Angel & Faith: Season 9, Vol. 5: What You Want, Not What You Need

Angel & Faith: Season 9

by Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs (Artist), Joss Whedon (Executive Producer)

Season 9, Volume 5: What You Want, Not What You Need

When Angel was broken, alone, and in need of a friend, Faith took charge and restored him to health. When he set his sights on righting one of his many wrongs - by resurrecting mentor and Watcher Rupert Giles - Angel again needed her help. Now Angel's quest has come to the final stage, but not without great cost to Faith... And not without interruption: Big Bads Whistler, Pearl, and Nash have entered the last stage of their ultimate plan to unleash a magical virus that could kill billions while forcing the evolution of life on earth...

Series writer Christos Gage (Avengers Arena) and series artist Rebekah Isaacs (DV8) conclude their celebrated run on Angel & Faith.

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

136 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2014

About the author

Chris N. Gage is a writer for comic books and television.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll be honest, I thought after his mini-series, Spike would stay away from Buffy for a little while longer…

Anyway, this volume wasn’t about him. It was about an apparently magic-addicted Whistler who was willing to destroy a third of Earth’s population just to ‘get a fix’.

As I said before, I’m not a huge fan of that plot. I didn’t like how it diminished the idea that Whistler was doing something he truly thought necessary for the greater good.

There was also the main story. Spoilers ahead…

Giles was killed at the end of Season Eight. All throughout this series, Angel has been finding pieces of his soul to bring him back to life.
Originally, Faith was against this but as time went on, her desire to see Giles again won out.

This volume sees the return of the legendary character… though, not as the older and wiser father figure Faith wanted.
Rupert Giles returned as a 12 year old boy who unfortunately, could not control his pre-teen body’s reactions to his once pupil (I very much disliked those moments).

After a brief sentimental moment, the focus is back on Whistler and his apocalypse.
There was a whole issue just for fighting and chasing a glowing magical orb.

I’m not sure how I felt about Nadira’s plot. I’m glad she got her revenge. That it came with a price is a good lesson.
But then, when she really should have died, Nadira’s somehow getting stronger? We get no reason beyond ‘she must have been infected by the plague’.
I was kind of hoping to leave Nadira in this season but it looks like she’ll get more page time. Let’s hope they give her more personality!

Someone else I was hoping to leave behind… Pearl.
Nash was killed and that affected Pearl in ways we have yet to discover. I really disliked the twins. They were there purely for muscle. That’s it.

People I wouldn’t mind seeing again, Giles’ great-aunts; Lavinia and Sophronia!
They were there mostly for comic relief however, they did have personality and a character growth moment at the end.

This is a long review for a volume that felt very basic.
And I didn’t even say anything about the art! Most of the time it was fine. There were other times where some characters were almost unrecognisable. But that’s typical for these comics.

[Lana *Best left alone with books and snacks* · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cool finale with lots of action and one-liners. Pretty much what you'd expect from Angel. I'm glad I finally got to this series.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy this series, but there's nothing that really makes me go WOW and get super invested.

That said, revived, adolescent Giles is ADORABLE.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good plotline concerning Giles, but I didn't like how they wrapped things up with Whistler Give the addict his fix and he'll be a nice person again, even sacrifice himself for the people he was just attacking? Didn't buy it.
I do like Christos Gage, though, and I'm glad he's doing the current season of the Buffy comics.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, Angel & Faith: Season 9 is an enjoyable series. The best part about the series for me is Faith. She is one of the best Buffyverse characters in my opinion. I also loved Giles’ great aunts. I think the main negative for me is Angel. I didn’t mind him in Buffy the TV show, but in the comics his continuous need to atone becomes very tedious. It’s clear Joss Whedon loves Angel and wanted to keep him front and centre. Whereas it would have been a better creative choice to focus on Faith. Having said this, I’m still looking forward to reading Angel & Faith: Season 10.

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

why do the buffy writers always have to ruin good characters for some sexist jokes?

3 stars ‘cause faith is hot so 🫠

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

So if you literally make me sit up and go WHAT I am going to give you 5 stars.

WHAT?!?

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this and the Buffy final arc at the same time by alternating every issue, and it very much felt like how it was intended to be read. Both books are the main crew fighting some supercharged lunatic who is trying to restore magic in a way that will end the world, so by reading them at the same time it starts to feel more intentional and gives it the frantic feeling that I think it's intended to have. This is pretty decent. Angel brings back Giles, but he's a 12 year old boy now with all of Giles memories. This is used well in some scenes where Giles talks about how he was happy with who he was and didn't want to start over, and badly in other scenes where it's used as an excuse to sexualize faith because his hormones are out of control. I'm glad they made him 12 and not 22 because if it were the later they'd probably have tried to make him date Faith or Buffy and that would have been bad. Surprisingly little is done with the way that Angel has been carrying Giles around in his head all season; This feels like a way to really bond the two, but it just leads to a couple of conversations. They acknowledge and discuss it, but it feels like it should have been more of a focal point, but I guess boner jokes are more important.

Giles is immediately annoyed that they wasted time resurrecting him when Whistler and Pearl & Nash are about to kill 2 billion people trying to bring back magic, so they all head off to stop them. It goes pretty badly and is only really stopped by giving Whistler enough magic to make him sane again. Whistler was a pretty decent villain who had thoroughly justified his plan to himself, and I preferred that to him just being crazy because he doesn't have magic. Talking him out of it is good, but it should have required more talk.

In the end they stop the plan but not before a neighbourhood in London has been magically transformed. Faith leaves to go join Kennedy's morally ambiguous private merc operation and Angel stays to watch out for magic town. Nadira survived which is good because too many slayers have died, and Pearl survived which is bad because she bored me. Overall it's a good end to a decent comic. I want to believe it will get better in season 10 but the impression I get is that these comics got worse each season.

[Sammi · Rating 3 out of 5]

i teeter at a 3.5 for a few reasons; the first being while I’m glad Giles came back, I’m not a fan of how young he is and the gross sexual hormonal jokes of him reacting to faith’s body were nasty (but in the other hand if he had come back in his 20s I bet they would’ve made him hook up with her and I would’ve hated that too…), the second was that whistler felt like he was dealt with easily and that angel figured things out about him without us realizing it which made it harder to be like in angel always knew this.

loved spike literally abandoning everything once he heard dawn was sick (and abandoning his decision to stay away from buffy after all that bc dawn is more important)!! also love that faith and angel lost their memories of her bc they don’t have many real memories of her, while all spikes memories are real moments and not just magic. (yes i wrote a paragraph off a 2 page scene, down bad for spike club continues)

curious to see the impact the magic plague has on this town and for angel as he navigates trying to help. i deeply feel for faith who struggled with bringing Giles back and the Giles they brought back wasn’t who she needed, and worst of all, wants to go be with buffy instead of her which she hoped would happen after they got him back. Faith is always the second choice, and I really want someone to put her first for once. I hope she gets that in the next season because my heart hurts for her this season.

depressed we gotta deal with damn pearl next season… and nadira too but hopefully she’s less angsty now.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I think I waited too long to get around to starting/finishing this series, because all the big moments in this volume sort of felt flat, since I already knew what happened from the Buffy side of things. I feel like it was a fairly satisfying conclusion to this story arc (although Whistler seems to be dealt with entirely too easily.), but it definitely didn't make me even a little bit interested in reading Angel & Faith Season Ten. I just don't actually care all that much about what Angel and Faith are doing. It's nice when they show up or get brief mentions in the Buffy comics, but I guess I feel like that's enough for me.

I'm glad I finally got around to finishing this though, since it's been sitting around in our house for years at this point!

[Andrea Ambroso · Rating 4 out of 5]

E siamo arrivati allo scontro finale: l'ho adorato, tutte le trame sono state portate avanti e risolte.
E adesso sono curioso di vedere cosa succederà nella nuova stagione, i protagonisti hanno intrapreso ognuno una strada diversa (coerenti col percorso fatto finora).
Menzione d'onore alle prozie di Giles: in questo volume molto più di comic relief.
Nuovo Giles 2.0: curioso di vedere che farà della sua nuova vita in quella "forma".

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a nice conclusion to this season! From the resurrection-of-all-time for [redacted] to Whistler turned Thanos meets Dark Willow, I had a blast. Faith never failed me once as she continued growing, kicking ass, and spouting off all these truth bombs. It was neat seeing Spike leave and knowing why/where he was going because I read the concurrent Buffy season (otherwise I would be all sorts of WTF?!?).

Can't wait to see where it all goes from here!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good end to a really good series. I like how the two main plot threads (Giles' resurrection & Whistler's plan) got resolved. And I like the character development for both Angel and Faith. They've both been left in a good place, and I look forward to (eventually) reading season ten.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooo good! Reading Faith & Angel has me fangirling about this world allover again. Too bad I can't say the same about the Buffy series. But after what happened in this issue maybe it will get better over there?

[Ame · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's the stuff!

[Abigail Pankau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice ending for this Faith/Angel teamup. Nice complementary series to go with Buffy Season 9.

[Bosco Farr · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could I wind this one up with 3.5 instead of 4 stars. Started out great, ended on the weak side. Still not to shabby a Buffyverse story arc.

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, this season managed to capture the magic of the TV Show in both titles and truly adds interesting stuff to the Buffyverse. So much better than Season 8... read it if you're a fan.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series was stellar, and dare I say it, better than Buffy. I guess there’s just something about Angel and Faith’s tortured brokenness that lends itself to great storytelling.

[Sini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice conclusion. Just don´t know what to think about Giles as child ;)

[Magali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This season was amazing ! It was full of feelings and action and even humour. The characters were so well written and the art is nice. I really liked it and can't wait to read the next one.

[Uche]

They literally repeated the same finale from Buffy season 9: make the Big Bad feel sorry for trying to destroy the world in the process of restoring magic... and have him self-annihilate to fix it.

[Aubrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the way the Angel & Faith series ended for Season 9.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An even four, not the most climactic end to this writer's run but there's still a lot here I loved. Definitely going to miss those goofy aunts.

[Harry Hipkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fight scenes are a little goofy, feels a little daft that anyone survived any of that but hell yeah all the same.

[Pamela D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for Season 9 of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel & Faith, and Spike.

Last year, I read the craziness that was Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season Eight. The story got a wee bit out of control and got a bit too epic. The story also suffered from wanting to follow about fifteen characters. Luckily, Joss Whedon learned from his mistakes.

My favorite change to Season Nine was that several characters received their own books. Buffy had five books, Angel and Faith had five books, and Spike and Willow each had one book too. Breaking up the Buffy-verse make each book tighter and more focused. Season Eight felt a bit scattered with random standalone stories that came out of nowhere. With different characters having their own books, I felt more guaranteed that my Buffy comic was going to have Buffy in it.

In addition to appreciating breaking up the characters, I loved that Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season Nine (and the other series) returned to basics. The story focused on how the aftermath of the showdown in the final arc of Season Nine affected Buffy and her Scoobies. Season Nine didn't take us around the world or into different dimensions but that was okay, because the Scooby gang was doing what it does best: fighting vampires and dealing with age-relevant crises. Unlike in Season Eight in which I felt like I was missing important details, because I had forgotten plot lines from the Buffy television show and never finished watching Angel, Season Nine felt more manageable. In Season Nine, I recognized all of the characters immediately, and I understood why events were happening (for the most part). Also, I found these plots to be more relate-able. Buffy and the gang were not only dealing with vampires but also being adults and managing grown-up life stressors. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed that the creative team wimped out on a particular storyline that could have been really fascinating. Besides this one issue though, I did enjoy all of the stories.

I know I keep focusing on the Buffy comic; however, my praise goes out to all of the Season Nine books. I am much more of a Buffy fan than an Angel fan, so I did enjoy Buffy more than Angel & Faith. Spike was good as well; however, his tale was only a standalone book. I didn't feel like I got too much out of it besides a fun ride.

Overall, I enjoyed Season Nine much more than Season Eight. The writing was tighter and stronger. The characters returned to their inner-Scoobies. I liked seeing my beloved characters stretched and pulled in new ways and meeting new and fun characters (like a new slayer!).

[Nicole Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a slow beginning, this volume was more or less a satisfying end to the season. Of course, Spike had to disappear early on for his reappearance in Buffy: The Core. I also liked the interplay between the two comics with the references to the big magical energies being expended at the Deeper Well.

This volume culminated in Angel's big aims to bring Giles back to life... just not exactly as expected. Sadly, no further Ethan Rayne, given that he had a bullet in his head, and nobody cared enough to bring him back (*tear*). It had the big final showdown between Nash, Rose and a severely magic jonsing Whistler (not the way I would have seen him come back into the series, it's true, but there it is) and Angel, Faith, Giles, Alasdair with the two great aunts Sophie and Lavinia.

Sophie and Lavinia really do tend to be there for nothing more than comedic value and good timing when everyone else is tapped out. Oh, and Nadira came back! And I feel will have a relevant plot line within the next set of comics.

Although Whistler was sadly on the side of evil for the majority of this season, I was really glad when Angel managed to wrench him back to the side of "balance" before the end, with many a reference to season two dialogue.

The only thing I was confused about is how there is going to be a season 10 Angel and Faith series, given that it was Faith's intent at the end of this book to leave Angel and branch out on her own, after delivering Giles back across to team Buffy, (in what was perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of the entire comic), of course.

[Jonathan Coulombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the final trade for Angel & Faith (Season 9) and it delivers both in terms of action/intensity and artistic value. Angel & Faith has been a little more interesting than Buffy these past few story arcs with the introduction of great new characters that are involved directly into the story and not just on the side-line. The aunts are plain amazing; Kid Giles is a great spin on the character; and the villains are as good as they used to be on the tv show, if just a tad underdeveloped due to comic-books pace.

In this story arc, Giles is born again, but Westler manages to steal the remaining magic artifacts and plan to use them to create a magic plague akin to a mystic nuclear bomb that threaten the world. It is up to Angel and Faith to stop it.

Here, the premise is great, the showdown is however even better. That is not to say that it is perfect. What is lacking is a sense of bigger picture. Having read the final Buffy story arc shortly, Angel & Faith feels really like a spin-off event over anything else. How important is it to stop a magic plague in order to preserve a status quo that is really ban when the other team is actually preventing the end of time while also trying to restore magic to the universe? Because of its lack of importance (or because Buffy's finale was too grandiose) this might have been better as a mid-season thing over a season that would have lasted longer than 5 trades.

In terms of art, we're talking pure awesomeness. The design of that final monster is amazing. Character likeliness are, as always in Angel & Faith, really strong. The magic bomb made space for some fantastic things and the art delivers.

Go read it!

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is the conclusion to this season. In this one we find out about the resurrection of Giles. We also have the final battle between our heroes and Whistler, Pearl & Nash.

I have to say that this whole season of this comic has been fantastic. The storyline, the pairing of the two characters, and the artwork has been enjoyable and this issue continues this. I loved Giles' resurrection and the fun the writers had with it and they have set it up that it will continue to pay off. The character that really shined in this issue is Faith. I really cared about what happens to her and at the end I felt her emotions. Good job by the writers and artists to make me feel this way. The pace was fast throughout this whole collection as we had an epic battle that lasted many pages. I wished the portrayal of this battle had a grander scale. If Angel and Faith lost this battle there would have been dire consequences for the world but the portrayal kind of missed the mark on that. Maybe the twist of Giles' resurrection eclipsed this and by the time the battle raged it was a little bit of a letdown.

That being said if you are a fan of this universe do yourself a favor and read this run of comics. Since both series ended this first season of Angel & Faith is the most enjoyable of all the comics.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, I very much enjoyed this concluding issue of Angel & Faith. I was thrilled to finally see the resurrection of Rupert Giles, and had a small chuckle over the unusual twist of his return (though I did come to sympathize with his feelings of being disconnected and uncertain of his place in the world in his new, juvenile form). Angel continued to make me sigh and want to bash my head against the wall, but I'm used to that. He's made me feel that way for years.

Faith, I think, is really the stand-out character, though. This is the girl who is continuously trying to find herself. She has so much invested in others (Angel, her girls, Giles, etc), and now she needs to seek out something that is just for her. I did feel a little sympathy for her when she found herself yet again coming in second to Buffy when it came to Giles' affections, though unsurprised. No matter how bad things get between Buffy and Giles, she will always be first in his heart.

The whole conclusion of the fight against Whistler, Pearl, and Nash was almost an afterthought to me, quite second in importance to what our heroes were going through.

Still, a decent conclusion. Really looking forward to Season 10! :)