(This review may contain spoilers).
Angel (or, rather, Warren) is another of Marvel’s X-Men that I’ve seen quite a bit of by now, including an appearance of him in one of the X-Men movies, so I was happy to have the opportunity to read his comic book.
It was interesting to see something of Warren’s arrogance even as a child. I enjoyed the opportunity to see him acting recklessly and also seeing how he kept to that arrogance as an adult.
I liked being able to see Warren battling against Bobby and Scott and it was good to see that he was reluctant to join the group at first… even though it was also quite easy to see why that was necessary. While it was a bit difficult to differentiate between the costumes in the first comic/s, I still enjoyed seeing a bit more of his origin story… though it would have been good to see something of Warren’s parents and if he’d ever kept in contact with them. Or if he still kept in touch with any of his ‘friends’ from further education. (His response to the comment about the angel did make me giggle).
The second set of comics came across as quite a bit darker and I thought the artwork reflected that really well. It was good to see that Warren and Betty had problems in their relationship, even as they tried to stay together. Betty’s reluctance to go out into public was sad and made me able to empathise with her… but I did think that she didn’t do a great deal to help herself. While I could understand that she was teetering on the edge, she seemed reluctant to let Warren inside… but I did think he came very close to just giving up on her.
Although I hadn’t seen Betty previously, I did think that the differences between her in the past and at that point in the comics came across really well. I was a bit confused about why Warren’s skin was a different colour, but I guessed it had something to do with being under Apocalypse’s control.
I did enjoy reading this collection of comics and learning more about Warren. I’d be interested in seeing more of him in future issues.
Ink of Blood 