Fatale #23 – Review

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

The Story: Nick and Jo engage in a little…what’s the opposite of sexual healing?

The Review: Even though I’m a self-confessed romantic, there’s one thing about modern-day romance that never fails to irritate me: when someone decides to set aside a perfectly functional, stable, loving relationship just because they’re not “feeling it.” And that doesn’t even compare to the outright dismay I feel when that same person decides they feel it a lot more with someone who practically lives in a city of red flags. Call me a downer, but that doesn’t sound much like love to me.

That’s pretty much the situation Nick finds himself in now with Jo. He claims that what he feels for her renders all past dalliances as pathetic imitations, that it’s enough to make all the pain she’s made him go through, even to the point of mutilation, worth it. I’m inclined to be skeptical, but once the two finally get it on, the experience is so mind-blowingly fantastic, so sublime and ethereal, that even I’m halfway convinced that they’re not just having sex, but making love.