COMIC BOOK REVOLUTION

Angelus #5 Review

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Angelus has turned out to be one of the best mini's of the year. Marz and Sejic really won me over with the last 2 great issues. With the finale of this mini on its way and everything wrapping up can Marz still make this title shine or does it get lost in the shadows? Let's Find Out!

Creative Team
Writer: Ron Marz

Artist: Stjepan Sejic

Story Rating: 5 Beheaded Angels out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Beheaded Angels out of 10

Overall Rating: 7 Beheaded Angels out of 10

Synopsis: An Angelus Warrior asks Sabine when she will strike. Sabine says soon, and that she has all the time she needs now with the power of the Wheel of Shadows.

At Dani's new home her father has caught her making out with Finch and is leaving. Dani catches him before he goes to talk to him, telling him she's not even sure what this means herself, just that it feels right. He asks her if she has anymore secrets and they plan to meet up for dinner later that night.

Dani goes back into her room and SEX SCENE! (Yeah, I could describe the sex scene for you, or I could just say “Lesbian sex scene” and you've all gone out and purchased this issue so I'm wasting my time describing it. Needless to say its 2 women having sex. Need I go into greater detail, honestly?)

Post-Sex Scene Dani and Finch talk about how great it was. Dani gets up to make breakfast. Finch thinks she shouldn't be hungry if the Angelus powers her (What? Whatever...) but Dani insists on making some breakfast when suddenly Sabine and 2 Angelus warriors crash through the window. Dani asks why she looks that way and why she's here when she wasn't summoned.

The 2 warriors are holding Finch when Sabine kisses her, making Finch age into an old woman. Dani transforms into her Angelus form and catches Finch. Finch says she feels that she's dying. Sabine says she can fix her, turn her back to normal, but she demands the crown of Angelus. Finch says not to give in, to kick Sabine's ass.

Finch passes out and Dani sets her down as Sabine says that Finch has a short amount of time left alive. Dani asks the Angelus Warriors if they are loyal to her or Sabine, they say Sabine so Dani beheads them. She says it was always going to come to this and Sabine agrees as they begin their battle.

Commentary

the Good: Angelus #5 was a solid fun read but when I reached the end of the issue my enjoyment dropped a lot. Once again we get an ending just when things are getting good. Just as everything is in place for an awesome read we stop all our momentum and end the issue. Bullshit. This is decompression crap at its worst and it takes what was a good read and nearly kills it for me.

I honestly enjoyed what I read, as always the characters are well written and what little action we got, all of 2 pages, was very exciting. But sadly for the sake of making this series 6 issues instead of 5 we cut off here and it really kills it for me. This feels like the first half of the final issue, not the penultimate issue one bit.

What I liked I liked a lot, Dani talking to her father about how she feels about Finch was great. Its nice to see Marz developing these characters instead of just introducing her father and him not doing anything else. We're getting some great character development with Dani's father and it should be great seeing him again in the near future because he feels like an important member of Dani's cast of characters, should she get another mini or even an ongoing.

The sex scene was very nicely done. I find it hilarious we never see a nipple but its okay to show them having sex. Just no nipples! Censorship is a funny thing. Draw 2 round small parts on the ends of those breasts and all of a sudden its disgusting.

The sex scene does have a nice moment with Dani illuminating. I just thought that was hilarious. Its always funny seeing a super heroes' powers come into play other then during a fight. I almost expected her to sprout wings or something. But this scene was nicely handled and it didn't feel forced in to have some sexy out of nowhere.

The sex scene honestly feels like what this relationship has been building up to. Slowly we've seen Dani and Finch go from acquaintances, to friends, to roommates and now to lovers and the transition has been amazing. Marz never fails to develop a relationship and make all that development feel worth while. Finch really has contributed a lot to Dani's character and its been great.

Then there's the final scene. I honestly liked the twist that Finch is at death's doorstep so Dani isn't just fighting for herself. She's got someone to fight for and a reason to keep fighting and that's great. This feels like a big dire situation and because Marz has gotten me so used to and liking the character of Finch I care that she's in danger.

More then often when a loved one is in danger I really don't care all that much. I know they either will be just fine or they'll die for shock value. Rarely do I feel myself caring either way since this is a usual plot device for drama that writers like to use very often. “Oh goodness, Betty is in the clutches of Dr. Doom? Noooo!” and then we move onto the next kidnapping/death trap.

Here Marz succeeds fully in making me care about the characters, making me worried about Finch and making me excited to see what happens next. If Finch dies I'll feel we got a legitimate and tragic death instead of death out of nowhere for shock value. If she lives, I'll be very happy and again its that emotional attachment to characters that makes these scenes more dramatic then just pulling a “loved one in danger” moment.

It all leads to an exciting battle. I'm very excited to see what happens next, to see Dani hopefully save Finch and kick Sabine into the dirt. Its what this entire mini has been building up to and I'm eager to see that conclusion as soon as we can. Overall this is where Marz succeeds without a doubt is telling a good read that I enjoy.

Of course there's the pacing, that's where this issue fails massively but I'll get to that on The Bad. Needless to say all the great character work and development is still here. Despite the negativity I'm going to give this issue in a moment, know that I did still enjoy it and am still looking forward to the conclusion.

Sejic as always kills on the artwork. By now I feel like I could just copy and paste the same praise over and over because he's always so great. Sometimes he has his problems, the only real complaint I have is one brief page with Dani having some uneven eyes but everything else is gorgeous. I especially love the way he draws the Shadow Wheel powered Sabine, she looks amazing.

One thing I don't mention often about Sejic is his panel structure. I really do love the way he structures panels and it always looks so great. He has this very powerful structure, it doesn't feel confined to just some squares. The scene with Sabine is a perfect example, its really creative and I love seeing an artist think outside the box for page structure.

The Bad: This issue literally stops where it should have continued. Just as things got great, as the story picked back up and it seemed like we were heading for a big fight. It ends. Once again we get a read that while it's a fun read and it leaves me excited for more. I don't feel satisfied with the serving I got. It gives me enough to tease me for next time but I'm still left wanting more from what I got this issue.

I seriously have to wonder if Marz plotted this series out, it was 5 issues, realized he wanted it to be 6 so he just cut the final issue into 2 halves. That's exactly what this feels like. Its just half an issue stretched into an entire issue. Its decompression at its worst plain and simple.

This seriously felt like 90% nothing and 10% actually important stuff happening. Sure, the character work with Dani and her father was nice, and the sex scene was well done, but it was padding. In the end it wasn't as important as the main plot of Sabine trying to take down Dani. It feels like Marz lengthened half an issue so he could have an excuse to make this 6 parts and I hate that.

I don't know who started this trend of lengthening a story that should be much shorter but its a trend I think ruins a lot of good stories. This issue felt like an honest waste of my money. I seriously felt like I could have skipped this and moved onto the next issue and read the recap page and get everything I needed to know.

Dani and her dad works things out, Dani and Finch have sex, Sabine ages Finch, Dani and Sabine start a fight. There we go. That's the issue in a nutshell and it really does feel like what was 10 pages got stretched into a full comic. I liked the sex scene, but it could have been all of 2 pages. Honestly it was a nicely done scene but I'll sacrifice a lesbian sex scene for some actual plot!

This has to be the worst Top Cow comic I've read. And not because of the quality of the story or the characters. That's all good. Because I honestly feel ripped off of 2 dollars and 99 cents. This issue fails in the end to make me feel like a satisfied customer that was satisfied with his purchase. I can take a slow or dialogue heavy read, Marz has done those issues and made them incredibly well done. This has so little content to it, it honestly feels like half a comic.

Decompression very rarely works. Some writers can make it work, most can't. Marz is undeniably in that camp of people that can't. And again I just don't see why people do it. What point does it serve to stretch your story out by an issue or two? You make some extra money?

This feels like the literal interpretation of Quantity over Quality. Squeezing out one more issue from this mini instead of giving us just a solid finale one issue earlier. I hate that crap. I can't stand when writers do that and seeing such a talented writer like Marz do that really just sucks because I know he can do so much better than this.

If this issue had more plot, if this issue had more important and interesting things going for it this score would be high. I would have loved it. I've really enjoyed the hell out of this mini so far. But when you just take everything you've been working on and slow down, I feel like we're all just wasting our time and we shouldn't even be here.

This is the one complaint I have with the issue, but its the one thing that totally kills it for me. Its one of the most important things to writing any large story and that's pacing! After last time I was so excited to see what happens next. Now I feel like this is just that boring middle issue. Which is funny, the middle issues with 3 and 4 were the best issues of this mini but the first of the finale is easily the worst.

This pacing takes what was a great and fun read and just kills it for me. This has to be some of the worst pacing I've seen in a while. Just taking all the momentum you had and just killing it for the sake of stretching it out an extra issue. That's crap I don't tolerate when reading a comic. If you've got a strong pace and you sacrifice it to give us filler and waste our time, then don't even bother writing a story.

This takes a great read and turns it into an average read. It kills all the quality this story has had and leaves me unsatisfied both from reading this as one big story and reading this on an issue-to-issue basis. All around the pacing just sucks.

Overall: I've been loving Angelus, but this issue really killed it for me. I'll stick around for the finale because I am still excited to see how it wraps up, but seeing such a cheap lengthening filler issue like this really kills the quality this mini has had for me. I can't give this issue a recommendation, unless you like lesbian sex scenes, other then that it was a big waste of time. If you enjoyed the other issues then just pick up #6, that's where all the real important stuff will be. A great mini-series that just lost its way in this issue.

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