Angel issue 3 summary and analysis (spoilers)

[moscow_watcher]

Summary:

Angel and Illyria continue fighting in the mansion. Throughout the fight Illyria makes jumps in time, a-la Timebomb. We get brief glimpses of

-- 17-th century Angel (or Angelus)
-- puppet!Angel with Fred and Wesley in the background; Fred is in a very revealing cocktail dress with a glass in her hand while Wesley is dressed formally but has a bottle in his hand
-- older Angel in a Matrix-like hi-tech environment; could be a module on Serenity.
-- newborn baby!Angel in his crib.

Angel tries to talk to Illyria but she doesn't listen. She pins him to the wall with the knives (the crucifiction imagery aptly transcends time and space) but hesitates to kill him. Spike asks Illyria to let Angel go. "If he's gone we move forward", she replies. Angel tries to figure out if there are Fred's remains in Illyria.

The dragon comes to Angel's help and Illyria switches her attention to him. Spike frees Angel. "Should I tend to his wounds?" one of the girls asks. "You do and you're out of the top twelwe," Spike replies. He asks Angel if somebody else knows they're here. "Anyone in a twenty block radius who happens to be looking up", Angel replies. He wants to know if it was Illyria who has killed people and left inscriptions on Sanscrit.

Connor tells Angel that Spike and Illyria have nothing to do with the carnage: "They don't go around putting innocents in danger". Connor reveals that Spike works with him, saves people and keeps a refuge for humans under the guise of the "undead Hugh Hefner routine". As soon as Angel finds it out he leaves and takes the dragon with him. He doesn't tell Wesley about meeting Illyria but tells he plans to change the game.

Meanwhile the lords of different LA regions have a meeting. Burge wants to kill Angel. Another lord counters that W&H warned them not to. "I don't care about Wolfram and Hart, I want Angel!" Burge screams. Time for a big Angel entrance together with Wesley. The latter announces as a representative of W&H that demons can do whatever they want with Angel.

Angel challenges Burge to fight him, and "If I take you down, I'm the new lord of downtown Los Angeles." Angel also challenges all the other lords. Burge doesn't want to fight. He wants to appoint "a champion" to fight for him. They decide to set the fight in two days. "Two days to figure out how I'm bringing down half a dozen of hell's most brutal minions. And to heal from normally mortal wounds. Another thing about hell. Doesn't alter a vampire healing faculties, so a vamp can mend quickly".

(and - the last page)

"Which of course would mean so much more... if I were still a vampire."

(to be continued)

Analysis:

Loud collective gasp over Angel's latest transformation is still echoing on the Internet. It was unexpected. It was shocking. It was brilliant.

I wonder if Joss planned the arc having a future film with Sarah and David in mind. With Angel turning human Joss can make a movie in 10 or even 20 years. Although I'm sceptical about such possibility in a youth-obsessed culture, I saw a lot of ecstatic posts in BA camp.

The plotting is brisk if a bit campy. (Everything is relative: Torchwood season 2 opener has set new level of high-concept camp). The Playboy-babes-turned-vigilants-trainees twist is openly exploitative - but, hey, we, women, enjoy scantily clan Spike and Angel, so why whining about fanboys enjoying scantily clad girls? Urru clearly enjoys drawing them. But his fantasy isn't limited by the pics of beautiful girls - he's extremely sharp and inventive. Choreographing and drawing dragon\Illyria fight was a hard task, given the opponents' difference in size but Urru made it expressive and convincing, with dragon's snakelike tongue and Illyria's acrobatic skills.

This issue has a lot of visuals that successfully marry traditions of Japanese manga with Urru's classic Renaissance legacy. The panels with Spike's squad of "scantily clad vigilante trainees" are lushly drawed and colored. Illyria's flying hair and fluid movements - a whirlwind of locks and limbs - make the panels of her fight with dragon the highlight of the issue.

Lynch informs the issue with wonderfully eccentric details such as Lords' means of transportation. One of them has arrived at the meeting in a monstrous car with a dead body on the roof as a flag. Another lords use a giant snake, a Roman chariot, a bear-like demon, human slaves-rickshaws...

The Lords themselves are different in size and looks but equally macabre; there is an old acquaintance of ours among them: Teeth, Loan Shark demon from BtVS 608 Tabula Rasa. I wonder if Teeth's presence is just a throwaway joke or he's reintroduced for a reason. The first thing that comes to mind is the possibility of him overhearing that priceless dialogue between Buffy and Spike in Tabula Rasa: "I'm a vampire with a soul!" - "A vampire with a soul? How lame is that?" and reminding Spike about it in Angel's presence.

Funnily, Teeth is the lord of Santa Monica - the place where Buffy has been filmed.

Lynch continues to play with language and culturological stuff, whether it's a reference to an old Schwarzenegger movie Red Sonja (and - yes, there is something in comics!Illyria that resembles Brigitte Nielsen) or a clever highlight of the devaluation of the term "champion" (Burge calls "champion" his muscle-man he wants to set against Angel). Yet the writer tones down the culturological jokes without diminishing the characters. They are defined by their actions as efficiently as they're defined by their dialogues.

So, Angel decides to start the war with demons as soon as he finds out that he's not alone: Spike fights the good fight too, Illyria is likely to join them because she's bored and Connor is risking his life daily so there is no way Angel could keep him safe. Obviously, Angel has a plan. Obviously his plan is tricky and dangerous. I'm sure that his decision not to tell Wesley about Illyria will have consequences.

The question is - which ones?

Interestingly, there are multiple Fred mentions in this issue. "Is there a piece of Fred left", Angel wonders as he fights Illyria. His thought echoes Fred's last words "Why can't I stay?" I may be wrong but it looks like a set-up of Fred re-emerging in Illyria in the most unexpected and critical moment. Besides where is this panel in Spike Shadow Puppets.



In any case there is a lot potential development for Illyria. And we've got good development for Angel, Spike, Connor and, paradoxically, Gunn - because the motive of his Angel-hate is more pronounced. While Gunn has turned vampire, Angel has turned human. Talk about irony!

Bottom line:
The action goes to high gear. Time to buckle up.

Comments

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I haven't read your review yet (I'm running to it as soon as I post this comment) but I'm anticipating a lot of food for thought.

It's amazing how differently we all see and interpret the same story.

*off to read your review*