Creative Staff:
Script: Victor Gischler
Pencils: Derlis Santacrus
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“Old Habits”
While Faith is in America working for Kenndy’s rent-a-Slayer company, Deepscan, Angel is in Longon’s Magic Town trying to aid the people transofmred by the magical virus he helped cause. But he’s just becoming aware of additional changes in the world, since Buffy and her gang planted a new seed of magic…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This issue is called “Old Habits,” but I’m not quite sure what it’s referring to. It opens with Angel’s nightmare, I presume an escapade of his back in the old days. He attacks a convent and it burns to the ground as he sucks dry one of the nuns.
The old habits only have to refer to the vampire’s habits of hunting during the night, but then what does the convent have to do with any of it? It seems to only contrast with Angel breaking his own habit of waking up as the sun goes down.
I think I’m just being completely thrown off by the convent.
We’re treading the same ground again, that is if you’re also reading Buffy Season 10 (as you should be; these comics seem to connect more than they let on). Angel’s figuring out the same new rules of magic as Buffy is, but it’s a little harder for him. Magic Town’s already changing in a billion different ways and the rules of magic are just the icing on the cake. And Angel’s got no book of the Vampyr to clue him into this and he won’t call Buffy.
He’s in a pinch.
In Summary:
Finally, we get an issue with only Angel OR Faith. It’s a breath of fresh air because it’s been struggling to be consistent with juggling those two storylines. There’s still the awkward transitions, but they feel much less awkward since they’re all connected to the same plot. I still think it’s a technique that works in TV much better than comics, or at least this comic’s execution thereof. But now that we’re finally focused in on something, I have high hopes.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: August 6, 2014
MSRP: $3.50
The title “Old Habits” refers to the clothing that nuns wear, which is known as a “habit”. Since Angel has an obsession with nuns (and the issue features this), it is a pun on that.