Angel After The Fall - Issue One...Review & Analysis

[Made it to the gym finally - which killed a good percentage of the irritability and made me feel a lot better.]

Finally read Angel:After The Fall by Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon, and Frank Urruh. [Got one of the *variant* covers - the one with Tony Harris' art sans the credits at the top, and on the back no ad - just a photo of David Boreanze as Angel with the title below it. This is pretty rare - there's only one of these in each box of 25. There are two other variant covers - one with the whole team (Gunn, Angel, Illyria, and Spike) in the alley. And one with Angel and a bunch of skulls behind him (which I would have preferred -since I prefer that painting of Angel- you can find it at www.grahamcrackers.com) I find it incredibly amusing that I got a variant cover with a pic of DB - because a) I honestly don't care and b) I no longer consider David Boreanze all that physically attractive so much as sorta funny looking. (I know people's mileage differs on this.)]

Will you like the comic? Ah that depends on a couple of factors.

1. Did you like Season 5 of Angel?
2. Do you like noir?
3. Do you like Brian Lynch and Frank Urru?
4. Are you a fan of the Angel Universe?
5. Were you at all curious about what might have happened after the season finale of Angel S5, even if you liked the idea that they all died in the ally?

Not surprised I enjoyed this comic, since Lynch and I are pretty much on the same page regarding which season of Angel that was the most enjoyable. (We both loved Season 5 the most.) I've discovered that it helps a great deal when the writer perceives the characters and world the same way you do in your head. Also helps if their writing style is either similar to your own or one that you find enjoyable. Lynch's writing style is not only enjoyable but makes me laugh.

In a comic book - it is imperative that you like the art or that the art clicks for you on some level. It's like any visual medium or style - if you don't like a cinematographer or an actor - you will have a hard time liking the film or tv show regardless of how well it is written. Novels that are not dependent on graphics do not have this problem. Graphic novels or comic books on the other hand...do. If you don't like the artist, you aren't going to like the comic book. If you do like the artist but hate the writing, you are likely to at least enjoy it a bit. Luckily for me, Frank Urruh is amongst my favorite comic book artists. I adore his style. It resonates for me and in some ways fits how I'd draw the characters in my own head. He doesn't so much draw the characters as paint them, with long flowing strokes. They move across the page in my head. I see the layers in their characterization through his brush strokes. And he manages to reproduce the pulp noir feel of the old Raymond Chandler dime novel covers with their dark blacks, brilliant navy's and blood reds.

As an aside, from the smattering of reviews I've read regarding the book, the people who love Georges Jeanty's style aren't crazy about Urruh's and make the same complaints about Urruh's art that those of us who aren't crazy about Jeanty's artwork make about Jeanty. The two styles are VERY different. So - IT is highly unlikely that if you love one, you'll like the other, although I know people who like both. I'm ambivalent about Jeanty's. It is growing on me and reminds me a great deal of the female line of Japanese Magna - where all the women have very round faces and big eyes. Urru's art, which I obviously prefer, reminds me more of Frank Miller's, Jai Lee (Gunslinger), Alex Ross, and to some extent the artist who does Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise books. It's contemporary yet also somewhat traditional.

The only thing that bugged me about the comic was my favorite character won't turn up until the second issue - but that makes sense, since he is a splashy character and you really can't introduce him too early...you have to set up the main or lead character's position first. If you introduce Spike in the first issue, he might steal the limelight away from the lead - Spike was good at doing that. And it is Angel's book afterall. (*grin*) Seriously, all joking aside (sorry couldn't resist doing that), what Lynch gets from the outset is the story centers on Angel - he's at the core - everyone we come into contact should in some way or other reflect on Angel, either be a choice he hadn't taken, a price he's paying, someone who he condemned, etc. When you write from that perspective, you start with the guys Angel would be closest too. I'm not saying he doesn't care about Spike. But hey you're in a fracas with you estranged kid brother, your girlfriend, your son, your best friends...who are you going to think about first? The annoying, estranged kid brother, thorn in your side - who you wish would go away? Anyhow, don't worry Spike fans - Lynch adores the character and has a great arc planned for him. I trust him - after reading his take in both Asylum and Shadow Puppets.

The plot and its surprises, and there are a few, worked for me. I'd heard about some of them before the issue came out - so was not that surprised. Lynch also does an excellent job of reintroducing key characters from Angel's life in the comic. I'm an odd fan, I actually liked all the characters in Angel. One of the hazards of posting online about a tv show, film series or series of novels is you have to deal with people who like to bash characters or tell you how much they hate your favorite character and why you are (fill in the blank) for liking it. I got a confession - I honestly don't care if you hate a character. It's fictional and liking/hating is highly subjective. You aren't writing it. You don't control that character's fate (thank heavens). And if you hate characters in a series I'm into, I got news for you - it is highly unlikely I'll ever wast my time reading any fanfic you write about that series. I know you can't write a good representation because you don't appreciate the universe or the characters fully. The writers who created it - on the other hand - adore all the characters - so I can trust them to do a good job. (Or they usually do. The one's they dislike or hate usually disappear pretty quickly.) End of the spoiler-free part of the review.

( Angel After the Fall Plot Spoilers - or basically my synopsis and analsys of the story as a whole )

(End spoilers and analysis)

Lynch does a marvelous job of capturing these characters voices and attitudes. Reading the comic reminded me of watching the show, in some ways I preferred it. Because they can do so much more.

I look forward to the next issue. And will definitely continue reading.

My Rating? A

For love of Comics and well a Film Review of - Superman:Doomsday

Comic books have been a guilty pleasure of mine for more than a decade. I first discovered them in the 1980s, when my brother sat for long hours with the boy across the street drawing tiny superheros. Mostly though they read TinTin which I found again in France along with Asterix. TinTin reminded me a great deal of the old Johnny Quest cartoons, but did not appeal to me all that much for some reason. I was too young to get into the literary references and there were no women to speak of for me to identify with. Also, to be honest, obscure literary references never had that much appeal for me. I can't abide footnotes or anything that gets in the way of my enjoyment of the main story, while for others they are like frosting on the proverbial cake - the best part. I guess that's an apt analogy - some people prefer the cake, some the frosting, some eat both at the same time, some like both, but eat one and savor the other.

At any rate, it was not until college that I *really* discovered and fell in love with the comic art form. Sat for hours in one of my dorm-mates rooms with her box of old X-men, Spiderman, Superman, and Batman comic books. Later, on my own, I discovered Sandman, Alan Moore's Watchmen, Frank Miller's Dark Knight, and others of that ilk. But my first love was those superhero comics. It was a love that I hid from the world at large. Stealing off to the comic book store on Cache La Poudre, the main drag from my small college in Colorado Springs, just at the foot of mighty Pikes Peak. The comic store was towards the end of the two lane street that also housed an eatry/used book store/ and independent movie house entitled Poor Richards. Few people from the college patrolled the comic store - so I was often on my own. I had a few friends at school who adored them like I did, we kept our love to ourselves, hidden in boxes beneath beds and in closets only to be shown to people who understood and shared our passion.

Paul Theroux famously or rather infamously wrote in one of his many travel books that comics were pedesterian past-times for the uneducated or illiterate. The man clearly never sat on the floor of his dorm room, back hurting, pouring over illustrations and dialogue bubbles.
He and others like him are the reason most comic fans keep their love to themselves. A private guilty pleasure to only be shared with like minds and hearts.

Superman:Doomsday or more commonly known as The Death of Superman is one of the few comic arcs that hit mainstream. It lead up to the gut-wrenching "Death of Superman" and crossed the front page of numerous papers when it first hit the shelves of comics stores across the country (this was before book stores started selling comics or graphic novels). Selling out and bringing comic sales to an unprecedented height. The final issue containing Superman's Death was wrapped inside a black bag with the Superman signal on the front, the cover of the book hidden from view. It had two variant covers - a black one and one with Superman's cape swinging like a flag on a bunch of rubble. The second cover was the most popular. This was back in the early 1990s or thereabouts, before I moved to NYC, when I was still living in KC making guilty trips to the comic book store. So it was with a bit of nostaglic glee that I watched the history unfold on one of the features of the Doomsday DVD. It is detailed in a little documentary feature. Takes about 30 minutes to watch, maybe a bit longer - and includes interviews with the writing team, which included Louise Simonson, one of the few female comic book writers in the biz at that time, who wrote superhero comics. She also worked for a brief period of time on X-Factor (an X-men book) back in the late 1980s. The art is realistic, with lots of lines, well defined anatomy, and every emotion explicitly expressed. It is as close to a photograph as one can get in some ways without the smooth photo image.

I remember that arc - because it was the first time I collected or got interested in Superman comics. I collected them from the beginning of the Doomsday arc up to Superman's return and eventual marriage to Lois Lane. They'd originally wanted to marry Superman and Lois that year, but got derailed because of the tv series Lois & Clark - which did not want the comic to marry Lois and Clark until they did it or better yet, have do it at the same time. Lois & Clark was in its first season at this point. As a result, the writers sat in a room with a scraped story board, exhausted, and wracking their brains for an idea, any idea to fill the pages of four different books - which included at that time: Man of Steel. Action Comics. Adventures of Superman and I think Superman. One of the writers, suggested as he always did at this point in the proceedings - "I know, let's just kill him." And instead of telling him to go take a nap or shrugging it off, they leaped on the idea. "Why not?" It's not like it hadn't been done before. No. The real challenge would be how to make it convincing and heart-wrenching to a cynical and somewhat sap-proof contemporary readership. They'd have to find a way to convince their readers they really meant it. And at the same time, tell a new story about both the universe and characters. Not as easy as it sounds.
( Plot Spoilers on the comic arc )

The story took a few years to unfold. The marriage occuring around the time the tv show's did. And like all good stories - was told in a series of chapters, some better than others.

Having read the original, albeit many years ago, I was eager to see what they would do in the film. I love animation. So the film - animated - was a must-see for me. It also was by one of my favorite animation directors Bruce Timm, who had directed and wrote JLA, Batman Beyond, Batman, and Superman cartoons. And...it featured the vocal talents of Adam Baldwin (Superman), James Marsters (Lex Luther), Anne Heche (Lois Lane), Swoozie Kurtz (Mrs. Kent), and Ray Wise (The Editor and Chief of the Daily Planet).

The film surprised me. It was much better than expected. Not your average Superman cartoon. The main characters are - oddly enough Superman and Lex Luthor. Doomsday is wisely only used as a device. The real story takes place, much as they did in the books, after Superman's death. It starts with Lex Luthor - who tells the tale in flashback - he is our narrator, with Marsters husky and somewhat wry vocalization, an excellent contrast to the stalwart baratone of Adam Baldwin, which sounds clear as a bell. You can hear the years of smoking in Marsters raspy delivery, which is a bit like the purr of jaguar or panther. Lex himself moves a bit like one. Or maybe the hiss of a snake. We, like Lois Lane, are repulsed and intriqued by Luthor. All lean lines, and jagged edges.

( spoilers on the Superman:Doomsday Film )

The fact that both stories work, the graphic novel original and the animated film - demonstrates how you can tell a story more than one way. That is one of the benefits of comics - the story can be retold from multiple angles. There is no one way or one story. Or one universe. It is unlimited or as unlimited as our imaginations. Canon in comics is what we decide to make it. It is also one of the benefits of adaptations - as John Le Carre once stated in regards to a film version of one of his books, in this instance The Constant Gardners, "the best films adaptations are not close or replicas of my novels, but rather a new take on the work from a completely different angle, an interpretation as it were. I don't expect to see them do my novel exactly as I wrote it. They aren't me. Nor do I want that, for that is uninteresting to me. What I want to see is a new take on it." (not exact, paraphrased). Timm succeeds in doing just that with Superman:Doomsday. Providing a new and innovative take on an old tale.

Highly recommend to anyone who loves Superman comics, animation, and a good yarn.