Fallen Angel (comics)
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Fallen Angel is a fictional comic book heroine created and owned by Peter David. It was published by DC Comics from July 2003 until it was cancelled with issue #20 in May 2005 because of low sales. It resumed publication through IDW Publishing in December 2005 [1].
The series is unique among David's works in that it is not a comical superhero series. While not completely without humor, it is a very dark book with morally ambiguous characters. It was also one of the few "mature readers" books that DC published outside its Vertigo imprint, and was created to serve as a "bridge" between the mainstream DC titles and its Vertigo titles. The series and character is owned by Peter David himself, and not DC. The first series was illustrated in the typical pen-and-ink method of the comic book industry by penciler David Lopez and inker Federico Blanco. The second series is illustrated via a digitally-painted method by J.K. Woodward.
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[edit] Story
The story focuses on Lee (also known as the Fallen Angel) who is arguably a superheroine residing in the city of Bete Noire. The city is completely riddled with corruption, and supernatural characters who emerge at night, and is managed by the magistrate, Doctor Juris, who answers to unknown powers. Lee is possibly the only force for justice in the city.
[edit] Characters
Liandra/Lee/Fallen Angel Lee is a mysterious character who appears at night in the city of Bete Noire. By day she works as a physical education teacher at a girl’s school. Unlike most female superheroes who dress in revealing or suggestive costumes, Lee dresses in a red cloak and hood, with wrappings around her arms and legs to protect her from the harmful touch of Black Mariah. Lee has several superhuman abilities, including immense physical strength, the ability to either fly or leap large distances, and to project some type of mystical energy from her body, as from her eyes. She is a very enigmatic person whose actions often seem contradictory (in one issue she tortures Black Mariah, and in the next she saves her life). She makes her base of operations in a bar called Furors. People come to her seeking her help and if she believes that they have been wronged, she helps them - however, if she thinks they brought it on themselves, not only might she refuse to help them, she might also help to further their destruction.
As revealed in Fallen Angel (vol. 2) #3 & 4 (February and March 2006), Lee was a guardian angel named Liandra who took joy in her job, and was “the boss’s favorite” (presumably a reference to God.) Obedient and loyal, she always trusted the boss’s judgment, and never questioned his orders, always fulfilling her assignments to the best of her ability, and leading her charges to a better place when they passed on. Her mentor was an angel named Malachi, who also became her lover. Her fall from grace began when a mortal charge of hers named Doris gave birth to a daughter named Holly. Holly was able to see Liandra. Although the guardians’ charges normally cannot “connect” with them, for it would be too much of a burden for guardians to have a personal emotional stake in them, Holly represented a rare exception. One day when Holly was several years old, a man named Phil Newsome pulled up to Holly’s house, in front of which she was playing, and despite Liandra’s repeated warnings to Holly not speak to the stranger, the stranger abducted Holly, and as Liandra watched in horror, brutally murdered her. Newsome was released without trial when the judge in the case ruled that the police did not properly honor the chain of evidence in the case. Despite the counsel of Malachi, who himself was Newsome's guardian, Liandra responded by setting Newsome on fire with her abilities, which resulted in his death. For overstepping her authority, Liandra was stripped of her wings, and cast down to Earth. The incident remains a source of animosity that Lee holds for Malachi.
Doctor Juris The magistrate, and “manager” of Bete Noire. He answers to a mysterious group called the Hierarchy, and as his father's first-born son, was handed the reins of Bete Noire from him, as was his father before him. He is Lee's prime antagonist and, strangely enough, her lover. He was revealed to be a descendant of the Biblical character Cain. By the time of the second series, he is married to an Asian woman named Xia. He tries to pass on guardianship of Bete Noire to his son Jubal, at the stroke of midnight on Jubal’s eighteenth birthday, but when the ritual fails, he realizes that Jubal is not his firstborn son, which leads him to discover that he has a twenty-year-old son, Jude, by Lee.
Black Mariah- A witch with the power to suck life out of anyone she touches. Lee destroyed her white slavery ring and drove her out of town, temporarily.
Shadow Boxer Doctor Juris's chief enforcer. He is also Black Mariah's lover, due to the fact that he's the only one her touch won't kill. He has since been killed by Dr. Juris for his actions which resulted in what Juris believed to be the death of the child that he conceived with Lee.
Asia Minor An Asian drug lord who for various reasons often finds himself aiding Lee. He talks in a stereotypical way, though it has been hinted that his speech patterns are a put-on. He lives in a mausoleum in a graveyard. He also likes romance novels.
Dolf The owner of Furors and the person who christened Lee "The Fallen Angel." He might very well be Adolf Hitler.
Slate Juris's chief investigator and closest thing to a cop in Bete Noir. A creepy little man who is perennially smoking a cigarette.
Wilde A powerful sorcerer. He is in fact Black Mariah's brother. They don't get along. At one time he stole her death from the ether, making her immortal until he decided to kill her. He later returned it to Mariah, after being bluffed by Lee.
Malachi An angel himself, he was the Fallen Angel’s mentor and lover when she herself was an angel, though their friendship ended when the Fallen Angel was stripped of her wings and exiled to Earth. Many years after her exile, Malachi appeared to Fallen Angel in Fallen Angel (vol. 2) #1 (January 2006), and informed her that the "Boss" was offering her a chance to regain her wings and return to angelhood. In issue #4, however, he revealed to her that he was not representing the Boss in this regard, but the Hierarchy, the same power that Juris answers to. Malachi also becomes Mariah’s lover in the second volume of the series.
Jude Lee and Juris’ son, and older half-brother to Jubal. He first appeared as an infant (with tiny emerging wings on his back) at the end of the first version of the series, when Lee left him at an orphanage shortly after she gave birth to him. He then appeared as a young priest in the beginning of the second series, set twenty years later, when he sought out Juris, who realized his existence when his attempt to pass on management of Bete Noire to his son Jubal on Jubal’s eighteenth birthday failed, signifying that Jubal was not his firstborn. Jude’s wings were torn off by a dog when he was an infant.
Jubal Juris’ eighteen-year-old second son by Xia, half-brother to Jude. He has spent his life trying to please his father, and bears an understandable animosity towards when Juris realizes that it is Jude to whom he must pass on management of Bete Noire.
Xia Juris’ wife by the time of the second series, and mother to Jubal. A beautiful Asian woman, Xia is not her real name, but one that Juris picked for her, which means “glow of the sunrise”. She feels that Lee has harbored jealousy and hatred for her ever since she set foot in Bete Noire, because she, and not Lee, ended up marrying Juris.
[edit] Setting
The city of Bete Noire, which appears to be patterned somewhat on New Orleans, is as much a character as a setting. It has been revealed to be the Biblical city of Enoch by Dr. Juris, who has revealed himself to be one of the descendants of Cain. During the day it seems a normal city but at night it is a haven for crime and corruption. It is said that the events that happen in the city reverberate with the rest of the world. It is managed by its chief magistrate, and guardianship of the city must be passed from first-born son to first-born son.
[edit] Collections
[edit] Trivia
- Before the move to IDW, fans of the Peter David-scribed Supergirl series suspected that "Lee" was, in fact, Linda Danvers, drawn in by the malign influence of Bete Noire after the events in the final issues of her own title drove her to despair and self-loathing. The DC run of the title is entirely consistent with this hypothesis, which would also jibe with the expressed intent to form a "bridge" between DC's superhero and supernatural imprints. Though the revelation of Lee's true origins seemed to close off that possibility, David may not be finished with Linda Danvers yet; the December 13, 2006 entry on David's blog states, "Any fans of my run on Supergirl--particularly those who are torqued because Linda Danvers was consigned to oblivion in the DCU--must, must, MUST pick up "Fallen Angel" #14 and #15 when they come out next year." [2]
