Angel & Faith 10.03 "Where the River Meets the Sea, Part III" - Released 6/4/14 (DH)

[Buffy Summers]

Writer: Victor Gischler
Penciller: Will Conrad

Angel has found everyone is going to the same person in London's Magic Town for advice"”and it's decidedly not him. But she is someone Angel can take partial credit for . . . And the pixie menaces have stepped up their muscle with another lady from Angel's past. Meanwhile, Faith is screwing up. Again.

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Could Nadira be working for Jasmine?--willingly or unknowingly.

Yes, Angel & Connor "killed" Jasmine in AS4, but Angel similarly "kills" one of the senior partners in Reprise, and there's no indication that he accomplished anything more than sending the Wolf, Ram, or Hart back to his now-native dimension.

It would totally fit with Jasmine's MO, plus she knows Angel is now weary of betrayal from his seer friends (Possessed!Cordy, Crazy!Whistler), so to using a former enemy could throw him off...

Lastly you have the Drogyn arc in AS5 strongly imply that Old Ones cannot be killed, and then Koh basically saying the same this season. Jasmine may not be an Old One, but PTBs seem to be on that level if not higher.

 

[Xin Rong]

Could Nadira be working for Jasmine?--willingly or unknowingly.

Yes, Angel & Connor "killed" Jasmine in AS4, but Angel similarly "kills" one of the senior partners in Reprise, and there's no indication that he accomplished anything more than sending the Wolf, Ram, or Hart back to his now-native dimension.

It would totally fit with Jasmine's MO, plus she knows Angel is now weary of betrayal from his seer friends (Possessed!Cordy, Crazy!Whistler), so to using a former enemy could throw him off...

Lastly you have the Drogyn arc in AS5 strongly imply that Old Ones cannot be killed, and then Koh basically saying the same this season. Jasmine may not be an Old One, but PTBs seem to be on that level if not higher.

God, I hope not, that would be awfully dull.

 

[ladydorotea]

Read the issue today and... what can I say ? It looks like W&H should file patent infringement lawsuit against Kennedy... for she is totally turned Deepscan into an evil (bodyguard) service firm with demonic clientele. They would so sue the heck out of her bony ass if they tried and they will succeed. And I ask myself - what's the point of ditching Angel the series original premise, original villains and AI itself with its wealth of superb, developed characters... all to create the poor man's W&H employing Slayers and have Faith waltz into it? To replay AtS S5 with Faith ? Hmm... and yeah, Billy Rage is so totally Billy Blim - minus the 'special' ability - it is not even funny.

On top of it, in 'other half of the story' we now have two mutated by magic evil or semi-evil chicks going after Angel... and both of them are poor man's imitation of either Jasmine or Drusilla.

So, basically the whole series is ran by a flock of evil females. Now, if that was not misogynistic slippery slope personified than I am a ghost of Christmas past.

I mean... I know it is hard to come up with original ideas for stories nowadays. But then what was the point of the 'reset' and of ditching all the AtS continuity to come down to *this* ???

 

[thetopher]

Read it and liked it.

It felt like an issue that was slowing the pace a bit, being the third one that was to be expected.
Like Faith (in crisp business atire- be still my heart...😀) taking on demon guy with a knife instead of a gun- play to your strengths I guess.

-The glass blower was freaky- not evil, just some kind of...utility demon? is that a thing? Now some demons have a specific magical purpose? Interesting.

There were some good lines from both Faith and Angel:

-Catch a pixie and its not as cute as it sounds.', plus the line about the 'self-aggrandizing beach ball.' 🙂

-'Foghorn Leghorn' Nice Faith quip. 🙂

-Faith making with the hurt was just good to watch.

-The remark about Faith beng an A-lister could be taken as a back handed comment, but to Faith it probably emphasises her loner status.

-I was surprised about Deepscan guarding/working for 'evil' demons- 'cause that chicken-thing didn't look like a balancing demon to me. Huge, muscle-y thing that it was. The way Kennedy described it sounds like it's some kind of Incubus-type. Gross. And also evil.
Nice going Kennedy. 🙁
Also bringing up Buffy and how she 'aced' her first assignment? Ddi she? I thought she pissed Kennedy off, but then again that whole storyline was very forgetable...

I disagree about Deepscan being anywhere near as bad as W&H though, just morally comprimised/murky. Maybe that's why Faith leaves, but I'm guessing it going to be a clash of temprements.

- The whole point of Nadira is that don't know if she's evil or not, is she crazy? Have second sight? Being manipulated? Nobody knows, not even Angel- dismissing her as a 'Jasmine' knockoff or evil chick after two issues is just dumb.

Pearl is striaght up insane muscle, no question, and not really that interesting as a returning Big Bad. Hopefully she'd add something to the plot.
If not, hope Angel takes care of her long enough to get some definitive answers about those magical bottles and what they're meant to contain. -might move the plot forward a bit.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

what was the point of the 'reset' and of ditching all the AtS continuity to come down to *this* ???

I wish I could make a good argument that they haven't ditched the AtS continuity, but brief Connor cameo aside, this Angel is basically the one we saw leave Buffy in the BS3 finale...

Apparently in comic books they call it something along the lines of "return to grace/equilibrium," referring to the core heroes of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine not being allowed to ever evolve in any meaningful permanent way because they're the foundation of their respective continuities.

The televised Buffyverse wasn't especially like that; Buffy, Willow, Gunn, Cordy, and Wes radically grew onscreen. Even Angel had his odd epiphanies. It is unfortunate that Connor, a tertiary character at best, is the only one with dramatic lasting growth from the 7+ year run of comics thus far.

 

[Kaleidoscope]

I quite liked the issue, if that's not damming with faint praise ! It's a little slow, because of the way the story is set up as two stories for each of the two leads, probably. The Faith story was more interesting, I think. For the Angel story, well, Angel's not really in control of things just as Faith in her story isn't making decisions,either. I think they've made Nadira a bit too weird and mysterious so that she seems to be an entirely new character and i wasn't fussed about ever seeing Pearl again, so the big reveal didn't work for me.

 

[angeliclestat]

Another great issue - definitely a slower mid-arc issue, but that's ok. They always work better when the arc is done. So here are my thoughts:

LOVE the "BUCKARRGGH" cry from Billy Rage in his Foghorn Leghorn form. Reminded me of the Giant Chicken from Family Guy I laughed so much

I liked that Faith had a sword on her"¦guns and slayers (proper slayers) just don't mix.

I really want to know who is speaking to Nadira! It seems benevolent but part of me doesn't trust the voices. There is a possibility that it is Cordy talking to her (still guiding Angel through visions, but through a new host), but maybe that's a long shot.

On a fun geographical note - on page 8 we see in the 1st panel just to the right of Angel's head a sign for Stirling Ackroyd. That is a real business in Hackney (Magic Town). And there actually is a Glass Works on the edge of Hackney although it is called Haggerston Glassworks and not Ajax as in the comic. Fun though



Continuing the return to Angel Season 1 aesthetic we have a return to an abandoned warehouse. I missed those I remember David Greenwalt talking about how hard it was to film different warehouses and make them look interesting, so as the show went on the moved away from that. Nice to see a return to it here.

Love The Glassblower design - I wonder could they have pulled that off in the show? Probably not at that scale, but he reminded me a little of Balthazar from Buffy season 3.


Yes the dialogue in this scene was a little obviously info dump, but i loved the way it was done on the page. The whole sequence was quite creepy.

So the bottles are being made especially to hold the magic. Still not sure where the magic is coming from, or why it is in that state, or what is is being collected for. Maybe they are trying to turn everyone back to the way they were? But if Corky is more powerful now as a pixie maybe he wouldn't want to go back to what he was?

Another window that Angel is thrown out of. How many has that been over course of the TV series and comics? Ouch.

I liked the little mislead when Tricia the demon came in. The humans looked like they were uncomfortable with her, but they proved to be welcoming. At least Nadira is having a good influence in that respect.

Good to see Brandt again, although it was only for one page. So word of Nadira is spreading.
I loved the detail of Angel having no reflection in the glass when he and Brandt are walking side by side. It's only a small detail, but a lot of Angel's vampirism was lost by the end of the show. For the 1st 2 seasons we had the mirror thing a lot, as well as having to be invited in, but there was less emphasis on that as time went on. It's nice to see it again.

Angel FINALLY notices the people pouring the liquid into the bottles. Jeez

A lot of humans seem to be helping Corky. And most of them seem young. I wonder if they want to be transformed too? Is that why the magic is being collected? How many humans have stayed in Magic Town for that matter, and what percentage of the population were turned?

Although it was spoiled on the cover, it was still a good reveal for Pearl. And she seems a lot more powerful. So the theory that she would have taken on her brother's power seems to be right. This will be a messy fight, and not going to be easy to beat a super-powered Pearl. I have a feeling next issue will be a bit of a bloodbath for Angel.