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Date Posted: 19:56:45 01/18/10 Mon
Author: Masquerade
Subject: Angel: After the Fall issue #2
In reply to: Masquerade 's message, "Angel: After the Fall issue #1 (with potential spoilers up to Issue #5)" on 12:10:28 01/18/10 Mon

Angel: After the Fall, issue #2

The issue begins with Angel heading off to Santa Monica to see his son. He killed the demon lord Burge's son, which in Burge's mind, meant Angel had "declared war." And that makes Angel's son a plausible target for revenge.

At the safe house in Santa Monica, Angel runs into Nina. They are no longer together, most likely as a result of Angel breaking it off with her towards the end of season 5 for her own protection. Nina informs Angel that Connor has gone to Westwood. The lord of that fiefdom, Kr'ph, was killed the night before. And, as can be expected, a power vacuum has been created. So Angel heads over there and finds the former Destroyer of Quortoth taking on some of the contenders for the new lord of Westwood. Angel lets Connor know that Burge might come after him.

Angel and Connor have an awkward alliance. Angel sends humans to Connor's safe house, Connor gladly gives them refuge, but the two of them have not been spending a lot of time together. Angel, of course, feels predictably guilty for "sending his son to hell for a second time." Connor just kind of wonders why he doesn't see Dad more often. Angel simply says he was recovering from injuries for a long while.

Gwen Raiden, another of Connor's partners at the safe house, ventures in on father and son battling the would-be lords. She tells them they need to look at the scene of Kr'ph's remains. "There's a new player in town, boys," she says. "And he's out for blood."

This is of course a segue to Gunn's lair, where he is now holding the ex-lord of Westwood's pet fish prisoner. Gunn assures "George" the fish that he is one of the good guys.

Gunn being a vampire is an interesting turn of events. One incensed reader of the comics wrote in complaining about this heroic street fighter who grew up saving the folks in his neighborhood from vampires and then lost his sister to vampires, being forced by canon (if indeed, the comics are canon) to become a vampire. The response to this fan's complaint was cryptic, but I got the impression that turning Gunn into his own worst nightmare was sort of the point of Joss's Season 6. These characters have been sent to hell, and not only that, their own personal hells.

Gunn, proud vampire-fighter, is now a vampire. Wesley, who fought tooth and nail to rescue himself from his former stiff-button Watcher persona and the childhood power issues it embodied, is now forced to wear a suit and be at the beck-and-call of a large paternalistic organization. And Angel is wracked each and every moment with knowing that he is the indirect cause of everyone's hellish existence.

Our heroes are in hell, both literally and very personally.

Despite being turned and being, one presumes, soulless, Gunn fancies himself still a hero. And not just a hero, the hero. He blames Angel for his situation--being a vampire and being in hell. Despite the fact that Angel had a soul, and therefore, more humanity than most vampires, the human Angel once was was never that great a guy to begin with, and Gunn doesn't trust that Angel can save them from their current situation, because, as a man, Angel was weak, and he carried that with him even as a souled vampire.

Still, if Gunn is actually soulless (and his slaughter of those slaves in issue #1 would indicate this), we have to wonder if he is only fooling himself about what is truly driving him.

The scene segues back to Westwood. Angel believes Kr'ph was targeted because someone wanted the Eye of Ramras, a talisman which amplifies its owner's power. Gwen believes Kr'ph was killed by vampires. Angel sees a message written in primordial Sanskrit, and in blood. He believes he knows the vampire responsible, and heads to the fiefdom of Beverly Hills, where he finds Spike surrounded by a court of bathing beauties (lame, I'm just sayin').

Angel and Spike are definitely not on good terms these days. Like Gunn and Angel himself, Spike blames Angel for their hellish situation, and all Angel sees is Spike hanging around in a demonic fiefdom court, albeit the court of Illyria. The death of Kr'ph for possession of the Eye has the handiwork of Illyria written all over it, which in Angel's mind, makes Spike the prime suspect for killing Kr'ph's slaves.

So, by the end of issue #2, we find our team, once united in a common cause, completely divided by territory and suspicion. Which is probably just what the Senior Partners wanted.

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Replies:

  • Angel: After the Fall, issue #3 (spoilers) -- Masquerade, 19:58:42 01/18/10 Mon
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