After the Fall
Issue #2
Warning: All reviews may contain spoilers.
Of course Spike is lord of Beverly Hills. With a horde of demon skanks bowing to his every wish. Why wouldn't he be?
While I'm still not feeling the canon vibe from this thing, I can't deny that it's intriguing. And, if nothing else, Lynch has such a good handle on the characterization that I can actually hear the voices in my head, which is not something a lot of other Buffy and Angel writers have been able to do. So, while it falls a bit short of that Joss magic, it's not bad, and I'm honestly enjoying reading it. So, in this issue, we find Angel dealing with the fact that he has killed a demon lord's son. That means Connor has got a great big target painted on his head. When Angel goes to warn him, the pair find themselves trapped in the middle of a power struggle as every half bit demon in the area tries to sieze control of the Westwood area, recently left leaderless when Gunn killed the reigning lord. Stumbling upon Gunn's feeding ground, Angel finds an inscription in blood on the wall, which leads him to Spike's door. Okay, so I have to admit, I love Spike an Illyria hanging out together. I loved it in season five, and I love it now. She's even still calling him her pet, which I know he tolerates simply for the benefit of being pampered. That's complete Spike attitude and I love it. That boy doesn't know how to function without a woman in charge of his life, and now he's got one that he'll find it hard to screw over, what with not being romantically involved with her. It's a win/win as far as he's concerned and I cannot wait to see some great scenes between those two. I really didn't think we got enough of it last season. The question I'm left with, though, is what is going on with Illyria anyway? At the end of season five, she was very confused, leaning more towards human every day. And her connection with Wesley had altered so dramatically, we could see bits of Fred bleeding into her character. But now, she's with Spike, which does make sense, and fighting with Angel, which makes less sense, but we'll go with it. I just wonder if she knows about Wesley and what he has become. I'm sure we'll get those answers in the next issue. I'm actually looking forward to it a lot more than I was looking forward to issue #2, so it seems I might have been right. While we did get off to a bit of a rocky start, we're on the road to awesome right now. Maybe, before too long, it really will fall into that canon feel, the way Season 8 seems to have done so effortlessly. |