Peter David's Fallen Angel

[ClintP]

I was just looking on Newsarama and they have an article about this series. I have never heard about it before now. Is anyone getting this? It looks pretty interesting.

[YouStayClassy]

Oh, most definitely. I've been following this book since it's days at DC. I started buying it because I was so sure it was going to turn out to be Supergirl, but found I was even happier when it didn't.

The current IDW series is amazing. I really miss Lopez's art, but the new guy is also very talented and I'm starting to warm up to his style.

[Kefky]

Yep, it's lovely. The IDW sales don't look good, though... Hope it lasts. :-?

[ClintP]

Can you give me a basic run down of the premise for me? You can put it in a spoiler if you want so no one will get upset.

[Doug]

The DC run was great. First 6 issues (or so) are in trade, but DC hasn't put the rest of the run in trade yet. It was either 18 or 20 issues total (I forget the exact number), but well worth tracking down.

The new IDW run is great too. But at IDW the cover price is $3.99 so I might move to trades. I'm in for the first arc though.

[Sean Jackson]

It had a great, but not advertized by DC run originally, then moved to IDW. IT's great.

[xyzzy]

The first trade was enjoyable, but it doesn't look like we'll get the rest of it traded any time soon.

[YouStayClassy]

Can you give me a basic run down of the premise for me? You can put it in a spoiler if you want so no one will get upset.

It's about a fallen angel named Lee who lives in the city of Bete Noire. She is sort of its protector, but is nothing you'd call a hero. One minute she'll help someone, next she'll be torturing them. The book has heavy religious imagery and characters in it, but it's handled in a very brilliant way. Stories deal with Lee's life and her relationships with the characters in the city, which get very twisted but very captivating.

[Cth]

I passed on the DC version admittedly after the whole "Is it Linda or not?" mystery thing.

The IDW stuff is amazing and I'm going back to track down the original now.

[ClintP]

Ok, so it is pretty good. Is it about a guardian angel that fell to Earth and has problems now? Come on, What's it about?

[Cth]

From what I can piece together:

Maybe spoilers?



- She's a guardian angel who was set up for a fall by a higher power (God?). The person she was guarding saw her and wasn't suppose to. She also attempted to step in to alter her fate, but her ward refused and died.

- The city is a place for lost souls (?) and stuff that happens there echoes across reality

- There's a bad guy living in the city who's had relations with the Fallen Angel. He's trying to pass on his power to the next generation, as ownership of the city was passed to him. His kid is a spoiled brat.

- Lots of backstabbing on both sides

- She's being forgiven and offered a spot back as a guardian angel but refuses, I think.

[YouStayClassy]

Ok, so it is pretty good. Is it about a guardian angel that fell to Earth and has problems now? Come on, What's it about?

The two main characters in the book...

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.

[ClintP]

It sounds very interesting. Does the current series tie directly into the older one. Do you need to read the older series from DC to read the current? Do you think they will release this in TPB?

Also, thank you for the information so far!

[YouStayClassy]

It sounds very interesting. Does the current series tie directly into the older one. Do you need to read the older series from DC to read the current? Do you think they will release this in TPB?

Also, thank you for the information so far!

Yes to the first two, it ties directly even though it's years and years later. And you most definitely need to read the DC one to know what's going on in the IDW. As for as TPB, I don't know. I think there's one of the first 6 issues of the DC series, but don't quote me on that.

[Cth]

You can enjoy it without having read it, however.

Obviously, it will enhance things though.

[Ashton]

its a great series, I highly recommend it. hope it lasts too.

[Ashton]

Yep, it's lovely. The IDW sales don't look good, though... Hope it lasts. :-?

is this recent news? cause PAD said on his website that #1 sold well enough to guaruntee more issues past #5..but that was a few months ago too.

[innocentboy]

unfortunately only got the first issue.

georgeous art for real. and the story (judging only by the 1st issue), is dope too

[thatguylobo]

Absolutely excellent series. Some of Peter David's best work. Although, gorgeous as the current art is, I miss David Lopez.

Also I have a problem with the Guardian Angel thing. Apparently, God gave us free will, but no common sense.

[Ashton]

is this recent news? cause PAD said on his website that #1 sold well enough to guaruntee more issues past #5..but that was a few months ago too.

to answer my question it does appear that its going past #5 8-)

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=65585