Review: Madame Xanadu - Exodus Noir

It’s the 1940s in New York City, and clairvoyant Madame Xanadu has been hired to investigate the mysterious death of a businessman. She soon discovers that he the victim of an ancient curse, one which threatens to destroy the lives of three prominent New York families.

Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir collects Madame Xanadu #11-15, written by Matt Wagner and illustrated by Michael Wm. Kaluta.

In Exodus Noir, Wagner juxtaposes the bustling streets of 1940s New York City with the dusty roads of 15^th century Spain to weave a brilliant follow-up to his epic ten issue introductory arc. Picking up shortly where we left her last, Madame Xanadu has opened up shop in Greenwich Village and has become a popular fortune teller through word-of-mouth. The bulk of the story deals with her investigation into the death of a client’s father. It is presented in such a way that it pays homage to the noir genre, positing Madame Xanadu as the hard-boiled detective in search of the truth. The subplot takes place in the past, showing Madame Xanadu taking up residence in Spain with a seamstress as her lover and companion. Despite her living comfortably and happily in this setting, it’s become quite clear that the nation’s religious leaders are threatening to disturb her quietude.

Religious extremism and scapegoating is at the centre of Wagner’s tale. For a magic user and sexually liberated woman like Madame Xanadu, this spells trouble. The sequences set in Spain are infuriating and frustrating, as we see a nation overrun by religious leaders who use their power to condemn and murder anyone who is unlike them. Wagner uses these themes to his advantage, as he shows how events in the past continue to resonate decades and even centuries later. We see how passivity, assimilation and finger pointing only begets more violence, leading to oppression and grudges that last for years. Specifically, Wagner highlights the consequences that stem from the Catholics’ condemnation of the Jews. He painstakingly details the brutal acts committed upon the Jews and how, even when assimilated, they are never truly free. All of this, as you can imagine, informs Madame Xanadu’s investigation in the ‘40s.

While the writing itself is of a tremendously high quality, the art doesn’t quite reach the same level. While Michael Wm. Kaluta is to be given credit for having been Madame Xanadu’s original artistic creator, it seems that the years have not been quite so kind to him. His illustrations in this collection are rough and don’t properly capture the eras being written about. His art lacks the whimsical qualities and adaptability of his predecessor Amy Reeder, whose work on the previous collection was beautiful in every sense of the word. Kaluta’s lack of character definition and the overall unattractive Neanderthal-like qualities to them make it difficult at times to fully enjoy this trade.

Like the preceding collection, Exodus Noir is perfect for fans of historical narratives. While it lacks the same kind of epic scale and expansive qualities, it is still a thrilling read nonetheless. Wagner continues to build on Madame Xanadu’s character, giving her qualities fit for any champion of the people. Incorporating elements of noir, themes social injustice and religious intolerance, as well as adding a heaping dose of magic, Wagner creates a not-to-miss story that builds perfectly on the foundation of his first ten issues.

RATING: B+

Review: Fatale Book One - Death Chases Me

In the smoke-filled streets of the 1950s, reporter Dominic Raines finds himself trapped in a web of secrets and ancient evils when he begins a torrid affair with the enigmatic Josephine. He is so completely mesmerized by this femme fatale that he fails to see that he has landed himself in the middle of a dangerous game of cat and mouse between Jo’s ex-lover and a group of demonic gangsters. Even if he survives, Dominic’s life will be forever changed.

Fatale Book One: Death Chases Me collects Fatale #1-5, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips.

In Death Chases Me, Ed Brubaker does what he does best – crafts a complex and dark narrative featuring a memorable lead character, all while paying tribute to the noir genre. He had previously done this successfully with his relaunch of Catwoman from the 2000s, but does things a little more differently here. Instead of presenting his story as a present day homage to the genre, Brubaker takes his readers all the way into the past and earnestly treats the narrative as a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction – with a twist! To this highly stylized world of dirty cops and nosy reporters, Brubaker injects a healthy nose of Lovecraftian horror in the form of the immortal Jo and her demonic pursuers. This gives the material an added sense of terror, one which works perfectly to further build the mystery surrounding the book’s femme fatale.

Fatale reads like a novel. It’s complicated and is deliberately vague, which both heightens the mystery and disorients the viewer. In fact, some pages need to be read more than once just to absorb every detail. The payoff is an incredibly tense narrative that constantly keeps the reader on the edge of his or her seat, never certain of what horrors will await them when they turn the page or see the next panel. Brubaker achieves this not only through the action and dialogue, but also through some rather smartly written third person narration. They tell us just what we need to know and direct us towards how we should feel about characters without divulging too much information about their emotional state. As you can imagine, this aids in maintaining an uncertainty about the characters involved.

The character work is fairly impressive, if a bit expected at times. Brubaker is working within a very specific genre, one which has been revisited so many times that we feel like we know these characters already. At the centre of the narrative are a cop and a reporter, the latter of which comes across as more of a plot device than a hero we’re meant to root for. The former, however, is a little more complex. He’s heavily flawed, as most detectives are in noir fiction, but he’s much more accessible. It’s much easier to relate to a man dying of cancer, desperate to escape this terrible disease and resentful towards his dissolving relationship to a woman he once loved dearly. Nevertheless, the real star in all of this is Jo.

Whether it’s writing Catwoman or Sharon Carter, Brubaker has proven himself capable of writing compelling female characters. He continues that streak with Jo. He is careful so as never to reveal too much about who she is and where she came from, only giving readers breadcrumbs every so often. This creates tremendous interest and investment into her as a character. She’s fierce and capable of handling a gun in any given situation, while also possessing a seemingly unique ability to put men under her seductive spell. By the end of Death Chases Me, we’re left knowing little more about Jo than when we started, but that’s not a bad thing.

Sean Phillips deftly handles the art chores for Fatale and it’s really hard to imagine anyone but him doing the job. It’s moody, dark and indicative of the era it’s set in. It certainly feels almost like you’re watching an old film noir, so that speaks volumes as to how synergistic Brubaker and Phillips are as a team. That’s not to say there aren’t some chinks in Fatale’s armour. Where Brubaker was a little shallow with some of his characterizations, Phillips sometimes falls short in the detail department with his art. At its best, the art is incredibly expressive. At its worst, it’s muddy and this leaves many characters with weird anatomy and faces lacking in proper detailing.

For fans of the genres of noir and horror, Fatale is like a brilliant marriage that somehow works despite its odd coupling. It’s also ideal for booklovers, as it offers a narrative most often found in novels and operates in the moral grey area rather than the more common good versus evil conflict seen in most other comic books. Death Chases Me is a great start and lays down the groundwork for one hell of a good ride.

RATING: B+