Angel & Faith #1 by Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs
SPOILERS AHEAD: I didn’t know how I felt about this title. Angel or Faith should have their own title but I didn’t think they’d be great together. I was wrong…as I usually am when I doubt the wisdom of Whedon.
The book starts with Giles trying to help a woman whose daughter is being inhabited by a demon. He’s not powerful enough to get rid of the demon so he seals it inside the girl, promising that he’ll return one day to finish the job. Then we jump to Angel & Faith finishing what he started and freeing the girl from the demon.
As they kill the demon, Giles’ spell unravels and Angel winds up with the memories of the day Giles and Jenny Calendar fell in love – both of whom he killed by snapping their necks while he was someone else (Twilight and Angelus respectively).
Then we meet Nadira. She’s a friend of Faith’s who is a slayer. Nadira tells her about the day all of her slayer squad was killed by a pair of new big bads while Twilight watched and vows to kill Angel and everyone involved.
When Faith confronts Angel with the information he tells her about LA going to Hell and becoming Twilight because he believed it was the only way to keep the entire planet from going to Hell. That’s when Angel tells Faith what he wants to do: bring Giles back to life.
Good: Angel and Faith have taken up residence at Giles’ home where Angel is reading through his journals for things Giles left undone and getting to know the man better. The flashback of Angel killing Jenny and LA going to Hell was a great way to acknowledge that the writer knows the mythology and for the reader to know that the characters are still affected by these events.
The art is fantastic – unlike the hit or miss art of IDW’s Angel, Dark Horse has always had fantastic art on the majority of their Season 8 issues and now they’ve got Rebekah Isaacs onboard.
Bad: I don’t understand Whistler’s part but I imagine that will be revealed in future issues. Bringing Giles back from the dead isn’t something Angel would do if he knows Buffy was pulled out of Heaven. He knows Buffy was dead and knows she came back to life but I don’t know if he knows the circumstances. I’m not sure if Faith even knows. I guess if Angel and Faith don’t know what Buffy went through, that makes this decision very interesting.
Buy/Skip: This isn’t a gateway book. You can’t pick it up cold, have no experience with the characters, and still get the layers of story. If you’re a fan of Buffy and have gotten some or all of Angel’s IDW series, you’ll love this. It continues Buffy Season 8 and Angel’s IDW series perfectly and captures the characters perfectly. Join me in buying it and anxiously waiting for #2.
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