Angel: After the Fall

Issue 3

Just a Note: I’m happy to report that Angel’s S6 has continued in Angel: Aftermath and I think it has started out generally stronger than After the Fall ends up being.

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

Illustrated By: Franco Urru, Colored By: Jason Jensen, Lettered By: Robbie Robins,

Edited By: Chris Ryall

Cover By: Andrew Robinson

Where We Are: In Los Angeles. In Hell.

Page 1: Angel goes flying through a window and into the interior of a spacious apartment. As we know from Issue 2 – Illyria is annoyed at him for annoying her ‘pet’, Spike.

Page 2: Angel lies stunned on the expensive carpeting as Illyria follows him in. Suddenly without warning, he’d once again Liam – wondering who the crazy lady is and what she wants.

And then, he’s back to Angel. He figures out quickly that he had just experienced a timeslip… Illyria’s being affected by being in Hell and she’s time-displacing like she had done when she first showed up in the W & H offices.

Page 3: Angel continues trying to avoid Illyria’s punches. He, obviously, has little effect on trying to fight back. What’s important here, however, is what Illyria observes about Angel:

“You’re half of what you were.”

It’s a little foreshadowing of something we will discover at the end of this very issue. And, it’s something that was also hinted at in the first two issues (Angel’s getting beaten up so easily, his using a parasite to help heal).

Page 4: Angel pulls a gun from a former victim… either of Illyria’s or whoever was there before her and Spike took over the place. He demands to know what Illyria knows about the Westwood stadium massacre… remember, there were Sanskrit ruins that led him to suspect Illyria in the first place. You add the vampire victims, and he’s thinking Spike isn’t so “soulful” now, what with Hell being everywhere.

He’s wrong, of course. As we know from Spike: After the Fall, the other vampire with a soul was out playing the hero. It was actually Gunn who attacked the human vampire victims, and killed the Lord of Westwood. He’s after some sort of mystic discs to “save everyone”.

Page 5: Alas, Illyria doesn’t really care about guns. Plus, she’s really fast when she wants to be. She easily disarms Angel…

And pins him to a wall by driving knives through his palms! Ew.

Page 6: Illyria hesitates to kill Angel (but, of course!). As she is holding the knife to his face and telling him that he is “sullying my eyeline” with his presence, they are again timeslipping: Angel as puppet guy, a possible future Angel (I didn’t catch it at first, but if you look closely, you’ll see he’s aged… another foreshadow?), and little baby-Angel.

They “pop back” to the here and now.

Page 7: Spike finally decides that Angel has had enough and tries to call her off. Illyria isn’t ready to let things go… I believe, by her dialog, because she’s having trouble “moving forward”, possibly an allusion to the fact that she keeps timeslipping into the past when she becomes stressed (From Spike: After the Fall, we also know she has a habit of slipping into being Fred… more timeslipping?).

Page 8: Fortunately for Angel, this is the time when the dragon shows up, crashing through a wall.

Page 9: Illyria is pleased. This is a battle she can really get into… instead of winning far too easily. She offers the dragon the first strike….

Page 10: … he reacts by blasting her with his flame-breath!

Illyria lies on the floor for a moment, before looking back at the dragon… “More.” she says.

Page 11: While Spike unpins Angel, he’s concerned with who else might know that he’s there. His palatial estate has been an oasis of calm in the turmoil happening through out the rest of the L.A. area and he obviously doesn’t want a demon horde crashing the place.

Above them, the dragon flies into the sky with a blast of fire and Illyria pulling on it’s face spikes…

(Angel, to Spike): “Right about now, I’d say anyone in a twenty-block radius who happens to be looking up [knows they are there]” he deadpans.

Page 12: In the air, the dragon manages to wrap a long tongue around Illyria and drag her into its mouth. He clomps down on her.

While Spike and Maria (from Spike: After the Fall, she has spider-legs that pop out of her spine) exchange words about what to do about Angel’s arrival, in the background the dragon raises its head up….

Page 13: …And spits Illyria out… with a big “PTTTTTTU”… LOL… that’s great!

In the meantime, everyone is completely ignoring the two as Angel and Spike continue their grand tradition of arguing. First about Angel destroying the good thing Spike has going, then the dragon using Illyria as a spit-wad to destroy his fountain of blood, then Angel’s still trying to figure out who killed the Lord of Westwood and finally about Illyria’s erratic behavior.

Page 14: Interrupting the arguing, Connor appears from off panel.

In the background, Illyria kicks the dragon in the chin.

Connor explains that Spike is on the good side… which Angel, naturally, is hesitant to believe.

Page 15: Connor explains that Spike has been rescuing refugees and has them set up in a large underground basement suite. Spike has also been training a she-army to fight in order to act as protectors to the mortals.

Angel isn’t happy. He’s back to square one. Illyria is also unhappy because he stops the fight between her and the dragon before she has sated her bloodlust.

Page 16: Angel leaves, grumbling that things are easier when Spike is killing people. The dragon follows him back to W & H.

Page 17: Wes awaits his return. Wesley warns Angel that the Lords are meeting to decide what to do about the death of Bruge’s son… whom Angel killed.

Angel puts together the fact that the massacre with the ruins inscribed and the death-by-vampires-victims were a set up to frame Spike. Somebody (guess who….) was trying to instigate a battle between Spike and Angel.

Something that, I should mention, is awfully easy to do.

Page 18: The remaining seven Lords of Los Angeles are in a meeting. The other Lords are not sure that they want to destroy Angel. If it wasn’t for him, there’d be no Hell in L.A. right now. But, Bruge is insistent that he wants Angel.

Page 19: Angel crashes the party, with Wesley in tow.

Page 20 & 21: Angel demands a duel with Bruge for his new domain. The Lord decides he’ll assign a champion to fight Angel on his behalf, instead, but the duel is accepted with that caveat.

That isn’t all though. Angel challenges all of the Lords. If he wins, he becomes the new Lord of Los Angeles and ergo, there will be less of the slavery and death going on.

I’d like to just toss in here that the Lord of Santa Monica is the same type of land-shark demon that was a loan shark in “Tabula Rasa” in Buffy, S6.

Anyway, Angel’s rash decision is accepted by the Lords. In two days, they will all send their champions against Angel for control of Los Angeles.

Page 22: Throughout this whole exchange, we’ve seen Angel is still injured. As he’s leaving the meeting with the Lords, we get his thought bubble letting us know the secret that has been hinted at for the past three issues:

Angel is no longer a vampire!

The Good: Let’s start with the cover – I love the Illyria portrait and the reflection of Angel’s dragon-pal in the axe head.

I really like the Spike/Illyria interaction. And, I like how Spike’s “Hugh Hefner-ing” is all an act to hide the fact that he’s got human refugees hidden away and is raising an army to guard them.

The Illyria vs. Dragon fight is a highlight, especially how most of it isn’t taken seriously and is, if fact, taking place in the background of others’ dialog scenes. There’s something very Joss-like in that, I think.

I like how Angel still is working on his mistaken assumption. No one knows, yet, that Gunn is the real problem.

Obviously Angel’s reveal on page 22!

The Bad: Well… considering Angel’s current status, the fact that he’s taken as much punishment as he has seems… misleading. Especially when we see Illyria punch him in the jaw this very issue! And, since when can Illyria be stabbed with a knife successfully? I guess it isn’t a big deal, but there’s something dishonest in how they hid Angel’s mortality from us.

The Score: Things are heating up in Hell! Angel’s ploy against the Lords of L.A. seems ill thought out by him, considering….

And, then there’s Wes’ continued ambiguous involvement which I find interesting. Illyria’s attitude toward Spike is amusing and I had fun with the battle against the dragon. I liked Connor putting Angel in his place regarding Spike’s actual role in protecting the civilians and how quickly Angel figures out he’s been played. But, he still doesn’t get who is behind things, yet.

I liked the flow of this one, too… I give it 4.0 out of 5-stars.

Angel: After the Fall #2

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: Tony Harris

Where We Are: After the defeat of a W & H most-valued customer consortium that went under the name the ‘Black Thorn’, the multi-dimensional evil law firm turned on Angel and his team for their betrayal. Using their considerable power, they sent an army after Angel, but even more impressively, they’ve dragged Los Angeles, California into Hell along with everyone who’d been living there. Angel’s former group has been spread around L.A. to cope on their own. Spike and Illyria are in Beverly Hills with their own demon problem (see Spike: After the Fall). Lorne vanished before the big brawl. Wes was killed in AtS: Not Fade Away, but is still in the ‘new Hell’ as a representative to W & H. And Charles Gunn, who had been mortally wounded, was dragged away by a vampire and turned.

Page 1: Angel is in the W & H garage with one of his many sport cars. Wes is at his side and the air between the two is obviously tense. With the killing of the Demon Lord Bruge’s son, Angel needs to get to Santa Monica – he tells Wesley he’d really rather not have him come along.

Page 2: Angel drives out from the relative peace of the W & H building and out into the chaos that L.A. has become.

The whole scene is drawn so that we see it as if we were in the backseat of Angel’s car and looking front through the windshield over his shoulder. That was a neat choice.

Page 3: In Westwood, Angel has an awkward meeting with Nina, the half-werewolf, not quite in control of herself that he briefly dated before all Hell, literally, turned loose. He’s looking for Connor, but finds his son is off in Westwood investigating a Lord’s death… and presumably wishing to rescue any of the humans the Lord may have had enslaved.

Page 4: Sometime later… In Westwood: There is a free-for-all among the demons to decide who is going to be the new Lord of Westwood. Angel wades in to the brouhaha, looking for Connor and people to save.

Page 5: As Angel kills some of the larger specimen of demons his mind is on his son. Well, I’ll just quote his thoughts here:

…I mean, this is literally the second time I punched his ticket to Hell, not many fathers can say that. He and I are probably back to square one. It’s going to take a while before I earn his trust. Before I deserve it.

Page 6: Naturally, Angel’s big angsty build up to meeting with Connor again is completely undercut by the young man; he just wants to know what took him so long to show up. Putting that “Destroyer” title to good use, he has one demon run through with a spear like a fish on a spit. In the other hand, he’s got a sword that looks almost as big as he is tall.

Page 7: Angel informs Connor about killing the son of a Lord, which of course, now paints an even larger target on his own son. Connor blows it off – again, he just wants to know where Angel’s been the last few weeks.

Page 8: The Angel/Connor bonding scene doesn’t really get a chance to get off and running though. You know Angel - it takes him so long to get to the point when it comes to his feelings and all. And, right now, Gwen is taking center stage. She’s found something disturbing and considering where they are, when she says disturbing she really means it.

Page 9: Switch to Gunn’s pad: he has the telepathic ‘fish’ webbed down to a bed. We find out the ‘fish’ calls himself George. Gunn tries to make the fish believe he’s one of the good guys.

Page 10: George tries to assess his new situation: See he’s the reason that Gunn attacked the Demon Lord in last issue – the jazzy-cool looking Kr’ph… who got himself good and dead by Gunn’s team. They grabbed the telepath and an orb that was within the Lord’s body.

It’s obvious with the conversation that Gunn has big plans. He’s also really pissed at being turned and puts the blame and his rage entirely on Angel.

Page 11: Gunn has a major hate-on for Angel’s “giving up on everything. On us.” But he’s determined that he’ll be the one to save everyone from what Angel has allowed to happen – if he can get over his anger-management issue – he clocks poor George.

Page 14: It’s not about the soul! I’m living proof of that!

Gunn rages, sounding a few letters short of a full alphabet, if you get what I’m sayin’.

Page 15: Gunn placed the Orb from Kr’ph at the foot of an altar, which appears to be made up entirely of dead, rotting demon corpses. Charming.

Page 16: Back with Gwen, she’s showing Angel and Connor what she’s found in the stadium… which is demons torn asunder. Both boys knew of Kr’ph, but only Angel knew how such a “bottom feeder” became a Lord in the first place. We find out both the name and general power of the Orb that Gunn now possesses. In addition, Gwen informs them that vampires did this massacre. She knows this ‘cause:

A few ladies told me. Not so much with words, but with their necks and horrified dead expressions.

Page 17: The walls have been painted in bloody fingerpaints. Connor wants to know who did this, Angel claims to not know, but we get from his inner thought square that he already knows who did the deed. He sends Connor to collect his dragon-pal.

Page 18: While Connor is off to get the dragon, Angel is in his convertible and racing toward… “All signs point to it. It was bound to happen. Our paths were going to cross. I should have handled this before. No time like the present.”

Spike.

This scene can only take place after Spike: After the Fall because the second heroic vampire is not with his ragtag group of refugees now. He’s in a swanky estate surrounded by women of different skin colors and species. But, all of them are gorgeous, amply bosomed, bikinied, and doting on him hand and foot. And, he’s spinning a tale which grossly distorts his role in the final battle in the alleyway.

Page 19: Okay, its not just a distortion, it’s a bloody fable about the last battle in the alleyway in which Angel is blubbery and they’re facing down the Devil himself and Spike is the brave one shouting in Satan’s big, red face.

The ladies drink up the studly bravery of our hero’s alleged exploits.

Page 20: Angel busts in on Spike’s tale, snarking it away:

After he led us to victory, we proclaimed we’d be friends forever and did a synchronized hand-jive at the big carnival. Hey, Spike.

Someone’s seen Grease.

Among the sycophants is Spider – the girl with the arachnid legs that can spring from her back which Spike was fighting in his comic. Nice to see old enemies becoming allies. She also says something that will have greater relevance later – that Angel is “reeking of magic”… there’s a specific reason for this aura.

Page 21: Angel informs Spike he needs to talk to him, but the busty chicks have something to say about that. Another of Spike’s new team is the nose-less ‘commandant’ chick serving ‘Princess Annoying’ over in Spike: After the Fall.

Anyway, Spike being who is he, acts childish and Angel gets bossy and it all turns wrong – as things always do when these two don’t stay away from one another.

Page 22: Spike’s big mouth gets him punched in the face by Angel… again.

Page 23: Spike and Angel share more words… and Spike gets another fist to the face. Angel is there because some ruins on a wall written in blood back at the coliseum were in Sanskrit. Angel’s made the wrong assumption. He’s there to find Illyria, thinking she had something to do with getting the Orb, but we already know that it was Gunn who attacked and slaughtered the demons there. How this tracks with the drained girls, I’m not getting. Unless Angel actually believes that Spike was involved in the humans’ slaughter while helping Illyria?

This seems like muddled thinking. On the other hand, Angel has never believed in Spike, unlike Fred for instance. Since they’re in Hell, I guess it isn’t a stretch for Angel to suspect that Spike may be giving free reign to his vampiric side.

Unfortunately for him…

Page 24: …he finds that Illyria is there. And, she’s quite annoyed that he is ‘irritating her pet’.

The Good: Making Gunn the ‘big bad’ of the plot continues to pay dividends. Especially with the new twist of his wanting to “save us all”, while at the same time it is obvious that he is not in control of himself thanks to being turned into a vampire.

Skipping the angst-ridden Connor/Angel thing and going directly to a “hey, where the hell you been” thing was the right choice. We’ve all had enough of whiney Connor to last forever, I’m sure. Plus, Connor gets to kick some ass here in keeping with his character history.

I continue liking the artwork – especially the bold coloring.

Momentum: This story actually reads like it is leading somewhere – which if you’ve read my review of Spike: After the Fall, you’ll find me bitching about its lack of the same thing.

The Bad: There are things that are thrown in from Spike: After the Fall which you have no clue about if you didn’t put money down on that title. I don’t think it would have killed anything for an asterisk and a note – guess that isn’t a real big deal.

  Connor, the Destroyer.

 

  Spike, the Decadent.


  Illyria the Violent.

The Score: While there are no major jumps forward in the plot, we can see where things might be leading. Gunn’s trying to be the hero still while driven by his demonic rage is sorry to see. Gwen, Connor and Angel all have some good scenes and Spike’s introduction into the story is handled alright. No glaring problems jump out in this issue, but nothing fantastic does either. It’s a workman-like issue building toward the Gunn/Angel conflict:

3.50 out of 5 stars.

Spike: After the Fall #2/4

Written By: Brian Lynch, Art By: Franco Urru, Color By: Art Lyon,

Lettered By: Robbie Robbins, Edited By: Chris Ryall

Cover By: The Sharp Brothers

Where We Are: Spike has survived the last battle in the alley against Wolf, Ram and Hart, but not everything is copasetic. With Angel’s team successful in wiping out the ‘Black Thorn’ group, W & H decided to retaliate against Angel’s ‘betrayal’ by sucking Los Angeles and its environs into Hell. Spike has been holed up in an amusement park and doing the best he can to protect a small group of survivors. Illyria has also survived and found her way to Spike’s side, but she is continually switching back and forth between herself and the remnant of Fred. As Fred, she can be hurt… possibly even killed.

Page 1: The first panel is a flashback to Angel’s last line of AtS: Not Fade Away – “Well, personally, I kinda want to slay the dragon.”

As we know from Angel: After the Fall, he actually managed to turn the dragon onto his side against W & H. He has also made the old W & H office his home base. Spike, in last issue, went scouting for the group’s next hide-out, as they’ve been staying on the move, and came across the office building… and the dragon.

Now, Spike is confronting a beast many times his size and power.

Page 2 & 3: A two page spread of the dragon towering over Spike as our vampire-hero tries to convince himself that he can win this fight… it’s just a matter of how: get under a scale, take out an eye, plug up his smoke issuing nostrils so his head explodes… face it, he’s got nothing.

Page 4: With the dragon not launching an immediate attack, Spike decides to “spare you, for now”. The dragon’s not ready to let him go though, giving signs that he wants to give the vampire a ride to somewhere.

Page 5: The dragon takes Spike to the top of the W & H building where a convenient hole in the wall gives him egress. You could be thinking that the dragon wants him to see Angel – but the other vampire-hero isn’t in residence at the moment. We also get a shout out to the metal desk that Bruge really liked in Angel: After the Fall.

Nice inside joke – but… well, I’ll get to that.

Page 6: Spike runs across –something- a humanoid that appears to be made of electricity, and it isn’t Electro-Girl Gwen. Whoever it is appears to be in a world of hurt while ‘trying to power up’. I don’t remember anyone like this in Angel: After the Fall and have no clue what this guy has to do with anything… I’ll make an updated reference if I figure it out in the other comic review – for now, Spike gets zapped.

Page 7: Recovering, Spike decides get the hell out of there and give the W & H building a wide berth from now on. And, here’s the ‘I will get to that’ part above under Page 5. THIS WHOLE SCENE IS POINTLESS.

Pages 5-7 are utterly for nothing except to fill out the book. In fact, the whole thing with the dragon from the last page of Issue 1 through the first 7 pages of this issue are without any purpose… WTF?!

Page 8: Spike decides he’s spent too much time away from the humans he’s decided to protect and beats a quick motorcycle ride back to the park. But, as we know from last issue, as soon as he left the group was attacked by demons and taken prisoner.

Okay – I’m not ready to let the dragon thing go, yet. I’m really annoyed that the entire scene at W & H served no story purpose whatsoever! Spike didn’t discover that Angel is alive, he didn’t discover that Wes remains tied to Wolf, Ram & Hart (which could have been used as a plot point involving Illyria since she, at least in theory, could be tied to W & H also through Fred’s ‘contract’). He didn’t do ANYTHING with the dragon scene. I don’t recognize any point to the encounter with the electro-form guy who he gets zapped by (but again, I may not remember this being from the Angel: After the Fall comic – nevertheless, the scene came to absolutely no point).

So basically, the first 7 pages of this comic served zero story purpose. That pisses me off… they could have just as easily delved into Spike’s thoughts and feelings about he current circumstances surrounding events and Illyria/Fred instead of wasting that comic space. Alright, deep breath – we still have more, actual, story to go.

Page 9: Spike discovers that everyone is missing. Everyone, except one of the raiders that is; she’s been left behind to scavenge. Apparently, this is a habit and she’s complaining that she always ends up with scut-work. Even though she looks human, we also get this tidbit:

Cast me out all the time, they’re just jealous. This work is piffle. I’ve been here longer than most of them, I’ve been around. Maybe not this body, but this mind, this heart, this… (‘she’ sees Spike and abruptly stops rambling).

Page 10: With the confrontation with Spike, chickie springs spider legs from her back. Spike pulls out a bowie-knife and we cut away:

Page 11: To Spike’s refugees, including Illyria who is now looking and acting like Fred. They are getting the run-down of how things are going to work and what the new rules are: it’s the usual – most of them are going to be killed immediately, the rest will be worked to death as slave labor. There is to be no whining, they aren’t to stare at their new ‘owner’ but they also aren’t to be rude and look away too quickly and of course:

Do not talk too loud. Do not whisper. Speak immediately after spoken to, unless it was a rhetorical statement or a humorous jab about your situation.

So, you know, basically anything they do or do not do can lead to death if their new owner decides to take offense – the basics.

‘Fred’ is caught whispering that she already blanked out on the first two rules and wonders if there was a mention that it was against the rules for her to write them down somewhere.

Page 12: ‘Fred’ is about to get made an example of, but they are interrupted by the ‘supreme leader’ of this group. she’s a wild hair young women with growths down the side of her arms and the personality of a spoiled princess – think Cordy, circa BtVS: S1 – crossed with Harmony.

Page 13: Princess Annoying immediately senses the power around Fred, but its obvious that Fred has no clue that she’s actually Illyria when she’s like this.

Page 14: Spike has defeated Spider-Girl (off panel) and comes racing to the rescue in her truck.

Page 15: Fred exclaims that Spike is there and Jeremy, who we met in Issue 1 as sort of the drafted Lieutenant to the vampire, gives an excited ‘YES!’

With a quick glare by Princess Annoying, he amusingly adds, “I, uh, I love trucks.”

Page 16: Princess Annoying grabs Fred and throws her in front of Spike’s barreling path. There is the horrible sound of smashing metal…

Page 17: … As Fred had changed back to Illyria at the last moment. Spike is meantime hauled out of the truck by Princess Annoying’s minions.

Page 18: As Spike battles the girl-army, Illyria strikes out at the Princess, smashing her face to a bloody pulp.

Page 19: The demoness has a surprise, however. She is able to suck the energy out of anyone nearby her, turning on the group of human refugees. She is almost instantly healed and able to grab and hold Illyria’s next punch in mid-swing.

Page 20: Illyria gets her godly ass kicked. The human refugees (except, conveniently for main-human Jeremy) collapse, with their skin pulled tightly against the bones, as if starved to death and there’s mention that they’re dying and “rotting?” but I can’t really tell by the artwork. Spike at this time, for reason unclear can’t move and the world quickly goes black for him.

Page 21: Spike is awoken by Princess Annoying running her talon-like nails down his bare chest. He’s also been chained at the wrists. Princess Annoying mentions that she can’t use his or Illyria’s powers through her energy-sucking abilities, but she can use his connections. Illyria’s fate remains unclear other than that she is ‘messed up’ right now. She leaves him chained in a room with arms reaching for him from the darkness.

Page 22: From the dark corners crawl the now nearly skeleton-people all reaching out for him and all calling his name pathetically.

The Good: The reveal scene of Princess Annoying’s powers was well handled – and the effect on the human’s around her are pretty terrible.

I liked the artwork, especially in the general action-mayhem scenes.

The Bad: The pointlessness of all of this. Let’s start with nearly one-third of the issue having no reason to be included!

There are some really ABRUPT changes of scenes, even for a comic book, especially from panel 1 of Page 7, where Spike lies after having been zapped to panel 3 of the same page where he is on his motorcycle and leaving behind the dragon who stares after him.

And, the way that the battle with Spider-girl isn’t shown at all – just a “jump cut” so we can spend some, admittedly slightly amusing, scene to the ‘commandant’ informing the refugees of the new rules.

The Score: As I’m sure you can tell, this was a filler issue. A large part of it was utterly wasted when it could have been spent time more wisely with emotionally effective scenes within Spike’s head or with Fred/Illyria. I also don’t find the ‘refugee-Lord of Beverly Hills (Princess Annoying)” storyline to be doing anything interesting. This isn’t about Spike’s growing into his role as a ‘Champion’ in the Angel-mode (in fact, he barely gets a mention) nor about anything other than battle the bad guy. We needed a limited-series focusing on Spike for this?

I’m really disappointed in the average-ness of this whole thing… it could have easily been a subplot in the Angel: After the Fall series without losing a thing – there was no reason to “spin this off” except as a money-grab unless they really pull something out of the air to finish it off in Issues 3 or 4:

Spike confronts Angel's friend, the Dragon.

  Illyria confronts the Lord of Beverly Hills.



2.50 out of 5 stars.

Angel: Blood and Trenches #2 (of 4)

Story & Art: John Byrne

Letters By: Neil Uyetake

Edited By: Chris Ryall

Where We Are: Angel is living in New York as WWI rages across the Atlantic. When he sees in the paper that British soldiers are being found completely drained of blood with no natural explanations, he sneaks off to investigate, suspecting vampires.

There, he meets pretty Aid Station worker Lady Margaret. But, he also runs afoul of some grunts who find him suspicious. A Colonel arrives by the name of Wyndam-Pryce who wishes to eradicate the supernatural menaces plaguing Britain’s troops as well. Angel’s nature is revealed when he is exposed to the dawn’s early light.

Page 1: Angel, his arms bound via strait-jacket, bursts out of the window of the room he’s been held in.

Page 2: With some fancy footwork, he manages to get a canopy of snow onto his back in order to smother the growing flames (as an aside, it’s difficult to imagine he’d have time to do all of this… on the other hand, Spike managed to walk miles covered in nothing but a little blanket after an RV crash in BTVS: S5). One of the soldiers manages to shoot him in the back.

Page 3: The snow pack doesn’t smother the flames for long and Angel is again burning. He makes it to a river and throws himself through the ice to make it to the waters below.

Page 4: The soldiers fire blindly into the river until ordered to stop wasting precious ammunition by Col. Wyndam-Pryce. An alert is sent downriver to all allied positions to be on the look out for Angel.

Page 5: It is evening again, and Lady D’Ascoyne has spent a grueling day tending the wounded (she has red blood all over her black and white apron). At first, she is a bit ‘stand-off-ish’, but he quickly charms her with real tea. The privations of war, you know.

Anyway, he informs her that he works for an organization dedicated to the eradication of the vampires. And although Angel has escaped, he’s somewhat mollified by the fact that if he’s managed to drift downstream far enough, he’ll become the Kaiser’s problem.

Page 6: Angel is indeed traveling along the river bed. Sensing that darkness has fallen, he again breaks through the ice. He’s weary, freezing and injured.

Page 7: Entering a zone of shattered and burned trees, he realizes that he has crossed the front lines in the war. A German patrol quickly surrounds him, but he’s able to convince them that he’s not an enemy combatant (the trace of Irish accent helps, everyone knows the English don’t appreciate the Irish). The soldiers on this side of the line also give some indication that they’ve been beset by “them”.

Page 8: We get a quick flashback to three days ago when the German squad were nearly decimated by human looking creatures… vampires, of course.

Page 9: They’ve been hauling one of their comrades who had been bitten, but he is dead now. He has fang holes (with oddly fresh looking blood). Angel breaks the news to them… he was left just alive on purpose so that he’d be moved to a evac center where he would die, and then come back…

Page 10: … In order to ‘recruit’ more blood-suckers. It appears the Kaiser isn’t using the vampires (which I stated in issue #1 review) but is actually losing troops to them, as well as the English. As Angel prepares to be-head the corpse and tries to convince the squad it needs to be done – Mueller re-animates and puts the bite onto Schultz, the squad’s leader ‘til now.

Page 11: Schultz won’t be coming back, however, as Mueller rips his head off of his shoulders (with a spray of red in the black and white panel). The surviving squad men and Angel begin fighting the new vampire.

Page 12: One of the soldiers draws his pistol and shoots Schultz directly in the forehead, but this doesn’t do much good (it does give us more splashes of red color, though). Angel takes care of the problem with an improvised stake.

Page 13: Angel returns with the men to the site of their days earlier battle against the vampires in order to find and destroy their comrades corpses. They find them all missing and very little blood left behind, naturally.

Quick note – in both BTVS and AtS, the amount of time it took for re-animation seemed to change with the episode’s plot, circumstance and how quickly they needed them to attack. For Byrne’s story, he’s chosen the ‘3-Day Rule’.

Page 14 & 15: Those missing bodies? They pop up out of the snow. Angel demands that the soldiers with him stop thinking of the re-animated as their friends and start finding some wood to use as stakes. They soldiers go on the offensive – probably for the very first time – against the fang-gang.

Page 16: The battle is brutal, but Angel’s new allies are out-numbered. The battle is interrupted by the arrival of more vampires. The new group of demons is lead by someone which Angelus knows… Crixus.

Page 17: Angel tries the ol’ “I am still evil and I claim these humans” thing. Crixus doesn’t give an inch however, pissed that ‘Angelus’ has killed his own kind. Angel’s got a stake to his chest by a pawn of Crixus when he changes his mind off-panel voice shouts to ‘STOP!’

Page 18: Crixus decides that though he doesn’t trust Angelus, it’s up to their new leader to decide his fate. Crixus gives us a quick history lesson of what has been happening in Europe as far as the vamps are concerned while Angel and the surviving men are lead to an abandoned monastery.

Page 19: The huge castle like structure is striking in the blowing snow. Naturally, all of the nuns who used to reside there were slaughtered by the vampires now using it.

(Aside – What is it about nuns, anyway? In ‘Spanderverse’ I also had a nunnery attacked and wiped out by Glorificus – not that monks seem to fair much better!)

Page 20 & 21: Angel spots a huge plane and asks about it. Here we find out that the Kaiser is at least somewhat involved with the vampires, after all. He’s given it to them as a ‘gift’, but it’s unclear whether he realizes they are preying on his own men – or if he has tacitly approved of them growing their vampire army. Angel and his new friends are led deeply underground to meet Crixus’ new master.

Page 22: An obviously old vampire makes his dramatic appearance. He’s tall, built like a block engine and has huge clawed hands. And, he still looks an awful lot like Kakistos, but he’s not named here. He threatens ‘Angelus’ with a staking if he can’t adequately explain the “stench of a soul” coming off of him.

The Good: Again, the artwork is top notch in this second issue. The black and white panels are beautiful and the splashes of red blood throughout made a dramatic choice.

Angel’s break-away from the English soldiers was well-handled, for the most part. It was certainly better than Spike’s ratty blanket hike across the desert in BTVS.

The main vampire bad-guy is suitably threatening.

The plot is still interesting and the pace is good… nothing gets belabored, drawn out or repetitive (a problem which the first issue of Spike: After the Fall suffers).

The Bad: Only the highly convenient and clichéd “I have the hero just about dead, but I change my mind and not kill him so that I can be defeated later” trope. Crixus had Angel dead-to-rights, but suddenly decides he can’t kill him without the master’s approval; Even though he’d already made it clear in dialog that Angel had to die for killing his men just a few panels earlier.

It remains unclear (especially between Issues 1 & 2) what the German Kaiser’s role is in all this. Is this an official program to use vampires as instruments of war (which it seemed like in Issue 1 – before German soldiers were the targets)? Is the Kaiser unaware that his own men are being recruited into the demonic force? Or, did the Kaiser expect them to limit the demons’ damage to enemy troops? Some of Crixus’ explanations to Angelus could have made the point clearer.

The Scoring: The plot continues to hum right along with excellent pacing. The artwork remains excellent throughout. The obligatory bad guy shows up and is suitably vicious looking. The only problem is some muddling of how these German vampires fit into the larger war effort – especially with the vampires attacking German troops and then finding out that a plane was a ‘gift from the Kaiser’… though that could have been said sarcastically, I suppose: 4.25 out of 5 stars.

Angel: Blood and Trenches #1

Story & Art: John Byrne, Letters: Chris Mowry, Edited: Chris Ryall

Cover Art: John Byrne, Cover Coloring: Tom Smith/Scorpion Studios

Set Up: This story takes place during WWI. This issue is also largely black and white, with red being used sparingly to highlight blood.

Page 1: There’s a winter storm going on. Someone (hint: It’s Angel) is narrating that they are carrying wounded men in a ‘lorry’. There is only an hour before dawn, which is praying on the mind of our narrator. Nearby, an explosion goes off.

Page 2: Angel struggles to control the vehicle, but it’s a lost cause. The truck tips over. As Angel recovers from a tumble down an embankment, we see the cause of the explosion. There is a plane fast approaching.

Page 3: The pilot of the plane is a vampire. Using the mounted machine gun, pilot opens fire on Angel. Our hero takes several rounds, being unable to maneuver in the deep snow.


 

Page 4: The Fokker tri-plane swoops in for another run, this time targeting the truck carrying the wounded. Angel watches in horror and outrage as the truck is shot up. As the plane flies off, for good this time, Angel goes to the back of the now burning truck. He grabs the men and drags them away from the fire. The men’s blood covers his hands and the smell invades his nostrils. He backs away and tries to control himself.

Page 5: Trying desperately to focus on something else, he remembers why he came to Europe in the first place… six weeks ago:

(reading the paper): “Sources inform the Enquirer that there is no kind of medicinal machine which could so completely drain a human body without collapsing and damaging veins and arteries. Sources say no such damage has been found in the fifty or more bodies discovered thus far. One thing has been reported to be consistent in all these mysterious killings. An unidentified mark or sign has been found scribed in the blood of the victims.”

Page 6: Angel breaks into the public library and researches the symbol that had been reproduced in the paper.

Page 7: He finds evidence that the mark is a symbol for a particular vampire cult (I’m not sure if this is deliberate, but the vamp looks a whole lot like Kakistos from BTVS that was hunting for Faith). Angel makes his way to Nova Scotia and sneaks aboard a supply vessel bound for England.

Page 8: The Germans torpedo the ship and then shoot at the survivors in the water. As the ship goes into its death throes, our vampire manages to sneak aboard the German U-boat.

Page 9: Two days later, the sub breaks the surface near the coastline of France and Angel swims to shore….

Page 10: … Only to get hit by a truck. Brilliant. He’s knocked unconscious, but of course, the soldiers driving the truck believe he’s dead. They load him up.

Page 11: He comes to at an aid-station. As the young woman overseeing the place insists on helping him, one of the soldiers who brought him in is convinced that he was dead.

Page 12: As Lady Margaret D’Ascoyne tries to get him to submit to a physical, and offers him a hot bath to clean up….

Page 13: Corporal ‘Jealousy’ is reporting the strange turn of how Angel was dead and then he wasn’t: they have standing orders to report anything strange, no doubt due to the odd conditions of the 50+ bodies that have been found without blood. Meanwhile, Margaret is flirting with Angel, when a vampire breaks through the window.

Page 14: There are two of the things, but Angel is able to dust one of them. The thing loses the advantage when he reacts with shock to discover Angelus at the aid-station.

Page 15: The second creature is dusted. Angel explains to Lady Margaret that he has been fighting such monsters for a long time. He asks for her assistance in helping him to blend in. She gives him a job as an ambulance driver.

Page 16: As Angel begins evacuating soldiers that require more attention than the aid-station can give, a Colonel from command shows up and begins asking questions about him. When he hears that Angel only works the night shift, he orders his driver to follow the ambulance’s route.

Page 17: We catch up to where we started the story: A tri-plane swoops over the ambulance and the vampire pilot drops a hand grenade which blows up near the ambulance and leads to the crash.

Page 18: Back in the present, Angel is no longer able to resist the call of the dead men’s blood soaking their garments. He bends over a body and feeds… just in time for the Colonel and his men to show up.

Page 19: Angel is beaten and bound and then tossed in a trunk.

Page 20: Lady Margaret is awoken by the awful racket made by Colonel Geoffrey Wyndam-Price returning to the station with Angel bound in a trunk.

Page 21: Wyndam-Price orders the personnel at the station to be rounded up. Angel is quickly bound to a chair.

Page 22: In order to root out any ‘infected’, Wyndam-Price opens the curtains on the dawn. Angel, naturally, doesn’t react well….

The Good: I’ve always liked John Byrne’s artwork, so this gets high marks, even though all of his faces look very much alike.

Using black and white, so that things like blood (in color) stands out, is a neat creative decision and really works well.

The continuity is nice. We have the Germans experimenting with using vampire soldiers, which they’ll go back to in WWII. We also have Wyndam-Price, obviously the grandfather of Wesley (who is currently serving Wolfram & Hart in Angel: After the Fall). And, we can see why Angel was so reluctant to help the United States during WWII when the government agents came to recruit him (AtS: Why We Fight).

The Bad: Nuthin’, as long as you don’t mind largely black and white artwork. And, John’s habit of drawing faces all the same shape – especially mouths agape.

Scoring: With an interesting storyline, hints of future continuity and some great looking artwork, this one is a winner; 4.0 out of 5 Stars.

Angel: After the Fall #1

Plotting By: Joss Whedon & Brian Lynch, Scripting By: Brian Lynch, Illustration: Franco Urru, Coloring: Ilaria Traversi, Lettering: Robbie Robins, Editing: Chris Ryall

Cover Art: Tony Harris

Set Up: In the series ending episode of Angel, Not Fade Away, the Angel Investigations team was in some serious trouble. Angel and his allies managed to bring down an ultra-powerful group of evil known as the Black Thorn. Basically, they were the demonic version of the Hall of Doom.

Wolf, Ram & Hart were not at all pleased by this turn of events. Angel played them, signing away his right to Shanshu (become mortal as reward for his redemptive deeds) in order to get in close with the Black Thorn group. By doing so, he was able to identify their members who were responsible for much of the evil at the highest levels of government among the elite of L.A.

Now, in retaliation, the power behind the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart has pulled all of Los Angeles into Hell itself. A new world order has asserted itself, locking the city and its inhabitants away from the rest of the world and leaving them vulnerable to the legions of devils, demons, and exotic Hellspawn.

Page 1: Appropriately, we start with Angel. He’s busy at the moment fighting a cadre of demons who are running wild throughout L.A. Right now, they’re attempting to snack on a group of refugees. Naturally, the fighting doesn’t get in the way of Angel’s monologue (-smile-):

It all started with a girl. (It’s not who you think.) I joined a corporation that was, quite literally, evil incarnate. I thought I could channel their resources into something positive. In an existence defined by bad choices, that was the worst. I didn’t change them. They changed me. Then they killed her (leading me to surmise this isn’t about Buffy, but Fred). That opened my eyes. I took a stand.

Page 2: Angel is tackled to the ground and three of the demons are standing over him, big and evil grins on their faces. Until they find a surprise! (see below)

  Angel's secret weapon.

Page 3: Angel speaks to one of the save-ees. He gives her the address where she can find help, a car to get there… and an ax. He plays the mysterious hero, hops on his transport and flies away.

He lets us know, via more monologue, that this has been going on for a few months now.

Page 4 & 5: We have a splash page here. It’s here that we’re told that Wolfram and Hart sent Los Angeles to Hell. Angel is riding his dragon over downtown L.A., and in the background we see that the buildings all have tentacles coming from them. Some are burning and smoking. From one pile of rubble, there’s a large toothed maw coming from the ground. From the top of another building, it appears that the roof has actually grown a large toothed mouth. It’s beautiful artwork, and I wish I could scan both pages, but the book spine is in the way. This, by the way, is clearly (from Angel’s monologue) the dragon that he wanted to fight in the ending scene of Not Fade Away.

Page 6: On his way back to his base, Wolfram and Hart’s legal building, Angel tells us what has happened. Little time passed before the human population figured out they weren’t just stuck in a temporary nightmare. It was about the same amount of time before the demons realized they were home. They immediately took charge, the Lords of Hell carving up Los Angeles into fiefdoms between them. He goes out ‘night after night’, although that term has little meaning, we’ll find out later (and if you read my Spike: After the Fall review, you’ll know that day and night have mixed here).

Page 7: After Angel sends his dragon down to the garage, he discovers he’s had some callers. In his words:

Burge. Lord of downtown L.A. And his son. Moron offspring of the Lord of downtown L.A.

Again, Angel seems outclassed (there is actually a good reason for this, too, but we don’t learn why he keeps getting his ass kicked here). And, again, the artwork is excellent in this issue – I especially like the close up of Burge’s ‘moron’ son. Especially charming, is the droopy saliva dripping against Angel’s chin… eww.

  Drool is always charming.
 

Page 8: Angel’s getting his butt kicked is interrupted by another visitor. The new visitor is a familiar man with dark hair and glasses (except as first, I didn’t recognize him… the artwork doesn’t look much like Wes). Wes’ fate is disturbing. He is “the last official representative of this branch of Wolfram & Hart”.

Apparently, his contract has enslaved Wesley upon his death, as it did Lila.

Page 9: Wes is able to talk down Burge, if not is dim-witted son. We also get a hint that Wolfram & Hart still do not want Angel dead. Wes makes this clear to Burge in this exchange:

I can also assure you, Angel’s fate isn’t up to you. We kept him around, even after a fairly alarming indiscretion. So I’m thinking you should tell your steroid-ridden hellspawn to step down before he kills Angel and ruins things for the rest of us.

Page 10: Burge’s son isn’t willing to let it go, and tries to take his anger out against Wesley. When he goes to claw him however, he finds his hand passing right through him. Wes is still dead (see AtS: Not Fade Away), but is being kept around to serve as Wolfram & Hart’s voice… as a ghost.

Page 11: Wes isn’t fully on board the demon train, however, as he expresses some sympathy for Angel’s mission to save whom he can. We cut away from Angel and Wes to follow the save-ees from a few pages back.

Page 12: The humans arrive at some sort of building with other humans and a few demons are seeking refuge. We’re re-introduced to Gwen, the electric girl from AtS.

Page 13: In addition to Gwen, we see that Nina, the Werewolf woman is also doing her part to try to protect the humans that Angel has helped. We learn here that the day/night dichotomy of regular Earth no longer applies. Nina is particularly affected as she not only sniffs one of the save-ees, but then licks her cheek!

(Nina to woman she just licked): Did I?

(the Woman): She’s tenderizing me, she’s tenderizing me, she’s tenderizing me…

(Nina): No! It’s the sun/moon situation! They’re both out at once. do you have any idea what that does to a werewolf?

(Woman): Make you hungry?!

(Nina): No!

(Woman): Makes you bi-curious?!

Now, far be it from me to point out an inconvenient fact, when it sets up such a humorous back and forth, but I’ve seen the moon and sun out at the same time here in Michigan. It may not have been 24/7, but it does happen in the mornings. Does Nina freak every time this occurs… I suspect it’s the Hell/24 hours a day thing that is actually causing the issue.

Page 14: In addition to Gwen and Nina, we find that Connor is also involved in keeping this ‘safehouse’ operating. He knows that Angel sent the latest refugees, thanks to the Wolfram & Hart parking sticker on the car they’ve showed up driving.

Elsewhere, Angel is being healed by a parasite.

Page 15: Angel and Wes share some words regarding the situation with Burge.

Page 16: Angel and Wes walk through the complex (passing the dragon resting) and discuss what Angel plans to do long term. Their relationship is… strained… by Wes’ having to ‘represent’ what W & H want. Angel cannot entirely trust him. On Wes’ behalf, he isn’t pleased either with having to play W & H’s plans, but he is also bound by contract.

Page 17: Across town, in Westwood, another demon Lord forces humans to fight to the death with one another. He uses a telepathic, air-breathing ‘fish’, also enslaved, judging by the chain. This demon Lord is a neat creation, but the telepathic fish just looks silly.

Page 18: The Lord’s fun is interrupted by a rival group attempting to kill him.

Page 19: The fish is knocked out, leaving the Lord vulnerable. But, he has his own demon crew and orders them to defend against the invaders. They don’t do a great job.

Page 20: The skeletal Lord is angry, but willing to bargain with the invaders. In the meantime, his defenders are being easily wiped out.

Page 21: We find out that the invaders are led by Gunn! Now, when we left this member of Team Angel in Not Fade Away he had been grievously injured. Illyria had told him he would be dead within ten minutes, I believe. Yet now, he’s kicking ass. I hope we’ll get more detail into this turnaround.

What’s important now is that Gunn has a very specific reason for defeating this demon Lord. And it’s not just to save the enslaved; he is specifically trying to get a glowing disk that the Lord contains within his translucent body.

Interestingly, in a panel on Page 16 – Angel is looking at a drawing which appears to be of this disc.

Page 22: Team Gunn is also interested in the Fish… and the skimpily clothed slave-girls.

Page 23: On the street in front of W & H’s building, Burge’s son is back. This time, he’s there to prove a point. As Wes watches, the demon prepares to slaughter six humans in exchange for the six demons that Angel killed earlier to save the human group he subsequently sent to Connor.

He then appears to visit the ‘white room’. Or at least, he fades out to white.

Page 24: Angel again intervenes. Now, Burge demanded of Wes that Angel not leave the building for patrolling that night as ‘punishment’ to ‘think about what he’s done’.

Angel doesn’t leave the building.

Page 25: (Burge’s son to Angel): My father told you! MY FATHER TOLD YOU!

(Angel): I know. Not allowed to leave the building.

As Angel stands on a ledge of W & H, Burge’s loud-mouthed, moronic son charges him. Angel pulls out a good-ol’-fashioned stake from a pocket inside his jacket. He throws it. Exit Burge’s loud-mouthed, moronic son.


  Bye-bye Bruge's nameless son. And, good riddance.

Page 26: The followers of Burge’s now-quiet, not as stupid son warns Angel that he has now declared war against Burge, Lord of downtown L.A.

In a slightly confusing cut, we see dead bodies of some men piled in a hallway. It appears to be inside W & H, which wouldn’t say anything good about Angel. Turns out though, it’s a completely different location… as made clear on page 27.

Page 27: A woman screams as a man bites her… obviously a vampire. The vampire turns toward our POV, and we seen it is Gunn!

Which explains why he isn’t lying dead in an alleyway, as you would have expected at from the end of Not Fade Away.

The Good: The artwork from the cover throughout the interior of the comic is excellent, with one exception, but we’ll get to that.

The storyline is great. Los Angeles becomes a literal Hell, which fits well into AtS’ meme that Earth is already a Hell. Now, it’s literally true for a corner of it.

We get to check in on characters who weren’t in that alley (Connor, Nina and Gwen) as well as getting enough information to intuit what has happened to Wes and Gunn. Gunn’s fate is a heartbreaking twist, considering it was one of his biggest fears (and after having to put down his former sister in AtS- War Zone, I believe).

The Bad: Wesley, I afraid, doesn’t look like Alexis Denisoff. It took the dialog for me to figure out who Angel was talking to.

Scoring: This was actually a relatively strong start for the series. We know exactly what has happened by the end of it. Angel sets up a major conflict with a major Lord, Wes’ involvement is left ambiguous as far as whether he’ll be more help or hindrance and the showdown between Angel and Gunn is clearly coming. While not as strongly written as Buffy: S8, #1 … it’s still quite good and isn’t as repetitive as Spike: After the Fall. I’m scoring this one as 3.75 out of 5 stars.