Spike: The Devil You Know

Spike: The Devil You Know #1-4

by Bill Williams, Chris Cross

While out and about (drinking, naturally) Spike gets in trouble over a girl (of course) and finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that involves Hellmouths, blood factories, and demons. Just another day in Los Angeles, really. But when devil Eddie Hope gets involved, they might just kill each other before getting to the bad guys!

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

104 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2010

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mini series sees a new character Eddie Hope stumble into Buffyverse alumni, Spike! I enjoyed their conversations but the general story was sort of...pointless? I mean, they could continue some of the plot that was left open but the characters didn’t really accomplish anything until the last issue and even then it wasn’t what they set out to do! Then again, that is the Buffyverse way of handling things!

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was all right. Sure, closing a hellmouth with the help of a devil is fun and all, but what can I say? It's all been done before in buffyverse. I really want the characters to look more like themselves, too. I'd read this only if you're a die-hard completionist like me.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was pointless. The story is dull enough that I doubt the writer was interested in it. The character of Eddie Hope actually got a lore more development in the one shot I read in Angel: The End than he does in the entirety of this miniseries. The art... Well, I've resigned myself to these media tie-in comics having a really slight grasp on how to draw actual people, but this was another thing entirely. The artist couldn't seem to decide from one panel to the next how to draw Spike, and he couldn't have looked like himself in more than a few panels. Horrible.

[kory. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dynamic between Spike and Eddie is nice.

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is part of the Buffy/Angel universe and is a collection of four issues. This collection is your basic buddy cop team up where two people who do not like each other pair up to defeat a common enemy. In this one, Spike teams up with Eddie Hope who had a minor role in previous Angel issues. Their common enemy is someone from Spike's past who is attempting to open a mini hellmouth.

There is really nothing new here. The idea of a villain opening a hellmouth has been done before. The team up of Eddie and Spike never really works. They try the witty banter and attempt to outdo each other but it never comes across as delightful entertainment. And that is not even the worst aspect about this collection. That distinction belongs to the artwork. It would be nice if a comic based on a television show character somewhat resembled the actor. In this collection, the Spike character illustration would differ from panel to panel and was a sad replica of the character.

This was a quick read and I would only recommend this to die hard fans like myself. This can be skipped because there is no vital information for Spike's story arc.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buffy/Angel-verse books can be so hit or miss and this story was such a surprising hit. Spike is introduced to Eddie Hope and they have a wild night trying to save the day. The dialogue was spot on as Spike sounded like Spike and the plot was fun. The art by Chris Cross was great. The book could have used a little help from editorial with more obvious chapter breaks and footnotes. Overall, a really great book!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable story wherein Spike is enticed into a trap by a beautiful woman. Her employer, a rabid vampire, Tansy has struck a deal to open man-sized Hellmouths in various cities and fears that Spike will try to close them. Spike strikes an uneasy partnership with a demon, Eddie Hope, in order to stop Tansy. I highly recommend this book.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got lost a few times during the story, maybe because many of the panels didn't matter? This was an okay story, and the back and forth with Spike and Eddie was all right. I missed seeing some more of my favorites - Illyria had one panel and was gone, Angel was mentioned, but only seen in the flashbacks. Meh.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read if youre a completionist. The art was pretty bad at some parts despite the beautiful covers.

Gave it a 4 because i didnt hate it, it was funny, interesting, and nice to see more of Eddie Hope.

[pianogal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite. Not a bad story, but some of it didn't ring as Spike. He was a little butch in some of the drawings and his trademark snark was missing.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eddie and Spike team up. Quite an enjoyable Spike story.

[Love_booksforlife Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Spike but I felt as though he wasn't acting according to character in this story. The art was also not to my taste. Could have skipped this story to be honest.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

An oddly subdued conclusion to a story that seems to demand a either a bigger finish or a continuation.

[Candiebarr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I remember reading this the last time I read SPIKE Omnibus, which is a book I have, but even so, I think I’m going to keep this anyway. More so because it’s a BtVS related book. I’m not really a big fan of the art. I think there’s too much detail for it to actually look good in colour. In fact, there were a few pages at the back of the book before it was coloured and it looked much cleaner. I also don’t think the character design remained of the same quality throughout, but maybe that had something to do with trying to draw the characters to match their real-life counterparts. The story also seemed a bit rushed and doesn’t seem to explain anything. Like, why did Spike just happen to run into Eddie? and who is this person (demon?) opening the hellmouth for Tansy? Why is she opening it?

In all honesty, the only thing worth reading it for are the few coloured pages at the end that are kind of cool looking.

[Jonathan Coulombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, Spike makes a great character to put into a story. This one feels really like an episode of the TV series as it involves adventures during a single night out. The author managed a good mix of adding a little bit of Spike background while keeping it to the present day. The pace was also really strong in this one.

4 stars instead of 5 for 2 reasons: First, while the likeness was quite present in terms of artwork, it was a bit too cartoony at points. Second, Spike is a great character, and Eddie was interesting, but mixing the two of them, while the result was great, was not like having Spike with someone else from the show in terms of possibilities for dialogues and what not. Hence, I feel it could have been even better as a trio if Gunn was in it or another character.

Great read however.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spinning out of the Angel series from IDW, vampire-with-a-soul Spike finds himself tracking down a Hellmouth-creating vampire he knew from back in his demonic days. Newly-minted character Eddie Hope, the ice devil with a list of names to hunt down becomes embroiled in the mess as well. Not only does the plot fail to impress, but it feels more like a chance to test the waters with the Eddie Hope character. While I admire IDW for trying new things are finishing up the canon "After the Fall" storyline, Eddie Hope and Spike's latest adventures do little for this Buffy fan.

[Sarah]

Meh. That's the best thing I can say about this. I love Spike like A LOT but this book stripped out all the emotional stuff that made him a great character, gave him a plot that was mediocre, and paired him with the least interesting sidekick ever in Eddie Hope. It seemed like this was all testing the waters for an Eddie Hope series but his character just isn't interesting enough on his own to sustain a story. Super Spike fans looking for a distraction might enjoy a flip through but this is not a great story or even a good one.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty routine stuff. One of those spin off comics that are greenlit when a property is booming and everyone wants to lap them up, regardless of the quality or care that's taken in producing them. There'll always be Spike fans excited by the prospect of Spike in his very own comic happy to pay money for second rate work. That's not to say that it isn't fun in any way, it's just all so derivative and run of the mill, taking a bunch of elements from 1,000 other Buffyverse stories and adding nothing of interest to them. There's not enough here to justify the existence of this one though.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid entry in Buffy/Angel canon as Joss Whedon now has oversight, while not actually writing, the comic tales of these characters. This takes place post Angel season 5 and Spike is now walking the heroes road by choice. Wolfram and Hart, plus the Black Thorn and hellmouths all figure in a tale that seems to be setting up further Spike adventures down the road.

[Bert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes. The run of the mill story was bad enough, but the drawings are just awful. I'd proclaim this to be "for fans only", but I'd be doing a disservice to fans if they'd take that as an encouragement.

[Sarah Weiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fine.

Spike and Eddie have a good report. They hate each other, but they hate the monsters more.

I still don't get why I have to care about Eddie - whatever.

I'm not going to complain about a Spike comic. I just wish this one had some baring on the overall arc.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

My gosh, sometimes the illustrations of this - especially of Spike - rendering him completely unidentifiable, which is a shame because the storyline was great.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spike teams up with another demon to close some hellmouths. This is a lot of fun, and is totally Spike. This is a good story and a very light read.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing special, really. Seems to be the set-up for something else which might be interesting but generally I felt this one was phoned in.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, Eddie Hope seems to not have much depth beyond the Punisher archetype, but Spike still has enough style to buoy him.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually own the individual comics and not the collected edition, but found this little side story to be good fun. But then I pretty much love anything with Spike in it!

[Anastasia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Spike, but hated this series. I read 1 and a half issues before I quit.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This finishes up the IDW side of things for me, good to see where Eddie the Ice Demon appears. The art was a little funky in this one, Spike didn't look like himself.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Spike but I felt as though he wasn't acting according to character in this story. The art was also not to my taste. Could have skipped this story to be honest.