One Perfect Story, One Great Story, and One Okay Story This issue consists of three stories that take place right after the final episode of Angel, detailing what exactly happened to the supporting characters.
1. Betta George: Each "First Night" book starts and ends with a page featuring Betta George. Which means, at this point, we've only gotten four pages of story for him, but it's all very, very interesting. What I originally thought to be a bonus story has more substance than I could have imagined.
2. Wesley: The Wesley story in this issue is literally perfect. It was given more breathing room than the Spike story, so it doesn't seem rushed at all, and the dialogue flows very nicely. Not only does it make a statement about Wesley as a character, it establishes some major things about the main plot of "After the Fall," leaving me aching for #7. It's tragic, it's beautiful, and it's damn foreboding. What most people are going to be wondering is this: Did Nick Runge do a good job on the art? He's going to be the series artist for the rest of the run, so everyone's wondering how good he is. Chris Ryall posted a preview page of his art from #9, but it seemed that no one was that impressed. Well, looking at Runge's art here, that page was clearly just a fluke or something, because the art here is nothing short of immaculate. He nails Wesley, capturing all the emotion that the character is going through. Runge does the impossible, by making Wes look *exactly* like Alexis Denisof, but not making it look like a photo. He does a nude scene with Fred, portraying her sexuality but never being gratuitous about it. This is, bar none, the best comic art I've ever seen, and also easily Brian's best writing.
3. Kate: Art is still by Stephen Mooney, and Connor is still the main character, as this continues from Connor's story in Issue #6. It's an okay story, and there's nothing bad about it but it feels like not that much happens. Kate rescues Connor, she gets weapons, and reiterates what Angel told her in "Epiphany." Artist Stephen Mooney doesn't do as good here as he did in the first part of the story. He struggles noticably with women's faces, and he seems to just like to scrawl lines across everything to convey shading. It makes faces too dark, and very haggard looking. In the panel when Kate first arrives, Connor looks like he was just dipped in orange paint. None of it's really that good. Mooney's consistency is his biggest problem (other than his over-shading), and that's going to be funny, because I'm about to deal major praise to the guy in the next category.
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