Spike (IDW Publishing)

Creator: Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Horror, Comic
Rating: B+

I wasn't initially going to review this mini-series, but I decided to do so while writing the review for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, simply because it acts as a bridge connecting Angel: After the Fall to Season Eight.  I'm not entirely sure yet if I'm going to do stand-alone reviews of the other mini-series within the After the Fall franchise, or the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic franchise either, but Spike is special.

Initially Spike was conceived as a longer series, but the move to Dark Horse Comics changed things up a bit, limiting this run.  Instead, what we have is a eight issue arch, placing Spike and a new crew in Las Vegas, once again in opposition to regular villains, lawyers Wolfram and Hart and mentally unstable vampire Drusilla.  There's a lot of discussion about Spike's soul in this series, which is always an interesting topic, and by the end of it Spike has acquired a space ship space (that resembles a penis in this series) full of space bugs, who become his next new crew.

I really thought this series was a lot of fun.  It was snarky and dark and returned Spike to the (mental) place where I loved him.  There's no Buffy, but Spike needs to grow a bit on his own - we saw that in season five of Angel.  This arch is also fun and nicely introduces new characters - like Season Eight it also reestablishes old favourites, like Drusilla.  I love Drusilla and I doubt I will ever get tired of them bringing her back to screw with the day once again.

Most importantly, though, I really like how this arch connects After the Fall to Season Eight.  My biggest problem with Season Eight is the fact that it's hard to place just when that all is happening, this arch tries to establish a bit of continuity between the two series that I think is going to be continued (at least a bit) in Angel and Faith and Buffy the Vampire Season Nine.  Or maybe I'm just being a bit too optimistic, seeing as I've only read about ten issues of each series.