Spike After the Fall #1 (4 Issue Series) (Comic)

by Brian Lynch (Author), Franco Urru (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
RAISE SOME HELL! Spinning out of the "First Night" events in Angel: After the Fall comes the official story of Spike's first months in hell. How did he come to be here? Why is Illyria with him? And exactly how did he come to set up shop in a certain famous mansion in Beverly Hills?

Product Details

• Comic
• Publisher: IDW Comics (2008)
• ASIN: B001A7WJJC
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,132,128 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Lynch, Urru, and Spike... reunited at last, August 11, 2008

By	Pat Shand "Pat Shand" (Freeport, NY USA) - See all my reviews

The overall consistency of a comic written by Brian Lynch and pencilled by Franco Urru is really, really strong, and I'm more than pleased to have those two back together. I miss that team so hard over on the Angel book, so this comic feels sort of like a soothing cream over the open wound.

What we've got here is a prequel that feels nothing like a prequel at all. What you might have noticed, if you've been following Brian Lynch's work, is that this man never just churns out comics for the sake of putting something out there. He fills each page with action, character reveals, and hilarious one-liners that you can just tell he has a blast writing. Spike is as in-character as ever here, showing how he's really taken charge as the defender of his group of humans. Even though we all know where Spike's character is going by the end of this book due to his early appearances in "Angel: After the Fall," Brian still manages to surprise us with how he handles Illyria/Fred as well as the humans he's looking over. Jeremy (or, as Spike calls him, Jerry) is an awesome addition to the cast that Spike really seems to have a nice rapport with.

As Brian moves the story forward, both he and Franco really put their all into each panel and pull off a lot of sly little winks and references throughout the book. From Angel, to Spike, to Everybody's Dead, to Monkey Man, I've read more Brian Lynch this year than I've read Whedon, so it was extremely awesome to see that the place Spike has taken up residence in is none other than Happytime Studios, which is the very same place where his original character Monkey Man sold his soul and momentarily "misplaced his nuts" in a previous Lynch scripted miniseries. Also, not to mention, Jeremy IS Jim from The Office.

Now I see why Brian is so enthusiastic about this series. Great character stuff, great plot so far, spot-on dialogue, and amazing art (which I'll get to down below). As dark as it is, it's a lot lighter in tone than the Angel book. Great, great read.

9/10

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start to the Spike spin off from Angel Season 6, August 10, 2008

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

While I've been a huge fan of the Joss Whedon led BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season 8, I've not been nearly so happy with ANGEL Season 6. Though Whedon is involved in both, he had devoted most of his attention to Buffy, leaving most of the work on Angel to Brian Lynch, whose work had not really impressed me. Furthermore, in Buffy 8, Whedon had been assisted by two absolutely brilliant arcs written by Brian K. Vaughan (creator of The Runaways and author of Y: THE LAST MAN) and Drew Goddard (a top writer on BUFFY and ANGEL before going on to excel on ALIAS and LOST, and then to the big screen as writer of CLOVERFIELD, and most recently seen as a member of the Evil League of Evil on DR. HORRIBLE as Fake Thomas Jefferson). Angel 6, on the other hand, has only been written by Lynch. In Angel 6 I've felt that the narrative was confused, jumpy, and flat out poorly conceived. Angel himself is stiff and uninteresting. David Boreanaz always did a great job making brooding fun on the TV show, but Lynch and illustrator Franco Urru have not done nearly as good a job in the comic.

So, I approached Spike: After the Fall -- something of a spin off that deals with Spike's adventures after the descent of L.A. into hell after the Battle in the Alley that ended the TV series -- with consideration trepidation. In fact, I bought the comic in July but have only now read it in August after purchasing the second issue in the series. To make matter worse, Whedon's name did not even appear on the cover as with Angel: After the Fall. My expectations were low.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered how much fun it was! Though Lynch and Urru fail to capture anything that made Angel such a great character on both BUFFY and ANGEL, they do a great job with Spike. The tone of the dialogue and the ongoing monologue is dead on. If you are familiar with James Marsters's mannerism in playing Spike, every line in the book will ring true. There were also a lot of great comic touches that felt true as well. For instance, Spike taking on some baddies that were just a little too tough for him, and then feeling patronized when Illyria, who is accompanying him, takes them out instead. When ANGEL was cancelled and there was briefly discussion of a Faith spin off (note: there never actually was a Faith series that had been pitched to a network, so it isn't quite true that Eliza Dushku chose doing TRU CALLING over a Faith series -- she had only one offer on the table, so she wisely went with the bird in hand rather than the bigger bird in the bush). Many, myself included, hoped that this might include Spike as a traveling companion (based largely on the brilliant encounters between Spike and Faith in the Buffy 7 episode "Dirty Girls") with Illyria as their hard-to-handle sidekick (I deeply lamented the "death" of Fred -- which would, according to writer Jeffrey Bell, have been short-lived, because in the TV Angel 6 it was planed to have Willow hit L.A. and cast a spell that would have brought Fred back while keeping Illyria in Fred-like form, allowing Amy Acker to play an incredibly exciting dual role -- but I thought that Illyria was an absolutely brilliant creation). The Spike-Illyria pairing in the two After the Fall series cements this.

So, all in all a delightful surprise. I'm now off to read Issue 2 in the series. I'm still not fond of Lynch's narrative style and I can't imagine ever coming to like Urru's drawing, but for whatever reason do a great job with Spike. Unfortunately this is going to be only a four-issue series, so we all need to enjoy it while we can.