My own self

Seeing as I'm a character-oriented guy, that's what I'll run through in this post.

In alphabetical order, what appears to be the regular cast.

Angel:
Very well done all around, I'd say. The voice of the character feels pretty spot-on to me, as does his reasoning and general behaviour in the chapter. Behaviour which, I might add, encompasses most of his character-traits, including the (funny!) snide remarks almost no Whedon-character is devoid of. As for his plotline, it's too early to say, but I'm liking what I see!


Betta George:
While I haven't read Shadow Puppets (I seem to recall it being said BG is in that comic, too) I did enjoy Spike: Asylum and this character was indeed great fun. I mean, it's a flying, telepathic fish. Doesn't really get to do a lot in this issue, but like most of the story, it seem promising. It did get some funny little comments, though, which I quite enjoyed.


Connor:
Hm. Never having been too enthusiastic about him, but not being in the (large) I-hate-Connor-club either, I don't really care for the character either way. I like what his existance brings out in Angel's character, and I loved the plot he brought to Darla and Holtz as well. Beyond that... he was okay. Apparently, Lynch shared my feelings though, but I read him stating somewhere that Whedon gave him some ideas which made him really start enjoying the character. So I guess I'm hopeful. In this particular issue, he did little to speak of, other than gang up with two other characters I don't really see why would be affiliates of his in particular. But I guess we'll find out that, too, in time.

A thing of interest here is how Angel feels about having trapped Connor in (yet another) hell-dimension... Hoping they'll study that.


Dragon:
Hee!

Well, he's certainly charismatic. But too early to say anything about this guy 'cept the sheer concept. Which is, you know, what's that word again. Oh, right. Awesome.

Gunn:
Well, okay, so I was one of the people who expected this due to having read too many of the revealed planned plotlines for seaon 6 way back when. (Speaking of suggested plots for season 6, I hope Dark Horse's Buffy-license won't keep Joss from letting Lynch use Oz to train Nina if they want to... I miss Oz and he would feel like a much more natural plot-fit here than on Buffy season 8. Though, of course, they'd have to get him to Hell first.) Still, I hoped they would due it. It's a brilliant way of pulling off both the loss of the character and keeping him on, and it's a wonderful place to take a character who's otherwise been floating in and out of having purpose and direction over the course of the seasons. Plotwise, for the upcoming stories, this is the absolutely best part of this opening-chapter.

And that last page was beyond Awesome. Urru should get a medal.

Gwen:
How did she get to town before it got sucked into Hell? Why is she with Connor? How does making electricity shoot around the place check who people really are? Questions galore. Happy to see her, though.

Nina:
Is it just me or is she somewhat more dressed like Cordelia would and somewhat less like we'd expect Nina to?

No matter, it's not like I mind. Anyway, as with Gwen, Nina's presence is an oddity. She was told explicitly to leave town. Didn't she? Was she too late? Did she purposefully stay behind? How did Angel react to that? Are they still together? Why is she and Gwen hanging out with Connor and seemingly taking his orders? Questions-a-plenty with Nina, too. This was maybe my least favourite part of the chapter - I want to see all these characters back, by all means (also? Kate the cop! Bring'er back. Oh, and the billionaire geek, him too, let's know what happened to him in-universe) but I don't get what's going on, and having to wait a month or two to (hopefully) start getting answers is annoying... I like my stories to be linear, dammit!

Wesley:
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.


Okay, I'm calm. So, Wes is back. And, on the surface, in a very sense-making capacity. They've got presedence for this with Lilah and Holland, and it is by far tragic enough not to detract from his death - to me, a brilliant solution almost on the level of the one with Gunn, where you get to eat your cake and have it too. It also adds a brilliant new element to the character's dynamic with the other characters, knowing he speaks on behalf of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart, one that is, second to the Gunn-as-a-villain-thing, the most promising bit of this series so far.

Still, some oddities. Like his appearance. Very season 2. Why is that? It might be that he's just doing the very posh look of Eve, Hamilton and Lilah before him on the insistance of the Senior Partners. I guess. There's also his voice, which is the only one 'cept for Angel's we "hear" enough of for me to judge to any extent. It is slightly less spot-on than Angel's is, but passable by all means, it did not bug me in any way. Still, I hope it'll improve. Might be related to his having rather long lines, though, which is automatically more difficult to hear said by Denishof's voice for my inner ear without concentrating hard to do so.


All in all, this is almost pure awesome, and I can't wait for the second chapter.