Since Joss Whedon's name appears second in the writing credits, it's a good bet he didn't contribute all that much to Angel: Long Night's Journey, and the story bears this out. Actually, there isn't a lot of story here, as the comic is taken up by a lot of large panels and quite a few splash pages (splash pages tend to lose their dramatic power when used too often).
Both Angel and Buffy were great TV shows for a number of reasons, but the fight sequences were their least interesting scenes. So by being an action-oriented story, Long Night's Journey lost much of what made Angel appealing. The art itself is good (though Rubi has a penchant for small shadows that makes the people and their clothes look too creased and the faces of the heroes unnecessarily demonic), but there just isn't enough content here.
Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn must battle three very different monsters being controlled by a vampire named Perfect, somebody whom Angel has clashed with in the past. There is an attempt to develop further the story of how Angel got his soul, but it rings false. It turns out that Angel was a trial run for Perfect, the real vampire the gypsies wanted to curse with a conscience. But this idea takes away from, rather than adds to, Angel's backstory. He was originally targeted by gypsies specifically as revenge. In fact, the gypsies were so determined that Angel suffer for his transgressions that they sent Jenny Calendar to Sunnydale to watch over Angel, to make sure he never experienced a moment of true happiness. They wouldn't have bothered if he had been a mere test subject.
Also, by revealing that Angel wasn't the gypsies’ main target, it lessens the importance of Angel trying to atone for the crimes he committed as Angelus. His regret for what he'd done in the past eventually turns into a desire to become a Champion. But this all seems pointless if his original punishment was a secondary concern.
Another point that was dropped into the story but would have been better left out was the implication, voiced by Perfect, that maybe Angel's soul wasn't his own. It's an interesting premise, but as neither the comic nor the TV show explored it any further, its inclusion here is merely a cheap narrative jolt.
Article comments
1 - Bryce Eddings
Listed at Advance
2 - Jim Carruthers
I've found the Buffy / Angel comics kinda "meh" because of the perception they were for the kids, were less than the teevee shows (though I did really like the Jonathan "Superstar" comic, but that came directly from the show and was so meta (the show had an episode where Jonathan was everything, and there were comic books about him, and the comic book was about how he saved the world, if that makes sense).
For the most part, teevee series adapted to comic books are disappointing because they lack character depth, because comics are seen as more restrictive than teevee. And the likes of "Love and Rockets" proves otherwise.