Freakangels Vol. 4

Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Paul Duffield

This volume of Freakangels, the collection of Warren Ellis's webcomic, gives a lot more depth to the characters than the previous volumes did.  Ellis spent most of the beginnings of this series on establishing the setting of post-flood Whitechapel, and introducing the various characters that make up the Freakangel tribe.  Now that the reader can more or less tell them apart and knows the roles each character holds within their society, Ellis is finally digging into their backstory.

This volume opens six years before the rest of the series, and shows the events that led to the ecological catastrophe that submerged most of England.  As it turns out, our heroes had a bigger role in this disaster than we knew, and the reasons for it are pretty interesting.  After that, we return to present day, where two major events are playing out at the same time.  Mark, the exiled Freakangel, has returned, which is not good.  Also, we see what happens with Luke, the Freakangel that the others imprisoned in the last volume, for violating some of the women under their protection.

This was probably the most compulsively readable trade in the series to date.  I've finally started to differentiate between the characters (they kind of look the same), and got swept up in the story.  Duffield's artwork is amazing - I would like to see him on more series.