“Seriously, whose guy is the T-Rex? Who brings a T-Rex to a vamp battle?” – Lord of Santa Monica

This is it, the big showdown between Angel and the demon lord’s champions. How can he expect to survive this fight on his own, especially now that he is apparently human? No clue. But that is the typical behavior we have come to expect from Angel.

I’m really enjoying this continuation of Angel. Not quite as much as Buffy but pretty close. I hope that other creators look to these two canonical books as examples of how they could continue their canceled TV shows. Hmm… I could see Serenity (after the movie) or Crusade being excellent candidates for a canonical comic book series.

Notice I keep saying the word canonical. Honestly, I used to hate comic books of my favorite TV shows, because they just didn’t “count”. For example, the old Angel books from IDW were good, but really just glorified fan fiction that was doomed to someday be negated by a spin-off TV show or movie. Come on, Gunn with an eyepatch? Reading canonical comic books that do “count” isn’t as good as seeing a live-action TV show or movie version, but I’ll take it.

There are two things in this book that may turn off Angel fans.

First, there is the artwork. It isn’t bad; Urru does capture the likeness of the characters well and takes full advantage of the limitless budget. But, the artwork is a little tough to make out at times and needs a little polishing.

Second, because of that limitless budget and LA’s “move,” it is a little jarring for long time viewers to see such a different scenario for our vampire (or should I say born again human) with a soul. Heck, who would have imagined seeing Angel with a flaming sword riding a dragon?

Me, I love the new story. To see such a large ensemble cast unite to help Angel was classic.

My biggest complaints are that the series isn’t ongoing and that we are left with a big cliffhanger at the end of this issue. I’m looking forward to reading “First Night" and finally learning how the Angel posse got here, but I hate waiting three months until I see what happens next in After the Fall.

Overall, this is a great limited series that needs a little more support in the art department and needs to continue after After the Fall.

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