Angel and Faith Season Ten #4 Review

Past comes to bite.

Angel faces off against Pearl as past characters come to the fore for both him and Faith.

This issue focused heavily on Angel as Faith is at crossroads and it doesn’t disappoint on the high octane levels.

But people, if there was ever a moment you need to watch Buffy, this is it. Otherwise most of the major moments will feel flat.

Will Conrad one-ups himself with the artwork this issue, as faces come off as more well defined than ever before and the action is excellently choreographed.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………….

Pearl takes on Angel and manages to get the upper hand with her surprise attack.

But trying to take her time backfires on Pearl as Angel manages to get his shots in even as he is occupied with saving the surrounding people from the resulting damage.

Without any recourse as he gets pegged back, Angel throws one of the glass blower’s magic bottles at Pearl, with it exploding and rendering Pearl blind.

Corky and his group attempt to take down a weakened Angel, but fail resulting in Corky’s capture.

Elsewhere, Faith decides she has had enough of the corporate slayer way at DeepScan and decides to leave, but stays back for one reason – Kennedy hands her a file of Riley’s missing report.

Now for those in the dark about Riley Finn, he is the only longterm (lasting for one and a half seasons) human boyfriend Buffy Summers had.

He arrived in Sunnydale after the military gets wind of the supernatural elements present there.

Striking up a relationship with Buffy, he left after a tumulus period and married a fellow military officer. He was a double agent in the ranks of the main villain of Season 8 and managed to keep good relations with Buffy when it ended.

Faith and Riley had their bad moments when Faith, still damaged, managed to impersonate Buffy and engaged in a private moment with Riley, ruining their relationship further.

So, you can see why Faith would want to make amends.

Angel meanwhile brings Corky and one of the bottles to Nadira, who apparently hears a voice telling her to open the bottle. This results in Corky doing a Genie and getting sucked into the bottle.

Later, Angel and Inspector Brandt return to the warehouse to find it completely empty of the glass-blower’s bottles. Elsewhere, we see Corky’s group carting the bottles to one particular person – Amy Madison.

Now Amy has been one of the more prominent enemies of the Scooby Gang. First, she was Buffy and Willow’s rival in popularity and witchcraft respectively.

Every time it seemed like she changed, she would prove duplicitous. In an attack against Buffy’s group of slayers, she was in charge of spells and hexes and suffered when the seed was destroyed and magic disappeared.

It seems she is back with a vengeance.

SPOILERS END……………….

With the return of two long standing characters, it seems Angel and Faith will be more rooted to past arcs than it seemed before.

Still, there are intriguing threads being weaved here and hopefully this will give rise to a firmer impetus forming.

Conrad’s artwork though is great. I just wish both Angel and Faith start to do something really substantial.

So, I give it 7.5 out of 10.

+The artwork is excellent

+Some intriguing threads

-Angel and Faith themselves seem to be slow movers

-Faith short shafted this issue

-Too much emphasis on the past may alienate new readers