The greatest horror-noir of all time comes to a close with “Fatale” #24. Brubaker and Phillips deliver a melancholy resolution for Josephine while building upon the myth hitting just about everything we love about “Fatale”. There is no major twist, there is nothing particularly gasp worthy or unexpected. What we have is simply the most satisfying and appropriate end for one of the most unfortunate and endearing characters in comics. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
WRITTEN BY: ED BRUBAKER
ART BY: SEAN PHILLIPS
PUBLISHER: IMAGE
PRICE: $4.99
RELEASE: July 30, 2014
Reviewed By Epic Switzer
Who needs a cigarette?
This is the ending Josephine deserves. I think partly what is so fascinating about this character is that she represents an unobtainable ideal both diegetically and for the reader. It is almost as if her power extends off the page and corrupts your mind as you read “Fatale”. Just like her “victims”, we love her, we lust after her, but we can never obtain her. And if you haven’t gotten the whole picture yet, Brubaker and Phillips brilliantly give you one final hint as to what it is that she represents. I hesitate to disclose my interpretation of final allegory, because I find it’s meaning to be deeply personal and relevant to me yet open to your own interpretation. Upon reading this series again, I think there will be a great deal to discover and connect to this final installment. And that, to me, is the mark of fantastic plotting and powerful themes.
“Fatale” has been such an incredibly influential book for me personally that I can’t help but swoon over how perfectly concluded this deeply rich story is here in issue 24. If I have any complaint at all, I hate shudder to even suggest it, but part of me wishes we had just gotten one tiny step closer to the true cosmic horror that Josephine is meant to give rise to.
Nick’s brush with the eternal is merely suggested rather than depicted and is over as soon as it began. This stays true to the style of true cosmic horror, because to actually see them would drive us insane, as it did Nick, but I fear the scene and its narration were almost to brief to satisfy my twisted taste.
Anyway having said that, I’m sorry and I take it all back. This book is perfect.
At the end there is a preview for Ed and Sean’s next noir book called “The Fade Out” (drool) and a final, fantastic article by Jess Nevins about the noir trope of fallen heroes and their counterpart, the redeemed villain. Each and every one of her essays has been a masterwork and if you haven’t been reading the single issues, you are missing out. Go back and find them if you can.
I’m sort of still reeling from the fact that it is all over now. I don’t know if anything can fill the void left behind by this book, but I also think that feeling is incredibly appropriate to the series. There is nothing left now but to grieve and start again from the beginning. To trap myself in a cycle, reliving each tragedy, each mistake, each heartbreak. To live like Josephine, searching for meaning in a mad mad world. To seek the truth, because I will not deny it. I live in the shadow of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Bravo gentlemen, bravo.
Epic Switzer AKA Eric is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.