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Fallen Angel (comics)
Encyclopedia
Fallen Angel is an American fictional comic book
heroine created and owned by writer Peter David
and artist David Lopez
, who appears in her self-titled monthly series. It was published by DC Comics
from July 2003 until it was canceled with issue #20 in May 2005 because of low sales. It resumed publication through IDW Publishing
in December 2005, and ran for 33 issues. It has since been followed by two mini-series, Fallen Angel: Reborn and Fallen Angel: Return of the Son.
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 of its Vertigo imprint and was created to serve as a "bridge" between the general-audience DC titles and its Vertigo titles.
The first series was illustrated in the typical pen-and-ink method of the comic book industry by penciller
David Lopez
and inker Fernando Blanco. The first five-issue arc of the second series was painted by J. K. Woodward
, though both Woodward and guest artists have utilized the traditional pen-and-ink method since then.
In August 2004, in response to complaints that some retailers weren't stocking copies of Fallen Angel for interested fans to purchase, David announced that he would be producing a limited-edition autographed bookplate
which could be attached to the Fallen Angel trade paperback, which he would send to both interested retailers and fans.
In January 2005, David confirmed that he had been told Fallen Angel would not continue past issue #20, despite a recent, reportedly successful, promotional effort. Sales on the title were reported to be around 11,000 copies - about 4000 short of what DC required for the title to be profitable.
Although Lopez provided some of the covers, the bulk of the interior art, in the early stages of the series, was provided by J. K. Woodward
. Other artists like Kristian Donaldson
also did short runs.
The final issue of this second volume, which was published January 21, 2009, saw the conclusion of the Moloch storyline that began with that volume, and God accepting Liandra back into heaven. The series was relaunched with a new storyline in July 2009, and guest starred the character Illyria from Joss Whedon
's Buffyverse
.
2009 saw the release of Fallen Angel: Reborn, a four-issue mini-series. A second mini-series, titled Fallen Angel: Return of the Son, was launched in January, 2011.
The city of Bete Noire is as much a character as a setting. It has been revealed to be the Biblical city of Enoch. During the day the city has no crime at all, but at night it is a haven for crime and corruption. Known as "the city that shapes the world", some say that the events that happen in the city influence major global events. Bete Noire is often said to possess a sentience
of its own; the city decides who enters and leaves. When entering and exiting Bete Noire, Lee experiences the city as simply appearing or vanishing around a deserted road. Time passes differently in Bete Noire than it does outside of it. People born and raised in the city appear to age normally, but outsiders who come to live in it either age more slowly or experience a total cessation of aging.
Bete Noire is run by an organization known as The Hierarchy. Lee has said that even God
has no dominion over Bete Noire; it is run exclusively by The Hierarchy. The Hierarchy, in turn, typically exerts its will through the city's Magistrate. The Magistrate, a direct descendent of Cain, manages the city. The position of Magistrate is passed from firstborn son to firstborn son by means of a mystical ritual performed on or after the son's eighteenth birthday. The Magistrate constantly hears the voices of the city and is plagued by visions. This perception causes the Magistrate excruciating pain, and he must learn to tolerate and ignore it. All Magistrates bear the mark of Cain, which renders them effectively immortal and impervious to harm. Magistrates are even able to mentally control the actions of those trying to do them harm. However, it appears that both former Magistrates and agents of the Hierarchy are able to hurt, and possibly even kill, a Magistrate. After passing the duties of Magistrate on to his firstborn son, Dr. Juris attempted to leave the city and experienced a fatal aging effect after he crossed the city limits. During his tenure, a Magistrate is granted one "day off" per year, during which he is permitted to leave the city.
- "The Boss's favorite" - until one of her charges, a girl named Holly, develops the ability to see her. They develop a close bond, and when Holly is abducted and murdered, Liandra is devastated. The murderer is acquitted on a technicality, and Liandra kills him. As a result, Liandra is stripped of her wings and cast down to Earth.
She eventually makes her way to Bete Noire, adopting the name "Lee". 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 deserve their fate, not only might she refuse to help them, she might also help to further their destruction. By day, she works as a physical education teacher at a girl’s school, until it is destroyed by Slate. She is a very enigmatic person whose actions often seem contradictory; in one issue she tortures Black Mariah, and shortly thereafter she saves her life. For some time, she maintains a sexual relationship with Bete Noire's Magistrate, Doctor Juris, who in many ways is her counterpart in the city. She eventually gives birth to his son, Jude, and secretly leaves him in the care of an orphanage. Lee is not the first to serve as "protector" of Bete Noire; she has had more than one predecessor.
Lee has several superhuman
abilities, including immense physical strength, the ability to leap large distances, and to project some type of mystical energy from her body, often from her eyes. Her invulnerability is tied to her level of concentration, and she can be harmed if extremely fatigued or distracted. She has also stated that she has a superhuman sense of direction. Since being cast down, she cannot touch Earth's soil, and so floats just above the ground when barefoot. Because of the nature of time in Bete Noire, Lee, who was not born in the city, ages more slowly than Bete Noire native-borns, but has yet experienced some aging between the first and second volumes of the series because she spends half her time outside the city. When in the city, she physically appears to be the equivalent of a twenty-five-year-old human woman, but outside the city, appears to be a woman in her late 40's.
Unlike Lee, Malachi has retained the full scope of his angelic powers, which include the ability to survive indefinitely without breathing.
ring and drives her out of town shortly after her (Lee's) arrival in Bete Noire. Upon her return, she offers to give Lee a piece of The Shard - a fragment of Christ's
crucifix. Lee drugs and tortures Mariah for information, but later helps her recover her death from Wilde. Mariah learns that Doctor Juris was responsible for the death of Shadow Boxer, Mariah's lover, and allies herself with Lee. Twenty years later, she also enters a relationship with Malachi.
between any two dark areas. He uses this power to rescue his abusive father, who was trapped in a mine, but his father later accuses him of being in league with the Devil. In his rage, Boxer's father attacked his wife, causing her to miscarry her unborn child. Boxer killed his father as retribution. As an adult in Bete Noire, Shadow Boxer acts as Doctor Juris's main enforcer. He is also Black Mariah's lover, as her touch does not harm him. In a battle with Lee, Boxer is led to believe he has caused her to miscarry. Stricken with guilt, he confesses to Dr. Juris, who kills him.
drug lord who for various reasons often finds himself aiding Lee. He speaks in the broken English
stereotypical of Asian immigrants, though it has been established that this is a facade, in that he is capable of speaking perfect English. He was once visited by the ghost of a girl named Tiffany, a girl who had been murdered by a junkie addicted to drugs supplied by Asia, and since then has been cursed with the ability to help only others, but never himself. Asia supplies the Magistrate with drugs that suppress the constant voices and visions that accompany the position.
, the characters had previously appeared in their own limited series from Marvel Comics
's Epic
imprint in 1993. Although the characters were owned by the creators, David says their appearance in Fallen Angel nearly didn't happen due to the legal costs involved. Co-creator George Pérez contributed covers to these issues. Sachs and Violens remained cast members in the series after it transferred to IDW Publishing. Juanita "J.J." Sachs and Ernie "Violens" Shultz come to Bete Noire to find and destroy a child pornography ring. They decide to remain in the city, and Violens becomes the city's Chief Enforcer after the death of Shadow Boxer. Sachs is the sister of Bumper Ruggs, the manager of a local brothel.
; in addition to the name of his bar's similarity to Hitler's title of Führer
, Dolf claims that he has been a painter, a writer, "dabbled" in politics, and made enemies. He also owns a World War II
-era Walther P38 pistol. When asked if he is a collector, Dolf again responds, "I dabble." Dolf has also indicated that he considers dark skin to mark one as "an inferior creature, barely above an animal...certainly not human."
Shi
. Issue #17 was published as a flip-book, with one following Lee, and the other half telling the same story from Shi's perspective.
Illyria from Joss Whedon
's Angel
is set to cross over with Fallen Angel. According to Peter David, "The story is set early in Illyria's involvement with Angel & Co.
Having been deprived of her power by Wesley
, she is drawn to Bete Noire as a potential source for not only becoming what she was before, but even achieving her previous status. Remember, what we see of her in Angel is not her true appearance." The Buffyverse
crossover will continue for four issues. The collected edition is scheduled for a January 2010 publication.
and other religions, some of which provide an unusual perspective on faith and worship.
Though David remained coy as to whether the two characters were one and the same during the DC run of the title, after it moved to IDW, David revealed Lee's origin, which clearly showed that Lee was not Danvers. However, Fallen Angel #14 introduced "Lin," who was said to be Lee's "predecessor" in Bete Noire. Lin had recently escaped Limbo
, an apparent metaphor for what happened to Danvers after the cancellation of Supergirl. David was more explicit as to whether Lin was Linda Danvers in his December 13, 2006 blog entry, in which he stated:
However, since David could not explicitly claim that a character owned by DC and a character that he owned were one and the same, he admitted:
Furthermore, in the Fallen Angel Premier Edition hardcover, a bonus story was revealed detailing Malachi's transfer out of God's service. This story portrayed God as being a young boy wearing a baseball cap and holding a metal golf club, similar to Wally the God-Boy from Peter David's run on Supergirl.
.
The DC series:
The IDW series:
There are 2 oversized hardcovers collecting the first twenty-six issues of the IDW run, as well as additional material like the original pitch.
There are 3 Omnibus versions of Fallen Angel which collect issues #1 through #20 of the DC series, #1-33 and Reborn #1-4 of the IDW series. All are published by IDW.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
heroine created and owned by writer Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
and artist David Lopez
David Lopez (artist)
David López is a Spanish comic book artist.-Biography:López started his comics career in the Spanish fanzine before moving on to work on Espiral and finally, in 2002, making the jump to the American comic book market.He is best known for co-creating and illustrating the first volume of the...
, who appears in her self-titled monthly series. It was published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
from July 2003 until it was canceled with issue #20 in May 2005 because of low sales. It resumed publication through IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
in December 2005, and ran for 33 issues. It has since been followed by two mini-series, Fallen Angel: Reborn and Fallen Angel: Return of the Son.
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 of its Vertigo imprint and was created to serve as a "bridge" between the general-audience DC titles and its Vertigo titles.
The first series was illustrated in the typical pen-and-ink method of the comic book industry by penciller
Penciller
A penciller is an artist who works in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms.The penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout to showcase...
David Lopez
David Lopez (artist)
David López is a Spanish comic book artist.-Biography:López started his comics career in the Spanish fanzine before moving on to work on Espiral and finally, in 2002, making the jump to the American comic book market.He is best known for co-creating and illustrating the first volume of the...
and inker Fernando Blanco. The first five-issue arc of the second series was painted by J. K. Woodward
J. K. Woodward
James Kenneth Woodward, known professionally as J.K. Woodward, is a comic book artist known for illustrating the monthly series Fallen Angel, published by IDW Publishing. Woodward has employed painting, digital assistance, as well as the more traditional pencil-and-ink and CMYK color method in his...
, though both Woodward and guest artists have utilized the traditional pen-and-ink method since then.
DC Comics
Launched by DC comics in 2003, the book had reportedly low sales by its eleventh issue. When asked why this might be, Peter David suggested that the comics industry as a whole is intolerant of new ideas, and that a sizable segment of comic buyers prefer to wait for a monthly comic to be collected into trade paperbacks, driving down monthly sales.In August 2004, in response to complaints that some retailers weren't stocking copies of Fallen Angel for interested fans to purchase, David announced that he would be producing a limited-edition autographed bookplate
Bookplate
A bookplate, also known as ex-librīs [Latin, "from the books of..."], is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner...
which could be attached to the Fallen Angel trade paperback, which he would send to both interested retailers and fans.
In January 2005, David confirmed that he had been told Fallen Angel would not continue past issue #20, despite a recent, reportedly successful, promotional effort. Sales on the title were reported to be around 11,000 copies - about 4000 short of what DC required for the title to be profitable.
IDW Publishing
At the 2005 WizardWorld: Philadelphia convention, DC Comics representative Bob Wayne stated that Peter David had decided to move Fallen Angel to IDW Publishing. This prompted a response from David himself, who confirmed the news, but cautioned that the final contracts were not yet signed. Several days later, David and IDW Editor in Chief Chris Ryall discussed the move in an interview, in which they revealed that while David Lopez retained his ownership in the property, he would not be the artist on the new series. Fallen Angel resumed publication as a five-issue limited series, which was expanded to a regular monthly series due to high sales.Although Lopez provided some of the covers, the bulk of the interior art, in the early stages of the series, was provided by J. K. Woodward
J. K. Woodward
James Kenneth Woodward, known professionally as J.K. Woodward, is a comic book artist known for illustrating the monthly series Fallen Angel, published by IDW Publishing. Woodward has employed painting, digital assistance, as well as the more traditional pencil-and-ink and CMYK color method in his...
. Other artists like Kristian Donaldson
Kristian Donaldson
Kristian Donaldson sometimes simply credited as Kristian, is a comic book artist based in Dallas, Texas.-Early life:Donaldson attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated in 2003 with a BFA in sequential art.-Career:...
also did short runs.
The final issue of this second volume, which was published January 21, 2009, saw the conclusion of the Moloch storyline that began with that volume, and God accepting Liandra back into heaven. The series was relaunched with a new storyline in July 2009, and guest starred the character Illyria from Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
's Buffyverse
Buffyverse
The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...
.
2009 saw the release of Fallen Angel: Reborn, a four-issue mini-series. A second mini-series, titled Fallen Angel: Return of the Son, was launched in January, 2011.
Premise
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, who answers to a mysterious organization. Lee is possibly the only force for justice in the city.The city of Bete Noire is as much a character as a setting. It has been revealed to be the Biblical city of Enoch. During the day the city has no crime at all, but at night it is a haven for crime and corruption. Known as "the city that shapes the world", some say that the events that happen in the city influence major global events. Bete Noire is often said to possess a sentience
Sentience
Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think from the ability to feel . In modern western philosophy, sentience is the ability to have sensations or experiences...
of its own; the city decides who enters and leaves. When entering and exiting Bete Noire, Lee experiences the city as simply appearing or vanishing around a deserted road. Time passes differently in Bete Noire than it does outside of it. People born and raised in the city appear to age normally, but outsiders who come to live in it either age more slowly or experience a total cessation of aging.
Bete Noire is run by an organization known as The Hierarchy. Lee has said that even God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
has no dominion over Bete Noire; it is run exclusively by The Hierarchy. The Hierarchy, in turn, typically exerts its will through the city's Magistrate. The Magistrate, a direct descendent of Cain, manages the city. The position of Magistrate is passed from firstborn son to firstborn son by means of a mystical ritual performed on or after the son's eighteenth birthday. The Magistrate constantly hears the voices of the city and is plagued by visions. This perception causes the Magistrate excruciating pain, and he must learn to tolerate and ignore it. All Magistrates bear the mark of Cain, which renders them effectively immortal and impervious to harm. Magistrates are even able to mentally control the actions of those trying to do them harm. However, it appears that both former Magistrates and agents of the Hierarchy are able to hurt, and possibly even kill, a Magistrate. After passing the duties of Magistrate on to his firstborn son, Dr. Juris attempted to leave the city and experienced a fatal aging effect after he crossed the city limits. During his tenure, a Magistrate is granted one "day off" per year, during which he is permitted to leave the city.
Liandra
Liandra leads a joyous life as a guardian angelGuardian angel
A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...
- "The Boss's favorite" - until one of her charges, a girl named Holly, develops the ability to see her. They develop a close bond, and when Holly is abducted and murdered, Liandra is devastated. The murderer is acquitted on a technicality, and Liandra kills him. As a result, Liandra is stripped of her wings and cast down to Earth.
She eventually makes her way to Bete Noire, adopting the name "Lee". 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 deserve their fate, not only might she refuse to help them, she might also help to further their destruction. By day, she works as a physical education teacher at a girl’s school, until it is destroyed by Slate. She is a very enigmatic person whose actions often seem contradictory; in one issue she tortures Black Mariah, and shortly thereafter she saves her life. For some time, she maintains a sexual relationship with Bete Noire's Magistrate, Doctor Juris, who in many ways is her counterpart in the city. She eventually gives birth to his son, Jude, and secretly leaves him in the care of an orphanage. Lee is not the first to serve as "protector" of Bete Noire; she has had more than one predecessor.
Lee has several superhuman
Superhuman
Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...
abilities, including immense physical strength, the ability to leap large distances, and to project some type of mystical energy from her body, often from her eyes. Her invulnerability is tied to her level of concentration, and she can be harmed if extremely fatigued or distracted. She has also stated that she has a superhuman sense of direction. Since being cast down, she cannot touch Earth's soil, and so floats just above the ground when barefoot. Because of the nature of time in Bete Noire, Lee, who was not born in the city, ages more slowly than Bete Noire native-borns, but has yet experienced some aging between the first and second volumes of the series because she spends half her time outside the city. When in the city, she physically appears to be the equivalent of a twenty-five-year-old human woman, but outside the city, appears to be a woman in her late 40's.
Doctor Juris
The Magistrate and “manager” of Bete Noire, Juris answers to a mysterious group called the Hierarchy. He is Lee's prime antagonist throughout the first series and, strangely enough, her lover. He, like all other Magistrates, is a descendant of Cain. In the second series, twenty years after the events of the first, 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. Jude soon tracks him down in Bete Noire, however, and he is able to pass his legacy to his son. When Juris tries to leave Bete Noire after this, he rapidly ages and dies.Jude
Jude is Lee and Juris’ son, and older half-brother to Jubal. He first appears as an infant (with tiny emerging wings on his back) at the end of the first series, when Lee leaves him at an orphanage shortly after his birth. As an infant, his wings are torn off by Malachi, disguised as a dog. Twenty years later, Jude is a young priest. After a visit from Slate, he seeks out Bete Noire and Juris. He agrees to become the new Magistrate, believing that he can act as a force for good. As Magistrate, he struggles to do what he believes is right despite the interference of the Hierarchy and the corrupting influence of his power. After losing the role of Magistrate, he turns his back on his mother and attempts to gain his power back from her.Malachi
An angel himself, Malachi is Liandra's mentor and lover until her exile to Earth. Many years later, Malachi appears to Lee and claims that "The "Boss" is offering her a chance to regain her wings and return to angelhood. However, he later reveals to her that he has been granted a "transfer" by God, and is now working for the Hierarchy. He also represents the Hierarchy to Jude, informing him when the Hierarchy disapproves of his actions as Magistrate. Malachi secretly approaches Jubal, and offers to help him become the next Magistrate of Bete Noire. Malachi is also Black Mariah’s lover.Unlike Lee, Malachi has retained the full scope of his angelic powers, which include the ability to survive indefinitely without breathing.
Jubal
Jubal is Juris’ eighteen-year-old son by Xia, half-brother to Jude. He has spent his life trying to please his father, and bears hatred towards Jude when Juris realizes that it is Jude to whom he must pass on management of Bete Noire. He appears to have an intimate relationship with his mother, Xia.Xia
Xia is Juris’s wife by the time of the second series, and mother to Jubal. An Asian woman, Xia is not her real name, but one that Juris picked for her, which means “glow of the sunrise”. After Jude becomes Magistrate, Xia attempts to become close to him, and even tries to seduce him. When these efforts fail, she concentrates on manipulating Jude, with the eventual goal of leading him to his own destruction, which Xia believes will lead to Jubal becoming the next Magistrate.Black Mariah
Black Mariah is a witch with the power to suck life out of anyone she touches. Her role in the city is to gather information worldwide for the Magistrate. Mariah lives in fear of her brother Wilde, who has stolen her death from the ether and can use it to kill her at any time; until then, Mariah is immortal. Lee destroys Mariah's white slaverySexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
ring and drives her out of town shortly after her (Lee's) arrival in Bete Noire. Upon her return, she offers to give Lee a piece of The Shard - a fragment of Christ's
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
crucifix. Lee drugs and tortures Mariah for information, but later helps her recover her death from Wilde. Mariah learns that Doctor Juris was responsible for the death of Shadow Boxer, Mariah's lover, and allies herself with Lee. Twenty years later, she also enters a relationship with Malachi.
Shadow Boxer
As a child in England, Shadow Boxer is granted the ability to merge with shadows by a member of the Hierarchy. This power allows him to essentially teleportTeleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
between any two dark areas. He uses this power to rescue his abusive father, who was trapped in a mine, but his father later accuses him of being in league with the Devil. In his rage, Boxer's father attacked his wife, causing her to miscarry her unborn child. Boxer killed his father as retribution. As an adult in Bete Noire, Shadow Boxer acts as Doctor Juris's main enforcer. He is also Black Mariah's lover, as her touch does not harm him. In a battle with Lee, Boxer is led to believe he has caused her to miscarry. Stricken with guilt, he confesses to Dr. Juris, who kills him.
Asia Minor
Living in a mausoleum in a graveyard, Asia Minor is an AsianAsian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
drug lord who for various reasons often finds himself aiding Lee. He speaks in the broken English
Engrish
refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
stereotypical of Asian immigrants, though it has been established that this is a facade, in that he is capable of speaking perfect English. He was once visited by the ghost of a girl named Tiffany, a girl who had been murdered by a junkie addicted to drugs supplied by Asia, and since then has been cursed with the ability to help only others, but never himself. Asia supplies the Magistrate with drugs that suppress the constant voices and visions that accompany the position.
Slate
Slate acts as Bete Noire's Chief Examiner, and is considered the city's best detective. Slate is also the closest thing to a police officer in the city. Before coming to Bete Noire, Slate was an officer in a northwestern African city called Maristan, which he says was even more corrupt than Bete Noire, until it was destroyed by a demon and vanished from human memory.Sachs and Violens
Peter David brought two previously published characters, Sachs and Violens, into Fallen Angel in issue #19 of the DC Comics series. Co-owned by David and artist George PérezGeorge Pérez
George Pérez is a Puerto Rican-American writer and illustrator of comic books, known for his work on various titles, including Avengers, Teen Titans and Wonder Woman.-Biography:...
, the characters had previously appeared in their own limited series from Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
's Epic
Epic Comics
Epic Comics was a creator-owned imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982, lasting through the mid-1990s, and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s.- Origins :...
imprint in 1993. Although the characters were owned by the creators, David says their appearance in Fallen Angel nearly didn't happen due to the legal costs involved. Co-creator George Pérez contributed covers to these issues. Sachs and Violens remained cast members in the series after it transferred to IDW Publishing. Juanita "J.J." Sachs and Ernie "Violens" Shultz come to Bete Noire to find and destroy a child pornography ring. They decide to remain in the city, and Violens becomes the city's Chief Enforcer after the death of Shadow Boxer. Sachs is the sister of Bumper Ruggs, the manager of a local brothel.
Dolf
The owner of Furor's, a Bete Noire bar in which violence is prohibited. Dolf allows Lee to use Furors as a base of operations, and is indeed quite protective of her, christening her "The Fallen Angel." It is implied that Dolf may be Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
; in addition to the name of his bar's similarity to Hitler's title of Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
, Dolf claims that he has been a painter, a writer, "dabbled" in politics, and made enemies. He also owns a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era Walther P38 pistol. When asked if he is a collector, Dolf again responds, "I dabble." Dolf has also indicated that he considers dark skin to mark one as "an inferior creature, barely above an animal...certainly not human."
Guest stars
Issues 17 through 19 of the second series feature an appearance by Billy Tucci'sWilliam Tucci
William Tucci is an illustrator, writer and filmmaker best known among American comic book audiences for his creator-owned title and character, Shi.-Career:...
Shi
Shi (comics)
Shi is a fictional comic book character created by writer/illustrator William Tucci. She first appeared in Razor Annual #1 , and has since appeared in books by a variety of publishers, most notably, Tucci's company, Crusade Comics...
. Issue #17 was published as a flip-book, with one following Lee, and the other half telling the same story from Shi's perspective.
Illyria from Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
's Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
is set to cross over with Fallen Angel. According to Peter David, "The story is set early in Illyria's involvement with Angel & Co.
Angel Investigations
Angel Investigations is a fictional detective agency run by the title character Angel previously on the WB television series Angel . It is sometimes abbreviated as AI...
Having been deprived of her power by Wesley
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel...
, she is drawn to Bete Noire as a potential source for not only becoming what she was before, but even achieving her previous status. Remember, what we see of her in Angel is not her true appearance." The Buffyverse
Buffyverse
The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...
crossover will continue for four issues. The collected edition is scheduled for a January 2010 publication.
Religious themes
Fallen Angel includes many references to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and other religions, some of which provide an unusual perspective on faith and worship.
- Liandra herself is a former guardian angel who had been employed by God (indeed, she was God's favorite). She states that the role of Guardians is to protect humans they are assigned to by giving them orders; however, the humans merely hear this as a suggestion in their head, and have the free will to heed it or not. Guardians are typically invisible to humans, though there have been exceptions. Lee's son Jude is a Catholic priest.
- The city of Bete Noire itself is actually the Biblical city of Enoch, built by Cain and named after his son.
- When asked by Jude why evil exists in the world, Liandra explains that God wants to die. She states that humanity was intended to be God's crowning achievement, and was prepared to move on after its creation. However, the constant prayers of people on Earth prevent him from being able to do this. For centuries, God has been sending disasters to Earth in the hope that people will stop believing in Him and let Him pass. Peter David acknowledged that this is a somewhat unique and controversial take on God:
- Lee states that HellHellIn many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
does not exist, and that a loving God would not subject people to endless torment without the opportunity to learn from the punishment. She also implies that the actual destination of those who believe they will go to Hell is somehow even worse.
- Benny, a local pickpocket who also sometimes eats his victims, is the serpent from the Garden of EdenGarden of EdenThe Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
.
- Jesus ChristJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
seems to appear to Shi, and guides her towards the town of Yellow Springs, which is revealed to be YomiYomi, the Japanese word for the underworld in which horrible creatures guard the exits; according to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go to dwell and apparently rot indefinitely. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is impossible to return to the land of the living...
, the Japanese realm of the dead.
Censorship
In late September 2008, IDW Publishing received a letter from the Department of Corrections in an unnamed U.S. state, informing them that copies of issues #1 and 2 of Fallen Angel that were mailed to a subscriber incarcerated in their prison were confiscated. The letter explained that the issues contained "material that violates Operating Procedure 803.2, Incoming Publications, and could be detrimental to the security and good order of the institution and the rehabilitation of inmates." Peter David, in a blog entry on his website titled, "Buy Fallen Angel so that criminals don't get their hands on it!", responded to this explanation by saying, "We are SO using this as a pull quote on the next trade paperback."Supergirl connection
Before the move to IDW, Peter David acknowledged that Fallen Angel was based on ideas he had been unable to use during his time writing Supergirl before it was cancelled, but stopped short of admitting that Lee was, in fact, Linda Lee Danvers (Supergirl). The DC run of the title is consistent with this hypothesis, which would also jibe with the expressed intent to form a "bridge" between DC's general-audience and supernatural imprints.Though David remained coy as to whether the two characters were one and the same during the DC run of the title, after it moved to IDW, David revealed Lee's origin, which clearly showed that Lee was not Danvers. However, Fallen Angel #14 introduced "Lin," who was said to be Lee's "predecessor" in Bete Noire. Lin had recently escaped Limbo
Limbo
In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...
, an apparent metaphor for what happened to Danvers after the cancellation of Supergirl. David was more explicit as to whether Lin was Linda Danvers in his December 13, 2006 blog entry, in which he stated:
However, since David could not explicitly claim that a character owned by DC and a character that he owned were one and the same, he admitted:
Furthermore, in the Fallen Angel Premier Edition hardcover, a bonus story was revealed detailing Malachi's transfer out of God's service. This story portrayed God as being a young boy wearing a baseball cap and holding a metal golf club, similar to Wally the God-Boy from Peter David's run on Supergirl.
Collected editions
Both series have been collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
.
The DC series:
- Fallen Angel (collects issues #1-6, 144 pages, July 2004, ISBN 140120225X)
- Down To Earth (collects issues #7-12, 144 pages, January 2007, ISBN 1401212689)
The IDW series:
- To Serve in Heaven (collects issues #1-5, 120 pages, September 2006, ISBN 1933239778)
- To Serve in Hell (collects issues #6-10, 128 pages, March 2007, ISBN 1600100732)
- Back In Noire (collects issues #11-16, 149 pages, August 2007, ISBN 1600100996)
- Heroine Addiction (collects issues #17-21, 128 pages, February 2008, ISBN 1600101569)
- Red Horse Riding (collects issues #22-26, 146 pages, July 2008, ISBN 1600103014)
- Cities of Light and Dark (collects issues #27-33, 136 pages, April 2009, ISBN 1600103502)
- Reborn (collects issues #1-4, 104 pages, January 2010, ISBN 1600105866)
There are 2 oversized hardcovers collecting the first twenty-six issues of the IDW run, as well as additional material like the original pitch.
- Fallen Angel: The Premiere Collection (collects issues #1-13, 320 pages, May 2007, ISBN 1600100767)
- Fallen Angel: The Premiere Collection Volume 2 (collects issues #14-26, 328 pages, July 2009, ISBN 1600104460)
There are 3 Omnibus versions of Fallen Angel which collect issues #1 through #20 of the DC series, #1-33 and Reborn #1-4 of the IDW series. All are published by IDW.
- Fallen Angel Omnibus Volume 0 (collects issues #1-20 (DC), 464 pages, July 2010, ISBN 1600106749)
- Fallen Angel Omnibus Volume 1 (collects issues #1-21 (IDW), 512 pages, March 2009, ISBN 1600103820)
- Fallen Angel Omnibus Volume 2 (collects issues #22-33 plus Reborn #1-4 (IDW), 360 pages, January 2011, ISBN 1600108474)