Angel: Long Night's Journey

[nerd4hire]

On another thread the subject came up of Long Night's Journey. Was it canon? Answer. I don't know.

I'd heard of the 4 part TBP years ago, but never read it, because I heard it wasn't very good. Joss Whedon was credited as co-writer though, so does that make it canon. Again I dunno...

On the chance it might be I finally decided to read it, and here's some stuff we'd have to accept. Remember the snake woman Saga Visuki from Buffy Season 8. There's a race of what looks to be those things. They're called silthe. Oh, but wait the one in LNJ says she's the last of her kind.

In the letters section Dark Horse editor Scott Allie's says Joss thought Dark Horse was going in the wrong direction with the old Angel comic. He thought they should go off in a new direction. He offered to do it himself, and that led to LNJ. Apparently they were calling the new direction Angel Phase II.

In a later letter from the following issue Allie says Bret Matthews was brought in to "help", but he later "sort of took over to a large extent which led Joss to suggest giving him top billing".

Here's another bit of LNJ trivia. The first issue appeared on shelves the day after 9/11.

But back to canon. The big change concerns the Gypsy curse. According to Long Night's Journey the curse was never meant for Angel. It was an experiment by Gypsies to see if a soul could be inserted into a vampire. They wanted to create a champion. The soul was really meant for another vampire who called himself The Perfect Zheng. There's confusion at the end as to whether or not it's even Angel's soul.

As to whether or not LNJ is any good, I disagree with all the reviews from fans I read many years ago. I liked Long Night's Journey. I think those fan reviewers may have been pissed about the whole gypsy curse thing. I got past that. I preferred the story to Angel After the Fall. The story is simpler. There's not that cavalcade of minor characters jammed into every frame making it feel all fan ficcy, nor is there that chaotic feel. Some people like that. I'm not one of them. That much is just a matter of taste though. The art however is unequivocally better.

I'd recommend checking Long Night's Journey out.

[Karrde]

Well, I hated the Vampire Zheng and how they explained the whole curse thing... only thing I really liked was the snake-creature silthe, I guess the only bit Whedon contributed, because it has his "character-twist" signature all over. Oh, and the action scenes are awesome, you can't go wrong when you introduce flying ships into a story.

[Superstar]

They wanted to create a champion. The soul was really meant for another vampire who called himself The Perfect Zheng. There's confusion at the end as to whether or not it's even Angel's soul. As to whether or not LNJ is any good, I disagree with all the reviews from fans I read many years ago. I liked Long Night's Journey. I think those fan reviewers may have been pissed about the whole gypsy curse thing.
Angel was the test bed, but I think they chose him because they were very angry with him and could kill two birds with one stone.
I like LNJ. As for if the soul was originally his, I think there's enough evidence in the TV series that it was.
I don't see someone else's soul having knowledge of Liam's past.

But, yes the story does put Angel in a new place where he is not a romantic eternally suffering martyr figure destined for great things. He's portrayed as a broken secondhand second fiddle stepping into someone else's shoes by proxy and THAT is what I think fans are/were pissed about.

The funny thing is, that makes his character stronger in a way.
If you discount all his years wandering around scrounging for rats that is.
Although, it does beg the question of what the gypsies needed a champion for so long ago.

[nerd4hire]

You know what would be neat, and really get people remembering this old puzzler? If it turns out Saga Visuki is the Silthe from LNJ.

[Superstar]

I had actually added a bit about that possibility in my reply, then deleted it.

There are some physical differences (horns vs non-horns etc.), but I think the snake-lady character has been in the mind of Joss for awhile and was taken down, dusted off, given a new coat of paint and put on display.

[Tranquillity]

But, yes the story does put Angel in a new place where he is not a romantic eternally suffering martyr figure destined for great things. He's portrayed as a broken secondhand second fiddle stepping into someone else's shoes by proxy and THAT is what I think fans are/were pissed about.

And it's interesting that this idea was sort of played with in season 5 of Angel too.

Long Night's Journey seems hard to get - it's very expensive on Amazon. I'll have to try my local comic shops. You've made me want to check it out!