Going On Faith


I am a huge, huge, Buffy fan.  Like a lot of other people, I tripped out over the return of the character and world in comics, with Joss Whedon writing.  The show was a comic book at heart, with seasons structured like comic book arcs, with a big bad every year.  The comic started off tremendously, rolling along for three years until - it rolled along for three years.  Season 8 ran way too long and the Big Bad - Twilight - turned out to be Angel.  I had no problem at all with the villian being Angel.  I never read the IDW post-Angel series, so for me, Angel and crew died in that alley.  What happened there?  Did something make him turn evil?  He had been on a do bad things for good reasons path at Wolfram and Hart in Season 5.  Maybe this was the culmination of that.

Ah, no.

I still don't understand Twilight's motivations, and reading the first issue of what is technically Season 9, Angel & Faith #1, it's obvious no one does.  Not Angel and not the writers.  The Twilight thing informs everything here.  Angel murdered Giles at the end of last season and is now trying to atone with Faith's help (wonderful reversal of their relationship).  The only problem in this wonderful comic is that Angel is still wishy-washy on the Twilight episode and so too then is the writing.  Either Angel was responsible for his actions, or he wasn't; just pick one and move on.

Here's a run down on the many, many great things about this comic:

  • The art by Rebekah Issacs.  Excellent likenesses and very strong overall.
  • The dialogue - sounds just like them.
  • Characterization.  It's Angel and Faith.  No doubts this time.
  • The concept!  I love the idea of the two of them working off of Giles' old cases.
  • The end.  I like where this is going.  It's very in keeping with the series.  Here's hoping they actually get there in a reasonable amount of time.

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