I have Angel & Faith #8,"Lost And Found Part III."

Overal a good issue.Angel & Faith in season 10 has been a slow burn up to this point.I still hope they start bringing the Angel and Faith stories together beginning in year two(after issue 12).

The Faith portion I thought was juicy with Faith and Sam discussing the body swithing incident.And I like that Sam points out that she isn't the person to forgive Faith,it's Riley.Glad Riley is still alive even though he looks in bad shape.

In the Angel portion of the issue,it was nice seeing Alasdair again.And as others have pointed out,it does seem Angel is drinking a lot so I assume that is something that will become a plot point.

It does seem Amy is up to something more then just wanting Warren back and man that ending once again shows she's bad news.

So again,liked the issue.

Buffyfantic | November 05, 10:48 CET

As someone who has generally not been a fan of the Angel & Faith covers this season, I think both covers for this issue are great. Hard to choose. Enjoying both story lines, but like others I hope they will merge sooner rather than later. Splitting the book in half means that each story's monthly entry is frustratingly short. Had a laugh at the prominent introduction of Dark Horse Whiskey. Wonder if the writer/artist realize there really is such a brand?

[ edited by sssdc1 on 2014-11-05 21:48 ]

sss1 | November 05, 12:47 CET

I really enjoyed this issue. I know it suffered slightly from "middle issue" syndrome, where it appears not a lot happened. But I think on a re read of the whole arc this will work very well. The downside of an arc heavy book with a monthly release is that things can sometimes appear slow. Also it had way more Angel this issue, so that's me happy:)

So let's take it from the beginning:

- Ah the French Revolution! Of course Angelus would have found his way there. I'm sure Darla would not have been too far away. As we saw in China - she loves a good revolution too:)

- As has been discussed already, the policeman appears to be American (New York?), but Angel is in his modern say guise. No indication yet if the "modern" part of his nightmare actually happened, or is just a part of his imagination, but I'm sure we will find out soon.

- Dark Horse whiskey. heh.

- Fantastic likeness of Angel in the first panel of page 4. However no offence to Mr Boreanaz, but I don't think he ever had abs like that!

- Angel's isolation is once again highlighted here. I really want to know what's going on with the drinking. A literal demon in a bottle maybe?

- Nice to see Alasdair again. I was wondering when Angel would pay him a visit on a magical quest.

- "A steampunk spaceship full of talking cockroaches" heh:)

- Hmmmm I wonder what this Najakot is. I'm sure we (and Amy) will be seeing the result of this visit next issue)

- I like how we are starting to see "regulars" at Rory's bar. I recognise some of the demons from past issues.

- Funny how in Magic Town there are no names. Only titles. First we had "The Glassblower", now we have "The Pharmacist". Maybe people are just going by their job titles now:)

- Angel on a rooftop! Oh how my nerdy heart leapt with joy. So season 1 (as is a lot of the comic)!

- The convo between Faith and Sam was nicely handled. I wonder if Faith expected (and wanted) a bigger blow out. But as Sam said - it was before she and Riley met.

- Amy calling the jar of goo "Darling" - that made me giggle:)

- And in one line of dialogue we got confirmation that resurrecting Warren isn't her main agenda. And perhaps she was just using it as bait for her other bigger plan. But maybe she is now starting to think of doing that too? Still no idea what Amy's plan is, except it more than likely involves Willow.

- LOVED the massive purple hands. I actually said "Holy Crap" out loud when I saw them. Really cool.

- Hey Riley! I wonder if there's a chance the writers are going to go to a very dark place on us, and have him vamped already?

faith in Angel | November 05, 12:57 CET

And it still seems really quiet around the comic release days, anyway, my thoughts...

I do enjoy reading this title and have liked the Dark Horse work VG has done. I find the two stories are intriguing enough that I am always left wanting to know more at the end of each issue. Having said that, I am finding it a little slow paced. For example, the whole pharmacist visit seemed to lack a purpose unless it was to just be another example of Angel doing the detective thing, and/or be another example of someone predicting his movements/pulling his strings, and/or because the pharmacist will become relevant again. Also, there were quite a few pages showing another memory/dream/possibly reality combo. It keeps that issue in the story ‘live’ and emphasises how troubled he is by it, but it gave us nothing more around it, so it seemed a lot of lost space. Plus, anyone who didn’t feel they were being deliberate about his drinking needs to just take a moment and stare at page 6. It is now officially and undeniably flagged and overdone to a crispy crisp! I suspect some of all this is just that they are placing in details that with hindsight would pad it out and pictured as a whole this time of building up/repeating may work just fine. I still have faith in VG and I really do like the overall tone, particularly of Angel’s part.

The Alasdair scene was good and it works well that Angel would call on these people for help, even if he is obviously feeling very isolated. I’m not worried about leaving him in Amy’s magical fisty clutches, he presumably has the magic munching critter with him as he knew he was going to go in there and would provoke her. I note the pointed reference to Willow again, verbal this time, and it came with a challenge as to whether she would even be powerful enough to stop Amy. It could just be a bit of evil gloating and revealing hints before finishing off the good guy, but it could be a ruse that she is going to kill him and this was an intended prompt for Angel by her.

It was interesting to note that as Angel was arriving Amy was saying to her jar of Warren goo “You know, Darling, if we actually could bring you back…” which seemed to clearly imply that wasn’t her primary focus/goal (which I think we suspected anyhoo). I have to say though I was surprised that she seemed surprised at Angel’s refusal. I don’t know if that was feigned, it didn’t appear so, it could have just been irritating to her if it complicates her plans and she genuinely thought he was going to be more malleable than that. I did enjoy him pretty much telling her to stuff it.

I seem to be in the minority but I don’t enjoy Faith’s side of things as much in the main. Again we didn’t really cover new ground but she got to hash out her Riley issue with Sam a bit. That does lead me to feel it isn’t as likely that we will see her address it with him, not to any depth anyway. They do seem to be pointedly having Mai sticking alongside her and the double staking/matched poses panel seemed very specific. It was too small to tell really but none of the tied up prisoners looked thickset enough for Mr Zane (if I am remembering right). He may well be their illustrious leader.

The art is mostly great. I don’t find the angles thing bothers me that some have remarked about before. In fact I don't even notice it so I can't say how rife it was this issue. The close up of Angel when he was told the name of the magic eating demon was a bit ropey though. Whereas the one of Amy just as Angel says that she might be right is incredible, the clearest likeness to the actress we’ve had I think. It does always tickle me how ultra ripped they show Angel too, I know, it's a comic thing. The Dark Horse Jack D bottle gave me a grin, but, unfortunately, I frowned too when we still had a dominant green/red demon population.

Stoney | November 05, 13:30 CET

@Stoney

"And it still seems really quiet around the comic release days"

Well it's not like the old days when the shows were on the air and everybody watched them at the same time (well except those that Tivoed them, or recording them to video - remember those?!).

Now people buy them at different times, in different time zones, and sometimes on different days so the discussion isn't as instantaneous as back in the day.

And the numbers are less, and the number of people discussing is less, sadly.

faith in Angel | November 05, 14:00 CET

I only watched the shows in the last few years, I'm all newbie-like and don't know of these old days of which you speak!! :D

I remember the start of season 9 though, before everyone became fed up, when you had pages to catch up with if you didn't get on the forums until later in the day. It is a shame because, so far, S10 is more deserving of the attention S9 got but a lot of people have lost interest.

Stoney | November 05, 15:50 CET

Season 8 had a lot of discussions during it's run.

I think the decline in discussions is due to a combo of various things.

Some not liking the direction certain characters and storylines have taken over the course of season 8-9.

Joss not being as hands on.He wrote over half the issues of season 8.Down to one issue of season 9 and none of season 10 so far.

Also the 'new' factor is gone.People forget but season 8 was the first time ever a TV show continued in comic book form as canon with the original creator and writers doing it.It had never been done before.That was in 2007.It's now the end of 2014.It's been a number of years so the boldness factor is now gone.

[ edited by Buffyfantic on 2014-11-06 01:23 ]

Buffyfantic | November 05, 16:21 CET