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The PAST LIVES cross-over concludes, with Dark Horse promising us an "explosive conclusion". Well, where is it then? One of the biggest problems with this story, and PART IV is no different, is character bloat. Golden and Sniegoski have tried to fit in both the Angel Investigations team of Angel, Cordy and Wesley and Buffy, Giles and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Riley might have been left back in Sunnydale, but it's a shame that one or two others weren't as well. The result is that Cordy has been confined to bed for the bulk of the story, with Wesley reducing to standing guard over her. Okay, she's looked quite cute, but apart from a demon attack, which is fought off with help from the visiting Anya and Xander, they've added virtually nothing to the second half of the story. Similarly, Tara and Willow are reduced to a shopping trick for magic supplies before working some mojo at the end, leaving Angel, Buffy and Giles to try to draw out Alexa Landry in time for the big showdown. Before all that, we get the final flashback to Angelus' tormenting of Andrew Landry (is it just me, or does the word "twit" stand out as being just wrong?). Of course, this isn't the first time that a non-television ANGEL story has revolved around someone Angel knew from his Angelus days, but it does make a bit of a change for them not to have been demonic. Yet I didn't really feel much sympathy towards Alexa Landry, because her characterisation wasn't great. She looked good, but that was about it, and it would have been nice to have seen more from her time at the Watchers' Council to see how her obsession took her over. Instead, we got some lame quips from Xander and far too many characters than the writers knew what to do with. The artwork is okay, but nothing great and overall likenesses are poor apart from a cute looking Cordy in her hospital bed. Overall, PAST LIVES opened with potential but too many characters doing next to nothing meant it never lived up to this early promise. BACK TO THE TOP |
PAST LIVES,
PART IV |
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