Comic Books

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL #9


Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.7%

Comments

  1. God yes. Time to get back on track.

  2. I’m shocked this thing doesn’t sell better.  It’s just as good as the Buffy comic.  I don’t get it. 

  3. @Hawkboy – BUFFY is the flagship, it’s the "name" in the franchise.  Plus, isn’t the art bad and doesn’t Brian Lynch really do the writting?

  4. @ Conor – The art is nowhere near as good as Georges Jeanty’s art in Buffy, but it doesn’t really ruin the good writing IMO. And that’s even if Lynch is the writer, mind you. I think the price of this book is another factor why it doesn’t sell well. I always groan when I buy an issue of Buffy and an issue of Angel in the same week, and the book with the average art actually costs more.

  5. @GungaDin – The storyline definitely meandered for a few issues. Here’s hoping that it gets back on track with this one.   Buffy’s arc has been much more contiguous, and I’d like to see more of that in this book.

  6. @clay I think the problem with it was the "First Night" stuff… I think it woulda been more effective in a sorta four page flashback or a backup story after the regular issue. That, to me, woulda been better and we woulda gotten the piece going a bit more organically. I think the Spike: After the Fall miniseries is a good way of handling the flashbacks, making it a tie-in without having it completely based and dependent on the main book.

    Another thing that makes this interesting is it makes use of the "midseason cliffhanger" between November sweeps and February sweeps and May sweeps. Issue five left us on a HUGE cliffhanger, and now here we are having to wait two and a half months for the resolution… It’s an interesting thing what they did, but I’m excited to see this back on track.

    @Conor The art isn’t as good as Georges Jeanty, but it’s definitely serving the purpose and it’s a "good art" liscence property without being painty. It’s a bit more gritty and realistic and unclean than Buffy, but it’s not a detraction and it doesn’t hurt the book at all… In ways, it helps, but it’s not as good as Jeanty. It’s maybe a step below Pat Lee, who did issue five of Season Eight.

    Also @Conor The writing is good, and it’s a collaboration between Joss and Lynch. I don’t know how involved Joss is with it (I think Lynch is pretty solo on this) but Lynch is a fantastic writer and he really, really gets these characters. His Spike and [spoiler character] are just amazingly well written. 

  7. @Hawkboy Angel was always the typical spin-off in the sense that Buffy got most of the attention. When I talk Buffy with people who haven’t seen Angel, they often forget it exists. Buffy was a much, much bigger name than Angel ever was, and if you talk to the random person on the street, they’re much, much more likely to know Buffy than they are to know Angel.

  8. @everybody 😉 Well to me Angel was a much stronger show than Buffy after it’s first season and I’m pretty sure when they were aired back to back Angel had similar, if not occasionally better, viewing numbers.  I like both series so much I guess I can’t understand why one would watch (buy) one and not the other.  Anyone who likes Buffy is doing themselves a grave disservice if they aren’t reading this title as well.
  9. @Hawkboy I don’t disagree with you. The first season of Angel is weak sauce, but every season after that is just exponentially better. In my recent re-watch-through, it was like "Does it really get better than this?" And the answer was "yes." But as we all know, sometimes the best shows do fall by the wayside (WWE Smackdown got higher ratings than Veronica Mars last season? Really?). That said, I think while Angel was good, Buffy always had (in my opinion) at least stronger characters and covered that better than Angel. Angel had a lot more twists and turns and was much more heavily serialized and story-oriented. That’s not to say it didn’t have the Buffy elements of crazy character development (look at Spike and Connor and Cordelia), but I do think Buffy did it better…

    That said, Seasons four and five of Angel are just damn fine television.

  10. The numbers are pretty close.

    U.S. Ratings

    BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

    Season 1 – 3.7 million (1997)

    Season 2 – 5.2 million (1997-1998)

    Season 3 – 5.4 million (1998-1999)

    Season 4 – 4.7 million (1999-2000)

    Season 5 – 4.4 million (2000-2001)

    Season 6 – 4.6 million (2001-2002)

    Season 7 – 4.2 million (2002-2003)

    ANGEL

    Season 1 – 4.8 million (1999-2000)

    Season 2 – 4.1 million (2000-2001)

    Season 3 – 4.4 million (2001-2002)

    Season 4 – 3.7 million (2002-2003)

    Season 5 – 4.0 million (2003-2004)

  11. Wow …so Angel Season 1 was on the same time as Buffy Season 4 and Angel had just slightly better numbers.  I always thought Angel only beat it out a few weeks here and there, but never had a better average through the whole season.  Interesting, Thanks Conor!!

     I think Angel is a better overall show for me (Although if I really think about it, It’s splitting hairs to say I like one more than the other) because the last season of Buffy was really weak, Angel IMHO never suffered from a poor season like that, and it’s finale was WAY better than Buffys.  =)

     

    @GungaDin I hear you on evrything you say friend.  BUT, I really did like the Doyle character and was shocked as hell when he died. Also Cordy was sooo freking hot.

  12. I really like the art in this book, and I think Lynch has a damn fine handle on the characters as well as the tone of the show as a whole.

    As much as Buffy was fantastic and has a special place in my heart, every time re-watch the later seasons of Angel I can’t stop myself thinking ‘Yep, this is as good as it gets’. I’m even gonna stick my neck out and say the contraversial 5th season (aka: the one people seemed to hate) is the best of the bunch. 

  13. I think part of the issue l in relative popularity b/t this comic and Buffy is that Angel has HAD tie-in comics with IDW for a while — even if they weren’t direct continuations of the series (which I’ve never been interested anyway; that Butch & Sundance ending was perfect).  I haven’t seen anything to differentiate this series, in quality, from the Angel: Spotlight or Spike: Asylum books — which, aside from one pretty cool Illyria issue that Peter David wrote, were pretty mediocre. 

    Buffy Season 8 was launched after a significant break from Buffy tie-in comics, with a clear commitment to high quality writing and art,  whereas I really didn’t see anything to convince me that ‘After the Fall’ is any better than the tie-in comics that preceded it.  I’ve been meaning to flip through the first trade, but I"m not even sure one has come out yet.

  14. @ohcaroline Try reading it … it’s right up there with the Buffy book in terms of writing.

  15. @ohcaroline The difference between the Angel IDW tie-ins and the After the Fall is the Joss Whedon involvement. This is really focused and there’s definite plots and plans for everything (Joss Whedon on plot makes this awesome). The other stuff you mentioned was just episodic. This is a fairly canonical continuation. If you don’t want the continuation, you don’t have to take it. I agree that that last episode of Angel is one of the damn finest episodes and endings in TV histor, but that doesn’t make this bad.

    @Hawkboy I freakin love season seven of Buffy. It’s my favorite after season three, tied with two (methinks). The last episode is great.

    @Eyun Who says fifth season is controversial? I can’t think of a more pitch perfect season of television… And for it to get THAT good on its fifth season (which was, for Buffy, the weakest season if you ask me) is remarkable. Every season of Angel was a huge leap in quality to the one before it. It just gets consistently better and I love just about every episode in the fifth season (except for the Mexican wrestler one, that didn’t really connect with me for some reason… I’ll tell you what I think when I watch through it again around Christmas…)

  16. All things said and done, I’m just glad I’m getting a regular dose of Buffy and Angel again, and that both books are actually good. I really missed these characters and it’s good that Joss is letting them develop even more through the comics medium.

  17. @Hawkboy  — I  will try it when they put the trade out.  I’m not trying to insult the book, which I haven’t read.  Just to address the question of why it hasn’t made as big a splash as ‘Buffy,’ in terms of sales and/or buzz.

  18. @GungaDin – I completely agree, a pitch perfect season of television. I can re-watch that season again and again and still get choked up when *SPOILER* Fred changed (I was trying to be subtle there. Did it work? Answers on a postcard). It’s just everyone I know who watched the show, most of them having loved it, think the 5th season is where it jumped the shark (I hate that phrase, and yet I used it anyway. Go figure).

    And I can’t spell ‘controversial’ 🙂

    @ohcaroline – What is your avatar? It’s cool as hell! 

  19. Wsa the fifth season of BUFFY when they went to college?  Because that’s when I stopped watching.  That was not good TV.

  20. @ connor that was four an yeah…not cool. the last season got solid again though

  21. I actually liked the fourth season. It had some ropey moments, but the Buffy/Faith switcheroo double episodes were among the show’s best Plus the introduction or Tara. And Giles showing some balls for once.

  22. I pretty much like every season of Buffy except for the dreadful seventh season.  Except for a few episodes here and there (I especially like ‘Storyteller’ and ‘Conversations with Dead People’) it was poor.  Still relatively good TV, but compared to other seasons of Buffy, it was poor.  I mean EVERY epsiode had a Buffy making a heartfelt speech to somebody.  If it wasn’t the last season I would have probably stopped watching.

    As has been mentioned before Angel got better and better with each season.  Maybe it’s better it went out like it did instead of going out with a whimper like Buffys last season.

     

    @ohcaroline Oh, I didn’t think you were insulting anything Caroline.  I was just trying to get ya to read the book!  😉

  23. @Eyun  I’m not actually sure where I picked up this art, anymore, but it’s a Phoenix eye from an X-men comics.  I have about a 90% hunch that it’s actually Greg Land art from "Phoenix: Endsong", but I try not to think about that b/c I hate that series and hate most of Land’s art.  But I like Phoenix (Phoenixes?)

    Also, the Buffy/Faith bodyswitch episode in season 4 is maybe my favorite hour of TV ever.

    I like every season of Buffy & Angel.  They all have strong and weak points, and some of them start out slow (like the first going-to-college episodes).  But Whedon’s really good at ending things, so I’m always happy when I get to the finish.    And everybody should see the musical episode, at some point in their life.  I need to dig up that sound track.

     

     

  24. Fifth season of Buffy was the weakest. Fourth season, as a whole, was weak sauce to me. Adam fell really, really flat as a story idea. Taken as individual parts, though, season four has some damn strong episodes. "Hush," "Restless" (the nightmares episode), the Faith/Buffy switcheroo, "Superstar," "Something Blue" are all just so enjoyable…

    Fifth season, not so much. (Although the episode where Buffy’s mom dies is one of the most damn powerful hours of television ever. So good.) 

    @Hawkboy I don’t agree. Season seven is about feminism, more so than anything else. Look at Caleb. Dude was a total misoginist.  

  25. I think its awesome how many comments there are about this book!  No matter what the comics its great to see people still talking about two great shows. 

    I’ve said it before but Angel season 5 was my favorite.  Once More with Feeling was a great episode of Buffy.

    anyway, I like this comic although I don’t really always get every character.  Like Gunn..I have no clue what he is talking about in this issue.  Other than that, I just love seeing these characters in continuing continuity. 

  26. @gungadin The Subtext of feminism had nothing to do with me not liking season seven.  You can have the most powerful subtext ever but if it’s not delivered in a well paced story it falls flat, thats what this season did did for me.    I did dig the Principal character however.  And again, I still ‘technically’ like season seven… just not compared to other seasons.

     Now if you want to talk brilliance, lets talk the last season of Angel!  Oh, and how heart wrenching was the episode where Cordy dies.. I actually felt like my heart had been wrenched from my chest!

  27. @nroa Let’s hope this conversation leads to the sales going up on this book! =) Although it does really well for an IDW book sales wise doesn’t it?

  28. @GungaDin  Oh, I really really like the 5th season of Buffy.  Some of it is so bleak that it’s hard to watch, and both the Big Bad and Dawn get a little tiresome.  But the season finale (which was almost the series finale) pulls everything together so well i can’t begrudge any of what comes before.

  29. @ohcaroline I agree… sorta. I find that beat for beat I dislike season five. It felt far too dragged out and just not nearly as well paced as the other seasons. Also, Glory seemed just too big for me, and then in the last episode there like "oh, by the way, we have this hammer" and… that happened… To me, fifth season is really dominated by the Big Bad and what that was (aside from The Body, which is, to me, a perfect hour of television and the best of Buffy) and it just really felt flat because of everything. I thought the last episode of fifth season was just "good." It wasn’t anything super spectacular or in my list of "best Buffy." It’s good Buffy, but not… yeah. Just kinda fell flat for me…

    Season seven, on the other hand was just so good. All of the seasons did follow a three act structure (Angel Season Four is a perfect example: you can literally line up the season as seven, then seven, then eight (I think) with the acts) and the use of character and story really, really just worked for me. Unlike Glory which was like "HOW are you going to beat her? Honestly? She’s a God." "I don’t know! But we have to try!"  when they went up against the first Evil I was very into seeing how they were going to defeat it, because they couldn’t possibly defeat it once and for all, only subdue it. That to me, for some reason was more fascinating. It was more about survival then victory, and when you get to the end, not only did they survive, but there was victory. Win-win-win.

    Also, making every girl in the world a slayer was, to me, freakin genius. I loved that.

  30. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m close to dropping this book.  I first thought I was lost in the book because I don’t really remember that last season (haven’t seen it since the show went off air) but now starting to think it’s just not that good.  I’m with nroa, what is going on with Gunn?  It just doesn’t make any sense.  I loved the show and often found myself liking it more than Buffy and I really want to like this book but just not doing it for me.

  31. Top Buffy eps: The Body, Once More With Feeling, This Year’s Girl/Who Are You?, Hush, Conversations With Dead People.

    Top Angel eps: After season 1, can’t think of one I didn’t like. But Life Of The Party, Lineage and everything from A Hole In The World onwards is stunning TV. And you can’t deny how great Smiletime was! 

  32. @Eyun You’re forgetting "Waiting in the Wings" with special guest star Summer Glau (River in Firefly/Serenity) when the gang goes to the ballet, and "Orpheus" (where Faith goes into Angelus’s mind in season five), and "Spin the Bottle". I love Angel.

    I read this issue and don’t want to post a reveiw because… I dunno… I didn’t really feel it this time around… The art was a bit… light for me and the story just sorta happened…

    @Jediaxle I get your confusion with Gunn. The problem with his story is we have NO idea what’s going on with him. Sure he captured the fish, but why? And why are they doing what they’re doing? And so on, and so forth… 

  33. @ GungaDin – Dammit! You’re right, I did forget those. All exceptional episodes, and I also forgot (can’t remember the names) the episodes when Faith hunts down evil Angel.

  34. @Eyun I tried not to list any of the eps in season four because it’s just one big episode once The Beast shows up… But Angel Season Four is an almost perfect season of television. There’s only like… two or three mis-steps towards the beginning, other than that… Just flawlessly good.

  35. @GungaDin – Good to know you’re a TV junkie like me, buddy. Apart from the patchy first season, I can watch any season from Angel over and over, especially seasons 4 and 5. MAINLY 5 THOUGH!

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