Angel & Faith #19, 20, by Christos Gage (writer), Rebekah Isaacs (artist), Dan Jackson (colorist), Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (letterers) - I had to lead with the cover for issue 20. Faith's look of exasperation is just perfect. "Oh Christ, don't drag me into their pissing contest," she thinks.Starts with a flashback to when Giles' grandmum convinced him to come back to the Watchers. To the present, where it takes Angel less than one page to hit a sore spot with Spike - namely, Buffy - and away they go. Fortunately, Eyghon arrives with his minions to distract from the arguing with the opportunity to kill things. The Slayers manage to capture their possessed friends (and Giles) quite easily, but the vampires are having a bit more trouble. With Eyghon fully manifested in this universe, having a demon and a soul isn't enough to prevent possession. Sorry Spike. Fortunately, Angel has half, two-thirds, some portion of Rupert's soul as well, which lets him be the big, bloody hero. Booooo. I'm reading this to see Spike save the day, Gage. Failing that, Faith. Who wants to see Angel save the day? No one, that's who.
Getting the rest of Giles' soul makes Angel into a complete mess, which means he can't tell them how to put Rupert's soul back in its body. Instead, Angel will spend the next century eating rats, and being worthless, emerging periodically to attend Manilow concerts, dressed in filthy rags. He will be too crazy to realize Manilow should be dead by 2072, and thus Mecha-Manilow will conquer Europe, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa (he avoids the Sahara because the sand fouls up his gears, obviously).
OK, not really. Alasdiar knows of a bowl called the Essuary that can collect Giles' soul. Just have to kill a bunch of Enders to get it. They eat souls. Fun. Spike gets to do most of that, after Faith tweaks him about a bromance with Angel. Oh, Spike, you can deny there being anything with back doors going on between you and Angel, but the Internet says otherwise. Magic bowl recovered, they get Giles' soul into it, leaving Angel as the guy he was before. I preferred him crazy and drooling. He helps Spike get over his issue of feeling adrift without Buffy. No, not that way. He gives Spike Harmony's phone number. I really hope for both of them this is a temporary hook-up thing. I don't much care for Harmony, but I do feel bad when she follows Spike about like a puppy, as it goes much the same as when Spike follows Buffy around. Namely, the puppy gets kicked a lot.
Oh, and all the Junior Slayers are leaving the supernatural fighting biz. Except Nadira, who is still self-righteous and irritating. Just as well. If the others had stayed, they'd likely be slaughtered by Pearl and Nash. This way, only Nadira will have that fate.
I usually rave about Isaacs' artwork, and it's still largely the case. The fight scenes are good, her expression work is solid. Even better when used to humorous effect. The disgusted looks on Faith and Angel's faces on the last page of issue 20 are great. Though I'm surprised Faith would object to Spike sans clothes. Just because she's not interested in sleeping with him, she doesn't want to check him out either? I notice Angel didn't cover his eyes.I spendtoo much time on the Internet. Anyway, good work all around, but I thought her version of Spike was a little off. Maybe he's just hard to draw. The cheekbones and all, seems like it would be tricky. Mostly, he looks too thick in the face. She does draw him as very animated though, always gesturing, moving, talking with his hands. Definitely on the mark.
One little screwup in issue 20, I think. Page 4, panel 3. I feel like it's supposed to be Spike suggesting they just stake crazy Angel, and defending it by saying it's what everyone's thinking. All the words balloons point at Faith. Which makes no sense considering she says in the next panel that she wasn't thinking that. So she couldn't very well be suggesting it then, could she? I don't know, the two panels almost work in tandem, but not quite.
The Essuary still being around seems ominous. Whistler's supposed to be collecting these sorts of things, so the fact he didn't get this one could mean nothing, or it could be he wants to keep Angel occupied while he proceeds. Or he could need Giles for something. Is it a coincidence, or a sign not to trust Alasdair?
Beyond that, Gage is still doing a good job writing the thing. Seems significant that Faith admits she's gone along with Angel's plan because she wants Giles back as much or more than because she was worried what Angel might do to himself without a goal to work towards. Is that a road to hell issue, or the danger of confusing selfishness with a desire to help (something Angel and Spike would both know about)? Spike seemed a bit odd to me, but it might make more sense if I'd read his mini-series or the Buffy book. Like, his tendency to act cool, or only let out his true feelings by accident or when he thinks no one is listening seems right, but in other ways he seemed so off his game.
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