One of the best parts of the show Angel was that it had a sense of humor about itself. Joss Whedon and his writers had no problem teasing the characters or making fun of the fantasy aspects of the show. The Angel Annual #1 continues this trend by joking about Hollywood, the Hell in Los Angeles storyline in the comic series, and about everyone's favorite vampire with a cursed soul himself.
The Annual is titled "Last Angel in Hell," and it is about a screenwriter deciding to write a move script based on Angel and his companions. The screenwriter only caught a few glimpses of the humble vampire during the time that Los Angeles went to Hell, but it was enough to piece together a story that Hollywood would love. This parody teases all the big blockbusters that come out with action but nonsensical stories and cliche twists.
Angel Cartwright is a police detective who loses his partner Wesley to a vampire attack. He barely makes it out and mourns his friend, and the story jumps to his wedding. Sarah is his lovely bride to be, and she reveals she let vampires into the church and now everyone is dead. She's been turned into a vampire herself. Angel tries to fight off the vamps and Sarah goes with them, being nicknamed "Spike" for some unknown reason. And she's apparently British and wicked now. (Already laughing? It gets better!)
So Angel wanders through a demon-infested Los Angeles now with only a dog as his companion (a wink to I Am Legend), and he goes to the Doublemeat Plaza for food. There's a funny in-character dig there, poking fun at movies that purposely market for big companies to get money for filming. He decides to fight back against the demons and refuse to let them win, which leads Lorne, as a demon boss, to taunt him that it's all his fault. . . for some reason. Perhaps because he couldn't fight the demons at his wedding? It's not supposed to make sense.
Article comments