Ed Brubaker &
Sean Phillips “Fatale Book 4: Pray For
Rain” (Image, 2014)
Volume Four is primarily told in flashback: it’s Seattle in 1995. The band Amsterdam is on the down side of
their rock & roll story. The hits
have dried up and their enigmatic genius is increasingly erratic and sliding
into mental illness. The lead singer decides to fund the band by robbing
bands. Maybe this step from the world of
rock narratives into a crime story is what causes their downfall. But he finds HER on the side of the road and
brings HER home. This time she calls
herself “Jane” (as in “Jane Doe”). At first
it’s rather idyllic. Jane buoys the
group. Her presence seems to stabilize
them. They start writing songs again. But we know HER story in a general sense if
not in the details. Soon enough things
go wildly out of control. These rock
guys were not cut out to be in HER story, and it’s too late to get back into
their own narrative.
In the larger sense, this fourth volume doesn’t do anything
to illuminate any of the overall storylines or portions of the mythos (see what
I did there?). If you aren’t familiar
with the story you will be lost at this point.
But for those will some familiarity to the story, this is another
exciting and captivating chapter in this oddly compelling series.
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