Angel After the Fall Volumes 3-6

 

"Angel After the Fall Volume 3": everyone is still kung fu fighting (seriously, everyone). Angel has challenged the Lords of Los Angeles, and they all sent champions to fight him. Since he's human, it makes things kind of tricky. I mean, I hate to say "I told you so" (actually, I really don't, it's one of my favorite things to do, but it sounds tacky to say so) but Angel, hun, you *wanted* to be human, remember? I guess you forgot humans are fragile and easily hurt. 

At any rate, Illyria is unstable as all get out, keeps morphing into Fred. Vampire Gunn has been having visions he's convinced are from the Senior Partners, telling him that *he's* actually the vampire from the Shanshu Prophecy, destined to save the world in the Apocalypse and in return earn his humanity back (silly Gunn. We all know the Shanshu is about Spike). Gunn thinks he still has a soul and that he's doing good by murdering humans, it's all part of the master plan. 

"Angel After the Fall Volume 4" is really the conclusion of the storyline. Gunn kills Connor which doesn't go over too well with anyone. Psychic fish Betta George is able to use Wesley and Spike's memories of Fred to bring Illyria down after she becomes her true demon self (I really had no idea Spike liked Fred that much. Not sure how I feel about that). Even though Angel was supposed to battle the champions himself, of course all the Team Angel gang pitched in to help (we know he couldn't have done it without Spike). In the end though Angel realizes he has to die in order to save Los Angeles, and he does. Cordelia appears as an angel to help him let go. Wolfram and Hart are having none of that, so they reset the timeline to just before L.A. went to hell in the alley at the end of "Angel" season five. Angel is able to save Gunn before he turns into a vampire. They win the battle and save L.A., but the L.A. offices of Wolfram and Hart no longer exist. Everyone remembers what happened, though, so now Angel is famous. 

. 

"Angel: Aftermath" was...not great. Or good even. It was very, very stupid. 

First of all, Spike isn't in it, so whatever. 

A shape shifting Jaguar named Dez and an angel trapped on Earth round out the motely crew of misfits. Angel and Kate try to start up Angel Investigations again from scratch but because Angel is famous now it's hard to weed out all the crazies. 

The artwork in this one was truly bad. Everyone looks like they're on steroids. 

"Angel: Last Angel in Hell" was at least amusing, which is more than I can say for "Aftermath". 

Illyria and Gunn take off early in a car on a road trip that is apparently documented in a different series (which I'm not buying). We find out Drusilla is locked in a mental hospital, having visions of the fall of L.A. but no one will listen to her since they think she's delusional. She kills a whole bunch of folks and...escapes? Not really clear on what happened. Maybe she was just dreaming? It was all over the place.

The best bits were when Angel and Spike run into each other at a convention. Hollywood made a movie about Angel (played by someone who greatly resembles Nicholas Cage) and Spike, who is now a hot blonde female and Angel's love interest (it was kind of hysterical). Shades of "Buffy" season two "Halloween" episode when everyone at the convention is turned into their costume. Spike is wearing an Angel costume (long story) and thinks he's Angel, so he starts acting like how Spike thinks Angel would act, which, again, hysterical. The last bit of the book was the actual movie, which was kind of dumb, but realistic in how Hollywood changes everything (not for the better).