Angel no 28 review
Dec. 17th, 2009 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightWent down the comic shop and walked straight into the middle of Comic Shop Boy saying to Comic Shop Bloke, "Well, I could always go outside and just stab them."
This was a good opening line even from Comic Shop Boy.
More behind cut with spoilers for the latest Angel comic and for The Authority.
As it turned out Comic Shop Boy and Bloke were both steaming angry in a Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells-type way, because a bunch of drug runners (corner boys, I suppose, to use an expression from The Wire) have taken to hanging around outside the shop because it's just over the road from the post office and they can see when the 'smackheads' go and cash their giros and then phone the dealer to bring the drugs for them to sell. This is scaring off customers, not surprisingly. Comic Shop Boy had been on the phone to the CCTV camera operators to ask them to swivel the camera in the direction of these drug runners, because that usually scares them off. However, today they'd got a right jobsworth on the phone who'd refused to do it because the drug runners weren't actually doing anything wrong. They were just standing there.
Comic Shop Boy: Maybe I should just go out and start a fight? They'd be doing something then.
Me: What if they had knives?
Comic Shop Boy: I've got my screwdriver. :brandishes an enormous screwdriver; Anyway, they'd only have stanley knives and while they were trying to slash me, I'd stab them. :demonstrates stabbing motion:
Comic Shop Bloke: :laughs:
Me: :also laughs, if a bit uncertainly:
Comic Shop Boy: Mind you, if there's only two of 'em, I'll just use my stick. :gestures in the direction of enormous shilleleigh-like stick hanging on the back of the shop door:
Me: You probably have a very long reach, don't you? (Comic Shop Boy is tall).
Comic Shop Boy: Yeah, they hate me in classes.
Dunno if I've given anyone the impression, btw, that Comic Shop Boy resembles the comic shop guy from The Simpsons? If so, please cast that notion from your mind. He's well over six foot, has a long ginger beard and is a bit of a martial arts expert.
A-anyway, came away with the latest issue of The Authority, which ends with a beautiful, romantic kiss between Apollo and the Midnighter while all the other characters stand around looking very moved and tearful. I love that book.
And, of course, the first Bill Willingham issue of the Angel comic.
Bit of a mixed bag really, like all these things. The art's quite good - stunning likeness of Kate, and Spike's not bad, though Illyria's terrible - but also some very typical comic book art-type stuff. Connor, for instance, takes off his ripped shirt, to reveal a body that a body builder would be proud of, and while I'm happy to believe that Connor is reasonably muscular, I just don't see him having that kind of physique. Also, he's rescued from a group of demons by a bunch of mysterious women in armour, and the armour is of course utterly ridiculous with huge boobs and legs up to their armpits.
It's too early to comment on the story. Certain aspects of it are intriguing, like who these armmoured women are and why they want to follow Connor, and what on earth has happened to Angel, but other aspects of the book are a bit jarring. Willingham doesn't have the character voices down pat yet (something Brian Lynch had from the first), though he's way better than Kelley Armstrong. His Spike isn't bad, though so far we're only seeing one side of the character, and the side I'm least fond of. But the continuity seems a bit shot with what's gone before. Gunn is bizarrely cheerful given what happened in A: AtF, while Spike is talking about some adventure he had in Las Vegas, which, since Brian Lynch said part of his Spike story is set in Las Vegas, suggests that this story follows on from that. But it can't do, because Lynch hasn't finished his story yet, which just leaves me feeling that IDW aren't paying attention to their own continuity, or perhaps the coup of getting a comic book star like Willingham to write for them means they daren't ask him to alter his plans to fit in with anyone else's? I don't know.
Also, there are just too many characters cluttering up the place now, and I honestly don't know why Willingham decided to keep Kelley Armstrong's OCs, Dez and James. Neither character is a good fit in the Angelverse. In fact, ironically, they would probably fit better in Willingham's own Fablesverse. If he does get to do this crossover he wants to do, which I hate the very idea of, maybe Dez and James should stay crossed over permanently?
Also, I do wonder why everyone just accepts it when Connor says he thinks he should lead A.I. in Angel's absence. Why? Just because Illyria says so?
That said, there are some fun lines of dialogue involving Dez, to do with her and Kate deciding that Angel's absence means he's off with some girl again. Apparently, this has been happening a lot since Angel got famous, though he only moons over them and then tells them they can't be together. Heh!
Not going to grade it. Still going to buy, but the jury is still out.
This was a good opening line even from Comic Shop Boy.
More behind cut with spoilers for the latest Angel comic and for The Authority.
As it turned out Comic Shop Boy and Bloke were both steaming angry in a Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells-type way, because a bunch of drug runners (corner boys, I suppose, to use an expression from The Wire) have taken to hanging around outside the shop because it's just over the road from the post office and they can see when the 'smackheads' go and cash their giros and then phone the dealer to bring the drugs for them to sell. This is scaring off customers, not surprisingly. Comic Shop Boy had been on the phone to the CCTV camera operators to ask them to swivel the camera in the direction of these drug runners, because that usually scares them off. However, today they'd got a right jobsworth on the phone who'd refused to do it because the drug runners weren't actually doing anything wrong. They were just standing there.
Comic Shop Boy: Maybe I should just go out and start a fight? They'd be doing something then.
Me: What if they had knives?
Comic Shop Boy: I've got my screwdriver. :brandishes an enormous screwdriver; Anyway, they'd only have stanley knives and while they were trying to slash me, I'd stab them. :demonstrates stabbing motion:
Comic Shop Bloke: :laughs:
Me: :also laughs, if a bit uncertainly:
Comic Shop Boy: Mind you, if there's only two of 'em, I'll just use my stick. :gestures in the direction of enormous shilleleigh-like stick hanging on the back of the shop door:
Me: You probably have a very long reach, don't you? (Comic Shop Boy is tall).
Comic Shop Boy: Yeah, they hate me in classes.
Dunno if I've given anyone the impression, btw, that Comic Shop Boy resembles the comic shop guy from The Simpsons? If so, please cast that notion from your mind. He's well over six foot, has a long ginger beard and is a bit of a martial arts expert.
A-anyway, came away with the latest issue of The Authority, which ends with a beautiful, romantic kiss between Apollo and the Midnighter while all the other characters stand around looking very moved and tearful. I love that book.
And, of course, the first Bill Willingham issue of the Angel comic.
Bit of a mixed bag really, like all these things. The art's quite good - stunning likeness of Kate, and Spike's not bad, though Illyria's terrible - but also some very typical comic book art-type stuff. Connor, for instance, takes off his ripped shirt, to reveal a body that a body builder would be proud of, and while I'm happy to believe that Connor is reasonably muscular, I just don't see him having that kind of physique. Also, he's rescued from a group of demons by a bunch of mysterious women in armour, and the armour is of course utterly ridiculous with huge boobs and legs up to their armpits.
It's too early to comment on the story. Certain aspects of it are intriguing, like who these armmoured women are and why they want to follow Connor, and what on earth has happened to Angel, but other aspects of the book are a bit jarring. Willingham doesn't have the character voices down pat yet (something Brian Lynch had from the first), though he's way better than Kelley Armstrong. His Spike isn't bad, though so far we're only seeing one side of the character, and the side I'm least fond of. But the continuity seems a bit shot with what's gone before. Gunn is bizarrely cheerful given what happened in A: AtF, while Spike is talking about some adventure he had in Las Vegas, which, since Brian Lynch said part of his Spike story is set in Las Vegas, suggests that this story follows on from that. But it can't do, because Lynch hasn't finished his story yet, which just leaves me feeling that IDW aren't paying attention to their own continuity, or perhaps the coup of getting a comic book star like Willingham to write for them means they daren't ask him to alter his plans to fit in with anyone else's? I don't know.
Also, there are just too many characters cluttering up the place now, and I honestly don't know why Willingham decided to keep Kelley Armstrong's OCs, Dez and James. Neither character is a good fit in the Angelverse. In fact, ironically, they would probably fit better in Willingham's own Fablesverse. If he does get to do this crossover he wants to do, which I hate the very idea of, maybe Dez and James should stay crossed over permanently?
Also, I do wonder why everyone just accepts it when Connor says he thinks he should lead A.I. in Angel's absence. Why? Just because Illyria says so?
That said, there are some fun lines of dialogue involving Dez, to do with her and Kate deciding that Angel's absence means he's off with some girl again. Apparently, this has been happening a lot since Angel got famous, though he only moons over them and then tells them they can't be together. Heh!
Not going to grade it. Still going to buy, but the jury is still out.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 10:29 pm (UTC)Having seen Pete with his shirt off quite recently, I concur that Connor would not have a body builder's physique (He would dance a mean Charleston, however). ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 10:39 pm (UTC)Hee! That does sound almost worth the entry fee...
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 11:05 pm (UTC)Don't tell me Spider's back again?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 12:35 pm (UTC)In actual fact, the chief 'chick in the big-boobed armour' has more personality in her two panels than Spider had in the whole of A: AtF/S: AtF, so no. I don't think so.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-17 11:38 pm (UTC)Oh hell. Really? I hate that kind of thing. Didn't they learn anything from A:ATF?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 12:39 pm (UTC)Sorry if that sounds bitter, but I think it's only the truth, and fwiw, I think that on the whole Franco Urru managed to avoid the cliche, except when it came to Spider and the Spikettes.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 12:31 am (UTC)The legs up to the armpits? Hee - that's me
The huge boobs? yep.
The tiny waist? Impossible
(six foot - all legs and arms, high waist or very little, when I sit, I look short, I stand and people's jaws drop.)
But I don't look like that. I only wish. Not skinny or muscular, also it is really hard to find clothes.
His Spike isn't bad, though so far we're only seeing one side of the character, and the side I'm least fond of.
Comic relief? Or something else?
I honestly don't know why Willingham decided to keep Kelley Armstrong's OCs, Dez and James.
I remember reading on one of the fan discussion boards that this was in part fan driven. They kept asking if IDW would at least keep those two characters and not drop Armstrong's story completely. Apparently she does have her fans. Also, Willingham responded he would because he liked them...can't remember where it was exactly.
That said, there are some fun lines of dialogue involving Dez, to do with her and Kate deciding that Angel's absence means he's off with some girl again. Apparently, this has been happening a lot since Angel got famous, though he only moons over them and then tells them they can't be together. Heh!
Now that may well be worth buying the comic.
Spike is talking about some adventure he had in Las Vegas, which, since Brian Lynch said part of his Spike story is set in Las Vegas, suggests that this story follows on from that.
Could it be from Spike:Aslym? Hope it's not the one Lynch is going to do...because that would be annoying. Although when it comes to continuity, comics tend to fall all over the place.
Sounds like you enjoyed it more than you thought? And it's better than the Lynch two-parter?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 02:19 pm (UTC)I should think Connor's armoured groupies also find it hard to get any clothes to fit. No one is that shape. :)
Comic relief? Or something else?
Comic relief in this issue. Whether he'll ever be allowed to be any more than that, who knows?
They kept asking if IDW would at least keep those two characters and not drop Armstrong's story completely.
Whereas I would rather the whole Aftermath story was just explained away as a weird dream Angel had. :sigh: Doesn't surprise me if Willingham likes the characters, though. They're far more mainstream fantasy, like Fables.
I don't think the adventure Spike's just had in Las Vegas can be Asylum, as we know that took place before A: AtF and was when he first met Betta George, whereas here, George seems like an accepted part of the gang.
Sounds like you enjoyed it more than you thought? And it's better than the Lynch two-parter?
It was okay, and certainly the art was better than the Lynch two-parter. The fact that Angel himself was absent from the comic until the last couple of pages probably helped. I'm very wary now of how he's depicted.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 03:37 pm (UTC)Right there with you. I found the Aftermath story unreadable based on the first issue. I also thumbed through Armstrong's fiction...not my cup of tea, so figured that could be part of it. (shrug)
Doesn't surprise me if Willingham likes the characters, though. They're far more mainstream fantasy, like Fables.
This may explain why I didn't like Fables, or Kelley Armstrong, or Terry Goodwin(whatever his last name is) or Terry Brooks...mainstream fantasy fiction tends to bore me. (With the possible exception of old Anne McCaffrey novels - which are actually romantic sci-fantasy fiction...so not quite the same thing, Harry Potter novels, HArry Dresden, and Rachel Morgan novels.) They have a tendency to over-romanticize the Middle Ages. (I obviously in a minority on this bit, because it is wildly popular - these people have all made the bestseller lists.)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 03:40 pm (UTC)On Spike? I really wish they'd let him have his own series without Angel or Buffy constantly taking over. That's what I liked about Lynch's initial Spike comics - Asylum, Shadow Puppets, and Spike:After the Fall....we got to focus on Spike for a change.
I was sort of hoping the new Lynch series would do much the same.
Just my ill luck to love a supporting character more than a lead. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 11:21 pm (UTC)Well hopefully, it will. It does concern me slightly that there seems to be no sign of the series yet and that in his last Q&A on Slayalive, Lynch seemed to be hinting that he might have to change what he was planning to write to keep within any continuity established by Willingham. Even if Lynch's story didn't feature Angel at all, that would still mean that Spike's story/character development was subservient to Angel's.
Just my ill luck to love a supporting character more than a lead. ;-)
I hear you. I've often thought that over the years, and yet it keeps happening.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-19 07:31 pm (UTC)Which takes away from Angel as well. Angel becomes less interesting a character to me when they do that. More cliche and predictable.
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Date: 2009-12-19 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 11:17 pm (UTC)I haven't looked at any of her fic and doubt I will now on the strength of Aftermath. I don't read much fantasy these days either, and even when I did, found a lot of it very unsatisfying.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-19 07:33 pm (UTC)It's become a bit repetitious unfortunately. Neil Gaiman and some of the dark fantasy writers, have to a degree opened up the field a bit, creating the subgenre of urban fantasy...but even that is starting to hit a saturation point.
I'm finding myself leaning more and more towards sci-fantasy or science fiction as I get older. (shrug)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-19 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 01:34 am (UTC)Ah, comic book art.
while Spike is talking about some adventure he had in Las Vegas, which, since Brian Lynch said part of his Spike story is set in Las Vegas
I haven't really been following anything, but didn't Spike: Asylum end in Vegas?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 02:21 pm (UTC)Yep.
Spike: Asylum did end in Vegas, but since this story takes place post-A: AtF and Asylum is pre-A: AtF, I don't think Spike can be talking about Asylum.