"Family Reunion: Part 3"
Writer: Christos Gage
Pencils: Rebekah Isaacs

“The expedition to Quor-Toth has taken an unplanned turn for Angel, Faith, Willow, and Connor. While they struggle to survive the horrors that surround them, they have also taken on a mission to stage a great escape-and not just for themselves! They must act fast, before the effect that this hell dimension is having on their thoughts and emotions overcomes them!”

Ever since the beginning of “Family Reunion”, two things have been emphasized.  First, the fact that Willow’s desire to restore magic is not entirely altruistic, and second, that spending time in Quor’Toth has a tendency to bring out the worst in people.  Both elements are reinforced over the course of this issue, and sure enough, it leads to a moment that has been a long time coming.

Willow is getting her own miniseries very soon, so one would expect that her experiences in this story arc would be the impetus for that.  I was under the impression that it was simply going to be her journey towards finding a solution to the absence of magic, but it might actually be more complicated; Willow’s internal struggle might be coming to the forefront again.  And since all those hints about the return of Dark Willow in “Buffy: Season 8” never panned out much, maybe this is the payoff.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; the best parts of this story are, appropriately, connected to Angel.  Both Faith and Connor have moments where they come to an understanding of Angel’s struggles, and it is some of the best material to come out of the story arc.  It’s sometimes hard to remember that Angel, though often portrayed as a white knight hero, is really just an extremely flawed individual in search of redemption.

Angel has been, in many ways, a reflection of Joss Whedon’s own philosophical progression.  In “Buffy”, Angel was the quintessential young male, with the potential to be the ugly monster that society often fosters in a largely misogynist culture.  Angel then moved on to seek a higher meaning to his choices, and found himself a prophecy to believe in.  By the end of “Angel”, he learned the truth: the prophecy was never valid in the first place.  So because now his choices no longer mattered (to that end), all that mattered were his choices.

The whole “Twilight” business in “Buffy: Season 8” never quite meshed with that progression, but “Family Reunion” (as well as earlier moments in “Angel and Faith”) has gone a long way towards putting Angel’s decisions as Twilight in context.  Angel is still searching for redemption, to make up for his mistakes before his eventual end, and like most people, he makes a mess of it when he tries to “go big”.  And ripping magic out of the world with Buffy has turned out to be a major mistake.

This is actually important to the underlying principle of “Angel and Faith” as a whole.  Everyone has been trying to tell Angel (well, with notable exception) that trying to bring Giles back to life is a really, really bad idea.  Yet he persists, because to him, this is how he will make up for his mistake.  And it has “Manipulate Me!” written all over it.

Meanwhile, there is the evolving subplot with Whistler, who has been intertwined with Angel’s character arc since the start.  Whistler clearly believes that he is using his not-inconsiderable power to do the right thing, but his actions speak to a very flawed bit of reasoning.  And that’s not even taking into account how Whistler factors into the Twilight mess.  It is, however, a perfect opportunity for Gage to further ingratiate me to the Fairweather sisters.  Who wouldn’t want to party with these two, at this point?

One thing is for certain: the “Buffy: Season 9” books are beginning to tie together nicely as a way of dealing with the post-Twilight fallout while getting back to the central core of the storytelling: character exploration.  “Angel and Faith” remains the standout book of the Buffyverse right now, and issues like this are a perfect example of why.

Acquisition Method: This review is based on the Dark Horse Digital version (~$2.99 US, retail).