This new miniseries from Archaia promises espionage texture with a touch of moral ambiguity – and while it’s a bit early to get much of the latter, the texture is all there. Crafting something compelling out of well-worn materials, “Butterfly” is well worth a look.
Written by Arash Amel, Marguerite Bennett
Illustrated by Antonio FusoWHY WE LOVE IT: We’ve all spent hours glued to episodes of shows like True Detective and House of Cards that explore deeply flawed and morally complex characters. In BUTTERFLY, screenwriter Arash Amel (Grace of Monaco, Erased) brings that aesthetic to comics and the espionage genre, exploring the true nature of people who devote their lives to covert ops and the deceit, solitude, and violence that comes with it.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT: Marguerite Bennett has been making a name for herself with her work on Lois Lane, Batgirl, and Earth 2: World’s End and we can’t wait for fans to see how she explores the dark world of spycraft. There’s no one better in the espionage genre than Antonio Fuso, the artist behind the critically acclaimed run of GI Joe: Cobra. It’s the perfect creative team for a morally complex story of violence and family set in the web of a global conspiracy.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Butterfly is one of Project Delta’s deep cover agents, no birth certificate, no social security number, a complete ghost. When her cover is blown and she is set up for a murder she did not commit, she is unknowingly led to her father’s doorstep, a man she thought died 20 years ago. Codenamed Nightingale, her father was once a member of the very same Project Delta, a spy in the violent aftermath of the Cold War, and believes they are behind her setup. Trained to trust nothing and no one, Butterfly must decide whether to seek answers with the Project, or believe the man who betrayed her years ago.
These thorough BOOM! solicits leave me little work to do in the way of summary. Basically, Rebecca – or simply “Butterfly” – is a deep cover agent going about the course of her deep cover day when she discovers her father is alive. So far as plots go, this one is structured neatly, with Butterfly going about her day in the first three quarters of the issue and her father narrating his recent past in the last part. There are parallels, of course – maybe a knack for espionage is genetic – and these lend a kind of symmetry to the issue, making it stick in the memory a little more strongly than your run-of-the-mill spy story.
On a moment-to-moment basis, nothing distinguishes Butterfly or her father’s story as unusual for the genre. But – particularly during the former – the gracefulness of the execution makes itself felt. Instead of relying on dialogue or too much in the way of first-person narration, the captions and the art deftly trade off, stacking up details and immersing us in Butterfly’s world.
The narration, delivered in small doses, has an admirably terse quality. This really is a tough lady we’re encountering, somewhat reminiscent of “Velvet” in her quiet professionalism, but with a touch of angst to signal her relative youthfulness. Reminiscence is dealt with in the earlier pages; the assignment itself is articulated by a few key phrases. It seems there are predetermined instructions to be followed, and Butterfly’s short captions give us an idea of the skeleton structure of the mission.
Contrasting in tone and texture with Phil Noto’s cover, Antonio Fuso’s art has a typical “noir” feel to it, full of craggy faces and jagged shadows. Architectural and scene-setting details alternate between thorough rendering and slapdash, but when it comes to the key moments that punctuate Butterfly’s assignment, there’s never any doubt of the significance of a glance or the strategic value of a baby stroller. It’s the deft layouts and well-thought-out compositions that do it, never failing to distinguish between atmospheric detail and the little things that really count. Particularly neat is Butterfly’s glance at a target’s coat pocket; several overlapping panels suggest the sweep of her gaze as she walks past.
Continued belowBut this issue wouldn’t be any fun if things didn’t get a little messy, and the way the clean orchestration of Butterfly’s mission is thrown off definitely leaves an impression. The layouts fall apart, panels crowding one another instead of staying separate, and an opportune splash of red wine puts us in mind of blood when none has been drawn – yet.
The only really doubtful visual moment comes midway through the issue; there’s something a little off about the way breath-condensation is portrayed. Sometimes it looks like Butterfly’s holding a knife in her mouth, a detail that would be badass if it weren’t so confusing.
All the while, Adam Guzowski’s colours neatly sidestep most noir cliches, offering us a mix of muted and brighter tones. This broader palette offsets the black space in Fuso’s art nicely, and clues us in to matters of time and place succinctly.
Capping things off, Butterfly’s father’s story is remarkable mostly for its concision. Despite being caption-heavy, and in that way a definite contrast to Butterfly’s story, there’s still a bit of fight between what we’re seeing on the page and what we’re reading – enough to keep things interesting, and get us doubting this guy a little bit.
It’s not quite as charismatic as “Velvet”, but “Butterfly” is plenty stylish, capitalizing on the symmetry of Butterfly’s story and her father’s and getting a lot of suspense and intrigue out of their surprise encounter. This dynamic makes “Butterfly” fun to read and reread – not a common quality – and suggests a strong foundation underlying the whole. This spy thriller is looking like pull list material.
Final Verdict: 7.9 – Strongly recommended for espionage aficionados.
