Fatale #3

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips

There are a couple of things about this comic that made me happy.  To begin at the end, in the text piece at the back of the book, Ed Brubaker discusses the planned length of the series.  Previously, I'd expected this to be a five or six-issue limited series, like Brubaker and Phillip's recent work with Criminal or Incognito.  Instead, the current plan is to have this comic run for at least fifteen issues, making it the longest thing they've done together since Sleeper.  I see this as very good news, as I was having a bit of a hard time grasping the scope of this comic, as I felt things were perhaps moving a little slow for a six-issue story.  Now, I recognize that they are only just getting started.

The other thing that I liked about this comic is that about half of it continued the modern-day part of the story that the series began with.  Nicolas Lash, more or less recovered from his injuries, returns to the house his godfather left him, but doesn't find any more clues as to Jo's identity or intent.  He also rebuffs an offer to have his godfather's lost novel published, and instead begins to research some of the events that happened to him before he started writing. 

This returns us to the past, as Hank and Jo go on a little trip, conveniently happening at the same time that Hank's wife is murdered (off panel).  Hank starts to learn a little more about Jo, as she takes him to the house where she 'died the first time', and they meet someone who was present at that event.  Brubaker is really stepping up the mystery in this series, and I'm starting to get a better understanding of where this is all going.

In the text piece he also discusses the success of this series, as both issues prior to this one have sold out at Diamond, and are selling better than anything the creators have ever done together before this.  It really is an exciting time for independent comics I feel, and I am pleased to see that creators I respect and admire a great deal are receiving greater success.