Fallen Angels #5
Psylocke puts together a team as Apoth strikes in Fallen Angels #5, by writer Bryan Hill, artist Szymon Kudranski, colorist Frank D’Armata, and letterer Joe Sabino. This issue pauses the action as both sides gather their forces for the impending battle. It’s set-up, but it’s very well done.
On Krakoa, X-23 and Cable recruit Husk and Bling to help take on Apoth. X-23 lets Psylocke know they have a team, and Psylocke goes to Mister Sinister for assistance. He gives her a device he created based on Apoth’s Overclock devices that will allow her to use her telepathy on Apoth. In Dubai, Apoth and his forces attack, taking the city. The team trains, and Psylocke reassures everyone that even though they don’t know her, she will kill to protect them. Magneto relents, seeing Psylocke’s desire for justice, and gives her a Blackbird and permission to leave the island when she needs to. The team flies to Dubai, knowing they are walking into a trap.
Bryan Hill makes Psylocke so compelling. Kwannon is not Elizabeth Braddock, and Hill never lets readers forget that, whether it be through showing bits of her twisted past in memory flashbacks or the Zen way her caption boxes read. This isn’t the British girl trapped in an assassin’s body; this is the assassin herself, and she’s more complicated and broken than readers ever could have imagined. Many were skeptical when Elizabeth and Kwannon were separated. It felt like a useless gesture. However, it’s worked out very well because Kwannon has become such a great character, and Bryan Hill, and this book are the reason why.
This entire issue is setting up the big confrontation next chapter, and it works very well. It feels a little weird that X-23 and Cable would go to Bling and Husk for help since these four don’t really know each other very well, but the group is an intriguing mix, and it will be cool to see them in action together. Magneto and Mister Sinister both give Kwannon gifts to help her and her team, both for different reasons. Sinister does it because he enjoys his little experiments, and Magneto does it because he can recognize Kwannon’s desire justice, one that mirrors his own. The mission is set. The players are in place. Gifts have been given, and the villain is setting on its throne. This issue ticks off all the boxes and does it a wonderfully entertaining manner.
Szymon Kudranski’s art is impressive as usual. Throughout the book, he does interesting things with the panel borders. Panels with Mister Sinister in them have a Giger-esque edge, while Kwannon’s are made of bamboo with white lotus blossoms. Apoth’s are perfectly geometric squares and rectangles. It’s little details like this that make his work so enjoyable.
Fallen Angels #5 gets everything ready for the big confrontation. Bryan Hill has taken Kwannon, a blank slate of a character, and crafted her into something she never was before- a three-dimensional character, with triumphs and tragedies that readers can understand. Szymon Kudranksi’s art fits the story so well, and he throws in all kinds of little flourishes to make things better. Fallen Angels is a book a lot of people are sleeping on, and that’s a tragedy. This issue is a wonderful example of why it’s so great.
Grade: A
