Yet another review of chapter 1...

[elisi]

After the Fall. Chapter 1

Sorry this review has taken some time, but I need to let things percolate before I write. And RL really isn’t my friend at the moment. Of course that probably means that everything’s been said already, but there you go. Can’t even claim to have thought of any deep of fascinating meta (the percolating didn't produce anything of note I'm afraid)...

After the first read-through, I think my main reaction was: “Hopy crap, that’s bleak!” (Which of course is very fitting for a story set in hell.) Second time I caught a lot more details, and third time (i.e. now) I’m gonna try to see what I can extract. I’m not sure it’ll be a lot, because this part is all about setting out the playing field and introducing the players, showing where they’re at.

In general terms, the story is well-paced (and goes with the standard ‘picking up a few months after the end of the last season’, which works very nicely), the voices are spot-on (with very nice layers/depth too), and I love the artwork, even though some characters could be a lot more welldrawn (there were problems first time round...).

The other thing is that I’ve read a LOT of post-NFA fanfic (as well as written a fair portion myself), so seeing what these authors do with my beloved characters is automatically weighed up against all the other avenues I’ve seen explored. So far, it is (in most ways) very original (that is - I’ve seen vampire Gunn before f.ex., but in different circumstances).

I've written about pages 1-5 already ( here), so I’ll just skip ahead. Doing a character-by-character thing, rather than page-by-page.

Angel
W&H dumped Angel back where it began - and are keeping him a sort-of prisoner.

“I abide for now. Go against their rules, the punishment would be worse. Not sure how, but they’re Wolfram & Hart, they not only know of places worse than hell, they have timeshares there.”

Now this is interesting, and not something I’ve seen before. He can do as he pleases - up to a point. And at the start of the story he’s obviously working on the premise that going with the rules - and being able to save a few people - is better than trying to break out and saving none at all (it’s all his fault after all...). Doing as he’s told really isn’t Angel’s thing, and Wesley calls him on it (”So maybe you should figure out what you can do, here and now. And then take the slightest of baby steps to returning to what you were.”). But then Angel isn’t confiding in Wesley, is he? I love the ending...

”I was told not to leave the building. Not one step. I was also told that everything I was doing was wrong. [...] I don’t know who told him to say it. But... it doesn’t mean he was wrong. [...] Let them think they’re in charge. W&H has taken away everything I had. Everyone I cared about. Everything I was. But that’s how I’m going to win. They think they’ve changed me.”

Beautiful, beautiful bookending of his thoughts from the beginning.

And he’s declared war. Let entropy commence.

The dragon
I know that there were people who were dubious about the dragon, because it is so big and powerful that it could make things too easy. Having read the whole issue, this is obviuosly not the case.

1) Angel on his own would not have even the slightest chance to fight any of the demon lords. He needs some firepower, and the dragon evens the odds in most situations - but he obviously doesn’t think it enough to go after any of the lords.

2) Angel knows that the Senior Partners could do anything they like with him, dragon or not. The dragon is physical power, but that really counts for very little when it comes to the sort of battle Angel knows he has to fight.

Finally, the nest is brilliant. :)

Wesley
Oh my Wesley. My poor, poor Wesley.

”Trust me, I would like more than anything to be released from my contract. I would literally give anything to be able to move on.”

Anything? Hmmm... it’ll be interesting to see if that statement gets tested. Until then however, we have ghost!Wesley, kept around because of his contract, as Angel’s liaison. I’m slightly puzzled why he’s a ghost, and not just a re-animated corpse a la Lilah or Holland Manners, but it works very nicely. (Btw the art-work could be a lot better for Wes - just like Giles in s8 he looks like he’s come out of some sort of generic Watcher-mold. I mean, I can tell it’s him, but...)

Anyway, I’m sure Angel is possibly beating himself up over having got Wesley into this situation (after all he was the one who decided to take the CEO gig, dragging all his friends with him), but I think that out of them all, Wesley was the only other one who actually knew what he was getting into:

WESLEY: Standard perpetuity clause.
LILAH: You broke in here for my contract?
WESLEY: I'm here to release you from it.
LILAH: Wesley.
WESLEY: You've suffered enough. I want you to find some peace. (Watches it burn)
LILAH: Gallant to the end...but I knew what I signed up for.
WESLEY: It's done.
LILAH: Look in the drawer. (Wesley opens the drawer, takes out a paper from the same file) Flames wouldn't be eternal if they actually consumed anything. But it means something that you tried.

So I am terribly sad that he still isn’t at peace, but on the other hand he did sign a contract... And the set-up is very nice. Who is he now? Does he have an agenda? Hearing him say ‘we’ about W&H is chilling and disturbing in equal measures.

But seeing him ‘sticking out of a desk’ made me laugh! :)

Connor
Now this is where I get terribly conflicted. Because I love that Connor chose his new life (“Hey, can we... get outta here? I'd like to go back... see my parents. This whole fighting thing, I'm not... I'm not really sure it's for me.” ‘Origin’) and that Angel sent him away:

ANGEL: Go home...now.
CONNOR: They'll destroy you.
ANGEL: As long as you're OK, they can't.

And of course I like that Connor can be seen as the shanshu fulfilled, so Connor living an ordinary life is a wonderful thing... yes Angel will be fighting forever, but he has managed to give a fresh chance to his son (and that was after all *why* he signed up with W&H).

On the other hand I really like the self-assured, together Connor we saw in ‘Origin’ and ‘Not Fade Away’ - every inch the Champion-son that Angel always wished for. So seeing him in AtF makes me want to squee very much and desperate to find out more, and to see him and Angel interact.

The set-up is intriguing too - how did it happen, and just how many cars does Angel have? How did Gwen get involved? And Nina? (I’m presuming Connor - or maybe Angel - sought them out, since neither would know/remember Connor. Hopefully this will be addressed in the one-shot.)

I love the “Don’t be scared. I’m Connor. This is my family.”

If ever there was a key-word for Connor, it was ‘family’. Metaphorically he represents family (the family Angel so desperately wants, but knows he can’t have/doesn’t deserve) - remember the mirrored toasts ‘To family’ in ‘Deep Down’ and ‘Home’? And of course:

”You gotta do what you can to protect your family. I learned that from my father.”
‘Origin’

Anyway - since he’s there - I want as much of him as I can get! *g*

Gunn
On first read I presumed Gunn to be a good guy, but I found this line v. disturbing:

“You play your cards right and this dream could suddenly turn downright erotic.”

So that’s a big thumbs up for the writing - Gunn sounds perfectly like he should, but the things he says have an edge that tips you off.

Also nice overall writing btw, tying him into the whole:

Ghost!Wesley: “What are you going to do with that?”
Angel: “I don’t even know why I carry one with me. Haven’t had to use one for months. Remember when vampires were our biggest problem?”
Ghost!Wesley: “Only when you went bad.”

[...]

Ghost!Wesley: “Because if you don’t start trying to take control... the wrong person is going to.”

So we have a ‘new’ player, apart from all the ‘regular’ demons - a smart, utterly ruthless, highly knowledgeable vampire, who knows Angel and will make the battle personal, I’m sure... Far more dangerous than strong idiots like Kr’ph. (Curious what all the symbols are that his people are painting on the walls of the arena. And what is that globe thing? There are diagrams of it on the walls of W&H.)

And I really love that it begins and ends with a girl... one saved, one not. (“Can’t save them all, dad...”)

Betta George
So this is how he gets canonised! V. nice - who wouldn’t want a telepathic fish? I approve. Looking forward to seeing where it goes. :)

***

And that’s pretty much it. I have a few scattered thoughts on Angel and apocalypses and stuff, but it’s refusing to come together. Also, I really want to read other people’s thoughts...

In short the issue does a great job of showing where everyone’s at, and makes you want to know what happens next. But it needs more humour. (Even if it's black like the 'She's tenderizing me!' line, which I love. I am counting on Spike to provide some cutting lines!) Or maybe it's just the cold weather getting to me... and the fact that my meta-skills have gone for a walk-about.

ETA: Re. who sired Gunn, then this short ficlet has a solution I've always *adored*!

ETA2: I think what I like the most about this whole set-up is that it feels organic and logical. Wesley & Angel still trapped by W&H because of their contracts. Gunn (does the contract not work because he's a vampire? Or is he also still a part of W&H?) as a vampire is tragic, but it is a very Gunn-specific tragedy. And Connor is the person best equipped to lead/look after a group of people/demons in hell ("You call this hell? Hey - you should have seen where *I* grew up!"). I'm very easy when it comes to stories - the writer(s) can do pretty much anything, as long as it is in-character and makes sense.