Angel and Faith Season 10 No 2
Have just read this, so thought I would do a review.
It was okay.
The end.
Well, no, not really. I have a bit more to say, and parts of it were better than okay, principally the Faith stuff.
Spoilers behind cut.
The issue cuts between Faith and Angel again, like no 1, with their stories having bugger all to do with each other. Faith has joined Kennedy's Deepscan security organisation, while Angel, still in London, has taken it upon himself to try and bring order to the Magic Town area of the city (which appears to be somewhere slightly east of the middle, if the cityscape featuring St Paul's, the Canary Wharf Tower and the Gherkin are anything to go by, but it probably isn't anything to go by).
The Faith story begins with Faith's parting with Harry Potter Mini!Giles, who can obviously see that he's hurt Faith's feelings by choosing Buffy over her, and manages to hurt them even more before they part, when he explains that his reason for choosing as he did is that Faith knows how to be alone, because she has a strength in her,"something basic at your core," whereas Buffy doesn't have that yet.
This is all bollocking nonsense, of course, about both characters (and why should Mini!Giles be so keen for Buffy to learn to be alone anyway?), as I've no doubt many will point out, but maybe it's meant to be bollocking nonsense? And if it's not - if we're meant to see Mini!Giles as a truth-teller - probably taking a deep breath and repeating, "It's only a comic, it's only a comic," a few times would be a good idea.
I've done it since the very first issue of Buffy Season 8, with varying degrees of success, but actually haven't had to do it nearly as much since season 10 started.
Yet.
Anyway, bollocking nonsense or not, it's clear that Faith is pretty upset by what Mini!Giles says, though she doesn't let on about that to him, and later in the comic, having been overwhelmed by paperwork from the HR department of Deepscan, takes out her feelings on the rifle range (or whatever it is people call that place where you go and shoot big guns at targets). Boy, the people jjonesing for Buffy and the slayers to start packing heat will love this scene to pieces.
Back in London, Angel has a rather surreal encounter with Nadira, the angry Slayer from Angel and Faith Season 9, who wanted (quite understandably, I thought) to kill him for what he did when he was Twilight. She got zapped with the magic glow-y light ball that created Magic Town at the end of season 9 and now has a face that's half lava-lamp (seriously, that's what the glow-y side of her face looks like (the art, btw, is very nice, Will Conrad draws a great Faith and he makes Nadira very beautiful)).
The lava lamp look also appears to have affected Nadira's brain, since she's gone all New Age-y, says she's evolved and she's glad to see Angel. She's also gathered a sort of cult of damaged Magic Town folks around her, who look to her for protection and guidance, in a creepy re-hash of the Drusilla plot line of season 9 -so much of a re-hash, in fact, that Angel actually remarks on it. Anyway, Angel may think he's the law in Magic Town, but Nadira clearly thinks she is. Instead of getting on board Angel's quest to bring down Corky the evil pixie (just go with it), she orders him to find someone called the Glass Blower, after which everything will fall into place. Then she kicks him out.
Naturally, Angel doesn't do what she says, but goes to shake down the barman (or should that be the bar lion?) at a pub where all the Magic Town low life hang out about where he can find Corky. Needless to say, the info he's given leads him into a trap, and Angel ends up in a big fight in the sewers with Corky and his enforcer. He wins that, then bumps into Peter Grant from the Rivers of London series. Well, actually it's a bloke called Inspector Brandt. Magic Town used to be his patch, but he can't let it go and leave it to run itself even though he's been ordered to. He offers to run interference for Angel.
I hope he doesn't die.
Faith, meanwhile, is sent on her first Deepscan gig, which is to protect some sleazy pop star called Billy Rage. After the show, the father of one of the groupies charges in looking to shoot Rage (no one would have cared, honestly). Faith is all set to eject him, until he starts shouting that his daughter is only seventeen. That changes everything, including Rage, who turns into a huge red demon parrot (that's what it looks like) and roars at them. Faith is pleased.
"Okay, now it's Slayer time."
Erm, and now I don't really have anything else to say. It was okay, like I said. Not sure I like the changes in Nadira. She was my favourite character by a mile in season 9, and they may have just ruined her.
That, needless to say, is par for the course with these comics.
I still don't get why this is not two separate comics, one called Angel and one called Faith, but one good thing about the two characters being split up like this is that at least Faith's story isn't subordinate to Angel's this time.
The letters page contains one letter from someone who says they were so disillusioned by season 9 they don't think they're going to read further. They pick up on pretty much everything that was bad about season 9 - that Xander and Dawn got shelved, that Buffy's story just went round in circles, also that Spike's arc was so bloody terrible. They say (and I agree): Spike's whole arc has been the worst of all because of his motivation that he can't possibly be "his own man" while having feelings for Buffy and working with her. The sexist implication there, that a superhero can't have a supportive sidekick who harbors romantic feelings for her, is singular to this situation of female superhero and male romantic interest, and is something I'd never have expected to see in a comic featuring someone like Buffy!
Yeah, well said.
It was okay.
The end.
Well, no, not really. I have a bit more to say, and parts of it were better than okay, principally the Faith stuff.
Spoilers behind cut.
The issue cuts between Faith and Angel again, like no 1, with their stories having bugger all to do with each other. Faith has joined Kennedy's Deepscan security organisation, while Angel, still in London, has taken it upon himself to try and bring order to the Magic Town area of the city (which appears to be somewhere slightly east of the middle, if the cityscape featuring St Paul's, the Canary Wharf Tower and the Gherkin are anything to go by, but it probably isn't anything to go by).
The Faith story begins with Faith's parting with Harry Potter Mini!Giles, who can obviously see that he's hurt Faith's feelings by choosing Buffy over her, and manages to hurt them even more before they part, when he explains that his reason for choosing as he did is that Faith knows how to be alone, because she has a strength in her,"something basic at your core," whereas Buffy doesn't have that yet.
This is all bollocking nonsense, of course, about both characters (and why should Mini!Giles be so keen for Buffy to learn to be alone anyway?), as I've no doubt many will point out, but maybe it's meant to be bollocking nonsense? And if it's not - if we're meant to see Mini!Giles as a truth-teller - probably taking a deep breath and repeating, "It's only a comic, it's only a comic," a few times would be a good idea.
I've done it since the very first issue of Buffy Season 8, with varying degrees of success, but actually haven't had to do it nearly as much since season 10 started.
Yet.
Anyway, bollocking nonsense or not, it's clear that Faith is pretty upset by what Mini!Giles says, though she doesn't let on about that to him, and later in the comic, having been overwhelmed by paperwork from the HR department of Deepscan, takes out her feelings on the rifle range (or whatever it is people call that place where you go and shoot big guns at targets). Boy, the people jjonesing for Buffy and the slayers to start packing heat will love this scene to pieces.
Back in London, Angel has a rather surreal encounter with Nadira, the angry Slayer from Angel and Faith Season 9, who wanted (quite understandably, I thought) to kill him for what he did when he was Twilight. She got zapped with the magic glow-y light ball that created Magic Town at the end of season 9 and now has a face that's half lava-lamp (seriously, that's what the glow-y side of her face looks like (the art, btw, is very nice, Will Conrad draws a great Faith and he makes Nadira very beautiful)).
The lava lamp look also appears to have affected Nadira's brain, since she's gone all New Age-y, says she's evolved and she's glad to see Angel. She's also gathered a sort of cult of damaged Magic Town folks around her, who look to her for protection and guidance, in a creepy re-hash of the Drusilla plot line of season 9 -so much of a re-hash, in fact, that Angel actually remarks on it. Anyway, Angel may think he's the law in Magic Town, but Nadira clearly thinks she is. Instead of getting on board Angel's quest to bring down Corky the evil pixie (just go with it), she orders him to find someone called the Glass Blower, after which everything will fall into place. Then she kicks him out.
Naturally, Angel doesn't do what she says, but goes to shake down the barman (or should that be the bar lion?) at a pub where all the Magic Town low life hang out about where he can find Corky. Needless to say, the info he's given leads him into a trap, and Angel ends up in a big fight in the sewers with Corky and his enforcer. He wins that, then bumps into Peter Grant from the Rivers of London series. Well, actually it's a bloke called Inspector Brandt. Magic Town used to be his patch, but he can't let it go and leave it to run itself even though he's been ordered to. He offers to run interference for Angel.
I hope he doesn't die.
Faith, meanwhile, is sent on her first Deepscan gig, which is to protect some sleazy pop star called Billy Rage. After the show, the father of one of the groupies charges in looking to shoot Rage (no one would have cared, honestly). Faith is all set to eject him, until he starts shouting that his daughter is only seventeen. That changes everything, including Rage, who turns into a huge red demon parrot (that's what it looks like) and roars at them. Faith is pleased.
"Okay, now it's Slayer time."
Erm, and now I don't really have anything else to say. It was okay, like I said. Not sure I like the changes in Nadira. She was my favourite character by a mile in season 9, and they may have just ruined her.
That, needless to say, is par for the course with these comics.
I still don't get why this is not two separate comics, one called Angel and one called Faith, but one good thing about the two characters being split up like this is that at least Faith's story isn't subordinate to Angel's this time.
The letters page contains one letter from someone who says they were so disillusioned by season 9 they don't think they're going to read further. They pick up on pretty much everything that was bad about season 9 - that Xander and Dawn got shelved, that Buffy's story just went round in circles, also that Spike's arc was so bloody terrible. They say (and I agree): Spike's whole arc has been the worst of all because of his motivation that he can't possibly be "his own man" while having feelings for Buffy and working with her. The sexist implication there, that a superhero can't have a supportive sidekick who harbors romantic feelings for her, is singular to this situation of female superhero and male romantic interest, and is something I'd never have expected to see in a comic featuring someone like Buffy!
Yeah, well said.