BTVS: Angel #1-3 (of 3)
For those of you who don’t follow the best
genre show on television, Angel is spinning off in his own series this next season so it
was no surprise that he got his own mini-series as well. The comic book mini-series was a
good effort marred by the artwork. Gomez and Florea are not my two favorite illustrators
for the Buffy comics. Their storytelling skills aren’t really lacking just uninspired
and I find myself disliking their visual take on the characters.
The story involves, Angel (duh), and his quest to defeat a creature known as the Hollower that goes around draining the "life" out of vamps. Why should Angel try to destroy a creature that seems to be doing the Slayer’s work? Well, the Hollower can only consume 3,000 vampiric souls. Once it hits that magic number "it regurgitates all those demons, in a spirit form with which they can inhabit and transform living human beings, not just corpses, into vampires." Pretty bad news for Sunnydale if Angel fails.
Buffy and Giles also play a major part in the story-line along with a vampire from Angel’s past, Catherine. As a result we get a lot of flashback to Angel’s not-so-angelic past when he first came into contact with the Hollower and supposedly defeated it.
A decent foray into Buffy fiction but I would have enjoyed it more if someone along the lines of Ryan Souk had illustrated it.If your local shop is out of this mini-series then wait for the trade paperback. Or try your luck and order direct from Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 10956 SE Main Street, Milwaukie, OR 97222. Their web site also has on-line ordering at www.darkhorse.com.