I freakin love this book.

Before I elaborate on that point, I’d like to say, first and foremost, that I love Joss Whedon and everything he touches. I can’t really say there’s a thing of his that I haven’t fallen completely in love with (select episodes from Buffy/Angel aside). I’ve been on board with his Buffy Season Eight since the beginning and every issue has struck a chord with me. The prospect of more Buffy, canonical Buffy, by the Joss man himself made me gleeful.

I remember when they announced Angel comics writer Bryan Lynch would be doing a sanctioned [near] canonical continuation of Angel Season Five, saying they would do what they did with Buffy and make Angel: After the Fall… A limited series (originally twelve issues, but that’s since expanded to more, I think twenty, I could be wrong) that would be the canonical telling of Season Six.

I was giddy and concerned all at the same time. I wanted more Angel. The hold IDW has over the Angel line really makes me sad because he can’t show up in the Buffy comics (companies are anal with the crossover and character rights). And then we would get the continuation of what many consider one of the best faux-cliffhanger endings to Angel Season Five, and since I’ve thought about that ending (I remember watching that episode… one of the best, if not the best, they ever did), so I understand everyone (cough cough Conor) with their reservations about this book, not wanting to ruin the perfect ending of that last episode of Angel (which does still stick with me as a perfect ending)

So I picked up the first issue of this with reckless abandon. It’s not as good as Buffy, I’d say… But God damn is this excellent. Joss and Bryan are taking HUGE leaps and tons of risks with everything in this book. There’s cameos and returns and huge mind-blowing changes to the characters since we saw them go up against the Circle of the Black Thorn. Currently, the story is on a sort of hiatus as they started an arc called “First Night,” which is a retelling of various characters’ experiences immediately after the battle against the forces of evil (and they left us on a wicked cliffhanger in issue five…)

Every note of this issue is good. Lynch (the scripter) NAILS these characters… Like Buffy season eight, I can hear every characters’ voice in my head and I do feel this is going to somewhere huge. The writing has kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I’m in shock with what they’ve done in this book. Every issue has left me wanting the next issue in a HUGE way… And now there’s a Spike: After the Fall four part miniseries? I’m totally there if Lynch is on that (spoiler alert: he is). The guy just gets Spike.

The only real complaint I have about this book is the art. Angel was always a grittier series than Buffy. They dealt with, in my opinion, bigger issues and went to some dark, dark places with lots of darkness, so it’s only fitting they bring in someone with a grittier style than Buffy season eight. The usual artist (Francisco Urru) is on hiatus while he catches up on the series to get a little ahead (they do the same for Jeanty on Buffy), but the artists who cover the three-ish major stories in this issue do a good enough job so I don’t even notice a difference. Every artist on this book has a way (even John Byrne, interestingly enough) of harkening back to the original actors without making them too photorealistic or dectracting too much from the story.

Anyone who is a fan of Angel would do awesome to pick this up. The trade comes out at the end of June, and then I think all you’d have to pick up is issues last issue, this one, and the next one to catch up to the main story. If you’re a fan, you won’t regret it. It’s freakin quality.