Despite my initial misgivings, I gave in and bought the first issue of Angel: After the Fall, the official continuation of one of my favourite TV shows that ended in one of the greatest cliffhangers known to man. (Which, obviously, I’m going to have to touch on here, so if you’re watching Angel but haven’t finished it yet, you should stop reading now.)
As I said when reviewing Buffy Season Eight, this is one of those comics that’s going to cause me to abandon some objectivity. But then, if you care about what is essentially Angel Season Six or my review thereof, you’re probably already a fan of the franchise to begin with and may share my concerns. (As a side note, I don’t understand people who complain about Buffy Season Eight being inaccessible. It’s Season Eight. It says so right on the cover. What are you expecting?)
The series, co-plotted by Joss Whedon but scripted by Brian Lynch, picks up after Not Fade Away, but not immediately: Time has passed since the fight in the alley, and Wolfram & Hart somehow sent the entire city of Los Angeles to Hell. Naturally, Angel and his gang, such as it is, spend their time trying to protect the human population.
In a weird way, this book reminds me of DC’s One Year Later stunt, where a period of time was skipped over and the reader was left wondering why their favourite characters were maimed, missing, or replaced. After the Fall seems unlikely to make us wait too long to figure out what happened – some questions are answered fairly quickly, others have obvious answers – but It’s an interesting attempt at trying to answer the obvious questions left by Not Fade Away without giving everything away up front.
Regardless of the order in which things are explained, though, I can’t say I’m hugely happy with the state of affairs. One of my fears was that Whedon would give in to his tendencies to undo big events, and those fears are realized on page eight. The star of the greatest death scene in all of Buffy and Angel wastes little time in making an appearance, and I’m not sure there’s any real justification for it. Wolfram & Hart’s general, evil power makes it possible, but in many ways it just feels like a rehash of Lilah’s appearance in season four’s finale, without particularly making sense.
On the other hand, there are some very nice touches. Lynch wastes little time in following up Not Fade Away‘s final line of dialogue, and he introduces some nice demons, including a telepathic fish creature. The dialogue isn’t quite up to Whedon’s standards, but it’s a close enough facsimile that I’m fairly happy with it.
The biggest problem comes with Franco Urru’s art. Drawing a licensed book is a tricky balancing act, since you’re working with very specific and well-known characters; it can be hard to be realistic without looking like you’re just tracing photos. Buffy‘s Georges Jeanty does his best work when he’s being representational as opposed to realistic; we can easily recognize Buffy or Willow without worrying why they don’t look exactly like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Allyson Hannigan. But Urru doesn’t have either the specifics or the personalities down, and there’s a real lack of emotion in his characters – you can count Angel’s facial expressions on one hand. Possibly while wearing mittens. I’m also not sure why Nina the werewolf is suddenly dressing like an aerobics instructor. On the up side, Urru is pretty good at the big picture – there’s a nice opening splash page, and some of the demons are creatively designed.
Ilaria Traversi’s colours don’t help, either. Much of the book feels muddy and indistinct, something that’s even more noticeable given the glossy paper; I’m not sure what the point is of upping the presentation values when it really doesn’t benefit the art within. If you can produce a perfectly nice Buffy comic for $2.99, I’m not sure why Angel needs to be $3.99. I’m not opposed to paying for IDW’s high production values when the book merits it, like Ben Templesmith’s awesome Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, but there’s simply no reason for it here.
After The Fall is something of a mixed bag. It clearly doesn’t live up to the standards of Not Fade Away, but if you accept that it never could, then it’s not that bad. I don’t like some of Whedon and Lynch’s decisions, but it’s possible they can redeem themselves; the story itself has some interesting ideas, and Lynch has a good sense of the characters and dialogue. I’m less optimistic of the art, unfortunately, as it’s a particularly poor match for the character-centered stories that made Buffy and Angel so good. It’s an interesting start, though it has a ways to go before it can live up to either its television predecessor or Dark Horse’s excellent Buffy comic.