Angel IDW comic

[Darkside55]

This is kind of a cross-Film and TV thing. Anyone here a fan of Angel, the 'vampire with a soul' spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? It got canceled and ended on a cliffhanger, but IDW picked it up as a comic. Whedon (the show's creator) is writing, which isn't surprising considering he also writes for Marvel, but that means the comic is canon to the series and picks up right after the show's end.

First two issues are already out. So far, the comic captures the characters well, but it's skipped ahead in time after the cliffhanger, so there's a big gap that's left to be filled in. Art's just OK, nothing special, kind of muted tbh. But the writing's good, and if you were a fan of the show, you should check it out.

Dark Horse is also doing a canonical Buffy season 8, but personally, I wasn't into that show.

 

[Narvi]

Is Gunn still alive?

 

[Darkside55]

Uh...

Spoiler

Yes and no. Yes in that he's still a prominent character in the comic, but alive? Well, let's just say that he didn't leave the show's finale unchanged. Double spoiler if you really, really want to know what happened:

Spoiler

During the battle, Gunn got dragged off by vampires and was turned. Now he leads his own vampire sect and is presumably trying to become a human again.

 

[Narvi]

Damn. That's pretty interesting.

Spoiler

Why would Gunn want a soul though? I thought turning made you evil?

 

[Darkside55]

Spoiler

Supposedly. But there's a part where Gunn is explaining to this telepathic fish-demon that he's 'still a good guy,' and that he's 'living proof that a soul doesn't matter.' Somehow he's still able to try and do the right thing without a soul.

He contradicts himself in the previous issue though when he and his group of vampires kill and eat a bunch of women, and use their blood for some sort of ritual. Somehow what he's doing is supposed to make everything right, because LA literally became Hell.

 

[Hot Soup]

The new Buffy series is practically spot on but i find myself much more interested in the characterisation and interaction rather than the plot so far and the art is fantastic.


Angel is kinda the opposite .. the art is simply dire. Really poor. There's a fantastic reveal at the end of issue one that had me scratching my head as to who the hell it was. However the plotting and story arc is superb, I actually find it more interesting than the buffy ones.

Lots of nice little touches .. peoples contracts being upheld after death, other characters cropping up. Great story , piss poor art. Hopefully they'll sort it

 

[Darkside55]

Yeah, the art's very bland.

You know, I haven't been reading the Buffy series, but I have a page from it with that new character Twilight, and I'm really interested in him. He looks--and seems, by his words--very cool. I'm just not sure I could get into it because I never followed Buffy, so I'd probably be lost.

 

[Narvi]

Don't you ever want to know what happened to that amulet Angel got in the fourth season finale?

 

[Darkside55]

Well, I DID see the last episode of Buffy for that reason.

 

[Narvi]

Oh. Then you should really be able to follow the Season Eight comics, especially if you wiki up what happened in the rest of the season.

I finally caught up. This series is brilliant.

Spoiler

I disagree about the art though. The colouring is rather bleak, and the characters look unconvincing... but LA is in Hell. That's really what it should look like. Oh. And Dragon. Dragon is awesome.

Oh, and since contracts are upheld after death, that probably means that the Circle of the Black Thorn are enjoying themselves in whichever Hell dimension they ended up in. Unless the Wolf, Ram, and Hart don't like failure.

I wonder if they literally pulled LA into Hell, or turned LA into a Hell dimension? Probably the former, but you would think the Buffy comics would refer to LA disappearing. I hate it when both series don't refer to each other. It's like when the Beast blocked out the sun over LA and nobody commented in Buffy.

 

[Hot Soup]

It's certainly written with the people who have seen the last 7 series in mind, but you could probably have a bash at it

 

[Narvi]

Okay, anyone seen the latest issue?

Spoiler

Angel is human. Damn. I wasn't expecting that, what with him signing away his Shanshu and all. And he has challenged the champions of the Lords of Los Angeles to single combat. All at once. While mortally wounded. He is so screwed.

 

[Darkside55]

Haven't picked that one up yet. That's pretty crazy.

Spoiler

Guess he got his wish.