Fort Worth cops raid a gay bar and put one customer in intensive care. Seven men were arrested. The police chief says that the violence of the cops was because - wait for it - the cops were hit on:

Yes, that’s right: 40 years after Stonewall and a bit more than 10 years after Matthew Shepard’s torture and murder we are still dealing with the “gay-panic defense” – even by the heavily armed police.

And, what’s worse is the ridiculous claims that gay patrons, even when confronted by guns, tasers, and pepper spray are so over-sexed that they’d actually try to cop a feel of an officer’s crotch during a raid.

Unbelievable.

Who owns the sky, anyway? In most of the country, that is a question for philosophy class or bad poetry. In the West, lawyers parse it with straight faces and serious intent. The result, especially stark here in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, is a crazy quilt of rules and regulations — and an entire subculture of people like Mr. Bartels who have been using the rain nature provided but laws forbade.


Seriously, it was illegal to collect frickin' rainwater for your own use?! Who came up with that? No doubt a damned lawyer. And they have the gall (actually, I'm not sure they have the decency to feel gall) to wonder why they're hated and every joke ends with them dead and/or in Hell.

This whole article is just surreal.

Memeo-Blogger Round Up Thingy.

For no other reason than I haven’t kvetched in a while.

So Bill Kristol, who has proven himself to have zero credibility by being wrong just about every time he’s opened his mouth has this bon mot to share….

But wait--what about last couple of weeks? Some serious people thought the United States could do some good by weighing in on behalf of the Iranian people against their regime. President Obama apparently believed that nothing much could be done. Wasn’t he the one playing the couch potato in the midst of an international crisis?

I can only respond with what I’ve seen and heard from the talking heads and my response is this:

The only ones making those noises were Neocons - the very group whose policies led to lying to the American people so we could overthrow Saddam. You know, people like you. People who have been shown to have no clue about what they heck they were doing for eight long, horrible years. People, such as yourself, who seemed to specialize in being shown to be wrong only days after opening their yapper on the Sunday shows. So, excuse me if I continue to ignore you now. Everything you say is so much hot air... a noxious gas event... and nothing more.

Thank Christ that the Neocon agenda has been thoroughly rejected.

And I would add, Shut Up Kristol… you’re a discredited clown. No doubt the answer is to declare war on yet another nation in order to change the regime, and drop lots of pretty bombs, right Neo-Right Wingers?

You know what? Say what you want about America and point out all of the problems we have as a nation or even a people….

But at lease we’re not using Democracy as an excuse to try to alter the Constitution in a way that will allow a President to wrap his strangling fists around the office. And, we don’t have the Military kidnapping Presidents whether independently or because the Courts said so.

I fail to grasp why Democracy… real Democracy as we understand it in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, etc. is so difficult for South America and African nations. Guess what? Democracy isn’t just a word for the soundbites:

Sunday the Honduran Congress voted him out of office, replacing him with the president of Congress, Roberto Micheletti.

The military offered no public explanation for its actions, but the Supreme Court issued a statement saying that the military had acted to defend the law against “those who had publicly spoken out and acted against the Constitution’s provisions.”

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Mr Mugabe remains in power, calculating that the privileges afforded the top echelons of the security forces and the ruling party, Zanu-PF, will not only keep him there until his term ends next year but, through a constitutional amendment, could extend his rule to 2010.

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President Hugo Chavez presented his long-awaited plan to revise the Venezuelan Constitution on Wednesday, including a proposal to eliminate presidential term limits -- a move critics fear would allow the fiery anti-U.S. leader to further concentrate power in his hands.

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Ukraine and Belarus have already shown the world a democratic transfer of power. Yet in a profound disappointment to western democrats, both Kuchma and Lukashenko are loath to relinquish power the same way they won it a decade ago - in fair elections.

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So, whatever our problems are as a country, we are – bar none- the Greatest, Most Stable Democracy on the pitiful planet – and for that we can be very proud.

Oh, look… blogging on the Global Warming Crisis/Conspiracy… damn. Looks like I’ll have to wade into this, then.

First, let me say I’m not a scientist – but I can recall very clearly that here in S.E. Michigan we used to get snow no later than the end of November. We nearly (there are always ‘off years’ that deviate, but usually) always had snow for Thanksgiving. I can’t remember the last time that has been so. These days we’ve been lucky to have a White Christmas. But, that’s anecdotal and not evidence. Very much like this nimrod is not a scientist and ergo should not be opining (expertly) on whether we’ve got a CO2 problem or not.

After reviewing the scientific literature that the EPA is relying on, Carlin said, he concluded that it was at least three years out of date and did not reflect the latest research. "My personal view is that there is not currently any reason to regulate (carbon dioxide)," he said. "There may be in the future. But global temperatures are roughly where they were in the mid-20th century. They're not going up, and if anything they're going down."

Sounds good to me, yes? We’ve not got the problem we think and we’re getting a snow-job (heh-heh, get it? It’s a weather related pun… oh, never mind…) about a catastrophe just around the corner and are about to waste mega-kazillions on nothing. Okay. Ooops, but wait a minute, this guy isn’t even a climatologist. He’s not even a meteorologist! And, of course this climate data is notoriously easy to interpret depending on what you want to be true… and as we can see, Mr. Carlin’s claims that global temperatures are not rising is disputed:

With pretty graphs, even….

So, what exactly are we supposed to believe about what is happening and what should we do about it… and really, that question should actually be rephrased to how much money should we spend on it, because that’s really what it comes down to at the end of the day.

Fivethirtyeight had a breakdown of likely costs to each citizen broken down by state– but they freely acknowledge in their article that there’s a lot of assumptions being made (including by the CBO, which as a government bureaucracy, you always need to take with a liberal pinch of salt). You should read the entire breakdown article, Nate Silver is pretty good at these sorts of analysis from what I’ve read in the past. I should also note that the benchmark year is 2020 – so these costs won’t immediately hit us and there will presumably be tax credits and the like to cushion the blow because Americans are generally spoiled. Taking these numbers at face value, and recognizing the problems inherent in trying to predict the future without help of Gypsy tealeaf readers, I could probably live with the tax, myself. Especially, since I could very well be dead by 2020, so it’s hard to get too upset in the here and now. Although, there will be plenty of folks who won’t let that stop ‘em, of course.

And in a subject close to my home:

Political Shifts on Gay Rights Lag Behind Culture… yes, well, not exactly a scoop, is it?

But, just so we don’t forget… we are not the victims here!

Wonkette and Legal Insurrection have differences of opinion on Trig Palin and whether it is ever appropriate to photo-shop the tyke into insulting or jokey pics to make fun of Sarah.

Actually, I’m not really sure that is what Wonkette meant and maybe William should have taken a breath and re-read the post before rushing to his computer to post an outraged response.

The Wonkette piece ends with this: … the [website removed because I don’t want to give them traffic] goons have unleashed a pack of Photoshop Dogs From Hell …

And, the entire article seems more interested in slamming Palin’s supporters for trying to wage a war they cannot win, as they’re just going to bring more traffic to the ‘goons’ with their OTT ranting about it.

On the other hand, I do find her characterization of Palin carrying her baby as somehow making it alright to use him to slam her rather appalling. I won’t link to the ‘goons’ site, because I do find them using pictures of Trig to be stepping over the line. On that I and Legal Insurrection are in total agreement. I’m just not sure why he’s slamming the Wonkette blog, rather than the website doing the photo-manipulating. I suppose he’s taking her to task for encouraging people to click through to the site in question, which again, I’d co-sign even though politically I’m sure I’m far closer in spirit to the Wonkette’s of the world, than the Legal Insurrectionists.

We all know that politicians use their sweetly smiling cherub’s faces in order to garner in sympathies and ergo, votes. But that shouldn’t put the kids in the line of fire when it comes to mean-spirited pranks. Even though I can’t stand kids and cheer on any slasher flicks who aren’t afraid to kill ‘em off, in the real world they should remain above the fray in the nasty world of political points.

All of the Palin children, including Trig, are off limits. Now, as soon as he turns eighteen and is caught in a circus-sex and drugs scandal, that’s fine. But that isn’t for a long, long way off.

BTVS: Season 8

Issue #4

“The Long Way Home” conclusion

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens,

Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richards Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover: Jo Chen

Where We Are: Buffy has left Sunnydale for Scotland with Xander and a dedicated group of Slayer-followers. They’ve gotten serious funding as Spike feared when he was first captured by the Initiative in BTVS: S4. But things aren’t all rosy – Dawn has gotten herself changed into a giantess. Willow and Kennedy were off on their own, not keeping in touch with her friends. Giles and Buffy’s relationship remains very strained. And, Willow has just been mystically abducted by Amy Madison who’s turned into an uber-witch….

Page 01: Flashback – Warren – “Bored now.”

Page 02: Warren has Willow where he wants her and he explains to Wills how he survived his skinning. And… this is where things fall apart because Joss “forgot” about the First Evil’s ability to take Warren’s form. Let me explain this using Warren’s words….

Commentary: Warren tells Willow, “Do you know she had maybe a four-second window after my skin came off before I died of shock alone?” and, “That flash-paper disappearing trick was pretty hokey, we kid about that, but thinking on your feet? This is the girl.”

Okay – Let’s take a look at Warren’s explanation here: (1) He had to have died because the First Evil could only use the forms of those who’d been really dead. (2) The “flash-paper” trick is supposedly a watching Amy’s spell instead of Willow destroying his body? And Willow didn’t bother reacting at all to a spell she didn’t cast? (3) Let’s say that Willow did go to vaporize him and Amy just snuck a teleport spell in there… how would she keep Warren from dying anyway? She just happened to have a “save someone who’s been skinned alive” spell on hand?

A mess. That is what this was. All that had to be said was that Amy teleported him at the instant that Willow was trying to flash-incinerate him… stretching things, yes, but we’re dealing with magic so I could swallow disbelief. And then, Amy tried a resurrection ritual later which resulted in his current state. In order to protect his sanity, she fed him a line of B.S. about how he wasn’t quite dead so she could save him with her magic….

There. I hate it when readers have to explain away such obvious screw-ups.

I’ll also tell you that Warren helped Amy come up with the “Willow changes into Warren so she can shoot Kennedy” spell, which makes it a bit more palatable in retrospect than at the time of BTVS: The Killer in Me.

Page 03: Warren has a scalpel over Willow’s eye – “Are you bored now?”

Elsewhere, Dawn is using her giant fist to work out some frustration by punching out an (hopefully unused) granite wall.

Buffy let’s us know that Dawn’s strength hasn’t increased proportionally to her new size, which keeps Dawnie from simply defeating everyone in 5 seconds, I guess. And allows her to still get hurt.

Commentary: Okay, that scalpel hovering over Will’s eye is art panel of the month, hands down. And, ick.

Page 04: Dawn lets Buffy know that she trusts her to get Willow back, but that doesn’t stop her from being afraid over what is happening.

And then, she sticks a dagger in Buffy’s heart, “Will is like a mom to me.”

Page 05: Buffy and Xander are awaiting their mystics to re-open the portal Amy used for the abduction. Xan lets her know that there will only be enough energy to transport one, perhaps two people.

Elsewhere, Willow is informed by Warren during her (off screen) torture that the mystic bands holding her are reflecting her strength back into the bands. The fact that she’s so strong is only making her bonds that much more powerful.

Commentary: Now, that is a cool idea. And leave it to Warren to have come up with those spells. It’s also interesting that Warren wants Willow to go dark here. He’s not happy to torture Willow as she is, he feels a need to defeat Dark Willow, for Dark Willow to be the object of his fury (and I suspect, madness).

Page 06: Warren stabs Willow in the eye with the scalpel.

Buffy chooses Satsu to go with her (she’s the Slayer with the cinnamon lip gloss and the cat-mask).

In Else-space, five beings are standing together and one of them says aloud, “For goodness sake, yes. Grant her access.”

Commentary: First, yes – We do see Willow and Warren and the scalpel and drops of blood flying up from her face where her eye has been impaled. And the General and the Suit that we’ve met before are looking shocked at the sound of Willow’s scream.

But what I want to do here is talk about these other-beings that step in to whisk Willow away from her suffering. There’s been some commentary that I’ve read where people are trying to figure out what the hell these things are supposed to be, so I’d like to take my shot at it:

The Wood/Tree Woman: Obviously, this must be a spirit representing Wood. There hasn’t been much question about this.

The Blue Woman: This could be either Water or Air, but I lean toward water because of the ‘bubbles’ above her head. They could be large water droplets.

The Wild Beast Woman: I’d say this represents basic nature. It’s the primitive nature of magic, its roots. It could even be a representation of Earth – it’s lifeforce, rather than the soil which would be an interesting choice if deliberate rather than going with a rock-being.

The Irregularly Drawn Woman: This is the woman standing in the middle of the group of five. She’s a hard one to figure out, because she doesn’t have any sort of strong features. In keeping with the ‘natural forces’ tone of the others, I’d have to conclude that she’s either Air or Fire. I lean toward Air here because I’m hypothesizing the blue woman is Water.

So, so far we have Wood, Earth, Air and Water… the four elements. There’s another, Fire, that’s usually included … Fire… which may be encompassed by the small brazier with the flame that the others are surrounding. Which leaves us with an intriguing fifth member of our group…

Mathematical Formula Woman: It could easily be concluded that this is a representation of Math, or Logic, or Analytical Ability. I gave this some real thought and I believe it is a representation of Spirit, encompassed by Imagination. It takes leaps in logic via imagining that allows us to come up with these sorts of complex formulas.

Page 07: The General and Suit tell Amy that she’s disabled their security cameras in the lab. Amy tells the General that he just needs to be ready for Buffy, but not worry about the Witch.

The Witch belongs to Warren, “They have a history. She’s kind of a history major.”

Commentary: Amy, dear? That was the WORST pun, ever. EVER. You are lame. What isn’t lame, however, is Buffy’s getting the Slayer Scythe to go after Wills.

Page 08: Satsu is feeling a little overwhelmed by the mission to get Willow back. She feels like one of the other Slayers, particularly Leah or the German Ballcap gal who’s name I don’t recall right now.

But she’s going to get more self conscious when Buffy asks her for some lip balm before they head out and realizes it’s cinnamon… the same flavor she tasted on her mouth after the Awakening Kiss.

This would seem to confirm that it WAS Satsu who gave Buffy the ‘true love’ kiss to counter Amy’s spell.

Page 09: Willow tumbles into the plane (only psychically) where the five representations are gathered. They explain that they’re hiding her suffering from her, but show her a representation of what is happening on the physical plane. And, it’s gruesome, so I’m just going to quote the Blue Woman:

“What you’re seeing is possibility. Thoughts, courses of actions, pieces of what you could be. Ending. He’s lobotomizing you. Do you have a plan?”

Commentary: This is some dark and scary stuff. S6 kind of stuff – but while reading it, I was really worried about how they were going to get Willow out of this. I just never believed they were going to kill her in the first arc of the new comic book – and that started to make my stomach drop a little – I’m worried about how they can use the Willow character without instant healing, which would be the deus ex machina magic I worried about in the earlier reviews.

But I also have to admit that this passage is really powerfully chilling. And I do find myself smiling at the darkly humorous, “Do you have a plan?”

Uh – a plan?! To stop being lobotomized? I don’t know, it just struck me as darkly funny.

Page 10: In the ‘real world’ or the physical world, the military sense that the portal is opening.

Page 11: The General orders the firing of a giant, energy projecting beam into the portal to wipe out the Slayer contingent opening the portal.

But again, Xander is way ahead of them. He’s situated a giant parabolic mirror where the beam comes through – reflecting it back into the portal.

Commentary: Now, you could argue there is no way that Xander could know there was going to be a beam able to be reflected by a mirror so this doesn’t make sense. I don’t see it that way – he knows magic is involved. And, it makes sense to prepare for something to come through the portal in a pre-emptive attack on them. Further, there are a roomful of Slayers present for any sort of physical attack. This seems right to me.

Page 12: With the power beam spitter blowing up, Buffy and Satsu jump through the portal.

The General is trying to find out how many losses he’s suffered in this first salvo and yells for his men to “stay calm, dammit!”

But, Buffy counters that, “No. Panic.” Heh-heh.

Commentary: Xander gets a really great line here, too, that I loved: “Magic. It’s all done with mirrors.” Heh-heh-heh.

And, it just adds to my love of Xander Harris in this comic series.

Page 13: Satsu is using a katana. Buffy is using gymnastics and the Scythe. It’s a beautiful thing. And of course, the throng of grunts are totally outclassed.

Page 14: Buffy has the General knocked down and informs him that there are men dying and there’s only one person in the complex with enough power to save all of them….

Commentary: And, we need to talk about Buffy here. Since S5, we’ve seen Buffy struggle with her ability to not be ‘closed off’ or to stay connected to her responsibilities to humanity. In S6, she couldn’t connect to anyone, including her closest, dearest loved ones because of the trauma of being brought back from ‘Heaven’. (And I put it in quotes because I’m uncomfortable with the thought that the true HEAVEN could be accessed by magic… I know, it’s silly. I’m not even religious – but nonetheless, it’s a fact.)

Anyway, in S7, Buffy had trouble connecting to the Slayers-in-Training as individuals, seeing them as an army that she’d use in the fight against evil because she felt she had nothing else she could do. Despite Xander’s heartfelt speech about how Buffy cared about their lives more than they’d ever know – I’m not sure that was so throughout the whole season. Again, I think Buffy withdrew from her human-ness in her desperation to win.

I think we’re beginning to see that here, as well. First, she couldn’t connect to Dawn… (S5) and then she did near the end. Then she couldn’t connect to her friends (S6) and then she did near the end. Then she could connect to her friends, but strangers was another matter entirely (S7). But, she was able to finally connect to the S.i.T’s near the end. And now, (S8) it looks like she’s connecting with her friends, with her sister, with her fellow Slayers… but, possibly, not with the general crowd of humanity beyond her circle. And that could have some real problems if this callous attitude spreads to an entire army of super-powered Slayers, following her example.

Page 15: The page where we get a shout out to the arc title, “The Long Way Home”. Xander informs Buffy that according to GPS (another ability of the sound/camera unit wore by the Slayers) she’s a few miles south of the former Sunnydale.

“Sunnydale. Well. I’m the one who wanted to go home,” she thinks.

And, she runs into Amy levitating and waiting for her.

Page 16: I LOVE this whole page....

We start with Blue Woman talking to Willow, telling her that she’s almost dead and if that doesn’t scare her, at all.

Willow’s response is fantastic – she gives her a smile, “Did I ever tell you about my best friend?”

Beyond the terrific response, it also shows that Willow’s been in contact with this spirit before. I’m not sure if that means anything in particular or not.

Here’s the interesting thing… Buffy continues Willow’s words, “I like to think, in a way, that she’s a part of me. That even when she’s gone, a part of her is with me.”

And then, Buffy throws up a mystical shield to block a blast from Amy and then punches out some sort of mystic rock beasts that Amy had on hand.

Commentary: Now, this is a great idea to introduce. That after all of Willow and Buffy’s contact mystically throughout the series, that now Wills can merge with Buffy somehow and give her the magical abilities to use is such a clever idea. And, yet, Buffy is still there and in control, because after the part above where she continues Willow’s thought, she continues with what sounds like her own addition, “’Cause it is.”

Page 17: Amy tries to act tough, but Buffy throws her off her game by summoning an illusory image of Catherine Madison – prior to her becoming a cheerleader trophy. In the meanwhile, Satsu throws a grenade.

Page 18: Alas, Amy is still magically powerful enough to teleport away from the blast. Buffy and Satsu bust into the lab where Willow is just in time for Amy to appear behind Warren and teleport them both out.

Buffy looks panic-stricken at seeing what is left of Willow’s face….

Page 19: And we see Willow, looking perfectly fine and grinning widely. She asks Buffy if there’s a problem. SIGH, dammit.

Also, Buffy sees a cell door with “30” on it and remembers the images she saw in her dreamscape. Remember, Ethan was standing behind three X’s? And he made the comment that he was a Roman Numerals kind of guy (instead of a Vin Diesel or Porn sort)?

Right. It was a clue that he was being held behind Room 30’s door.

Comment: Okay, first – I KNEW IT! I knew that this magic throwing around was going to turn into a “you can do anything with magic/insta-heal/teleporting everywhere in contravention of what we were told at the end of S6”.

It’s convenience without rules except what the story calls for.

But, I do really like we get a follow up on Ethan’s visit.

Page 20: Alas, when Buffy breaks in, she finds ETHAN IS DEAD!

He’s got a bullet hole through his forehead. The General who just murdered him is still there and almost shoots Buffy.

She throws him against a wall, and his uniform coat and shirt are torn open revealing the ‘Twilight’ scar we’ve seen before.

Commentary: I’m sad to see the end of Ethan here. He was a funny and exasperating character and I really wanted to see more of his and Giles’ interactions in this series. Hopefully, we’ll get him in flashbacks though in future stories.

Page 21: The General gets to mouth off to Buffy about how Twilight is coming and she’s against the U.S. Army now and she’s a terrorist and blah-blah-blah.

What’s interesting here is that the General knows that Buffy’s (and by extension all of the Slayers’) powers come from a demon spirit. Now, how does he know this? It points to someone who knows what Buffy found out, or possibly someone who used to be in the Council but has survived feeding information to Twilight.

Commentary: I should also mention that this page has been used to hypothesize that Riley Finn is Twilight. I REALLY hope that doesn’t happen. Evil!Riley is a fan-fic staple for everyone that’s ever hated his character. I didn’t. I don’t want to see him as the villain turning on Buffy.

Page 22: The news that Buffy is now fighting the entire human race (I think a bit of overstatement by General Voll) results in a great page:

Panel One: Buffy looks shocked, “Oh.”

Panel Two: Buffy looks to the side in thought.

Panel Three: Buffy looks down, eyes closed, a frown on her face.

Panel Four: Buffy looks at General Voll. She appears determined, “Kay.”

Commentary: Perfect end.

The Good: The Warren/Amy team up against Willow and her torture was intense and awful.

Buffy’s realizing that Satsu must have kissed her due to lip gloss of all things.

Xander Harris kicks ass and I adore him.

The awesome fight panels with Satsu and Buffy against the Army guys.

Buffy and Willow being able to merge and allowing Buffy to tap her magicks. I really can’t believe I’ve never seen this one in a fanfic story (doesn’t mean someone hasn’t done it), but I love this whole plot point!

Buffy’s reaction to General Voll.

The Bad: There’s only two, but they're both whoppers: 1) The explanation for Warren’s survival was all sorts of continuity-destroying retconning, which I don’t at all like.

The Magic. Amy is teleporting all over the place like it’s no big deal (remember Anya telling Buffy that a witch of Willow’s level could only go airborne, not teleport – now it appears no harder than catching the bus). Willow is instantly healing from nearly fatal brain injuries and mutilation in literally a heartbeat’s time with no signs of ANY aftermath trauma. It’s ridiculous and sets a very poor precedent for how magic will now work in the Buffyverse. I really, really do not like the way magic has been used.

Concerns: Ethan’s death was shocking, which is a good, but I think it’s a waste of a great character. I can only hope we’ll get some Giles/Ethan flashback stories – or maybe he’ll show up again to haunt Giles as a pest of a ghost… that could be funny.

The Score: What to do, what to do? I mean, I loved the character writing and the Twilight plot. I loved the hideous punishment that Warren visits on Willow and her being plane-shifted… it’s obvious she’s made friends in the past year with other-dimensional powers. But Warren’s explanation for his being alive (sort of) is just screwed up… and the abuse of magic as a plot device is awful.

I give it Buffy Number Four: 3.75 out of 5.0 stars.

Angel: After the Fall

Issue 4

Plotted by: Joss Whedon & Brian Lynch, Scripted by: Brian Lynch,

Illustrated by: Franco Urru, Colored by: Jason Jensen, Lettered by: Robbie Robbins,

Edited by: Chris Ryall

Cover by: Franco Urru, Colors by: Paolo Maddaleni

Where we Are: In Hell. Specifically we’re in the Los Angeles region that has been pulled/yanked/city-napped into Hell by Wolf, Ram & Hart in retaliation for Angel’s having thwarted an important client of theirs – The Black Thorn. This takes place immediately following the end of AtS: Not Fade Away.

Page 01: Flashback to the night in the alley: Angel is wrestling with a demon and hoping that Connor was able to make it far enough away not to be endangered. He notices that Gunn is missing…

…And undergoes a wrenching teleportation. Now he is on top of a building and there are signs in the background that they’re not on Earth anymore.

Commentary: As we know, Team Angel was separated during the battle. This explains how. We also know that Gunn is missing because he’s been dragged off by vampires to be turned. And, Connor didn’t make it out, either.

Page 02: On the streets below, a zombie is attacking a confused and terrified couple. Angel jumps to the pavement to get back into the fight… but there’s a problem that he doesn’t notice until after he jumps… his heart is racing.

Commentary: Notice as well that behind Angel, we see both the sun and moon sharing the sky. This plays havoc with Nina the Werewolf.

Page 03: Angel lands atop a car… he’s bleeding from the nose, his legs are broken, back too. And his heart continues to race.

From a short distance away, Wesley strolls up to him. Around them a fire burns and a tentacle is breaking up through the street, grasping.

Page 04: Wes tells Angel he’s sorry about what has happened (whether about Gunn specifically, or more likely, about the Hell around them is unclear).

Now: Angel continues healing using a slimy creature and a bunch of those mystic, made-up words that BTVS and Angel regularly threw out there. This would be following his injuries caused by Illyria last issue.

Commentary: By the way, I dutifully started looking up Angel’s gibberish to see if it was an actual language being used… even though that seems a bit geeky. It appears that it must be some sort of demon language that hasn’t made it to the internetz yet. And also, notice the demonic face on the book – W & H apparently had their own version of the Necronomicon at some point and it remained in the L.A. office. Pretty sloppy of them, really.

Page 05: Angel completes his healing and he and Wes exchange words.

Page 06: Angel complains to Wes that he wants out of Hell. And, the only way to do that is to pretend that nothing’s changed, because W & H purposely took away his vampire nature in order to bring him low. He’s going to prove that even as a human being, he can still fight against them.

Page 07: Wes sympathizes with Angel’s desire to continue fighting like he always had, but since Angel is now human, it appears foolish and untenable.

Two beautiful ‘women’ appear in a warm light behind Wes. And, well… I have to quote Wesley here:

Oh, my. Maybe it’s my time… maybe I walk into the light… I can’t leave now! He needs me! Angel, you need me, right? Because if you don’t—

But of course, the two sudden women grab Angel to tell him they’ve come for him and completely ignore Wes… who responds:

Well that was a short-lived excitement.

Commentary: Well, I found it funny, anyway.

Page 08: The two women continue with their summons of Angel, thusly:

Come with us.

Into the light.

Walk into the light.

Light blue Acura.

Walk into the light blue Acura.

It’s in the garage.

Commentary: And, I remain amused. We also get to see the Dragon, hanging out in front of W & H. He follows behind Angel, but what’s important here is Gunn is watching all of this occurring from the shadows.

Page 09: Gunn and two of his followers swing for W & H from the roof their on. Meanwhile, Spike is being confronted by the SharkHead Lord. He’s there to inform Illyria that she should send a champion to challenge Angel (as per last issue when Angel challenged all of the Lords for control of L.A.). Spike tries to tell them that he’s a co-Lord and can speak for her – but they don’t buy it.

Commentary: The chick in the bikini is Maria from Spike: After the Fall. She may look human, but she gets spider-legs that erupt from her spine. And also, notice that below Gunn is a pair of eyes and a couple of fingers poking through a fence… and those hooks hanging from the roof – creepy.

Page 10: The Lord presents a gift for Illyria… a shaft that can end an immortal’s existence. Spider is very interested in the object – Spike? Not so much.

Page 11: In the meantime, Illyria is acting as unstable as ever. She’s obviously throwing a temper tantrum for some unknown reason. But while Spike and Spider talk about their plans (she wants to kill Angel, wipe out the other Lords and stop hiding – he says they’re not hiding, they’re staying out of the way while saving the day) they also time shift. Interestingly, Spike is now standing with a scythe in his hands and Maria is lying headless at his feet and he’s again dressed in his long leather coat.

Page 12: Maria (aka Spider) and Spike continue discussing Angel’s unlikely survival no matter which way Spike goes. In the meanwhile, Angel and Wes are being driven in the car to Silver Lake… where things are demonic, but not really as Hellish as you’d expect.

Page 13: Which makes sense, as Lorne is the Lord of Silver Lake?!

Yep – ‘tis true. And, he has a harpy on his side whose song keeps “everyone centered”.

Commentary: In case you don’t recall, Lorne was feeling pretty crappy in Not Fade Away. First and foremost because he abandoned his friends when the chips were down, but also, because he shot Lindsey dead. Violence was never something that Lorne was into and he needed to retreat once he’d slain the evil ex-lawyer. Now we find out that he didn’t get far before L.A. went to the demons.

Page 14: Lorne tells Angel he’s been keeping an eye out on his friends from this sanctuary. He also tells Angel that he knows about the Challenge and isn’t very happy that Angel is risking his un-life so foolishly (not knowing that it would actually be risking his un-un-life at this point). But Lorne assures Angel that he’s still on his side:

I told them to go screw it. It came out “No, thank you, Sir, please leave my little safe haven alone,” but the tone was 100% “Go screw.”

But, he also has something important to show Angel….

Page 15: Lorne shows Angel the champions that are being gathered to fight on the Lord’s behalf… since, you know, the Demon Lords of L.A. would never actually risk their own necks. Among the contestants is a T-Rex and, more worryingly, a She-Skip… all armored the way he was and we remember, don’t we, how tough Skippy was?

But, Lorne has a plan to help unofficially (as officially, he’s sworn to stay well out of things in order to protect Silver Lake from hostilities with the other Lords).

Commentary: I’ve always felt badly for Lorne for being pushed into killing a human being, but I’m disappointed in him here for not fighting. I guess I can understand his reasoning (and the fact he just isn’t a warrior), but still… disappointed. And, he looks awful in that yellow suit… with red epaulets?! Grotesque. You have to admire the fashion-bravery though, especially the over the top crown.

Page 16: Lorne’s unofficial help is to re-introduce Groosalugg! We haven’t seen Groo in forever since he realized that Cordelia was too attached to Angel to ever actually fall in love with him. Somewhere along the line, he’s managed to get himself a winged stallion, too.

Commentary: Alas, Groo doesn’t look a thing like Mark Lutz. Not One Iota.

Page 17: Wes and Lorne have a discussion about Lorne’s less than thrilled reaction to Wesley being there… basically Lorne acknowledges that he’s not sure that allowing a ‘representative’ of the evil law firm into his sanctuary was a great idea. But Wes tells him he may not have had a choice in working for W & H, but he intends to help Angel, anyway.

Meanwhile, Gunn and his vampire cronies have just finished searching for something, but failed to find it.

Commentary: It’s possible that Gunn is looking for another glowing orb, like the one he stole off of Kr’ph’s dead body in the arena. I can’t recall if Angel has something unique in his HQ and I don’t have the other three issues in front of me.

Page 18: Gunn doesn’t get what he wanted, but he does snag a snapshot of the gang with baby Connor before things went bad.

He’s also left Angel a surprise.

Page 19 & 20: KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

Good-bye W & H, L.A. office.

Commentary: I also have to mention here that the electrical dude that Spike got zapped by in Spike: After the Fall #2 was never, ever seen in W & H, except in that issue. So, that entire interlude that I bitched about so much over in those reviews has even LESS point in retrospect. That still pisses me off. But, back to THIS review….

Page 21: Gunn stands in the midst of the destruction he’s rained down and feels good, grinning with those vamp-teeth.

At the same time, Wesley, while talking to Lorne, suddenly fades away. We do hear enough before he vanishes to know that he’s afraid for Angel’s state of mind. He believes that Angel may be on a martyrdom trip, and well, that never works out well for the guy doing the martyrdom.

The Good: The answer to the cliffhanger last issue where Angel reveals to us that he’s now human.

The little bits of humor were welcome since this storyline (like much of Angelverse) is so dark. Among these were the lovely ladies Lorne sent and of course the green demon himself.

Seeing Groo, again! I really want to know what in the world he’s been doing with his time… and where did he get a flying horse?

Gunn’s destroying Angel’s HQ. Was he destroying it because it was W & H’s or because it was Angel’s?

The Bad: I didn’t find anything badly done in this issue. But, I do have to mention that Groo doesn't look one whit like the actor who portrayed him.

The Score: This issue did a good job of providing explanations to what happened to Angel, Groo and Lorne while moving Gunn’s plot arc ahead. Everyone’s reaction to Wes continues to sadden me, as does Gunn’s fate. But, I have to say his blowing the high rise sky high was pretty awesome.

4.25 out of 5.0 stars.