28. Angel: After the Fall Vol. 2: First Night

Angel After the Fall: First Night by Josh Whedon & Brian Lynch (Canada) -(US)
Angel After the Fall, Vol. 2

Pages: 104
Ages: 18+
Finished: Feb. 19, 2010
First Published: Nov. 25, 2009
Genre: graphic novel, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Man. I bet there's total excitement out there and I'm missing it all.

Acquired: Bought and own a copy.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Summary: After the shocking ending of Vol. 1, Vol. 2 leaves us hanging and backs up in time to the first night after the ending of the television series. This book is smaller containing only 3 comics that contain vignettes of all the characters showing us where they ended up that first night, why they are no longer all together and how they came to be in the situations we find them in Vol. 1. Angel himself is not in this volume at all, which is a little odd at first but this book's purpose is to re-establish the other characters, whom we knew so well, with the new turns their character's have taken in Vol. 1. There is also a surprise return of an old character from the series. I was never fond of this person on the show but their introduction here was very exciting and I look forward to Angel's response to seeing this person back in town. The book ends with an art gallery of covers and work by various artists, then an article by Lynch on a few stories they thought of putting in the issues but didn't for one reason or another and then finally ends with a page by page run through of notes for each issue with thoughts on what ended on the page or the ideas behind it. Very interesting stuff. First Night is a quick read and while not quite as OMG exciting as Vol. 1, definitely a great read with wonderful art especially some work by Nick Runge of Amy Acker (stunning!)