After a mediocre start with “The Curse” and “Old Friends,” IDW’s “Angel” title picks up steam with “Spotlight” (2006), five issues that focus, respectively, on Doyle, Wesley, Gunn, Connor and Illyria. With the exception of the Season 1-set “Doyle,” they are set during Season 5. Rather than just throwbacks to the old days, they flesh out narrative gaps and allow us to not only get reacquainted with the characters, but actually to know them better. Yes, IDW is still treading water before aggressively continuing the narrative post-Season 5, but “Spotlight” is a great way to tread water.
Here are my reviews, in chronological order of when we met these characters on the show.
“Doyle” (July 2006) – Writer Jeff Mariotte and artist David Messina reteam from “The Curse” and “Old Friends” for a story I didn’t realize was needed until after I read it. Because “Angel” is of course the story of Angel, I didn’t think about how Doyle is such a convenient sidekick who is there from the beginning. Mariotte tells of Doyle’s one mission for the Powers That Be before they team him up with Angel. Messina’s rich backgrounds and sparse foregrounds convey a sense of loneliness, and Mariotte captures the half-demon’s voice in noir-style narration. Since the Dark Horse comics didn’t have time to get a grip on the character before he was killed off, “Doyle” stands as his definitive comic portrait.
4.5 stars
“Wesley” (June 2006) – Scott Tipton’s “Wesley” demonstrates great understanding of the ex-Watcher, interestingly by showing that Spike – always the saga’s most knowledgeable commenter on love – doesn’t grasp the fact that Wesley wants Fred to be happy, even at his own expense. It also taps into Wesley’s unfortunate knack for making noble choices that later backfire. In this story, boosted by strong likenesses from Mike Norton, Knox (who will later conspire in Fred’s demise) is on death’s door and Wesley comes through to save him, and therefore make Fred happy. Yet he looks miserable the whole time; that’s the Wes we know and love, and miss.
4 stars
“Gunn” (May 2006) – Gunn is the toughest character to put in a nutshell, since he was introduced as a street vigilante and ended the show as the smartest lawyer on the planet. While Mark Pennington’s stylized art is jarring compared to the crisp lines of previous IDW “Angel” titles, Dan Jolley’s “Gunn” does a decent job showing how Charles hasn’t completely lost ties to his past. He helps his cousin, who is going down a street-life path that Gunn knows will not end well.
3.5 stars
“Connor” (August 2006) – Like many “Angel” viewers, I’m not a Connor fan, and my initial feeling is that I’d just as soon IDW had kept Connor out of its narrative, following the show’s lead of sidelining him with the Season 4 finale where he gets a new life. Connor will end up appearing in a fair number of IDW comics, and I’ll weigh in on those later. But for starters, writer Jay Faerber pens a surprisingly great story where a reader is allowed to like Connor, similar to his two Season 5 TV appearances. With art by Bob Gill that reminds me of Jim Lawson’s work on Mirage’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Connor” finds the kid off at college. Faerber tells a heroic story where Connor taps into the values Angel instilled in him while also showing appreciation for his adoptive father.
4.5 stars
“Illyria” (April 2006) – Illyria was a wonderful invention of Joss Whedon’s writing team and actress Amy Acker in Season 5, and the truncation of the ex-goddess’ journey toward understanding human behavior was the most painful blow of the cancellation. The opportunity to continue her story is one of the treasures of the IDW comics. Written by Peter David with strong art by Nicola Scott (especially when drawing the title character), “Illyria” isn’t a continuation of her arc, but it is an on-point yarn that shows Illyria trying to figure out the definition of “humanity” by grilling Wesley on his behavior and escorting a sociopathic killer to demon bounty hunters on a Wolfram & Hart mission. She’s also in fine superpowered form in a memorable sequence where she forces an armored truck off the road.
5 stars
Click here for an index of all of John’s “Buffy” and “Angel” reviews.