ANGEL on PLANET-SF

After a one-off story in #4, the ANGEL comic returns to longer stories, with the opening installment of a three-parter.

While Angel is out picking up some antique books, Doyle manages to get into trouble with a large demon with horns and a Mohican, which soon involves Angel when Clive the demon bashes his car. Once that skirmish has been dealt with, we get into the main thrust of the story through Doyle's vision of a young wife in fear of her husband.

Her husband turns out to be Sam Stuart, a scumbag lawyer who Angel gets the lowdown on from Kate Lockley. His wife, Meredith, thinks he's been possessed somehow, although the priest she turned to for help has ignored her, leaving Angel and Doyle to step into the breach.

The investigation then proceeds pretty much as you'd expect - research (including Cordelia's take on demons - "it isn't like we need tabloids to tell us [they] are disgusting and evil") before Angel returns to the Stuart residence to discover exactly what kind of demon is doing the possession.

As the first part of a three-part story, the main task of this book is to set the scene for the next two parts. And this is does, especially when Angel confronts Sam Stuart - what exactly is he, how does he know who about Angel, what are the insect things that he unleashes and what is the purpose of the priest who shows up at the climax.

There are a couple of decent fight scenes, although it remains to be seen just what was the point of Angel's trip to the bookstore other than to waste a few panels and to set up somewhere for Doyle to have his vision. Being cynical I'd say it's probably nothing more than that, but you never know. There are also a few nods to the TV series' continuity, especially Cordelia's dislike of demons, Doyle trying to summon up the courage to ask her out and an appearance by Detective Lockley.

On the art front, if you're hankering after lifelike portrayals of the cast then forget about it - Cordy and Kate in particular look nothing Charisma Carpenter and Kate Rohm, but at least you know who's who (although since Kate is a blonde even Hector Gomez would be hard pushed to confuse the two).

A reasonably entertaining start to the story then, although let's hope that Golden has more than just the usual 'guy-possessed-by-a-demon' plot in mind. back to the top

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