Review of Brian Lynch's Last Angel in Hell
Jan. 1st, 2010 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinished reading Brian Lynch's Last Angel in Hell last night.
Was pleasantly surprised by the art, which was a lot better than Stephen Mooney's last two issues - not sure why. It seemed to flow better and the action sequences and characters were a bit more distinct. But your mileage will most likely differ, it always does. And I'm admittedly opinionated about comic art and very stubborn. I learned to draw before I learned how to read by the way. I started drawing at the age of four. It wasn't very good. My neice is the same. I watch her sketch for hours at the age of five, and am reminded of myself and my brother - who did the same thing. My focus was people - draw them like crazy. And when I discovered comics - in college, I dreamed of drawing that way. And have tried. It's not as easy as it looks to draw movement. Also hand sketched art or painting is not the same as photography - the trick is to capture emotion, to convey it. It is not to be anatomically correct or make it look exactly like someone. You are commenting on the person or relationship through your art. Sort of like poetry in a way. You can do anatomically correct art - but that is for medical textbooks. Comics - are expressing emotion through the pictures,
they are expressing though, idea, beauty...and they much like paintings are meant to
be interacted with. In the information age, many people have moved away from the pen, pencil and paints - they cut and paste, draw with a computer - which enhances and tells you where everything should be placed, and that I don't consider art. Like I said, I'm stubborn and opinionated on this topic.
That said, I was ambivalent towards Stephen Mooney's art. I recognized everyone. I could tell the characters apart and who was playing them. Also the action sequences were clear and
the story flowed. The framing was not as jarring as Denham's. And it had a nice cinematic feel to it. There were also a few pretty panels here and there and I found the cover reminiscent of a movie poster, which was the point. Was it beatiful in the same way as Chen's, no. But far better than Georges Jeanty. Like I said, I can tell the characters apart.
The story? Sigh. It is a joke about Hollywood film-making or rather a subtle and at times satirical parody of what Hollywood does to screenplays. Brian Lynch is a screenwriter, and I'm guessing a rather unsatisfied one. He is not wrong, Hollywood does skewer screenplays.
Take the Buffy movie for example - which the director and producers turned into a campy comedy as opposed to an ironic, satirical take on the slasher pic that Whedon was aiming for.
The plot is simple and if you've watched any of Nicolas Cage's recent attempts at action films or any Hollywood attempt at a noir cop horror film, you have seen it before. Not that Angel the Series was much better, it too was pretty derivative, and with the exception of a few stellar episodes, fairly unoriginal in concept. The series Moonlight didn't copy Angel, so much as continue an genre trope that had been going on since noir film was invented. Which may be why I wasn't as much a fan of Angel as I was of Buffy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Angel, and I do own most of the DVDs, but it is fairly formulaic in structure. And unlike Buffy, did not really break new ground. There's a reason Buffy has made most of the decade best lists and Angel has not - Buffy broke new ground, it was different than anything else.
It created a new sub-genre. Angel just continued one. That said, this comic does show how innovative Angel the Series was in comparison to shows such as well Twilight, Vampire Diairies, and Moonlight. Lorne - for example is a good guy in Angel and a bad guy in Last Angel in Hell the Hollywood version.
In the comic - Angel is Angel Cartwright, a beleaguered cop. I'm guessing Hispanic - hence the name. But I could be wrong. We first meet Angel on the streets of LA, where he and his partner, Wesley, find a vampire, the vampire sucks Wes dry - killing him, and leaves Angel to take the blame. Angel gets suspended from the force, and starts his own detective agency. We rejoin him on his wedding day to the love of his life - Sara. A British blond bombshell. She looks a bit like Julie Benze mixed with Sharon Stone. Leggy with long blond hair. And a British accent. Unfortunately, Sara has been turned into a vampire - she chose to become one as a means of dealing with her abandonment issues. She tells Angel that she did it to ensure they could be together forever. (The comic starts with the dinosaurs, and how vampirism began when the first dinosaur lost its mate and cursed god, asking to be turned. It makes no real sense.) She also invited the vamps who turned her to the wedding, where they proceed to kill the wedding guests including Angel's Mom. Angel is distraught. And Sara informs him that her name is "Spike" now, based on her spikey new fangs. (eyeroll)
Angel loses everything and goes off to mope, in a way that only Nic Cage can. No offense to David Boreanze fans, but no one out mopes Nic Cage - he has it down to an art form and I give Mooney credit for capturing it. Meanwhile Lady Spike hooks up with the Devil. And LA falls into hell, because of Angel's pain. (It makes no sense. But I don't think it is supposed to.)
Anyhow, Angel makes a visit to the Doublemeat Palace and is waited on by a woman who looks a lot like the one managing the place in the Buffy episode Doublemeat Palace. The comic has a product placement for Doublemeat Palace and talks about how great the food at the Doublemeat is. (This is obviously a dig at the current habit of product placement in movies). He runs into OverLorne (Lorne is a bad guy in this comic because he's a demon and not a sexy blond). They fight. He makes Overlorne tell him who is in charge - and it is, surprise, surprise, the devil. Along comesHugo from Lost Gunn and his sidekick Foxy Brown/Angel Bassett Fred. They tell Angel that they are in the vamp hunting biz and had tried to contact him at his wedding to see if he would help them. Angel says he works alone and doesn't hunt vamps. They state he can't fight the devil alone. He says, no problem and goes to the charity ball the devil is hosting.
The devil who is an old bloke has hooked up with Lady Spike. Angel hooks up with Non and has wicked sex with her, the whole time remembering the romantic sex he had with Sara (aka Lady Spike). Then he sees Lady Spike, confronts the devil, fights the devils goons, Lady Spike attacks him and throws him off a cliff, which he miraculously survives along with Lady Spike.
She tells him to stay away. It's rather funny actually...he's thinking, I'm falling out of love, wait, I'm just falling.
Angel picks himself up and goes off to find Fred (Angela Bassett meets Gwen in a electronic military suit) and Gunn (Hugo from Lost). Along with his dog, George. (yes, Angel has a dog and it is named George). Apparently Gunn is cursed and turns into a dragon, while Fred is cursed with dyslexia and can't read. (I found that bit rather offensive actually. Obviously Lynch knows zip about dyslexia. Dyslexic's can read, Lynch. Albert Einstein was dyslexic. Get a grip.) Fred's costume is called I.L.L.Y.R.I.A - it's a military outfit that acts as an exoskeleton or armor, and can fire electricity. Both agree to help as long as Fred doesn't have to read and Gunn doesn't have to turn into a dragon. (which of course they both have to do.)
They fight the devil. Sara/Spike shows up and gives Angel a cursed daggar that will kill the devil. (in the comic it was the dagger that would kill Angel). She tells him that he's the sucker, and she's not threw with him yet. They kiss. He says he knew she wasn't evil. She says she's still a vampire. But, he says not all vamps are evil, maybe some are good. Under gunfire, Gunn suddenly decides to turn into a dragon. They board Gunn, and while Fred throws away the guns she can't figure out how to use because she can't read directions and discovers finally, at Angel's urging the power within to fire electricity at the baddies (uh, why was she able to do that at the beginning and now has to figure it out again, and only does at his urging??) They kill the devil. The world goes back to the way it was - sort of like a reboot (or so they joke). Gunn reunites with Angel, and finds Sara/Spike pregnant, apparently with Angel's kid (a la Darla), and they plan on naming the kid - Connor. Then Wes shows up as a ghost and says he always liked the name Wesley and the gang needs to assemble to deal with a bigger threat than the devil, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Can they do it? Of course they can - it's team angel - with pregnant vampire spike in her tight leather outfit, and duster, and spikey knives, and Gunn with his "guns" and Fred with her electricity, plus George the dog.
I didn't like it. While I often find Lynch's humor funny. This felt off to me - sort of like Altman's The Player. I was bored and found myself rolling my eyes during most of it. Also the whole Sara/Spike -Angel romance - felt more like Angel/Darla than Angel/Spike - which, the show did better.
Art= B
Story=F
Overall = D-
Was pleasantly surprised by the art, which was a lot better than Stephen Mooney's last two issues - not sure why. It seemed to flow better and the action sequences and characters were a bit more distinct. But your mileage will most likely differ, it always does. And I'm admittedly opinionated about comic art and very stubborn. I learned to draw before I learned how to read by the way. I started drawing at the age of four. It wasn't very good. My neice is the same. I watch her sketch for hours at the age of five, and am reminded of myself and my brother - who did the same thing. My focus was people - draw them like crazy. And when I discovered comics - in college, I dreamed of drawing that way. And have tried. It's not as easy as it looks to draw movement. Also hand sketched art or painting is not the same as photography - the trick is to capture emotion, to convey it. It is not to be anatomically correct or make it look exactly like someone. You are commenting on the person or relationship through your art. Sort of like poetry in a way. You can do anatomically correct art - but that is for medical textbooks. Comics - are expressing emotion through the pictures,
they are expressing though, idea, beauty...and they much like paintings are meant to
be interacted with. In the information age, many people have moved away from the pen, pencil and paints - they cut and paste, draw with a computer - which enhances and tells you where everything should be placed, and that I don't consider art. Like I said, I'm stubborn and opinionated on this topic.
That said, I was ambivalent towards Stephen Mooney's art. I recognized everyone. I could tell the characters apart and who was playing them. Also the action sequences were clear and
the story flowed. The framing was not as jarring as Denham's. And it had a nice cinematic feel to it. There were also a few pretty panels here and there and I found the cover reminiscent of a movie poster, which was the point. Was it beatiful in the same way as Chen's, no. But far better than Georges Jeanty. Like I said, I can tell the characters apart.
The story? Sigh. It is a joke about Hollywood film-making or rather a subtle and at times satirical parody of what Hollywood does to screenplays. Brian Lynch is a screenwriter, and I'm guessing a rather unsatisfied one. He is not wrong, Hollywood does skewer screenplays.
Take the Buffy movie for example - which the director and producers turned into a campy comedy as opposed to an ironic, satirical take on the slasher pic that Whedon was aiming for.
The plot is simple and if you've watched any of Nicolas Cage's recent attempts at action films or any Hollywood attempt at a noir cop horror film, you have seen it before. Not that Angel the Series was much better, it too was pretty derivative, and with the exception of a few stellar episodes, fairly unoriginal in concept. The series Moonlight didn't copy Angel, so much as continue an genre trope that had been going on since noir film was invented. Which may be why I wasn't as much a fan of Angel as I was of Buffy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Angel, and I do own most of the DVDs, but it is fairly formulaic in structure. And unlike Buffy, did not really break new ground. There's a reason Buffy has made most of the decade best lists and Angel has not - Buffy broke new ground, it was different than anything else.
It created a new sub-genre. Angel just continued one. That said, this comic does show how innovative Angel the Series was in comparison to shows such as well Twilight, Vampire Diairies, and Moonlight. Lorne - for example is a good guy in Angel and a bad guy in Last Angel in Hell the Hollywood version.
In the comic - Angel is Angel Cartwright, a beleaguered cop. I'm guessing Hispanic - hence the name. But I could be wrong. We first meet Angel on the streets of LA, where he and his partner, Wesley, find a vampire, the vampire sucks Wes dry - killing him, and leaves Angel to take the blame. Angel gets suspended from the force, and starts his own detective agency. We rejoin him on his wedding day to the love of his life - Sara. A British blond bombshell. She looks a bit like Julie Benze mixed with Sharon Stone. Leggy with long blond hair. And a British accent. Unfortunately, Sara has been turned into a vampire - she chose to become one as a means of dealing with her abandonment issues. She tells Angel that she did it to ensure they could be together forever. (The comic starts with the dinosaurs, and how vampirism began when the first dinosaur lost its mate and cursed god, asking to be turned. It makes no real sense.) She also invited the vamps who turned her to the wedding, where they proceed to kill the wedding guests including Angel's Mom. Angel is distraught. And Sara informs him that her name is "Spike" now, based on her spikey new fangs. (eyeroll)
Angel loses everything and goes off to mope, in a way that only Nic Cage can. No offense to David Boreanze fans, but no one out mopes Nic Cage - he has it down to an art form and I give Mooney credit for capturing it. Meanwhile Lady Spike hooks up with the Devil. And LA falls into hell, because of Angel's pain. (It makes no sense. But I don't think it is supposed to.)
Anyhow, Angel makes a visit to the Doublemeat Palace and is waited on by a woman who looks a lot like the one managing the place in the Buffy episode Doublemeat Palace. The comic has a product placement for Doublemeat Palace and talks about how great the food at the Doublemeat is. (This is obviously a dig at the current habit of product placement in movies). He runs into OverLorne (Lorne is a bad guy in this comic because he's a demon and not a sexy blond). They fight. He makes Overlorne tell him who is in charge - and it is, surprise, surprise, the devil. Along comes
The devil who is an old bloke has hooked up with Lady Spike. Angel hooks up with Non and has wicked sex with her, the whole time remembering the romantic sex he had with Sara (aka Lady Spike). Then he sees Lady Spike, confronts the devil, fights the devils goons, Lady Spike attacks him and throws him off a cliff, which he miraculously survives along with Lady Spike.
She tells him to stay away. It's rather funny actually...he's thinking, I'm falling out of love, wait, I'm just falling.
Angel picks himself up and goes off to find Fred (Angela Bassett meets Gwen in a electronic military suit) and Gunn (Hugo from Lost). Along with his dog, George. (yes, Angel has a dog and it is named George). Apparently Gunn is cursed and turns into a dragon, while Fred is cursed with dyslexia and can't read. (I found that bit rather offensive actually. Obviously Lynch knows zip about dyslexia. Dyslexic's can read, Lynch. Albert Einstein was dyslexic. Get a grip.) Fred's costume is called I.L.L.Y.R.I.A - it's a military outfit that acts as an exoskeleton or armor, and can fire electricity. Both agree to help as long as Fred doesn't have to read and Gunn doesn't have to turn into a dragon. (which of course they both have to do.)
They fight the devil. Sara/Spike shows up and gives Angel a cursed daggar that will kill the devil. (in the comic it was the dagger that would kill Angel). She tells him that he's the sucker, and she's not threw with him yet. They kiss. He says he knew she wasn't evil. She says she's still a vampire. But, he says not all vamps are evil, maybe some are good. Under gunfire, Gunn suddenly decides to turn into a dragon. They board Gunn, and while Fred throws away the guns she can't figure out how to use because she can't read directions and discovers finally, at Angel's urging the power within to fire electricity at the baddies (uh, why was she able to do that at the beginning and now has to figure it out again, and only does at his urging??) They kill the devil. The world goes back to the way it was - sort of like a reboot (or so they joke). Gunn reunites with Angel, and finds Sara/Spike pregnant, apparently with Angel's kid (a la Darla), and they plan on naming the kid - Connor. Then Wes shows up as a ghost and says he always liked the name Wesley and the gang needs to assemble to deal with a bigger threat than the devil, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Can they do it? Of course they can - it's team angel - with pregnant vampire spike in her tight leather outfit, and duster, and spikey knives, and Gunn with his "guns" and Fred with her electricity, plus George the dog.
I didn't like it. While I often find Lynch's humor funny. This felt off to me - sort of like Altman's The Player. I was bored and found myself rolling my eyes during most of it. Also the whole Sara/Spike -Angel romance - felt more like Angel/Darla than Angel/Spike - which, the show did better.
Art= B
Story=F
Overall = D-