Review: Angel: Old Friends

It’s not terribly clear whether Old Friends is an alternate to After the Fall or not. In the latter we see L.A. materialized in hell and some major changes to our cast. In Old Friends it’s clear the Wolfram & Hart take over, as well as much of season 5 of Angel happened. But likely Old Friends is before the major Angel finale or not cannon at all.

After some solo thinking (*coughcough male ennui*) Gunn hunts Angel down because evidence suggest that Spike is killing people again. Good people that is. When they begin their patrol the Other Scoobies? Angel’s Angels? Find out pretty quick that it’s not Spike killing, but Life-Model Decoys. In fact everyone has them, even Fred and Cordy, who have at this point in the canon, been killed. I know this is the Angel-verse, but the implication was always that they were dead-dead.

So who is cloning Angel’s friends and sending them to attack the gang, and why?

This graphic novel is big on the bro-snarky-mystery adventure theme. There’s a mystery. A few killers and two vampires with soul, plus their brother-from-another-mother (and an ancient goddess who devoured the soul of their friend) have to solve it and stop them before worse things happen. And true to Angel themed tales rather than Buffy ones, the baddie is after something a little more grown up than “world domination”

Angel: Old Friends is a good read, funny and actiony, with a good balance of art. Only downside? It’s a really short episode when it could have been half a season, at least.