Creative Staff:
Script: Victor Gischler
Art: Will Conrad
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“Lost and Found Part Three”
Faith decided to stay in the employ of Deepscan when she found out that her next mission concerned the missing Riley Finn—a guy with whom she has a past. Now, Faith and a team of Slayers search the South American jungle for Riley, his wife, and a missing tycoon, Walt Zane. In London’s Magic Town, Angel does his best to aid the people transformed by the magical virus he helped cause—currently he’s occupied with the request from an old Wiccan friend, Amy Madison.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Redemption doesn’t come easy. You can’t just apologize and wave it away. From the perspective of Angel and Faith, it’ll never go away. We get a glimpse of that in the opening pages of the issue. Angel is back in the 18th or 19th century and he’s still Angelus. The evil deeds he did, no matter how many good deeds he does, always haunt him.
It’s parallel with Faith and taking Riley from Buffy. She tries to apologize to Samantha, but she rejects it. Not because she’s angry, but because redemption doesn’t come easy. It isn’t Sam’s forgiveness to give away, it’s Riley’s. It’s never stated, but maybe—just maybe—if Faith helps with this op, she’ll be forgiven. The good news? Riley’s alive to give it away.
Angel knows a good deed when it comes, though, and—this time parallel with Buffy’s current arc—decides against helping Amy resurrect Warren. Andrew decided the same thing when given the option and they’re both right to do so. Warren was a bad guy. Maybe Angel is a hypocrite for saying that he won’t help, but Giles was a good guy who didn’t deserve to die. Warren killed Tara. It’s not fair, at least not to Amy, and Angel can live with that. Well, he can figuratively live with that. Literally could be another issue (no pun intended).
Transitions between Angel and Faith’s story seemed to work better here, as most of the lead-in lines were dropped. If they just end a scene and move on to the next one, I think it’ll work a lot better. As it was, it felt like they were shoehorning two stories together because it used to be Angel and Faith in the same room and now it’s Angel and Faith in the same comic. The stories don’t seem to parallel very well on a thematic level, though. Faith’s doing everything she can to find solace in her mind while Angel’s accepting his own hypocritical attitude because it’s the right thing to do. It could be because Angel has taken it a step further? He no longer does the bad acts at all while Faith still risks it in the field.
In Summary:
This was more of a transition issue to the next one, where the real things happen. Faith’s finally found Riley, but where’s Zane’s father? Angel decided to decline Amy’s offer, but now he’s stuck between a witch and a wall. Yeah, their work is hard.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: November 5, 2014
MSRP: $3.50
