All We Can Do Now Is Wait

What is It?: Angel #21- Aftermath part IV (written by Kelley Armstrong).

Timing: Directly after Angel #20.

Warning: The bigger spoilers will be written in black text. Simply highlight to read. As this is a review, there will be some minor "spoilers" sprinkled throughout the text that don't warrant being hidden. If you have not read the issue and don't want to know anything about the plot, don't read this. Spoilers for previous issues will obviously not be covered.

REVIEW: There's not a lot of good stuff on the writing front this time around. Unfortunately, while the last issue definitely showed improvement, this is a terribly written book that doesn't take into account the way these characters speak, the way people speak, the history these characters have with each other, the weight of what has happened before, or the emotional investment that we have in these characters, their relationships, and this story. I'd originally chalked up the bad writing here to Kelley Armstrong being new to the Buffyverse and new to the medium, and the not-so-terribleness of #20 made it seem as if I was right. But this was really just a bad read.

The dialogue is just bad. It's expositiony, and awkwardly so. Few of the lines sound like Angel or Kate or whoever would ever utter them, and precious little of it sounds like something a person would say it an actual coversation. There are a few cool bits of dialogue, such as Kate's "I'm so outclassed" when they're about to jump down and kill some vamps and Angel's "He's kidding about killing me, right?" when he's about to box with an angel. But with things like Kate repeatedly calling the events of After the Fall the same thing that Kr'ph did ("the Hell moment") in her tedious and unnecessary internal monologue, this is just a hard book to read. When Brian Lynch, John Byrne, Scott Tipton, and Peter David write Angel books, I fangasm over each page and get sad when I get to page twenty-two. But with this, I just wanted the pain to end.

I've harped on the strange conversations that Armstrong writes enough. There has been out of character dialogue with non-sensical responses in order to squeeze out contrived exposition since #18, and that definitely isn't going to change. That has never been more apparent than in this issue. But what really bugs me about this is how Armstrong treats what should be a moment with huge emotional weight as if it were a casual conversation. This is gonna be a big paragraph o' spoilers, so highlight if you dare.

(SPOILERS:) Cordelia makes an appearance in this issue. To answer your first questions, are we sure it's her? No. If it's not, it's been done too many times already (see Old Friends and Auld Lang Syne). If it is her... does it take away from the emotional weight of You're Welcome? Absolutely. After the Fall didn't, because she was there for a specific reason, the conversation was emotional the true to the characters, and took place during one of the most devastating moments of Angel's life. This, she pretty much comes to tell Angel something that James the angel already did. Basically, if this really is her, she's shoehorned into the story because Armstrong thought it would be fun to write her dialogue. Angel's response to her isn't at all emotional, and she is cracking jokes, asking the PTB to give her some "us-time" between her and Angel. I don't blame Armstrong for wanting to write Cordy, she's a fun character. I definitely feel disrespected, though, that she thinks she can use that character for such a small thing, that there is no emotional resonance, and that this just happened in After the Fall. Only, of course, it was actually done well there.

There is a plot twist that reveals Dez's true intentions and, while the way Kate finds out is beyond contrived, I think it's an interesting look into Dez's motivations. But with the dialogue, the big no no moment, the really really strange "Sherman Oaks wanted me to kill these vampires for practice, let's kill the rest of them to show the other angels that we're good even though they know we already kill demons" bit, the few good things about this issue are far too little, and far too late. At this point, all we can hope for is that Aftermath ends on a better note, and that June goes by very quickly. Brian Lynch is back in July with #23, and Juliet Landau joins the fold for #24 and #25. Scott Lobdell, a fantastic writer, will also be writing the Angel: Only Human miniseries that spins out of #23. I have no idea who will be writing the main Angel title next, but take a look at those writers and who IDW has used in the past. They know their writers; Aftermath is just an unfortunate misstep. I have full faith that things will be a-okay again in the near future.

Art: The art, on the other hand, is much better. Dave Ross is no longer on art duties; he's been replaced by Stefano Martino. While Martino isn't nearly as good an artist as any of the After the Fall pencillers, he actually captures the likenesses of the characters as opposed to making them hulking, sexualized versions of themselves. He's also changed Angel, Connor, and Gwen out of the weird outfits that they've been in, and into something these characters would actually wear. Angel is back in his dark button-ups and leather jacket at last. One thing I expected, though, was Kate's slutty-combat-cop outfit to be changed into something more appropriate for her. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm just thrilled that IDW jumped into action on this one and made sure that Angel was looking like Angel again. I was definitely pleased with the art this time around, and most of the points this book has is definitely thanks to Stefano Martino's art.

Covers: Fantastic covers. Runge's second best in the Aftermath run, and Gabriel Rodriguez's second best. Runge's is a painted cover featuring sort of washed out renditions of Angel, Gwen, Kate, and Cordelia, with a heavenly blue glow bursting out behind them. NOTE TO IDW: Use this as the cover of the hardcover. Rodriguez's cover features Gwen and Connor, and damn these likenesses rock. Like Franco Urru, Rodriguez balances his own very distinctive style with the way the actors look, allowing us to appreciate his art while also seeing the characters the way they're meant to be seen.

Characters We Know: Angel, Gwen, Kate, Connor, (SPOILERS:) Cordelia.

Rating: 4/10

In 2004, Angel was a puppet. In 2007, Spike followed suit. Now, in 2009... Dawn becomes... a doll.

What Is It?: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Issue #25: Living Doll (written by Doug Petrie).

Timing: BtVS, Season Eight. During or short while after "Safe."

Warning: The bigger spoilers will be written in black text. Simply highlight to read. As this is a review, there will be some minor "spoilers" sprinkled throughout the text that don't warrant being hidden. If you have not read the issue and don't want to know anything about the plot, don't read this. Spoilers for previous issues will obviously not be covered.

REVIEW: After the impressive #24, Buffy: Season Eight continues to bounce back from its slump with this installment, the conclusion of the standalone Predators vs. Prey arc. It's been a mostly shaky ride, with issues that were never outright bad (though #21 comes very close, especially in hindsight) but never really good either. All of them except these most recent two have had major problems, whether in the story structure, themes, or even things like consistency and art. I'll get down the the art business later, but what veteran Buffy writer Doug Petrie offers up here is easily the best of the arc. It's still not as solid as the majority of the issues that made up the longer arcs, but it does bring the story closer to where it should be at this point.

One of the major Season Eight subplots gets resolved in this book. The curse that Kenny the thricewise put upon Dawn has been met with mixed fan reaction, but I definitely enjoyed it. There is a lot about the whole "we have no budget limitations, let's go all out" mindset that I'm not so keen on, but turning Dawn into a giant and then a centaur was pretty damn cool. Joss and co. were able to do what Buffy used to do and turn the character's internal feelings into a metaphor (albeit an obvious one, which isn't unlike Joss's best metaphors); they also showed the mind state of the characters through their reactions to Dawn. Buffy's distance, Xander's closeness, and Willow's desire to be a mother figure to Dawn are made all the more powerful by her situation. But I'm getting a bit off track here. The point is that I enjoyed the Dawn subplot, and am glad that, as Season Eight shifts into high gear, that plot gets resolved. We get one more transformation before Petrie wraps up the plot neatly, and it's definitely a fun twist. As you might have guessed from the cover and title, Dawn gets turned into a doll. Small, fragile, easy to lose. I like it.

The issue starts with a basic problem. Dawn is lost, and Buffy and Xander don't know how to find her. There is a quick and pretty useless subplot where Buffy has to stop Judas Cradle (random power player vamp) and his gang before she can find Dawn. This can only be here for one of two reasons; one, to tie it into the whole "vampires in public" thing this arc has had going on, or two, to try to show us (again) how Buffy is neglecting Dawn. If it's the former, it could have been shown to us through dialogue without taking up page space and making the resolution feel rushed. If it's the latter, it shouldn't have been there at all, because a) we already know that all the way back from #1 and b) they take an entire page and a half out to show vampires getting pwned and then Buffy saying "That went well. Let's find Dawn." At least that is the only major flaw of the issue. The rest is pretty great, actually. Seeing Buffy discover Dawn's transformation by following her footprints was clever, and the confrontation with the weird guy who was making living dolls and protecting Dawn was as intriguing as it was morally ambiguous. The guy seems to be helping these dolls by keeping them captive, which is as cute and snuggy as it is dark and creepy.

Aside from the entertaining standalone plot, we've got two major things going on. Buffy and Dawn reconnecting after the whole "Buffy is ignoring Dawn's suffering" thing. It does happen rather quickly, but the conversation is well written enough to let it go. It's certainly not as jolting as the whole "Hey Angel, it's Kate, haven't seen you in a while, want a church?" thing, so don't think that. From a dialogue standpoint, it's totally natural. I'm just bitter that the wasted Judas Cradle page didn't go toward fleshing that conversation out a bit and making it less easy for Buffy. On the plus side, Buffy's response to Dawn really shows how their relationship has changed and, in many ways, stayed the same in a post-Chosen world.

Best part about the issue is (SPOILER:) Kenny the thricewise. We've been waiting a long time to see him, and his character design and reasons for doing what he did made me sort of love the guy. That bit is wrapped up really nicely. So much so that, as plot devicey as the character could have been, I really wish he comes back again.

And oh the Veronica Mars references.

In the end, definitely the best of the arc. It definitely got better as it went along, with #21 being by far the worst. I'm glad its over, I'm glad at least some of the subplots got wrapped up or commented on (the Simone thing really should have finished in #23), and I'm glad that the status quo of the Scoobies has somewhat returned. More than anything, I'm ready to see what Jane Espenson does with the Retreat arc. I was really let down by her word with Harmonic Divergence, but she definitely redeemed herself by writing the best episode of the first season of Dollhouse. I have faith she can restore Buffy: Season Eight to the fantastic story it should be at this point.

Art: Oh Jeanty. He used to be the best at these wide shots, squeezing in both character detail and these beautiful landscapes. But his work here seems so sketchy. The close bits are still fine, though not as strikingly wonderful as they once were. I can feel his struggle with the characters leaving, and he's slowly slipping into a comfort level which isn't helping the book at all. It's still really pretty throughout, but there are no really striking panels here, which is unfortunate. One panel in particular here should have been an eye-catcher, but... I don't know. He's had a lot of breaks recently too, with Moline taking over for an entire arc, and being given two extra months to breath with Richards doing #24 and #26 being pushed back to July. I hope he steps his game up soon, because as nice as his work is as a whole, I'm not good with the idea that his art used to be way better than it is now.

Covers: Jo Chen has been on a damn role recently. She gave her best Buffy likeness with #23, rivaled the greatness of her Faith/Giles #7 cover with #24, took it to the Volume One TPB level of EPIC with her cover to #26, and with this, easily one of her best covers yet, she pays homage to the painted romance novel covers... by having Dawn kiss the monstrously ugly thricewise. Inappropriate, gross, hilarious, and kinda sweet, it perfectly captures the essence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Jeanty's cover also pays homage, but this one to another Buffy cover. Specifically, Jo Chen's #4. In a clever role reversal, he has regular sized Buffy holding a teensy Dawn doll. It's pretty straight forward and a little boring, but it's his technical best since #22. I can dig it.

Characters We Know: Dawn, Buffy, Xander, Leah, Rowena, Andrew, Willow,

Rating: 8/10

Armstrong Takes a Step in the Right Direction... Ross, Not So Much

What Is It?: Angel #20- Aftermath part III (written by Kelley Armstrong).

Timing: Directly following Angel #19

Warning: The bigger spoilers will be written in black text. Simply highlight to read. As this is a review, there will be some minor "spoilers" sprinkled throughout the text that don't warrant being hidden. If you have not read the issue and don't want to know anything about the plot, don't read this. Spoilers for previous issues will obviously not be covered.

REVIEW: Okay. That's better. The book still isn't nearly at the level it should be, but certain aspects of the story have improved a lot between the last issue and this. The two most interesting things about Aftermath so far--the fallout of After the Fall and Dez--are expanded upon greatly in this book. The dialogue is still totally dragging the story down, and the characters aren't really acting like themselves. There were also two lettering errors, but I've sorted out what was meant to be on the page and will post it here for anyone who was confused.

So first a bit of goodness. The plot is definitely coming together. You can definitely tell that Kelley Armstrong is a novelist by trade from the way she hits her plot points, and from a story perspective, that's a good thing. Angel has never been plot driven, and the monsters and even long term arcs often take a backseat to character development, but the plot in the arc has become good enough to sit back and enjoy. I've read a lot of people talking about how they didn't like Armstrong's choice to squeeze the angels (Potentates) into the After the Fall storyline, but I think it was well done. To me, it makes sense that the Powers that Be would eventually (SPOILERS:) figure out how to help Angel in a real way... and I find it incredibly interesting that Angel didn't need their help in the end. This works as a plot point for Aftermath as well as a cool character moment for Angel, because the realization that the Powers that Be are still invested in him must mean that they aren't convinced that the Shanshu means what Wolfram & Hart said it did.

Now, something not so good. Angel has always been a character driven show that thrived on witty and realistic dialogue. While a great and well thought-out plot is always nice, it comes at a distant third for me... but the thing with Aftermath is that it doesn't really have much going for it other than the plot. The dialogue is just bad; the responses of the characters don't logically flow or make sense in the context of the situation. Take this scene for example. Kate (SPOILERS:) points a gun at Dez when she tackles Gwen, giving Gwen the opportunity to shock her. Together, they throw Dez into the basement. And then this happens:

GWEN- You think I'm being too harsh.

KATE- I just think we didn't need to--

But wait a second. Kate helped her. Kate did everything alongside of her, at the same time as her. Where was there any indication that Kate wasn't 100% in this until that exchange?

Then, Gwen goes on to say this: "We did. Every cop knows it's easier to get a confession when you don't have to follow the rules. You're not a cop anymore, Kate. Time to stop acting like one." Interesting character stuff Armstrong is trying to play with, but the sentence doesn't make sense. Gwen establishes that cops know things are easier with no rules; then she goes onto say that Kate's cop-like behavior is preventing her from acting on this knowledge. Had the sentence been written better, it would have conveyed the message I assume Armstrong meant to convey--that Kate's adherence to the rules of the law is what prevents her from doing what needs to be done DESPITE her knowledge that things are easier with no rules. But that's not the way the sentence is structured. Also, Gwen's bad cat puns during the fight with Dez are just... yeah.

On the other hand, Angel has a pretty cool exchange with the Potentate he encountered at the end of the last issue. Armstrong takes a jab at Angel's wit for one of the first times in her run, and succeeds with the line "Kidnapping angels? That's ballsy." The entire scene went over really well for me, as did the scene that ran parallel to it; Dez's flashback. After (SPOILER:) Gwen and Kate throw her into the basement upon discovering a strange experiment she seems to be doing, we get to see Dez at various stages in her life. We discover that Dez wasn't originally human, and... I won't go much into it, because it's really interesting stuff. As I said, the plot here is A-Okay. Spruce the character stuff up, improve the dialogue, and this series could run consistent 7/10s. There isn't much more it could get due to the terrible art, but the story does seem to have a sense of purpose that it lacked in #19.

A big issue I had was the omniscience of the book. We get to hear the internal thoughts... of everyone. If there's going to be captions, we should hear the thoughts of one character, two at the most. However, we are privy to Angel's thoughts, Dez's thoughts, Gwen's thoughts, and Kate's thoughts... sometimes all on the same page. It bogs down the story. There might as well be thought bubbles, because that is the way that the captions are functioning at this point.

Lastly, there were a few lettering issues that confused me a bit until I figured out how the book was supposed to read. Here are the corrections:

PAGE 12: The bubbles are out of order. Angel's "We don't have time for this" should come before James's "In quite a rush for an immortal, aren't you? All right, I'll take it with me."

PAGE 15: James hands the sword to Angel, which burns him. The "Yoww!" dialogue bubble points to James, when it should point at Angel.

PAGE 17: There is a caption with quotes that reads "But it's a theory I'm willing to take." If it was spoken by Dex, as it seems like it was supposed to be, it should be a speech bubble. The caption with quotes is used for voice over, when dialogue that someone else is saying is supposed to be said over images from another scene. Like Angel's monologue in #13 over the deaths of Spike and the Dragon. If Armstrong meant to use the caption with quotes, it should have been placed at the top of the next page. As is, it should be a speech bubble.

Art: I hate to say it, but Ross's Angel art has been certified with a PhD in horribleness. I've seen his work in other comics, and he's definitely not a bad artist; his other pencils have pretty cool details and originality. This, however, is just awful. Though the layout of the panels is certainly a collaboration between Armstrong and Ross, the artist usually tries to make each page look a bit more cinematic. Not so here. When a character looks at something important, there should be a "cutaway shot" to what they're looking at. But there often isn't, leaving the reader to guess what happens. It's not hard to do so, but the simple jolt of having to do that shows how little control Ross has over the artistic, panel to panel flow of the story. I won't speak much about likenesses, because that was covered last time; nothing improves except Kate's hair, and the depiction of Angel seems to be getting more bulky and more Asian by the panel. Another thing about Ross's art; it lacks a sense of place. In all of the Angel comics thus far, even the pre-After the Fall installments, there was no problem with setting. Each location was laid out so that the reader felt like they knew the rooms. Not so much here. After three issues, I have no idea what the inside of the church Angel is staying in looks like, other than bare wood walls and floors. Think how much of a jolt it is when Angel looks up and, out of nowhere, he's staring at a stained glass window. Had the previous panels put him in a room that physically could have had stained glass windows, all would be fine. But the way this is laid out, we're to assume that Angel traveled to an entirely different room in the church in order to look up at this window. Why not just put the entire scene in the sanctuary or chapel of the church?

Artist George Freeman filled in during the flashback scenes, but it was hard to tell the difference between the art. They did a good job at keeping it consistent... though I wonder if that was the intention. Why hire an entirely different artist for a flashback sequence if you didn't want it to look different? It was written in a way that, after a read-through, you can definitely tell that you're reading a flashback, but I think perhaps the coloring should have been altered a bit to give it a sort of grainy feel. Definitely no points deducted for that, but I thought it was a point of interest.

Covers: Nick Runge's cover is cool. We see Dez, locked away in a shadowy prison, her eyes glowing with malice. It's a dark and really moody cover, and I've seen some fans say that it's their favorite of his "painted style" collection. I'd pick both #18 and #21 over this, but it is certainly a haunting image. Gabriel Rodriguez's cover for this issue, however, is my favorite of all the Aftermath covers. I've always been a Rodriguez fan because his work is just so dynamic and sharp. The cover is a simple image of Kate kicking a demon in the face, and to tell the truth it has no bearing at all on the story... but it's just so kickass. Fantastic cover, and great likeness as well. He manages to maintain the feel of Kate's character while putting her in battle-ready clothes; this is how the Kate of Aftermath should always look.

Characters We Know: Angel, Gwen, Kate, Connor.

Rating: 6/10

"There's gonna be some stuff you're gonna see... that's gonna make it hard to smile in the future."

What Is It?: Angel- Smile Time adaptation #3. Original story by Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund, original teleplay by Ben Edlund. Adapted to comic script by Scott Tipton.

Timing: Directly after Angel- Smile Time #2. Two-thirds into the episode.

Note: Adaptations are now ranked on this scale: EPIC FAIL, FAIL, BAD, OKAY, GOOD, VERY GOOD, GREAT, OUTSTANDING.

REVIEW: That was an enjoyable little issue.

The one thing I noticed right off the bat is that, unlike the first two in the series, there are no new scenes added. I'm fine with that, because it must have been extremely difficult to squeeze all that episode into a three issue miniseries, and the climatic fight and romantic resolution in this issue really did deserve the page time it got. One thing I'm slightly unsure about, though, is Spike. The two additional scenes with him in the first two issues set up the expectation for an appearance in this issue, if only for a one-liner to sort of wrap up the sub-subplot he had going on in this issue. As much as I would have liked that, the series feels complete enough that the lack of such a scene doesn't bother me.

As far as the translation of the episode to the page, this issue does a better job than the last one did. There are no awkward scenes at all, with the majority of them flowing exceptionally well. Could certain scenes have been improved? Sure. On page one, when Lorne is walking down the hall, there definitely should have been a shot of Angel before Lorne said "My little prince!" There were also a few panels, particularly the discussions between Fred and Wesley, that I thought more attention should have been given to the other person's face. There seems to be a lot of attention to reaction shots, and while that is fine, I think it's nice to ground the conversation with a shot of the person whose talking instead of doing two reaction shots in a row.

One thing that this series, particularly this issue, has done very well is setting up the tragedy to come two episodes later. I was originally unsure about including the Gunn subplot due to the time constraints of squeezing forty-two minutes of screen time (plus some extra fun scenes) into three comic issues, but I think it really paid off in the end. The dichotomy between seeing Gunn unknowingly sign Fred's death warrant and seeing Wesley and Fred's relationship finally move to the next level thrives on the tension of what we know is coming in A Hole in the World. The ending of this seemingly cheery episode is probably the biggest eucatasrophe in the Buffyverse; the tortured hero gets the girl after years of pining over her. The reversal of this happy ending is what gives those scenes a second, more powerful meaning, and this comic explores that nicely. Tipton was really right to include both of those subplots, because when paired together, they make this a more dark, more foreboding tale. And in an Angel episode about puppets, you kinda need that.

And that's a wrap for Angel- Smile Time. I was skeptical about episode adaptations, and in some ways I still am, but this issue served its purpose. As I said in the review for #2, it revitalized the source material, added some cool new stuff, and convinced me to like an episode that I never really gave a chance to. Job well done, Mr. Tipton.

Art: The art is a bit shabbier than I expected. Angel/Star Trek artist David Messina was the main artist advertised for the series, but it seems that the artist who was credited alongside of him, Elena Casagrande, had an increasingly important role as the series continued. The title was already released every two months, instead of the normal monthly status of Angel miniseries, to accommodate Messina's busy schedule. However, there are only a handful of pages where I can really feel Messina's presence. He does seem to come back for all the important or close-up shots, but the conversation pieces, especially the Wesley/Fred scene, seem to be a bit off. The art is definitely passable as a whole, and often awesome in the important shots... but I was looking forward to Messina's ever-improving likenesses, which I didn't quite get. Overall, though, still a pretty neat job. Just not quite at the level I expected.

Covers: These are my favorite covers from the entire Smile Time series. Messina's covers have been consistently awesome (we really need him back on the main Angel title in any capacity), but this takes it to another level. He paid homage to the famous Hulk cover with #1 and to Fight Club with #2... so it makes sense that, for the conclusion, he takes it home and pays homage to Angel. In tribute to the Angel: Season Five promo poster, Messina draws our two favorite vampires as puppets, with a reel of the other characters below them. It's one of the best Angel covers I've ever seen, no exaggeration. I believe this is getting collected into a hardcover with Spike: Shadow Puppets and the Angel/Nina story in Angel: Masks, but if there is ever just a Smile Time trade paperback, I think this should absolutely be the cover. The other ones were great, but they can't really measure up to this. The variant, a photo cover of Angel hugging Fred, adds just the right amount of cute to compliment the badassery of the regular cover. Plus, any cover with Amy Acker is a good cover in my mind.

Characters We Know: Lorne, Angel, Doctor Sparrow, Gunn, Fred, Wesley, Knox, Smile Time puppets, Nina.

Rating as an adaptation: Very good.

Sorry for the delay... ANGEL: BLOOD & TRENCHES #2!

What Is It?: Angel: Blood & Trenches #2 (written and illustrated by John Byrne).

Timing: Directly after Angel: Blood & Trenches #1.

REVIEW: Really sorry for the delay. I've been crazy busy, and if you want to see why, check out my other blog about my writing life. It's grind time at college as well, but I've managed to squeeze review time between waking up and the Lambda Iota Tau induction ceremony this evening. I promise I'll be back to regular Wednesday reviews this week with the release of Angel #20, and I'll try to squeeze in a review of Angel: Smile Time #3 between now and then.

But as for now, onto Blood & Trenches #2!

John Byrne's Angel/WWI epic continues with another great issue. Though the story definitely progresses, don't expect any major changes; if you liked the first issue, this satisfies in the same way. The art is done in the same style (just straight pencils, no inks, and the only color used is for SFX and blood), and it works wonderfully with Byrne's first person narration. I felt like I was reading a wonderful old war novel while I poured over these pages, but the spirit of Angel is still very much there. Though he's not yet the vampire we've come to know and love, that's kind of the point. This is Angel before he's gone through everything that shaped his personality, and he's still in a very dark and impressionable place... which is why I really don't get when people say his voice is off. This is Angel fresh out of being Angelus, robbed of every defining characteristic he had. And plus, this takes place a long time ago. It makes perfect sense that Angel doesn't speak like 2009 Angel does.

This issue pushes the story in an interesting new direction. While #1 did have a decent amount of supernatural elements, it was a lot more about Angel interacting with humans, both good and evil. This took things down an entirely different route, and explores the role that vampires played in the war at large. I'm still not sure why Angel was so invested in checking out what's going on that he actually stowed away on a boat to get where he is, but I'm perfectly fine with that. The mystery gets a lot more interesting when a new/old player is thrown into the mix. If you thought the Geoffrey Wyndam-Pryce reveal was crazy, wait until you see (SPOILER:) Kakistos bearing down on Angel.

Angel: Blood & Trenches was the best Buffyverse title of March, and so far it's true for April as well. I wasn't quite as blown away by this one as I was with the first issue, but I think that's sort of because the unique presentation of the story was really impressive and shocking when I first read the issue. This issue has less opportunity to play with format and time than the first issue did, but the way story itself continues is just great. I can't wait until this is published as a TPB or a hardcover, because I can just tell it would be fantastic to read this in one sitting.

Covers: I've seen all of the covers for this series online, and this is probably the least impressive. It's dynamic and all, with the bullets crossing behind Angel and the smoke rising off of his back, but I just found the colors sort of odd. I get that Angel is supposed to be burning in the sun, but it's not really how I would have pictured it. I wouldn't be as picky if the colors used on the covers of #1 and #3 weren't so exceptional. It's not a bad cover, but not especially good either. The variant cover is a black and white version of the normal cover.

Characters We Know: Angel and (SPOILER:) Kakistos.

Rating: 8/10

Soon soon soon

Nope, didn't forget Angel: Blood and Trenches #2. I read it Wednesday, and it is, as #1 was last month, one of the best comics so far this year. I'll obviously post a full length review very soon. I've just been insanely busy.

A Well Deserved Rating

What Is It?: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Issue #24: Sage (written by Jim Krueger).

Timing: BtVS, Season Eight. Short while after "Predators and Prey."

REVIEW: I admit being a bit easy on the last few Buffy issues. I've been trying to pull out the good and push the bad under the carpet for the sake of optimism. Do I honestly think #21 deserved a 7/10? In retrospect, no. I'm not sure it would crack 5/10. Do I think #22 and #23 are really 8/10 comics? They were highly problematic, but enjoyable enough... but I'm rating these against the comics that came before as well as actual Buffy episodes, and looking back, those were not 8/10s. I've been too kind to the series out of loyalty to Joss, and I promise to make it a point to keep my hopes for what the issue could have been out of my reviews and give an accurate rating on the actual content of the issue. I realized that I'd been too kind to the previous issues when I read this book, #24, and realized that it is a) way better than any of the recent Buffy comics and b) an obvious 8/10.

I admit I was skeptical. This arc is turning out to be really, really uneven, and the opening of the book--a girl inexplicably mistaking Faith for Buffy (did someone give her a really, really blurry picture?)--is terribly on the nose. But the rest of the book is filled with interesting character beats, and a plot that answers some of our lesser questions about the season, such as the state of the Watchers' Council. The plot is really monster-of-the-week, but instead of tricking the audience into thinking that there would be some forward movement of the main arc the way that #23 did with the encounter with Simone, this instead focuses itself on making a statement about what it means to be a slayer and, furthermore, a human. And that's, in my opinion, what this arc should have focused on. I can't say I'm pleased that the meat and potatoes are being served so late, but I'm glad they've arrived and I'm more than ready to indulge.

For the second time in Buffy: Season Eight, we've got a noob to the 'verse. Brian K. Vaughan wrote the Faith/Giles team-up arc, "No Future for You," and now Jim Krueger, comic scribe, writes what can be considered a sequel to that arc. Much like Vaughan, this Buffy noob is fantastic at writing Whedoneseque dialogue and obviously knows the characters well, but the best thing he brought to the book was a willingness to play with the medium. Jane Espenson's "Harmonic Divergence" didn't work well because of format issues and the way she laid out dialogue and internal narration, and a lot of the other Buffy writers other than Goddard and Whedon have chosen to keep the format simple, but Kreuger plays with the relationship of the words and the images with many of the panels. He makes great use of "voice over" (balloons with no tails) to show the relationship between vampires, children, and the elderly folk of Hanselstadt, the town this takes place in.

I love when Buffy concentrates on the little moments. With the bloated scope of the season, it seems as if the little things are being kicked to the curb in favor of playing with big action scenes and weird demons, but Kreuger doesn't forget the details in his story. For example, (SPOILERS:) a demon explodes in a library, sending paper flying all over the place. The image evokes the death of the character Error from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, which is a really cool reference.

And Kreuger's original character, Courtney, is great.

Not all of the issue was wonderful, though, hence my rating. I do have two concerns about Faith's mind state... I'm not convinced she would have remembered "The Third." Even if the vampire was one of the first monsters she fought, she's fought countless vampires, and some just get away. With all Faith has been through, it is way beyond the realm of possibility that she would have remembered this one vampire, much less been so emotionally affected by (SPOILERS:) an image of this vampire that the demon would be able to use it against her the same way it used an image Courtney's parents against Courtney. But anyway, if you're going to use a vampire from Faith's past (SPOILERS:) in this capacity... why not "go for the heart" and use Kakistos? And how Faith knew she was being led into a trap, I don't know, but the text was so void of hints that it doesn't seem like Faith is being savvy, it just pulls me out of the read. In Veronica Mars, for example, when the eponymous heroine makes a discovery that the audience didn't know, the seeds that show how she came to this discovery are all there when you watch again. Veronica, and Faith, are supposed to be smarter than us when doing what they do... but the hints just simply have to be there. There were some nice hints about the plot twist but nothing that would make Faith believe she's being lead into a trap, much less an, as she puts it, "really obvious trap." It felt like Kreuger was leading us through the narrative by the hand instead of doing the work, planting the seeds, and letting us find out along with Faith.

Other than those few things, the book was really solid. The difference between this and the rest of the arc is really obvious. I really liked it, and I think you will too.

Art: Cliff Richard's best yet, by far. He seems to be changing his style up here, going more for accurate likenesses than he usually does. His art is usually more his style than anything else, but he struck a balance here that felt really comfortable. After #23, which seemed a bit rushed on Jeanty's part, I was more than glad to have Richards pencilling this book. Him and Paul Lee are definite candidates for who I'd ideally like to provide art for Season Nine, for sure.

Covers: Jo Chen. It's getting really hard to talk about her, because her work is just so consistently good. There was some talk that Faith's breasts weren't proportionate, but I think that it's a perspective thing. They are considerably bigger than usual, but Faith is a really sexual character, so I don't really think the size is that much of an issue. Her Giles likeness is perfect, working so well with the subtleties of Anthony Head's face. So, so good. Jeanty's cover, on the other hand... I don't know. He's struggled with Faith in the past, but by the end of No Future for You he was drawing her very well... not so sure about here, though. Giles looks horrible on the cover, and though it's visually striking with the glass and whatnot, I really don't like the likenesses.

Characters We Know: Faith, Giles.

Rating: 8/10