This Week In Spandex: Valentine’s Day Edition – Fade From Grace
So this is the 3rd year I decided to dedicate a “This Week in Spandex” to a graphic novel that nerds could give or receive as a Valentine’s Day gifts. The past years’ selections were simple, Daredevil: Yellow and Spider-Man: Blue were both fantastic stories that are well known. This year required me to do a bit more research, but I was able to find the perfect comic book Valentine’s Day gift.
Fade From Grace
Creator: Jeff Amano
Writer: Gabriel Benson
Artist: Jeff Amano
Company: Image Comics
I don’t know if I have the standard edition, but the trade-paperback of Fade From Grace that I have begins with Jeff Amano explaining what inspired him to create this story – the love of his life, his wife Claire. I don’t know if Jeff and Claire are still married, but I hope so. I say that not because I’m sentimental, but because every page, every panel, every line of dialogue in this story makes one thing clear – Fade From Grace is book that was methodically thought through every step of the way in its creation so that we could read one of the best Superhero-romance stories made and it could only be done by creators who were deeply passionate about the project.
Fade From Grace begins on the night John and Grace fall in love after three years of dating. Sent out to get Grace ice cream, John finds her apartment building on fire and her trapped inside. Driving by emotion, John found that he could walk through the door trapping Grace, pick her up, and then fly away to safety.
John and Grace are married three weeks later, and while they don’t understand what happened to allow John to save her life, John begins to feel that he needs to use this gift to help others. Learning that his powers allow him to change the density of himself and whatever he’s touching (the power is similar to that of Wildstorm’s Sublime), John is able to make himself as dense as granite, but light enough so that he can fly and move through solid objects.
Still unsure of what his powers signify, John and Grace continue to live normal lives. Then one night on a date, John and Grace come across a man attacking a woman in an alley. John runs into action and stops the criminal. Soon after, he begins patrolling his city at night to stop crime.
Eventually, John’s vigilante persona becomes so well known people begin to call him Fade – inspiring him and his wife to create legitimate superhero costume.
As the story progresses John realizes that his powers are not only aging him faster, he finds it harder and harder to return to normal. Eventually, an event occurs that pushes John to the limits of his powers.
Taken as a superhero story, Fade From Grace works great, but it shines because it isn’t about a person getting a superpower – it is about a couple who are deeply in love dealing with the introduction of the extraordinary into their lives. It is this relationship that not only drives the story forward, but makes it a narrative that every superhero and romance reader will enjoy.
In addition to Amano’s fantastic writing, the artwork by Benson is breathtaking.
If you love Tim Sale’s art, if you love Darwyn Cooke’s work, then you will love Benson’s work. I say this not to be hyperbolic; I say this because Benson’s retro style and minimalistic, yet detailed work is simply fantastic.
To be precise, what I think about when I think of Benson’s artwork in Fade From Grace is how well every visual element of contributes to the emotional impact of the plot. There is a moment when Grace is briefly panicked and she is colored with a red tint while there rest of the panel’s colors remains consistent. When John’s thoughts of helping others keep him emotionally separated from his wife, we see black coloring being used to surround him – referencing the sense of disconnectness he’s experiencing.
Believe me when I say that I want to go on and on about how great this story is, but I want to leave something for you to enjoy.
Mostly due to the fact that the comic book industry is still a boys club, the industry has done little to produce stories that deal with romance. I imagine it is because most stories aimed at a male audience often fail miserably to tell action packed romances that men can enjoy. Fade From Grace is an example that a traditionally male-aimed genre can tell a story perfect for Valentine’s Day and the romantics in all of us.
So if you’re struggling to figure out what to get for a gift that balances your nerdiness and your need to be romantic, pick up a copy of Fade From Grace.
You can buy your copy of Fade From Grace here.
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