Angel: After the Fall - Issue 15

[Emmie]

Great writing and great art. Lynch and Urru always deliver, but to finally get a colorist who rocks hard too...it was just awesome.

Fabio Mantovani is a wonderful addition to the creative team.


LOL Xi! Why are you quoting yourself? Are you being ironic? ;D

[Wyndam]

Dec 18, 2008 23:07:29 GMT -5 Emmie said:

Fabio Mantovani is a wonderful addition to the creative team.

Ditto that.

Here is what Chris Ryall said at the IDW forums about Fabio (which I have already showed you, but I thought others would like to see it :

I think Fabio, who's a close friend of Franco's and who has colored most every one of his covers, is a stunning colorist and finally the perfect match for Franco. I never thought I'd get Fabio to be able to do colors on the interiors but this issue and 16 have just knocked me out. And that was even before Franco's nice gift of a cameo in issue 16. And Fabio picked a nice time to come onto the book, too, what with the deaths and flaming swords and cast of thousands and all. I've liked things every artist and colorist has done with the book so far but Franco and Fabio are just the perfect pairing in my mind.

[wenxina]

Dec 18, 2008 23:07:29 GMT -5 Emmie said:

LOL Xi! Why are you quoting yourself? Are you being ironic? ;D

In my tiredness, I guess I hit "quote" instead of "modify" and didn't even notice the difference. All I've really been able to do tonight is raise the karma of some the newer members by 100. *yawn* I'm off, before I do something even wackier than quoting myself.

[alycat7]

I can't believe so many people die in one issue. And just when I was starting to like Conner too.

[watcher]

I kinda wonder how the Angel franchise is going to continue with pretty much everyone dying.

Are they just going to do an Angel/Spike buddy cop comic?

[patxshand]

I think it'll be cool to have a focused cast.

I'm thinking the definite survivors are Angel, Spike, Wesley, Lorne, and Betta George.

Gunn might make it. Not sure.

[hitnrun017]

Dec 19, 2008 0:59:13 GMT -5 patxshand said:

I think it'll be cool to have a focused cast.

I'm thinking the definite survivors are Angel, Spike, Wesley, Lorne, and Betta George.

Gunn might make it. Not sure.

We need a sexy female! Poor Gwen. I bet Illyria will be back in Fred's body before it ends... or I hope at least.

[Wyndam]

Dec 19, 2008 1:12:21 GMT -5 hitnrun017 said:

Dec 19, 2008 0:59:13 GMT -5 patxshand said:

I think it'll be cool to have a focused cast.

I'm thinking the definite survivors are Angel, Spike, Wesley, Lorne, and Betta George.

Gunn might make it. Not sure.

We need a sexy female! Poor Gwen.

Maybe the new were-cat will be sexy? By that I mean the human, not the leopard she turns into (although the "big cat" family is by nature, sexy).

[patxshand]

We assume the were-cat is female.

I'm thinking Kate would balance the cast out nicely. Imagine if the main cast were Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Betta George, and Kate with Lorne and the Mosaic inmates as recurring. THAT would be ideal for me, if we can't have Illyria.

[Wyndam]

Dec 19, 2008 1:37:37 GMT -5 patxshand said:

We assume the were-cat is female.

I'm thinking Kate would balance the cast out nicely. Imagine if the main cast were Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Betta George, and Kate with Lorne and the Mosaic inmates as recurring. THAT would be ideal for me, if we can't have Illyria.

Kate would be a great addition to the team. I have a feeling (or maybe a hope) that Aftermath will be returning Angel to his investigative roots, so I think Kate could work well with that.

I also hope Illyria can move on to Aftermath as well. Just have no idea how they can get her pint sized again (unless she can do it herself).

[buffyfan21]

OMG, did Connor die?! There was a time when I couldn't stand Connor and now I am actually sad that he is gone. Such a Joss thing to do. Guess we should've seen that coming. Poor Angel, sacrificing to give Connor a better life thinking he will never see his soon again, only to find out that they do meet up later and a bond begins to form. Connor begins to see Angel as "dad" someone he can be proud of. And then in the end (in typical Joss fashion) all of that progress, all of the strides made, just get stripped away. Connor did not deserve to die in this war. His parting words to his father were beautiful. I trust that Angel will do his best to honor his promise to his soon. Poor Angel. How much more loss is he expected to be? There will be more, of course. There's always more. I was genuinely saddened by the end of this issue. It's so ironic. Guess Joss just has a knack for making us fall in love with characters even when we are reluctant to do so. I really do feel that Connor came into his own as a character. It's just a real shame that he had to meet his end like that, dying in his father's arms.

All and all I think this was a great issue, One of the best yet!

[Hallow Thorn]

I really hope that Fred comes back, like Joss was going to do in Angel season 6... and HP Connor .... I wish I can say more but I am only on the 1st TPB...

[alycat7]

Im also sad that Conner dies, which is surprising to me because he was my least favorite character. But i guess since he stop complaining about how much his life sucks, he's not bad a guy.

[diabeticdude202]

So I guess it really is coming to an end. I'm going to miss Angel After the Fall as much as I did the actual series. This fifteenth issue was amazing even though I didn't think it was the best out of the series. Here is my review for it, which I wouldn't usually do, but it took a while to get this issue and so I want to review it anyway.

** SPOILERS BELOW **

So we start off with the end of all things, Illyria in the background and Angel injured. There is so much going on in this first page that when I was done reading it I came back to the start and began studying the pictures. I'm guessing that "It all ends with a girl" does mean Fred (Illyria) and so when he said it all began with a girl in the first issue meant her too.

To be honest I didn't care for the fight scenes in this issue, they were a bit unnecessary for me in the sense that I wasn't really interested -- I mainly was up in my seat scared for every characters life **cough** SPIKE **cough** thank god he's still alive. Some of the art just really pissed me off and I have questions at the end about some things because of it.

I liked the images Illyria was putting into Angel's head, trying to show him why she wants to end it all, to save him, just like Fred would want to save him. I think the artist draws Angel a HELL OF A LOT BETTER when he's a vampire.

My most favourite part is when you see what's left of Team Angel as they stand In that one line, ready to end it all. It was really touching to me, especially how it stood out better with the epic background image. The look on Connor's face when the flaming sword goes straight through him is painful to look at, reminds me of Anya when she got killed in Buffy season 7 - it's a sort of clueless look. And now i hate GUNN. I literally hate him, I wish I could punch him in the face and teach him a lesson about KILLING PEOPLE!!! Grrrr.

Moving on, Angel not killing Gunn pissed me off, I thought to myself "If it were my son, I'd jam the freaking axe into him and dust the freak!" I mean this issue is just so heart breaking and it made me angry after seeing Gunn do that and Angel not avenging his son. But, at this point in time I thought, nah, Connor can't die, he's part of the whole PTB plan like they said in the series.

I loved seeing the images of Fred with Wesley and Spike's memories so that they could destroy Illyria, which I think was the best way to kill her off.

And now I can never turn to the last page of that comic because the look on all their faces when they realise Connor's gone is just devastating.

Room for Improvement

1. I think the likeness of the characters in this issue is just poor, Angel doesn't look like him, Spike looks NOTHING like him, Wesley looks the same he always has in the comic, but Lorne and Gunn looked about right.

2. A bit longer -- it seemed short but I think thats coz I liked it so much.

3. I think Angel should have been more emotional about Connor's death -- I mean its his son and all.

9/10

[watcher]

Don't you all think that Angel has atoned for his sins as Angelus by now? I mean seriously he's...

- Spent a hundred years in a hell dimension
- Been tortured, maimed, more or less died
- Spent one summer vacation at the bottom of the sea
- Lost his son not once...not twice but three times now (redundant much?)
- Can't be with either of the women he loved
- Lost friends dear to him (Doyle, Fred, Cordy, Gunn, his Son)


I'd say he's atoned and then some.

[jessesopher]

Oh my goddess! I just read 15.

Completely and utterly epic. It gets better and better with each issue. I'm not sure what genius Lynch was born of, but I want some. I am constantly amazed by his portrayal of the characters. It really is spot on. Kudos. And the art was spectacular. Really captured the essence of the characters, the setting, and made everything all the more epic. Another kudos.

Now Connor. Did NOT see that coming. At all. It was honestly one of the best deaths in the Buffyverse. And I couldn't stand Connor on TV - Lynch completely redeemed the character. I found myself tearing up during his last few words. But I put this up there with the deaths of Joyce, Tara, Doyle, and Cordy. I mean, it was really, really emotional.

[Smashed]

Wow-15 really delivered, not only in storyline and writing, but in art as well.
I've really come to love Urru's artwork, I wish he could have done the whole series.

I can't believe Connor and Groo are dead!

This leaves what of team angel?
Angel
Spike
Wesley
Nina
George.

Oh man!

[SlayerLV]

I thought this issue was great. It really sucked that they killed off Connor. I honestly hope that Angel kills Gunn, I was never a big fan of him.

[balesthebloody]

This issue has to be one of the best yet! I LOVE that Urru is back as the artist. It just didn't seem like "After the Fall" without him. Here are some of the main topics I would like to discuss.

-The Illyria stuff in this issue was just fabulous! I have been waiting to see it's true potential since it first burst on the scene when it took over Fred. To have it show so much emotion makes it almost human. I have said all along that even if Fred was somewhere in Illyria, it was starting to feel human and learning emotions.

-The time slip was just plain creepy. Sure I know what Angelus is capable of but to see Angel doing those things just scares me, but yet I kinda want to see it happen. It would just feel right.

-Connor's death was long awaited. Sure I was starting to like the guy and was sad to see him go, but still it had to happen. I think that Connor's death will cause Angel to go all out, make his death worth it.

-Gunn is a nutcase! He is evil sure, but you still feel sorry for the guy. He thinks that he is good, which I think is just Gunn's memories trying to over power the demon inside. And from all of the mood swings, I think Gunn might be working out of the vampire.

-I think when Spike told Angel he knew George, that makes "Asylum" and "Shadow Puppets" canon. End of story!

-Now for the Emo stuff. Illyria being over powered by Spike and Wesley's memories of Fred was just heartbreaking. No wonder they didn't want to be the ones to take it out. It looks just like "her"! I think that Illyria has a soul and maybe one day that soul will transform into Fred's soul. One can hope I guess.

-After reading this issue and the last few pages of 14 over and over again, something tells me that Angel is no longer human. I mean Gunn stabbed him with a pollish looking thing and then he is back up and fighting. That just seems off for a human. I really think the demon thing Gunn cooked up turned him back into a vampire. Might just be me though, I don't know.

[Hallow Thorn]

So Illyria is dead right? sad... I just started to like her (well only in Freds body)