Well…
Creative Staff:
Script: Victor Gischler
Art: Will Conrad
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“A Tale of Two Families Part Three”
Somewhere in London, Big Bad Archaeus is in residence with Drusilla and a growing number of vampire minions. Having faile to bring both Angel and the strange magical entity of Magic Town into the fold, Archaeus is moving to plan B and trying to lure the magic with the gift of physical form…But Angel, Faith, and their allies aren’t giving up the fight…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
…So maybe Archaeus’s plan didn’t come together like Hannibal always wanted, but Angel’s seems to have mostly. Or it totally didn’t and there were, as always, hitches in the plan. Like Brandt being turned to a vampire. That was a hitch. A depressing hitch. Brandt provided what Gunn used to in that he was a normal dude who provided the extra help, and grounding, that Team Angel needed. Gunn and then Brandt aside, Team Angel is mostly supernatural beings. A vampire with a soul, a slayer, an old one, and a Nitobe aren’t exactly what I’d call an all-star team, but they get things done. Things aren’t the same without Gunn, and they won’t be the same without Brandt.
But as the description says, there’s a plan B. Give the magic of Magic Town a physical form—that of a statue from a park—and let it roam free. It’s wanted this; it’s longed to feel the same things living beings have, and Nadira’s sensed it. But…there was no way magic was going to get a physical form…right? Well, Archaeus is in town and screwing with everything.
Though none of this is ever stated explicitly in the text of the comic. I mean, it’s fairly obvious because who else would do this (answer: tons of elses) and, even if there was someone else, why would they introduce them in the middle of a different big bad? It’s like introducing Dracula into a season and never doing anything with him.
These plans are going awry pretty quickly though, as Illyria is back in Magic Town and she’s been sleeping for a little too long as far as she’s concerned.
In Summary:
This is certainly the beginning of the end of something, even if it isn’t Archaeus. But plan after plan is failing for the progenitor of vampires, and he isn’t about to sit around and do nothing about it. Out of impatience or hubris, he’ll do something rash at some point and Angel’s a little too smart not to take advantage. Team Angel has the upper hand here, but it’s their game to lose.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: February 3, 2015
MSRP: $3.50
