Category Archives: Angel & Faith

May 29, 2012 · 5:05 am

ANGEL AND FAITH #10 Review

It is Angel’s desire and duty to bring back from the dead, Rupert Giles, the Watcher. It hangs over everything Angel and Faith do. The new arc, “Women of a Certain Age,” introduces us to two sisters: one who can help; and one who can hinder the process!

Series writer Christos Gage teams up with guest artist Chris Samnee to create some work with a smilar noir vibe as in their colloboration in Vertigo’s “Area 10.” This creative team is wonderful in tackling this opening story which has its fair share of vintage glamour revolving around the two mysterious young women that have all but crash landed into Angel and Faith’s lives.

Here is Gage and Samnee working together on “Area 10.”

Now, compare that with their work in this issue of “Angel and Faith.”

Samnee is a master with light and dark. We see it from the first page on as he provides perfectly places spots of black where needed. He introduces us to the two mystery girls byway of two dark shadows with fresh bright red polish just applied to their nails. Ah, that’s the mood we’re looking for as this story is not exactly crime fiction. It’s more ’60s mod meets young romance comics. The two girls in questions are really Giles’s great aunts, Lavinia, the redhead, and Sophronia, the blonde. They’re a couple of hotties although each is well over a hundred-years-old. What’s their secret? Any chance they’ve had to use magic, it’s all gone into keeping their youthful glow. This obsession with youth has made them two shallow old crones who simply look fabulous. Oh, and they happen to owe an array of monsters and ghouls for providing magical fixes along the way to avoid those crow’s feet and the like. Angel and Faith spend a good long while defeating various baddies before they can get some answers from the girls.

What Lavinia and Sophronia provide is a look back to London in the ’60s and a particular tale involving Rupert Giles as a boy. This story is key to what follows so I won’t go too much into it except to say that it is connected to Angel’s quest to bring Giles back. It is also jolly good fun. It is a family affair involving the supernatural and might bring to mind, “Bell, Book and Candle” or episodes of “Bewitched.” All in a good way, mind you. The upshot to this story is pretty big. And, just as everyone is ready to turn in to bed, we get a last minute surprise guest that is sure to add much to the mix. All in all, a very colorful and enjoyable opening chapter.

Issue 10 is out May 30. Visit Dark Horse Comics.

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April 18, 2012 · 3:44 am

ANGEL AND FAITH #9 Review

The final chapter to “Daddy Issues” gives us a close look at Faith during a break down. Will she safely come out of it? Will Angel fall with her? Drusilla holds the cards. Well, given that this is the final issue of the current arc, will are bound to get some resolution one way or another. Yeah, we still have an Angel and Faith in the game at the end. What is interesting to consider is what Drusilla and her Lorophage Demons have wrought. Is there a message here? You betcha.

It’s a pretty obvious message we’re playing with but it’s also, for the most part, an artful effort. What Drusilla is selling is something akin to Prozac albeit in quite an exotic and extreme form. She is selling a way for someone to erase the bad feelings from whatever trauma they’ve experienced but lose part of their soul in the process. It’s quiet a hot button topic to tackle but fair game for Whedon and his writers, in this case Christos Gage. Just consider the recent stepping up to the plate on the issue of abortion in the pages of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.” The message here: Anti-depressants do have their place but they’ve become too heavily relied upon and exploited by the drug industry. Any way you look at it, it’s a bit preachy. It does give an ironic quality to Rebekah Isaac’s variant cover, don’t you think? Thank goodness for such awesome art because that gives such a lift to a heavy story. I won’t say it’s a totally heavy-handed story, but it’s pretty heavy.

And then there’s Angel’s rad nipple piercing! If you weren’t sure of what you were looking at in the last issue, Issue 9 gives us clarity on this. It is indeed an ancient Egyptian relic that allows Angel to capture remnants of Giles’s soul as they become available. In the Whedon universe, this nipple gizmo is known as a phlebotinum, a close relation to a MacGuffin, basically a plot device that you are far better off accepting and moving right along with. But I can’t help but think of The Flight of the Conchord’s song, “Bowie’s in Space” and the line, “receiving transmission from David Bowie’s nipple antennae.” It sure isn’t an easy thing to draw and make sure it reads well but Rebekah Isascs is up to the task. She can draw anything!

Issue 9 comes out April 25. Visit Dark Horse Comics.

ANGEL AND FAITH #8 Review

“ANGEL AND FAITH,” Part Three of “Daddy Issues,” digs deeper into the psychology of Faith and her world. You can really feel the struggle that Faith is going through with her ne’er-do-well father suddenly turning up in her life. Faith wanted to believe in her father. But now, she has reason not to believe in him anymore. We readers know she’s right in more ways than one. And we also see where Faith is off. As a leader to her sister slayers, she does not always have all the answers. As we left off in the previous issue, Mr. Lehane is playing his daughter. He’s also dealing with forces that are way over his head. Faith may end up feeling sorry for him again but not now, maybe not ever.

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February 28, 2012 · 6:23 am

ANGEL AND FAITH #7 Review

“ANGEL AND FAITH” continues to delight us readers. Christos Gage says his writing seems to have kicked in with Issue 5 but I think he’s been on a roll all along. Rebekah Isaacs draws like a masterful demon! Gage and Isaacs are a dream team to say the least together making the lead characters, the story, everything so appealing. With Issue 7, we reach Part Two of “Daddy Issues” which lives up to the promise of its opener.

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October 24, 2011 · 7:02 pm

ANGEL & FAITH #3 Review

“ANGEL & FAITH” is one of the best comics you can be reading today. A whole host of pop culture elements have brewed in an old witch’s kettle and, out from the steam, has emerged this amazing comic.

Dark Horse has the magic touch with this spin-off of “BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.” This is something that’s been brewing, indeed, for quite some time and fans and new readers alike can rejoice. At Issue Three, that’s out this Wednesday, this comic just keeps delivering the goods. And this is the thing, as with any quality comic, you really can jump in anywhere and enjoy the hell out of it. I will provide some essential facts here to get new readers up to speed but, trust me, I know comics and this one is a winner.

Part Three of Christos Gage’s story, “Live Through This,” finds Angel and Faith on the search for “Mohra blood” in a swank London nightclub full of beautiful and libidinous young people consorting with demons and vampires. Much has changed, and much has managed to hang on, since Buffy turned the cosmic switch off to magic in the world. For a full picture on that, you must read “BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8.” The loss of magic leaves a void that must be filled by the likes of Angel and Faith. It leaves them to crash decadent parties like this one, brought to vivid life by the art of Rebekah Isaacs and the coloring work of Dan Jackson.

Talk about bringing something to vivid life, this is a Dark Horse specialty. The TV show, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has taken on a whole new life as a comic for many years with the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar-inspired Buffy Summers leading the way. And, much in the same way as that show spawned the spin-off TV show, “Angel,” starring David Boreanaz as the vampire with a soul, we now have the spin-off comic, “Angel & Faith” which includes the lovely Eliza Dushku-inspired Faith Lehane, who owes everything to Angel and has become his partner in making the world safer from demons.

Back to the Mohra blood, now that’s essential stuff. It comes from a very special demon, a Mohra demon. And it can cure anything, regenerate lost limbs, give you a whole new liver if you need it. And, sure, it can bring back the dead. But, hold on. It’s dangerous stuff to play with. Word on the street is that it can turn Angel back into a human. Faith wouldn’t mind that. He’s easy on the eyes and a nice guy. Problem is, he’s too nice of guy, has a whole martyr complex. He did do a lot of evil things but he’s made up for it over and over. Faith thinks he’s ready to hang it up. But Angel sees it much differently. He will continue to do the good work that he can only do as vampire.

That leads us to the other essential fact you need to know, if you don’t already. Among all the evil things that Angel has done, and he really has an out since he did these while he was possessed, the one thing that’s really gnawing at him is that he killed Rupert Giles, a beloved wizard who had a most special connection with magic and who was an expert at killing demons. That death hangs heavy over everything going on in this comic. That’s what has thrown Angel and Faith together. They have settled into continuing the good work of Rupert Giles. But here is where Angel can’t leave well enough alone. He is determined to bring Giles back to life! And the Mohra blood might be just what it takes to do that. Unless, a couple of baddies from Angel’s past, Nash and Pearl, get to the blood first and kill Angel in the bargain.

“Angel & Faith” is going to enjoy a nice long run. It has that special combination of being both a character-driven and story-driven comic. You will just have to get the latest issue and see for yourself. It’s not that common for a TV show to make such a smooth transition to comics and become something exciting in its own right. That’s definitely happening with “Angel & Faith.” It has that kind of magic.

BUFFY SEASON NINE and ANGEL & FAITH

“ANGEL & FAITH,” issue 1, is scheduled to come out August 31.

“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SEASON 9,” is scheduled to come out September 14.

I am looking forward to these Dark Horse titles. I just picked up the trade to Buffy Season 8 and I’m hooked. I can’t say that I ever really followed Buffy all that much. I certainly like Sarah Michelle Gellar but, I don’t know, for whatever reason, I never followed the show. And now I want to make things right! I think starting with the BS8 is a logical first step. That will prove the gateway to the rest of the Buffyverse.