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After Angel’s cancellation in 2004, three years later, the television show continued its story in the comic book Angel: After the Fall.

The story took place where season 5 left off.  After Angel’s betrayal to the law firm Wolfram & Hart, they sent Angel Investigations and all inhabitants of Los Angeles to Hell.  The series focused on Team Angel, as they continued their efforts to rescue people from danger.

Angel: After the Fall’s initial run was for 13 issues, but it became successful enough for it to become an ongoing series by IDW Publishing.  In 2009, IDW Publishing published a Hollywood style story about the experience that the citizens of Los Angeles had in Hell.

Title: Angel Annual #1: “Last Angel In Hell”
Writer: Brian Lynch
Art: Stephen Mooney
Color: Leonard O’Grady
Letters: Robbie Robbins
Covers: Stephen Mooney & Nick Runge (Covers A & B)
Issue: #1
Pages: 48
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $7.99
Release Date: December 2009

Side Notes: Team Angel saved the day and returned Los Angeles back to Earth.  All of Los Angeles remembered their experience in Hell, which turned Angel into a celebrity.  Hollywood decided to make a movie about their experience and how Angel brought them back to Earth.

Angel Annual #1 was written as a comic book adaptation of the Last Angel In Hell film from the Angel series.  The comic book has the first six pages posted online and is currently available at local comic book shops or online stores.

The artwork was terrific, but it looked awkward in some panels.  I felt it was alright, since the movie in Angel Annual #1 was an abomination.  I liked the covers even though they were somewhat distracting.  Cover A looked great, except for Angel’s face which felt a bit off.  On Cover B, the top layer was more interesting without the lighting and shading layers.  The lighting was inconsistent, and the shading threw the colors off in some spots.

The writing was not to be taken seriously, but my soul became damaged just thinking of lines from the comic book like, “You just gotta do one thing…change the sign outside.  Because three more are about to get served.”

At a glance, it was humorous to have information of the whole ordeal and key characters altered, but after a while, I started to complain out loud.

For example, Illyria was depicted as a human with an I.L.L.Y.R.I.A. gadget body suit, instead of a strong and proud demon who was once a ruler.  My patience was tested as the actress playing her constantly reminded the audience of her illiteracy and failure to take charge of a situation.

Spike was changed into a female named Sara, who has abandonment issues.  At first Sara/Spike’s scenes were hilarious, but after a while, it became extremely disturbing to read.  Also, I must note that the vampire dinosaur and I had recently developed a feud between each other.

Inside the comic book, there were advertisements for Last Angel In Hell products.  They were hilarious and disturbing at the same time.  Judging by the comic book’s content, it made no attempts to hide the products they were endorsing.  There was a Buffy reference in the story that I thought was clever.  It was quite a surprise, and I wish there were more references of it in the Angel series.

While reading the comic, I realized that it was important for readers to be familiar with the Angel series and Angel: After the Fall.  I had to finish reading Angel: After the Fall first before reading Angel Annual #1 to fully grasp all the inside jokes made toward the series and its characters.

I enjoyed reading Angel Annual #1 even though my soul became damaged after reading it.  There were so many inaccuracies, that it stopped being funny for me.  The city of Los Angeles in Angel must be extremely daft if only one person (from Angel #26) expressed disdain toward the film.

Reading the comic book felt like that one annoying friend you keep associating with because they’re like family to you.

Princess Powerful
Princesspowerful@comicattack.net

P.S. Take a guess at which well known actors played Team Angel in the movie?