Angel and Faith #15 Comic Review

Issue: Angel and Faith #15
Release Date: October 2012
Writer: Christos Gage
Art: Lee Garbett, Derek Fridolfs, David Lapham
Colors: Dan Jackson
Letters: Richard Starkings and COMICRAFT’S Jimmy Betancourt
Cover: Steve Morris
Alternate Cover: Rebekah Isaacs and Dan Jackson
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

With a storyline that was split into two parts this month, we got more information on Angel’s destiny and the twins’ background. In time, Pearl, Nash, Angel and Faith will all meet up in an explosive battle, but for now we have to be satisfied with just getting more backstory.

In Part 1, Angel meets up with Whistler and accuses him of working with Pearl and Nash. It would be a bad accusation if it weren’t true, but it is. I liked seeing more of Whistler and how he interacts with Angel. Though Angel goes through his normal assertions of trying to be in charge, with Whistler it’s not going to play. He doesn’t take too kindly to Angel’s approach, so he snaps the vampire’s wrist and makes him sit down. Well, I guess that’s one way to get Angel to listen. The amount of history that these two characters have is amazing. Whistler was the one that rescued Angel from the squalor of the streets and gave him purpose again. He wasn’t doing so out of the goodness of his heart, but instead because he foresaw the destiny that Buffy and Angel were meant to live out. Except the Slayer and the vampire didn’t make good on their part of the deal. They embraced the power they were given and then screwed it up at the last minute. Understandably, Whistler is both angry and frustrated that all his plans were for naught.

Because Whistler is a child of a pureblood demon and an agent of the Powers That Be, he has foresight to see the future that Angel and Buffy’s decision created. They’ve doomed the world to an apocalypse, if Whistler can’t do something to change it. But let it not be said that Whistler is without a plan. His original one failed, so it’s time for a back-up mission. In order to restore balance to the world, he wants to introduce magic back into the mix. Instead of pulling it from another dimension or re-doing the past, he instead wants to embed magic into every living creature so that it will grow and evolve, become a natural part of their lives. Some may die, but it would be a small sacrifice compared to the whole world dying in the current future. And even if Angel won’t help him, he’s going to make sure it is done. Leaving Angel with a stomach wound and a threatened staking, he walks out the door to put his plan into action. Whistler is ruthless and I like him a lot.

Part 2 of the storyline focuses on Pearl and Nash’s history. It starts in Oklahoma in 1935 during Black Sunday. We find out that the twins’ mother summoned a demon, who is bound to perform one task for her. The request is for him to impregnate her, which he does, and thus Pearl and Nash are born. She grooms them to start the new wave of demons, pairing with other demons so that they can grow an army. We get to see their eventual monstrous children, all of whom were slaughtered by well-meaning agents of good. While the twins are overcome with grief to lose all their off-spring, their mother doesn’t have time to waste on that. She wants them to go out and make more babies, this time perhaps not choosing demons so that the children wouldn’t stand out as much.

Her later hopes hinged on Twilight, since that would allow them a new world order, but that failed as well. Now, the woman who was supposed to be dead long ago is finally succumbing to her ill health. With no more magic in the world, there’s nothing to keep her body alive, and she wants Pearl and Nash to help put her out of her misery. She still has hope that they will succeed, that they will make her proud and bring her plan into reality. Fueled with grief, the twins set out to get their revenge. It doesn’t matter who they have to kill, they will bring change to the world around them. I can’t wait to see how that works out.

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars