Fatale #19 – Review

By: Ed Brubaker (story), Sean Phillips (art), Elizabeth Breitweiser (colors)

The Story: Jo successfully completes her mission to Yoko a band.

The Review: Although the implosion of Amsterdam is really a small-time accomplishment for someone like Jo, it’s also given us a glimpse of all the kinds of things Jo can do to people, especially men, with her talents.  If nothing else, it’s been fascinating watching each of the Amsterdam men—Skip, Tom, Jon, and Lance—have a completely different experience with their memory-stricken guest, even though they all inevitably break down in the end.

Though they’re all ultimately doomed by their relationship with Jo, the nature of their decline varies according to their individual personalities, at least where Tom and Jon are concerned.  The songwriter’s already self-destructive genius eventually consumes him from within, while the guitarist’s tendency to follow the lead of his bandmates is amplified, allowing their actions to build to the point where he can’t avoid the splash damage.  For these two, Jo seems to intensify their inherent failings, but the effects she has on the others are more difficult to classify