A brand new evil sets up a confrontation with the vampire with a soul: social media!
Angel 1
Written by Bryan Edward Hill
Pencils and Inks by Gleb Melnikov
Colors by Gabriel Cassata
After last month’s ZERO ISSUE established Angel for a new millennium, the first issue starts to delve more into his new history while setting up his first big bad.
Writer Bryan Hill deftly combines history with present day, as Angel meets up with a man he rescued many years ago. The man, Francis, wants Angel to meet his daughter but Angel refuses after Francis presses the centuries-old vampire on whether he wants to have kids.
Of course, we know that didn’t work out the way Angel thought it would on the old Joss Whedon series, but this Angel knows nothing of Connor (or Steven). He hasn’t even met Cordelia yet!
Francis is a likable guy, and you get the sense he may be a good human moral compass for Angel, but he doesn’t even make it out of the first issue, as his daughter lights their house on fire after someone online said she was pretty.
While I’m sure that a demon getting teenagers to kill themselves through social media will prove to be a good antagonist for a luddite like Angel, it’s the glimpses into Angel’s past – and his new supporting cast of characters – that has me a lot more interested. The issue kicks off showing Angel taking a new charge – a female vampire hunter who was trying to protect her village. Was she a slayer? The word is never specifically used, but young women fighting vampires triggers assumptions like this in the Whedon-verse.
I’m looking forward to learning more about this Angel as he finds his place in Sunnydale. Once he meets Buffy, it’ll probably be downhill for everyone involved!