Corey Brotherson
Mar 24, 2008, 12:59 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/idw/0308/ANGEL-ATF_5-Andrew.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/idw/0308/ANGEL-ATF_5-Andrewt.jpg" align="left" hspace=10 alt="Angel: After the Fall #5"></A> Reviewer: Corey Brotherson cbrotherson@googlemail.com
Story Title: After the Fall Part 5
“Wait. What is - oh, this is big.”
Plot: Joss Whedon and Brian Lynch
Script: Brian Lynch
Artist: Franco Urru
Color Art: Jason Jensen and Art Lyon
Letterers: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Chris Ryall
Published by: IDW Publishing (http://www.idwpublishing.com)
TV to comic book translations are very difficult to pull off. It's no secret that some may be a little thrown by the medium jump - not just the readers, but the creators as well. True, the characters can be written by the same person who brought them to the screen in the first place, but capturing those little nuances that make up a live action show is infinitely more difficult. The artist may not recreate the actors' idiosyncrasies or their wardrobe style quite faithfully and the script may also lose their collective 'voice'. Let's not forget the pacing of a comic is so wildly different from a TV show that trying to squeeze a full season into an annual paper based story arc can be enough to cripple a book long before its end. And arguably the worst offender of the cross medium transition?
Not taking advantage of the comic book's strengths.
One of the reasons why comics based off TV shows and films tend to miss the excitement and gravitas of the original is because sometimes its creators are too wrapped up in bringing us - ironically - something too faithful. The unlimited budget of our four colour stories means that what may be amazing to look at on the screen can sometimes come off mundane and ordinary on page.
Thankfully, Angel's comic book continuation of the unjustly cancelled TV series - that's full cannon, peeps, no wasted ink here - sidesteps these concerns with a deft slice of sword and dramatic swish of long coat.
Continuing where the final season of the live action story left off, downtown Los Angeles is now in Hell, and the fallout has naturally been quite disastrous for all our heroes, not least the titular Angel who has gone through some rather dramatic changes. As to what I'm hinting at I wont spoil, but it's worth picking up the series to date because after a rather shaky start, Angel has found its feet, getting better with each issue leading up to this rather excellent mid-season punch to the metaphorical gut.
Angel has thrown down the gauntlet to Hell's current overlords, meaning a solitary showdown with its most powerful challengers - including the likes of a T-Rex and a female Skip (one of the more powerful demons created in the Joss Whedon-verse). While going against all odds is usually Angel's lot, things are ramped up significantly by his condition, which is far from healthy.
The mostly action dominated issue may seem a little less dynamic than it probably should given the build up and importance of the conflict, but it still functions extremely well due to the exact aforementioned reasons why the series has satisfied so far. Brian Lynch's script captures the voices of the main cast perfectly, with inflections and dialogue ticks apparent with enough subtlety for them to avoid coming off forced. It's easy to 'hear' the actors speaking these lines, and as a result the words spark off the page nicely. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into giving the book a voice familiar to fans, and that work has been rewarded with great results.
Lynch's use of internal narration also helps the comic immensely. Being privy to Angel's thoughts isn’t something that was common to the TV series, but comes naturally to the book, bringing us closer to the character and provides a pleasant string of forward momentum that keeps us deep in the action, regardless of the scene shifts. We're with Angel all the way, through his fears and hopes, adding a very in-character dose of humour to proceedings as well.
There's enough intrigue and mystery within the series so far that makes it feel a genuine part of Angel cannon, and so it should given Whedon's involvement. The plot bounces along briskly, pushing what could easily be a 24+ episode season into digestible issues with no drops or lapses in pacing. The writers are playing to the medium's possibilities, which is why it succeeds. The story is exciting and engaging, throwing a wide sense of the epic without sacrificing those smaller character moments that made Angel so good in the first place, and then slamming you with a powerful cliff-hanger to immediately leave you wanting more. It's superb.
Where After the Fall loses a few marks is in its art. This isn’t to say Franco Urru's craft isn’t good - his pencils are wonderful, portraying an energy and verve that compliments his panel arrangements and clear compositional sense. Better still, his facial expressions and likeness bring a more-than-decent facsimile of the actors who gave these characters life, without being slave to them.
However, the problems lie within the inking, which is sometimes muddy and indistinct, drowning the pencils a little too much in places. Similarly with the colours, which can range from being suitably dark to being way too garish (and not in the intentionally bright scenes with the glamorous Lorne, either), which clashes against the tone too heavily. It offers distraction where there should be solidarity, detracting from the emerging drama. This lack of consistency slightly subtracts from the overall package, which is a shame given how strong everything else is.
But still. This is a relative hiccup in a large feast of surprising greatness. There's a lot here to be happy about, not least that as an Angel fan it's hard to feel slighted at this strong continuation of the series on a whole. It's well devised, bombastic and authentic, all without betraying its source material or forfeiting its adopted medium. In short, it's more than worthy of its name.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwnone.jpg
"Buy Angel: After the Fall at X-World and Save Big" (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/)
Story Title: After the Fall Part 5
“Wait. What is - oh, this is big.”
Plot: Joss Whedon and Brian Lynch
Script: Brian Lynch
Artist: Franco Urru
Color Art: Jason Jensen and Art Lyon
Letterers: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Chris Ryall
Published by: IDW Publishing (http://www.idwpublishing.com)
TV to comic book translations are very difficult to pull off. It's no secret that some may be a little thrown by the medium jump - not just the readers, but the creators as well. True, the characters can be written by the same person who brought them to the screen in the first place, but capturing those little nuances that make up a live action show is infinitely more difficult. The artist may not recreate the actors' idiosyncrasies or their wardrobe style quite faithfully and the script may also lose their collective 'voice'. Let's not forget the pacing of a comic is so wildly different from a TV show that trying to squeeze a full season into an annual paper based story arc can be enough to cripple a book long before its end. And arguably the worst offender of the cross medium transition?
Not taking advantage of the comic book's strengths.
One of the reasons why comics based off TV shows and films tend to miss the excitement and gravitas of the original is because sometimes its creators are too wrapped up in bringing us - ironically - something too faithful. The unlimited budget of our four colour stories means that what may be amazing to look at on the screen can sometimes come off mundane and ordinary on page.
Thankfully, Angel's comic book continuation of the unjustly cancelled TV series - that's full cannon, peeps, no wasted ink here - sidesteps these concerns with a deft slice of sword and dramatic swish of long coat.
Continuing where the final season of the live action story left off, downtown Los Angeles is now in Hell, and the fallout has naturally been quite disastrous for all our heroes, not least the titular Angel who has gone through some rather dramatic changes. As to what I'm hinting at I wont spoil, but it's worth picking up the series to date because after a rather shaky start, Angel has found its feet, getting better with each issue leading up to this rather excellent mid-season punch to the metaphorical gut.
Angel has thrown down the gauntlet to Hell's current overlords, meaning a solitary showdown with its most powerful challengers - including the likes of a T-Rex and a female Skip (one of the more powerful demons created in the Joss Whedon-verse). While going against all odds is usually Angel's lot, things are ramped up significantly by his condition, which is far from healthy.
The mostly action dominated issue may seem a little less dynamic than it probably should given the build up and importance of the conflict, but it still functions extremely well due to the exact aforementioned reasons why the series has satisfied so far. Brian Lynch's script captures the voices of the main cast perfectly, with inflections and dialogue ticks apparent with enough subtlety for them to avoid coming off forced. It's easy to 'hear' the actors speaking these lines, and as a result the words spark off the page nicely. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into giving the book a voice familiar to fans, and that work has been rewarded with great results.
Lynch's use of internal narration also helps the comic immensely. Being privy to Angel's thoughts isn’t something that was common to the TV series, but comes naturally to the book, bringing us closer to the character and provides a pleasant string of forward momentum that keeps us deep in the action, regardless of the scene shifts. We're with Angel all the way, through his fears and hopes, adding a very in-character dose of humour to proceedings as well.
There's enough intrigue and mystery within the series so far that makes it feel a genuine part of Angel cannon, and so it should given Whedon's involvement. The plot bounces along briskly, pushing what could easily be a 24+ episode season into digestible issues with no drops or lapses in pacing. The writers are playing to the medium's possibilities, which is why it succeeds. The story is exciting and engaging, throwing a wide sense of the epic without sacrificing those smaller character moments that made Angel so good in the first place, and then slamming you with a powerful cliff-hanger to immediately leave you wanting more. It's superb.
Where After the Fall loses a few marks is in its art. This isn’t to say Franco Urru's craft isn’t good - his pencils are wonderful, portraying an energy and verve that compliments his panel arrangements and clear compositional sense. Better still, his facial expressions and likeness bring a more-than-decent facsimile of the actors who gave these characters life, without being slave to them.
However, the problems lie within the inking, which is sometimes muddy and indistinct, drowning the pencils a little too much in places. Similarly with the colours, which can range from being suitably dark to being way too garish (and not in the intentionally bright scenes with the glamorous Lorne, either), which clashes against the tone too heavily. It offers distraction where there should be solidarity, detracting from the emerging drama. This lack of consistency slightly subtracts from the overall package, which is a shame given how strong everything else is.
But still. This is a relative hiccup in a large feast of surprising greatness. There's a lot here to be happy about, not least that as an Angel fan it's hard to feel slighted at this strong continuation of the series on a whole. It's well devised, bombastic and authentic, all without betraying its source material or forfeiting its adopted medium. In short, it's more than worthy of its name.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/idwnone.jpg
"Buy Angel: After the Fall at X-World and Save Big" (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/)