Brian Lynch’s final issue of “After the Fall” is actually one of his better efforts – though damningly so. With all the explicit fantasy elements moved significantly into the background (if not entirely jettisoned) and a more recognisable urban setting, the series immediately begins to feel more like the TV series it was supposed to continue. Over the 17-issue arc, Angel the comic never quite captured the tone of Angel the TV series, and it’s clear from the quality of this issue that a large part of that was the setting.

However, that’s not to say that the re-worked setting is substantially better – only more appropriate than the bizarre, hell-based epic, which wouldn’t be difficult. The status quo the characters are left with at close of the issue (and arc) can’t help but feel a little unimaginative. Some minor character juggling aside, we’re largely left with Angel back in the same situation he began his TV series in – working, more or less alone, to help the helpless. A superficial “Celebrity Angel” element seems to have added nothing of substance, though it’s clear that it could still be explored in future issues, and at the very least may tie-in with the Buffy comic’s “outing” of vampires.

As the ending of “Season 6″, this story is as unsatisfying as the comic has ever been. The hopeless feelings that come with it feel a million miles away from Season 5’s “the fight goes on” ending – by contrast, the message here appears to be “I may have won that fight, but nothing’s really changed.” Indeed, the idea that Angel actually out-maneuvered Wolfram and Hart (in Los Angeles, at least) is almost willfully mystifying. I don’t know what story Lynch though he was writing, but that’s not the one I read.

There are flashes of whatever genius Whedon saw in Lynch – the interplay between Spike and Angel, and their differing interpretations of the Shanshu prophecy are utterly spot on, and likewise, Lynch’s newly-created demon characters (such as Burge and his son) come alive for the first time – too late to make their use interesting, however.

Regular readers will know that I’ve clearly struggled to enjoy Angel over the course of the last 17 issues, and ultimately, at its close, I’m not sure it was a continuation that needed to exist. Whether I continue buying the series for future arcs is debatable, at this point – a new writer means a new chance to enjoy the characters afresh, but after so much constant disappointment, it’s tempting to see this as a natural jumping-off point. Angel: After the Fall was a bold attempt, and one worth supporting, but in my estimation, the results never quite lived up to the idea of it.

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Regular readers will know that I was less than complimentary about the first issue of IDW’s first Doctor Who series, underwhelmed by a lightweight story and some disappointing art. But I’m still keen for there to be a good Who book out there, so it’s only fair that I should give this second miniseries, The Forgotten, a chance. Hence why I’m reviewing it now, even though it didn’t come out this week – I’ve just had to wait until I could get hold of a copy. At first glance, it would seem to have a number of improvements working in its favour. Tony Lee, while perhaps less of a dyed-in-the-wool Who bod than Gary Russell, is at least somewhat more experienced in comics storytelling; and Pia Guerra is a genuinely top-level artist (and no disrespect intended to Nick Roche, who incidentally provides an excellent cover here). But what really makes this of further interest is the fact that it promises to delve into the history of the character.

I mean, when you think about it, new stories about the Tenth Doctor and Martha running around battling Sycorax or whatever are never really going to have the same impact as TV stories written by the likes of Davies, Moffat and Cornell. But do something that the TV series can’t do, and you stand a bit more of a chance. So a series in which the Doctor finds himself stripped of the memories of everything prior to his current incarnation, and is forced to gradually recall them – flashing back, therefore, to a whole bunch of new “Classic Doctor” tales – is absolutely perfect material for a tie-in comic (even if it is startlingly similar to the plot of Terrance Dicks’ endearingly-lame The Eight Doctors novel).

And it’s nicely-timed, as well, since the newer generation of Who fans are finally starting to show an interest – or, rather, be given an opportunity to show an interest – in the past Doctors, now that the current one has had time to establish himself. Time Crash was the beginning of it, but the recent success of the Classic range of action figures has demonstrated it further – the kids actually want to find out more about these eight previous Doctor chappies. And so the history lesson that this series provides is rather welcome (or at least it would be, if it were more readily shipped to the UK) – while for long-time fans, the double-page spread in which we’re confronted by the costumes of all nine regenerations is an absolute joy.

Indeed, it’s the framing sequences in the “present” that impress more, with easy-flowing dialogue between the Doctor and Martha, and a genuine mystery at play. The flashback story, while it does feature Lee showing a good grasp of the differences in demeanour and speech patterns of the First and Tenth Doctors, is actually quite a simple and almost pointless tale – Doctor and companions meet Pharoah, Pharoah gets attacked, Doctor and companions run away. Nevertheless, it’s good to see a genuine link drawn between these two incarnations – a throwaway line in Time Crash aside, it’s hard to even imagine them being the same person – and setting the flashback in a tone halfway between black-and-white and sepia (evoking the b/w of the TV series without being quite so jarring as stripping all colour would) works well – though I wonder if this will continue all series, or only until they get to Pertwee!

Visually it’s a huge step up from the prior series, as well, as Guerra’s work is simply more consistent and accomplished – her interpretations of both characters are excellent even while not looking exactly like their TV versions, and she copes well with the expanded cast of the Hartnell story. A strong colouring job also lends it a classier feel. Indeed, there’s generally just a sense of the whole thing seeming far higher-budget than Russell’s series – it’s weightier, less throwaway, and feels like a genuinely significant addition to the canon (it could yet turn out to be even moreso, depending on whether the mystery villain turns out to be the obvious option, with all the continuity problems that might present). While it may still be lacking in anything like the substance of the TV series – it’s a little short of wit, for one thing – it’s certainly far closer to my notion of what a Who comic (or, indeed, any licensed comic) should be like.

Alright, so we’re a bit late with this one. But given that licensing restrictions have meant that UK comic shops aren’t actually supposed to stock this series, depriving us of yet another comic that we’d surely appreciate far more than our American cousins (just file alongside The Black Dossier), I’ve had to resort to slightly more underhand methods of getting hold of it.

Although, to be honest, I sort of wish I hadn’t bothered. I, like many Who fans, have been waiting patiently for a proper, grown-up, direct market comic ever since – or even long before – the Russell Davies era began. I even wrote about my dream series a while back – published by Marvel, written by Paul Cornell, drawn by Bryan Hitch. It’d be great, I tells ya. Anyway, to those who have been waiting for a great Who comic – this, sadly, isn’t it.

The thing with IDW is that, for all their skill at snagging film and TV licences, they’re not exactly the best at turning out decent comics to go with them. And they simply can’t attract the sort of established talent that would be needed to do something like Doctor Who justice. Writer Gary Russell has plenty of Who pedigree, of course – former Doctor Who Magazine editor, author of many books, former producer of the Big Finish audio adventures and currently “in” with the Cardiff team – but here he turns in a story that’s merely a passable, by-the-numbers romp, rather than anything particularly engaging. It’s nice to see the Sycorax show up again, but there’s a disappointing lack of reference to The Christmas Invasion; and Russell doesn’t yet seem to have learned to tailor his writing style to comics, with a quite cringe-inducing third-person narration in the opening couple of pages (one which also suffers from grammatical errors, reflecting badly on the editor).

But it’s Nick Roche’s art that really cheapens this. Apart from a nice replication of the Gallifreyan Citadel (as seen in The Sound of Drums), it looks absolutely rotten. The character design is all over the place – Martha’s head changes shape from panel to panel, never actually alighting on anything remotely resembling human, never mind Freema Agyeman’s loveliness; while the Doctor contorts left, right and centre in an almost Liefeldian disregard for the laws of anatomy. I don’t particularly relish being so critical of up-and-coming British or Irish talent, but this just isn’t good enough.

If you want simplistic adventure fodder, and don’t mind it being clumsily drawn, then this is fine. But if you do want that, then you can already get it quite easily – the comic strips in DWM have been like this ever since the relaunch, and there’s even more kid-orientated fare in the weekly Doctor Who Adventures. But there’s absolutely nothing for the older, discerning, comics-reading fan – and as such, IDW’s series feels like a massive wasted opportunity.

And okay, so they can’t attract A-list talent, but why not a quick phone call to Alan Barnes and Martin Geraghty? They did some excellent Paul McGann strips for DWM in the ‘90s, and have already shown their adeptness with Tennant’s Doctor courtesy of a recent story that was head-and-shoulders above the rest of the new series comics. They’d almost certainly have come up with something more compelling – and better-looking – than this lightweight, inconsequential fluff. In fact, you half wonder if the reason why it hasn’t made it across the pond is simply that the BBC caught a glimpse of some preview pages…

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While I was none too impressed by the first issue, I did keep buying Angel on the grounds that I’m a hideous wreck of a man more interested in completism than quality. Luckily, it’s starting to pay off. Issue #3 shows a marked improvement in both art and story as we finally get the last of the principal cast members filled with when Illyria shows up (I’m not sure Lorne needs to be included after how Angel S5 ended, though I’m sure he’ll turn up in the comic eventually…)

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Angel still doesn’t appear to have a clue what’s going on, but at least we’re starting to see suggestions as to why that’s the case. The final page revelation – that Angel is no longer a vampire – seems wildly out of place when we’re already a quarter into the story – though on the other hand, including it in the first issue could’ve seemed like overload. In any case, it’s something that’s finally made me interested in the plot, though it’s lucky for them that I was still actually reading it at this point. 

Urru’s art is starting to look a lot cleaner. The muddyness of the last two issues is gone, and characters are finally as recognisable as they need to be, though the demon designs are – as with all Buffy comics - still very hard to believe on the page, but I’ve discussed the problems with TV-to-Comic translations elsewhere so I won’t go into it now. Despite that minor issue, I do at least feel as though we’re finally seeing the qualities that led him to be hand-picked by Whedon for this assignment.

It was a rocky start, but if it continues improving at this rate the comic should be genuinely enjoyable by about issue 6. At the moment, it’s hard not to think it’s running off Whedon’s goodwill – certainly, that’s the only reason I’m still here – but it’s made a significant step towards winning me on its own merits now that there’s a specific goal in place for Angel, and a genuine mystery to keep me interested, rather than the confused status-quo changes that have been stapled onto the rest of the characters. Given that it’s essentially telling a story that was best left untold (what happens to Angel after Season 5) it’s good to see it finally trying to justify itself.

Despite being a massive Whedon fan, I almost missed this one. Seems like the publicity for it has been going on so long, I almost forgot there was a comic at the end of it. Which, in retrospect, might’ve been a good thing. You can’t fault IDW for trying, but where Buffy Season 8 hits the spot, Angel: After the Fall largely fails to.

It’s not a criticism of the team, per se. The problem is two-fold. First, the age-old “licensed comics” conundrum. As much as people watch Star Trek for Picard, or The Simpsons for Homer, they’re also watching it for Patrick Stewart and Dan Castellaneta. It’s very difficult to remove that element of the dynamic and still end up with something that feels authentic. Secondly, something more specific to live-action licenses, there’s always, always a point where someone goes “now that we’re operating without a budget, we can do whatever we want!” and suddenly you find that Starbuck has to fight a cylon the size of a small house. This kind of thing violates the believability parameters established by the series it’s adapting, further removing you from the original property. It’s this area where Angel: After the Fall largely doesn’t work for me.

Following on from season 5 of Angel (and we’ll skip past the question of whether that was even necessary by simply saying that this was Whedon’s idea for the 6th Season, so what he says goes) Wolfram and Hart have sent the entire city of Los Angeles – and everyone in it – literally to hell. It’s overrun with demon warlords, and Angel rides a dragon around, saving humans and sending them back to a safehouse run by familiar, if unexpected, cast-members. LA itself is in ruins and overrun with demon activity and despite the decent attempts by artist Franco Urru at depicting this, I just find it too hard to resolve with the reality established in the TV series.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, or anything. Lynch’s dialogue is convincingly Whedonesque and he gets some good laughs in, as well as making the characters feel true to their own voices when they appear. The mysteries regarding Wolfram and Hart’s continued employment of Wesley are set up well, as is Gunn’s turn to vampirism. I’m still interested to see what’s become of Illyria, who isn’t mentioned in this issue.

There’s really no massive problems on a technical level, but for all the reasons above and more, I’m finding it very hard to get invested. It just doesn’t feel like the same group of people and it doesn’t feel like there’s any continuity with the show I loved. It’s also fairly hard to see much actual direction to the series because no actual goal has been established beyond the obvious “fix everything” which seems pretty insurmountable at this point. It’s a much shakier start than I was expecting – not enough to shake me right off the book yet, but I hope to see things improve in the next few issues.