Butterfly #1

Written by: Marguerite Bennett
Art by: Antonio Fuso
Colours: Adam Guzowski
Published by: Archaia

 

Welcome to the world of Butterfly – or, as she was known in her CIA days: Rebecca Faulkner – she is the central character in the titular 4 parter from Archaia. The book sets off with a little foreshadowing and soon expands on the introduction to a further piece of character development, where we learn more about Rebecca. We journey with her to a routine retrieval assignment in Oslo – so the scene is set for a Jason Bourne espionage situation. Like any story involving drama something has to go wrong, and sure enough, during the pick up, something goes dramatically wrong: the ‘mark’ dies during the retrieval process and suddenly our intrepid agent has to flee. The situation worsens with almost all forms of contact with her handlers being cut. Like any good espionage operative, Butterfly vanishes.

So far the story is functional rather than stylish, the character has been developed nicely but you get a ‘been here before’ feel. This is not helped by the latter part of the book, the use of foreshadowing that opened the book is tied up with a ‘not entirely convincing’ reveal. The twist in the tale is tame. That being said, the handling of the plot is effectively managed and, as far as you can engage with a character, you do so.

Where this book loses its’ way is in the final third. As mentioned the twist is telegraphed, yet this is further compounded by clunky section dealing with the back story of Rebecca’s father. What they have effectively done here is to cram an issue’s worth of story into a section that is less than a third of a book. This is disappointing, as the dramatic impetus has been shifted to a drawn out textual section. The idea for a final third of a book is to be coming down the home straight at a gallop and then to hit the twist which should leave the reader anticipating what is to follow, and we don’t get that here.
The good work in the characterisation and the initial set up and damaged by the ending phase.

Overall Score: 6/10