Angel # 5 review - Part 2 of 2 (stupid LJ posting limit)

Page Sixteen: Wes’ reappears in Silverlake and is desperate to find Lorne and warn him that Angel needs help. However, the two girls from the light (the ones that told Angel he needed to enter the blue Acura in the garage) tells him that Lorne is way ahead of him.

the Blue Haired Pretty-Woman: The great and green non-Lord has gotten off his fabulous fence…

Commentary: Actually, Lorne is the ‘official’ Lord of Silverlake, but he doesn’t like being referred to by title. He sees himself as more of an administrator for the one peaceful corner in Hell Angeles.

Page Seventeen: Her thought continues:

“… and has rallied the troops.”

“The troops” have, by now, leaped in to save Angel’s fine looking ass: Connor, Gwen, Nina (who claws the T-Rex?! Is that really the most helpful thing she could do?), Groo and Spike.

Page Eighteen: And hey! Even Lorne is in the thick of it!!

Yea, Lorne!

And, Angel learns a valuable lesson that he probably should have known, but I’ll just quote him:

I was as surprised as you. This was my fight. I was never going to ask anyone to help. Turns out… I didn’t have to.

Commentary: Awwww… kind of gives you the fuzzy-wuzzies doesn’t it? And, just for the record, I wasn’t surprised.

Page Nineteen: Our heroes wouldn’t be heroes and our Lorne wouldn’t be Lorne without some snark – so the jolly green guy gives some to Bruge.

In the meanwhile, Gunn is staying out of things… just watching. He denies that he wants to do the ‘hero’ thing to his Lieutenant.

Commentary: But, the interesting thing here is that Gunn claims to have brought all of this about in order to get the ‘band’ back together. And, he warns, the ‘second half’ is where things are going to ‘start cooking’. We’re left to wonder just what exactly he did… push Bruge’s son to attack Angel, maybe? Or is he blowing smoke because about his importance to what is happening? Does he think that this whole thing is a response by W & H to his blowing up their HQ (in which case, he’s deluded about his importance)… questions, questions.

Page Twenty: Groo manages to free Angel’s dragon who’d been chained down, and sics him on the T-Rex. In the meanwhile, Spike dodges a fire blast and Gwen electrocutes She-Skip in the background.

Angel and Connor are fighting the shadowy demon and Angel informs Connor that he doesn’t want him there in the thick of things… and he knows it.

Connor’s response: At zero hour, Lorne did the supernatural shimmy over to Santa Monica and gave a rousing drunken speech. The parts I understood were really moving.

Page Twenty One: Next is Spike’s turn to explain why the hell he’s helping out Angel (he’s a Champion and Angel will owe him… plus Lorne did a bit of guilt-tripping).

Page Twenty Two: I was wondering where Illyria was supposed to be during all of this: now she’s here… enveloped in a giant, gelatinous spore and having the time of her life.

But, Spike also shares that she’s going to be his favor from Angel. Illyria, as we know, has been losing control. If she’s not time-slipping unexpectedly and carrying everyone around her in her ‘wake’, then she’s turning into Fred at the most inopportune moments.

Speaking of ‘inopportune’… Wes chooses this moment to fade into view.

Page Twenty Three: Spike is momentarily shocked to see Wes again, asking if anyone stays bloody dead. And when he finds out he’s intangible, immediately asks if it was ‘an amulet’… which was cute.

But, he also tells Wes he has to get the hell outta there right now…

Too late, as it turns out. Wesley sees Illyria and she sees him.

Page Twenty Four: Which, alas, is her cue to turn back into a confused Fred… with the demons heading straight for her!

Commentary: The word blurb to tease us about next issue lets us know that we’re going to be spending it flashing back to the FIRST NIGHT. Rather than, you know, wrapping up this battle. “(And yes, we are aware how cruel we are),” they say. Except I don’t find it ‘cruel’ so much as irritating.

I hope it’s worth breaking up the momentum to go back in time for….

The Good: I’m a continuing fan of the artwork for close ups of our characters and the sense of motion in the action scenes.

I really like how Lorne is used throughout this one. I also continue liking the play that the minor characters are getting – Connor and Gwen, especially.

The story continues to have momentum toward a clash with Gunn and the defeat of the demon Lords and now we have to deal with Illyria’s problems and we still don’t know how Wesley will end, as well.

The Bad: See some of the comments… even though we’re in a largely fantasy comic book – let’s keep sight of basic physics, shall we?

Groo. He continues to look horrible and had so very, very little to do (just like in AtS… poor guy).

My Concerns: I have some problems with some of the rushed looking artwork (a lot of it seems more like sketches they didn’t get back to). I hope we’re not starting to see a slippage in the art.

That cover is really BORING. And, why is the telepath fish on there when we haven’t seen it in… uh… when did he make an appearance last? Actually, I’d forgotten all about him (a floaty, telepathic fish is a stupid idea, anyway).

I’m not happy that we’re interrupting the battle royale here for THREE WHOLE ISSUES in order to flashback. That seems too long and is breaking the story’s momentum, isn’t it?

My Score: I’m relatively happy with this one. We’re still left wondering about Gunn’s and W & H’s end games and Wes’ fate. I’m less enamored of Illyria’s issue, but it isn’t a bad plot. The side characters are given enough to do (with the exception of Groo) that they don’t seem superfluous to the story, but I think it’s getting about time to strip Angel of that Dragon and to get more details into Gunn’s motives.