these days- an excellently-produced title that has a small but loyal fan base. I really like this title and hope it continues, that's why I support it at every turn. Comic book fans with a taste for dark, gritty, non-conventional fare may do well to check out the recently-released trade, which collects the first 6 issues of the series, and has a couple of pages of character sketches to round off the deal. Get it at your favorite comic store now!