Product Description

Angel's back on the job in Los Angeles, tracking a mysterious cult, and working to solve a kidnapping. The only trouble is, a few old familiar faces keep showing up - faces he shouldn't really be seeing! And what does Spike have to do with it? Find out for yourself in this exciting story arc featuring the greatest head to head Angel/Spike battle ever!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #739996 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

An Improvement, For The Most Part
Issue #1: Here, Angel faces his demons. He sees strange replicas of Darla, Drusilla, The Master, Holtz, and Skip. That would have been fine, but the thing is that it's kinda been done before. "Old Friends" was ABOUT Angel and the gang facing off against evil dopplegangers they knew in the past. I understand that this puts a different spin on it, but this old plotline should not have been revisited again.

Issue #2: Spike deals with the same kind of stuff Angel faces in the first issue. He runs into dopplegangers of the slayers he's killed, as well as his mother. This issue quite good.

Issue #3: Angel and Spike fight. It's a good twist (the "Three's Company"-esque mislead that goes on between them), but the conflict is quite generic. The inner dialogue has no insight into their characters, treading lightly around the egos of both characters instead of going where it hurts. However, it's Angel and Spike... still a great fight.

Issue #4: To my extreme pleasure, this is where "Auld Lang Syne" starts to get very good. We see Angel and Spike working together, going on a mission reminiscent of an ALIAS episode, and having all the dialogue/doing the things they should/could have been saying/doing in the first three issues!

Issue #5: Continues on the greatness of Issue #4, but ups the ante. A new baddie is introduced, then fought, and all that goodness. Spike and Angel are in an imaginative and intriguing setting.

7/10

Angel vs. Spike Battle Royale!
Angel: Auld Lang Syne is a highly entertaining graphic novel written by Scott Tipton with artwork by David Messina. Of all the Buffy books I've read, this one's my favorite.

Make no mistake--Angel's name may be on the cover, but this is a Spike story, through and through.

Reading this book after the "Spike" graphic novel, it became apparent to me what was later confirmed by reading interviews: Spike is Scott Tipton's favorite character, and it shows. Not that he is unfair to Angel or any other characters in his representation of Spike. It is merely that he writes Spike with love and enthusiasm that is clear on the page. He writes a faithful interpretation of the character, one full of the mannerisms and witty dialogue and attitude that we expect from Spike. He makes Spike's dialogue sound natural, not like he is "trying" or "reaching" to convey the character, nor does his depiction ever devolve into caricature as one could so easily do.

"Auld Lang Syne" takes place at an indeterminate timeline, sometime after Spike has regained his soul and become corporeal in LA, possibly after the end of Angel the Series, but never explicitly stated. Angel and Spike, separately, both encounter figures from their past who are dead, yet are somehow up and about and able to attack them and mess with their heads.

Spike encounters not only his mother, but also the two Slayers that he killed. This makes for fun battle scenes with the Slayers that were all too briefly seen on BTVS. (Later we actually get to see Angel battling the New York Slayer, Nikki Wood, as well. How cool is that?)

Naturally, when Angel and Spike run into each other, they think the other is another fake beastie from their past, and begin an epic mano-a-mano battle that lasts a full 19 pages! It's truly exciting and shows both souled vampires to the best of their fighting abilities. Their fighting techniques match their personalities, Spike being somewhat impulsive and impatient, Angel perhaps a bit more cunning. Their attacks get very creative. The back cover promises the "greatest head-to-head Angel/Spike battle ever," and it does not disappoint!

Finally, of course, though, they realize they're being played by a mysterious villain who set them against each other, and they team up to solve the mystery together. Seeing them help each other is just as entertaining as watching them fight each other. Rest assured it is not a carefree alliance.

Spike actually gets the main focus and glory in the final battle with the villain, though of course not without Angel's help.

The final scene is a searing insight into these former enemies/reluctant allies/eternal rivals. Despite their differences, they always live with one huge commonality, and I'm not talking about their souls.

Scott Tipton understands the Angel-Spike dynamic as well as anyone, and more importantly, he understands how to write them for maximum tension, humor, and drama.

I would really recommend any Buffy books Tipton writes for Spike fans, based on this volume and the Spike graphic novel alone.

(A note on the artwork: While Messina's work is not quite as realistic as Fernando Goni's, rest assured that the characters are drawn to look like the actors, and he does a good job. Angel and Spike are depicted very well.)

Worth reading?
I find it difficult to decide what to read sometimes without being able to flip through the whole thing or without someone to recommend it to me so hopefully this will help.

Yes, this book is worth reading. If you are a fan of the buffyverse and Angel you will enjoy this story. I am a little confused about where it sits in the continuity but it is after the end of the TV show.

Like most TPB it is a little short (mostly because I enjoyed it and want it to continue) but the artwork is great and the characters act the way I have come to expect.

So, if you have missed new episodes of Angel, then grab this and maybe a few others and enjoy.