Angel Omnibus

Angel Comics (Buffy Vampire Slayer)

by Christopher Golden, Joss Whedon, Mel Rubi

Heralding the return of Angel to Dark Horse Comics Angel Omnibus collects all of the orginal Dark Horse Angel comics to date, and features stories by series creator Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews (Serenity: Those Left Behind), and Christopher Golden (Baltimore). Set during seasons one and two of the Angel television series, favorite characters appear - Cordelia, Doyle, Wes, Gunn - as the investigations of LA's vampire detective agency delve into all that is dark, grotesque, strange, and unexplainable. Angel faces demonic rats, bizarre deaths from spontaneous combustion, Hollywood demons encountered courtesy of Cordelia, angry spirits, zombies, and more Before you take a look at the upcoming new Dark Horse Angel comic series and the aftermath of Buffy Season Eight, take a step back and remember Angel's LA saga

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Vampires, Horror, Fantasy, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Graphic Novels Comics

480 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2007

About the author

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com

Reviews

[Arie ☂ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars. Quite lackluster and similar to the very early Buffy comics. There's a lot of continuity issues, especially an awkward transition where Doyle just disappears and an issue or two later Wesley suddenly appears. Most of art is quite ugly, but the one exception is Long Night's Journey. It's sort of the Angel reboot arc after the first batch of stories. It had a lot of potential in the art and story.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories in this omnibus feel so unexciting that they all kinda blend together. I did think that the Cordelia and Dennis story was funny. But for the most part, the art just isn't for me. Maybe it's just me, but I want the characters to look more like their TV renditions and less generic. I can understand wanting to be creative with how you depict well-known characters, but somehow it didn't work that well for me. The second story in the Short Stories section is sideways on the Kindle Edition I have, which is pretty annoying. As the introduction for this omnibus explains, there were awkward moments in this series resulting from being far behind the show when it depicted a major character death. It's a shame that the comics couldn't be worked alongside the show better while also forming it's own satisfying identity.

[Intoxicatedcake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. Mostly I found the self-contained plots uninteresting and the writing a little stilted. As individual monthly pieces during the season they might have been alright, but all together it was just a lot of exposition and stilted dialogue at each beginning, followed by some plot that ended to quickly to really draw me in.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories - but not a lot that stood out. I liked Hunting Grounds. And the art was interesting and different. Cordelia's story was fun, too, with Dennis taking center stage. Long Night’s Journey was an interesting way to wrap up the Omnibus. Is it foreshadowing something?

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. A lot of it is typical licensed TV comics stuff. Kind of predictable, no character development, etc. But it was fun. I hadn't really delved into the Buffy/Angel universe in a long time.

[Randy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of average stories. All monster-of-the-week style issues that don't connect from one to the next. Over all forgettable.

[Sammi · Rating 4 out of 5]

idc maybe i enjoyed these a lot bc having just finished angel, i miss the show but they were fun monster of the week stories with the original team angels (doyle you are missed still!!)

[Buffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and cohesive, it blends perfectly with the TV series.

[Lilli W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Rounded up because it was nice seeing Doyle again, and I liked Long Night's Journey and the Dennis story.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It brought me right back to my high school days of watching Buffy and Angel.

[Miki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories spanning from before Buffy first season up to Angel latest seasons. All quite entertaining and interesting, featuring all the main characters in different moments.

[Dani Shuping · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC copy provided by NetGalley

Do you love the Angel TV series? Do you worship at the altar of Joss Whedon? Then this may just be the book for you. It takes place in the Angel world at the beginning of season 1 and just before season 2. Read as Angel and his team take on and solve a variety of mysteries, crimes, and do their best to save the world.

I'm a huge fan of the Angel TV series and the book is...mildly disappointing. They write in the intro that they really started the comic a bit too soon (it premiered right around the TV show came out) so none of the characters and concepts that made the show great were quite settled yet. For example, they depict Doyle in the comic strip and as fans of the show know he was killed off early in the first season. And its clear that the writers of the comic didn't know this was happening...as such his death is a bit rushed and it ends up affecting the writing for the rest of the issues as they try to play catch up to the TV series. And as such many events feel forced or just not explained, such as Wes and Gunn joining up. If you've watched all of the TV episodes you know where they come from, but if you're a casual watcher you'd be confused. That being said most of the writing is pretty sound and you can picture the characters saying the things that they do and the stories are fairly decent as well. And the last issue the writing is spectacular because Joss Whedon himself took the helm to pose the question...what if Angel wasn't really mean to be the only vampire with a soul?

The artwork of the series to me, leaves a little something to be desired. The covers in many places are quite creepy and don't look like Angel at all. For example he has red glowing eyes in some of the depictions and in others he appears to have a beard and be of non-European descent. And in some places they just do a bad job of depicting emotions and the human form. In the first issue Cordy says "ewwww" to seeing a dead body, one that was supposed to have been pretty brutally killed, but the body as depicted looks the character is sleeping. No cuts, no blood...nothing. Just a body laying on the floor in repose.

Taken issue by issue it leaves something to be desired, at least for me because I'm a big fan of the show. Taken overall as a whole it isn't bad and fans of the show may still enjoy seeing the characters in different tales, especially the last issue which was written by Joss Whedon.

[usagi ☆ミ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the synopsis says – for those looking to star the “After the Fall” series (written at the same time as “Buffy: Season 8″) and are looking to remember the TV series, this is definitely for you. This omnibus conveniently collects all of the TV-series era comics that were released while the show was still on the air in anticipation of the release of the “After the Fall” series. As I definitely needed the reminder, this omnibus was wonderfully helpful, and saved me some time instead of having to hunt down all of the comics individually. Even if you’re not wanting to get caught up with the new series, this is still a great compilation of the comics of the old series.

I think that out of all of these, “Strange Bedfellows” was my favorite if just for the “So, how do you feel about vampire hookers?” question within the first few pages of the story. It bought back some of the better memories of the “Angel” series, and helped me reaffirm my love for Whedon’s characters and their fun misadventures. They don’t always have to be witty, but damn, these little episodes can be fun. And I do so miss the detective agency and their wacky cases – I guess that’s what hit home most of all. I miss Whedon material on the small screen, and this was just kind of another reminder of that.

I’m not necessarily a fan of the all of the art with these comics, but each and every story supplements the episodes in a pretty important way, now that I think about it. Especially if you’re going into reading “After the Fall” (which I am), I found this set of the old comics really helpful. If I weren’t going into the new season, I might not necessarily dive right in as I’m more of a “Buffy” than “Angel” fan, though that may change with enough time and exposure. With all of the new Whedon comics coming out (speaking of which, the new “Dollhouse” comics are coming out later this month, oh boy!), and you’re a fan, you need to figure out where your priorities lie, I guess, and then go for it.

This is good prep for the new season, but on their own, they’re not as good as the “Buffy” comics, thus the lesser star count. But still, if you’re a Whedon fan, give them a read and see how you feel about your supplementary “Angel” experience. I’d love to hear about it!

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, librarything, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a free loaner from Netgalley – thanks to them.

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed in this. My understanding was that Joss Whedon was involved, and my expectation was that there would be some of the humor and intelligence the tv series showed. For the most part, that isn't the case. Most of this omnibus is painfully unfunny. There was a story arc for the first several issues in the collection, which does not excuse the silly repetitiveness.

The introduction talks about the problems with continuity – the comic featured Doyle, and by the time the second issue hit the stands they'd killed Doyle off. After a while the comic caught up and illustrated a grieving Angel and Cordy – but then a few pages later the omnibus jumps back in time and brings him back. That was not fun. The struggle to try to keep up with the developments on the show kept the comic from developing its own continuity – this volume contains a randomized series of leftovers and crumbs. Scraps.

And, also unfortunately, most of the artwork was dreadful. I used to love comics – I got a box from Westfield Comics once a month. I can be very forgiving of an occasional awkwardness, or ugly hands (hands are hard), or of course exaggerated superhero physiques. I don't expect every frame of a comic to be frameable. I do, however, expect the majority of what I'm looking at not to hurt my eyes. Most of the issues were purely ugly. Some responsibility for that belongs to the need to at least attempt to make the characters recognizable, which was only intermittently successful. If it had been even a little better … But it wasn't.

The only exception, in terms of humor and writing and artwork, was the arc of "Long Night's Journey". That wasn't bad, not bad at all – it looked miles better. But – and this is a spoiler, sorry – there was one massive flaw: the idea that the gypsies had some other motive than what was given in Buffy. I can't imagine why they would do this; it's not a minor part of the canon. It was a shame – the artwork was so much better quality, the writing actually got a chuckle or two out of me … and then there was that. Pity.

[Jody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of the tv show Angel. I loved the idea of a vampire with a soul doing good deeds to make amends for all the wrongs he did early in life. When it went off the air it was a sad day indeed. That's why I was excited to come across the Dark Horse Comics release of a collection of the Angel comic books released to date and focusing on the first two seasons of the television show. Conceived by show creator Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews (Serenity, Those Left Behind), Christopher Golden (Baltimore), Tom Sniegoski (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and David Fury (Buffy the tv show, Lost, 24) this collection features the characters of Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Doyle, and Kate. Within the pages of this compilation Angel faces demonic rats, Hollywood demons, zombies, and vampire hookers along with many other dangerous creatures.

I was impressed by the collection of creatures and otherworldly elements Angel and his crew fought in this collection. The creatures were unique and drawn in an appealing and eye-catching way and kept me eagerly turning the pages. The core group of characters were visually appealing too with their strong lines and bold looks. The images didn't have much resemblance to their television counterparts which was a bit of a let down and a reason why I first picked this up. Their language though was very reminiscent of their characters and brought out a chuckle from time to time. From the stuttering uncertainty of Wesley to the slight arrogance of Cordelia, their speech certainly brought back fond memories.

I haven't read many comics but was impressed on a whole by the intriguing storylines and eye-catching visuals. There was high action mixed with bits of humor and each story was more entertaining than the last. Those familiar with the show, and those new to the world of Angel, will both find something to like. I truly enjoyed my revisiting of Angel and his crew and will definitely search out more comics based on tv shows in the future.

[VampireNovelFan · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC Provided by NetGalley

This Angel omnibus includes 12 stories, so you definitely get your fill. It’s like a marathon. I enjoyed the dialogue, pacing, and action, but the art could have been better. The coloring was acceptable, but nothing to write home about. In terms of proportions and character design, there wasn’t always a good consistency, so at best I was indifferent about reading the story in this form since I didn’t necessarily like or hate looking at it. It should sell because of its title, but if it was a relatively unknown series, the art itself wouldn’t compel me to pick it up.

All in all, I think that if you enjoy urban fantasy and enjoyed the Angel series, you might enjoy this. I watched the show occasionally, so I am not quite a die hard fanatic, but I can say from experience that I don’t always enjoy every medium for a series I like. Because of that I can’t guarantee that Angel fans would like this. I just know that when it comes to the story, it is good enough for me to want to read more installments.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dunno about this one, you guys. The Dark Horse Angel comics did not get off to an auspicious start with events in the show wrecking the much slower comic timeline. Plus they were all written by Christopher Golden, who just... isn't always good. These all feel like they have no significance whatsoever and are all kinda samey-same. Even without significance, they're drab.

And most of the art is ugly as hell. If Charisma Carpenter got a likeness royalty, she should probably give it back.

The best part is the end where Joss Whedon got involved and rebooted the Angel comics into something that would have a larger story arc and explore the characters better. Unfortunately, it was a non-starter and was cancelled after a few issues. So even the inclusion of that here is yet another "What? Why did I just read that?" moment.

The IDW Angels are better, and 'Season 6' better still. This one's really for collectors only.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the full collection of Dark Horse Angel comics prior to the series moving to IDW. I hadn't read most of these, and it was an interesting chance to revisit Angel - most of these took place early in the series, so characters like Doyle and Kate are prominent, and Gunn barely even shows up.
None of the stories are earth-shattering, but several are enjoyable. There's a lot of Cordelia, and for the most part they get her voice down well; Angel is basically his brooding self with little depth added. Some of the villains are interesting, but again nothing overly memorable.
If you enjoy Angel and have watched all the episodes, it's a nice trip back to the well. If you want more weighty Angel, I recommend the IDW series After the Fall over this. It's a nice return, but not a necessary part of the canon.

[Adriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a fan of the TV show so it might be that it left me with too high expectations, but most of this is a mess.
The art is bad, with faces of characters (even the main ones) changing from one panel to the next. I remember always liking the cover art, but this is one instance where the cover lies about the inside.
The pacing is way too fast. There were times when I could have sworn I skipped a page but it turned out to be just an ill timed scene cut. And characters come and go with no introduction or explanation; you’re going to be terribly confused if you’re not familiar with the TV show.
Two segments save it from being a one star read. One segment titled “Little Girl Lost” and the very last segment, “Long Night’s Journey,” both are action packed and feature some of the best art and the most cohesive storytelling.

[Hayley (Strange & Unusual Book Club) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This was MUCH better than I anticipated based on reviews. Except for "The Long Night's Journey," these were all great. The stories and characters align well with the show. My only complaint is that Angel is frequently depicted with blue eyes instead of brown. A minor quibble sure, but it does show a lack of effort or research. I saw this far more with the early Buffy comics. For the most part, I was impressed. These stories had character development, heart, and even a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. If you enjoy the show, I highly recommend this collection.

Ratings for each story
Surrogates 3.5
The Changeling Wife 3.5
Earthly Possessions 3
Lovely, Dark and Deep 3.5
Beneath the Surface 3.5
Strange Bedfellows 3.5
Vermin 3.5
Little Girl Lost 3.5
Cordelia 4
Long Night's Journey... 2

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this book much more than the ones for season 8 of Buffy that I read recently. I think that was because the stories in this anthology blend in so well with the TV series. Some of the stuff in Buffy seemed too extreme to have been used in a televised version, whereas these stories could easily have been TV episodes in their own right.

These stories take place over the first two seasons of the TV show and are wonderful additions to the canon. This is a must for any Angel fans out there.

I received this as a free e-book ARC from NetGalley.

[Christina Rause · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was pretty good but the story gets off to a strange and slow start. It's not until about halfway through Spike's "After the Fall" series that it gets interesting and starts coming together. Angel's "After the Fall" books are better but that probably explains why this season has 4 issues for Spike and 12 for Angel.

In the end, I'm glad I stuck with it and I'm looking forward to finding and reading the next season because, in true Joss Whedon fashion, the ending does not remotely satisfy every storyline.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think this collection was bad but perhaps a little clunky. I appreciated Allie's introduction which. Gives some context as to why this might have been. I agree that the handling of Doyle's death could have been better and maybe it would have been wise to wait u tip the show got its feet under it before rushing to produce comics. Generally the stories were good and the characters accurate. The short story, Point of Order, in my opinion, was a little gem of genius.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of Angel comics. The panels were well drawn and the story line made sense and fit right in with the TV show, as these stories took place during the first two seasons of the show. I enjoyed the dialogue because it had the same witty characteristics that the characters used in the show. These are a nice lead in to the Angel: After the Fall graphic novel series.

[Jenny Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ongoing love of the Buffyverse meant that I've arrived here. Not a bad place to be; but clearly a work exploring and establishing what it means for Angel to have his own identity and narrative apart from Buffy. Which means it's not always focused or clear. But overall the stories are enjoyable.

[Adam Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really solid collection of Angel comics, mostly unconnected to the oversight of Joss Whedon, though he has a brief story in the collection. Still, they maintained both the sound and feel of the show, which is the most important element.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of stories set at the beginning of the Angel TV series. There's some fun ones here, I particularly liked Cordelia, when a demon attacked her flat. The last story in the book is written by Whedon, and is well worth a read. A good read.

[Isnotapipe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was honestly good, but didn't live up to the Buffy Universe. Angel itself, was always kind sub-par for Whedon, and many of the stories in this omnibus were pretty good, but still not ideal. Worth the read if you're a big fan, but otherwise, you're not missing much.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

More adventures for Angel and the gang

[Kate McCartney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to take a look back at Angels earlier days.