A review by kimberlea
Angel #1 by Gabriel Cassata, Bryan Edward Hill, Dan Panosian, Gleb Melnikov

4.0

I actually ended up liking this a lot more than I did Prologue. In fact, I would go so far to say that this is the best comic that BOOM! Studios have produced for their Buffyverse reboot so far. I think it introduces Angel as a character a lot better, slips in Angel's backstory — or rather, this reimagined version of his backstory — for anyone who hasn't seen the television show before, and is just all around a more interesting story than what we were originally given. I'm glad I didn't write this series off after Prologue.

I'll admit that I didn't really enjoy Melnikov's style illustration in Prologue, especially when compared to Dan Mora's. Here it is used to full effect, and somehow just seems to work better. Melnikov's illustrations look like rough sketches, yet they somehow add to the dark tone of the comics. He also manages to pack a lot of detail into 20 pages. The tone of the comics is fairly similar to that of the television show, and Hill pretty much nails Angel's dialogue and broody behaviour. The story that we were given in this issue actually reminded me of the episode 'I've Got You Under My Skin' from season one of Angel, so I'm hoping that Hill has come up with a story of his own (or at least an interesting spin on the original!).

I did enjoy that Hill dived right into Angel's history as Angelus. We open on Angelus murdering what appears to be a Slayer, and it means that the creative team can touch on themes such as redemption right off the bat, which is really what the television show was all about  — after all, one of the most famous quotes from the show is, 'If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.'

One thing I would like to see more once this series gets on its feet is perhaps some connection to the Buffy comics. While I didn't expect a crossover straight away, Angel avoids referencing both its sister comic and the Buffyverse at large. I don't really have any interest in the original characters produced, with the exception of Lilith, and a familiar face would be nice. I'll be interested to see if Cordelia pops up in the Angel comics, since she's currently busy befriending Spike over in Buffy, but also wouldn't be opposed with Doyle, Fred, or Gunn making an appearance.

If the rest of this series is as good as this, I think it's going to be a hell of a reboot.