The
first part of a four-part crossover with Dark Horse's BUFFY series, the first half of PAST LIVES, PART 1 moves quickly between various locations.
In
L.A., Angel is having demon trouble. A female demon hunter is majorly
pissing off the city's demon population, but for every one that gets away,
she kills at least four.
In
London, the Council of Watchers presses Quentin Travers over an "experiment" involving Council operative, Alexa Landry.
Back
in L.A., said operative reads Rupert Giles' notes while planning her next
move.
There's
not a great amount of Buffy in PART 1. In
fact, all we get is a couple of pages of the Buffster killing a demon
that's done a runner from L.A. and getting some advice from Giles.
The
story certainly opens strongly. Moving from one setting to another (an
L.A. exterior, Angel Investigations, London, Alexa Landry's hotel room
and Sunnydale) gives the impression that there's a lot going on and that
the story's length will be fully justified.
The
pace slows down somewhat in the second half as we move to longer scenes
and characters exchanging dialogue rather than getting to the action.
Okay, so this is always necessary but both the Angel and Buffy strips
often fall down in this area with a bunch of crap looking demons getting
far too much exposure.
Golden's
tendency to reuse characters from his earlier works in the BUFFYverse
also rears its ugly head with the return of Abner from BENEATH
THE SURFACE. He might have a part to play in the story, but
on the evidence here it looks like a piece of rather pointless continuity.
However, things look up when Alexa Landry dons her leather gear and makes
her move.
Overall,
a good start to the story. Some of the art is a bit crap and I wish Golden
would stop reusing his old characters unless they're relevant to the plot.
But, unlike many ANGEL and BUFFY comics with their obvious Big (well, Medium) Bad, the way the story's
heading isn't immediately apparent. Fingers crossed for the rest of the
story. back to the top
