Velvet 10

Velvet 10
Apt 2015

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 5
by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

Velvet fights with the gendarmes first on and then off the train. She mentally runs goes through more than one explanation of what Damian Lake is up to as she fights with policemen. She proves to be more than a match for the handful of gendarmes she encounters.

She goes looking for a vehicle, thinking that Lake is headed for Paris. What she finds instead is Jean Belanger, the head of the ARC-7 Paris office, and some of his men. They get the drop on her and she is subdued. They knock her out after Belanger gets tired of hearing her try and guess what he’s up to and why he is working with Lake.

She wakes up in the trunk of a car which isn’t moving. Belanger and his men are in the car, dead. Lake or one of his allies shot them all.

Ten days later Roberts and Manning are meeting on the street when they both are attacked by a sniper. They are both shot and possibly killed.

This was a hell of an ending to act two of this story. On the letters page Brubaker confirms that there will be just one more arc in this story. The way he puts it leads me to believe that Velvet will survive but Brubaker has been known to mislead readers before so maybe I shouldn’t read too much into the way he talks about his lead character.

The psychological drama is intense in this chapter. There isn’t much in the way of meaningful dialogue. Velvet’s internal thoughts dominate the story.

Seeing three important characters killed off makes me wonder what comes next. The apple cart has definitely been flipped over and every thing is a mess. Even if Velvet catches up to Lake (and Simonson?) then what comes next? She is at least in part responsible for helping Lake to escape.

This book does not feel predictable in the least bit. I feel as though The story is in new territory. It does not feel fun of the mill in the least bit. If only for the way it has me thinking and feeling right now I am very impressed.