Fallen Angel (2003) #1
There were two reasons I picked up Fallen Angel #1 from the back issue bins: 1) I wrote a poem of the same name when I was in high school, and 2) I had heard a few good things about it in comic shops. Frankly, from solicitations, I thought it was trying a little too hard for the dark, mysterious feel, so I hadn't been all that interested. Besides, the back of the book tells the tale of what it was fighting against when it was released. In September of 2003, The Hot List was Formerly Known as the Justice League #1, Superman: Birthright #1, Teen Titans #1 and Empire #1. None of those are light competition. For Fallen Angel to have gone twenty issues against all of that, and then jumped over to IDW to continue publishing, ain't shabby.
As it turns out, the book does dark and mysterious pretty well, and I'm interested in reading the full story at some point (thank goodness there's an Omnibus edition from IDW). In this issue, we meet a bartender with a mysterious past, and Lee, our fallen angel, who does business from his bar. In the course of the story, we find out that she can apparently sense a sniper in an upper story room, make the site shatter into his eye, break knives with her hands, and that she has a thing for the bad guy she's fighting against. Also, if the way she solves the issue's mystery is any indication, she might have more than normal knowledge of the people around her. Or maybe she's just that good at reading people.
I don't always like Peter David's writing, but I have to give him his props for this one. I was very impressed with this issue. It's everything a good first issue should be, and even knowing this series was cancelled, it still exceeded my expectations, and I still want to read more of it. I'm giving it full marks - a full five stars.
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