Daddy Issues

Daddy Issues is the second story arc of Angel & Faith, the comic book series which coincides with Buffy Season 9. Issues 6 is the first of the arc and will be released on January 25, 2012.

Characters

 * Angel (2/4)
 * Faith Lehane (2/4)
 * Nadira (1/4)
 * Drusilla aka "Mother Superior" (2/4)
 * Alasdair Coames (1/4)
 * Daphne (1/4)
 * Highgate Vampire (Lorophage Demon) (2/4)
 * Pat Lehane aka "Faith's Father" (1/4)

Flashback Characters

 * Rupert Giles (1/4)
 * Philip (1/4)
 * Lucy (1/4)
 * Charlotte (1/4)
 * Mr. Giles (1/4)
 * Buffy Summers (1/4)
 * Allan Finch (1/4)
 * Darla (1/4)

Angel&Faith6A.jpg One (Issue #6)
The issue begins with Angel in Highgate Cemetery. Douglas Adams is buried there and Angel has come to pay his respects. He had found: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in a dumpster back in the 80's which had helped him from committing suicide back then. But something else was there as well, Angel can smell the blood, but unfortunately it's gone now. And the blood trail leads him to an area called Holly Lodge Estate where elderly people live in public housing.

A policeman stops Angel, wanting to know what he wants there and Angel says he wants to visit a friend. They go inside together while the policeman informs Angel that nothing usually happens or has happened lately, but as they open the door of an apartment the stench is unbearable. So they find a man who has killed at least 3 elderly people, standing on top of them saying that they had the disease but now he has cut it out. And then he tries to help Angel and the policeman too by trying to kill them. Angel fights back and knocks him unconscious. The policeman impressed by his fighting skills then tells him to step back since it's a murder scene and asks him if he knows any of the dead. But Angel says no because he doesn't think the one he's looking for has been there for a while.

So then we go back to a flashback from the 70s. Again in the Highgate Cemetery. Young Giles together with 4 other young people, all wannabe watchers, are training. They seem eager to complete the task and kill a vampire and Giles is the only one that wants to be careful about it. Only a girl seems to agree with Giles and his tactics, but before they finish talking on how they should look for the vampire and how to kill it, the vampire appears in front of them. But Giles realizes there is something wrong with that vampire and before he has the time to talk to the others, one of the boys named Philip attacks the vampire. But it's not a vampire, nor a man, and Giles' instincts were right. It's a Lorophage demon, much much stronger than vampires, which uses its proboscis and needle-like fingers to draw any sustenance from the minds of his victims. It's a fatal process. Basically the creature feeds on its victims traumatic experiences. And those wannabe young watchers have plenty of traumatic experiences from being locked up in rooms with starving vampires or from peering into hell dimensions as part of their training. The demon kills all the young watchers one by one, reaching up to Giles at the end. Giles feels the process, he starts remembering all his traumatic experiences including the very last one which was watching just some seconds ago, one of the young watchers, a girl, getting killed by the demon, a girl that he had never found the courage to ask her out. Now Giles is gonna die, first go utterly mad and then die. Just before his end, 2 older watchers come and attack the demon and save Giles' life. They've been watching the young ones by distance evaluating them, only a few seconds behind them, which were enough for the demon to slaughter the young ones. One of them is Giles' father and even they are no match for the demon. But the demon had already fed itself and so it run away from them. That was the day that Giles' innocence was perished.

Next we find out that Giles' relationship with his father was very tense only to be made even worse by the events of that night. Giles blames his father and calls him a murderer, telling him that he had sent them to their death. His father says that it was a tragic event that the Council's intelligence was faulty about. Giles tells him that they weren't ready for it but his father replies that nobody is ever really ready for that job and that the specter of death is part of the life that they were chosen for. And we find out that Giles basically never really chose to become a watcher, that life was chosen for him at the age of 10 when he was asked to start studying horror and death together with latin and geometry. But the father insists, the supernatural road is their heritage, their destiny and they must serve it. Young Giles has already made up his mind and he decides to run away from all of that and follow his own path. But unfortunately he was hardly done with magic and death, but those events will be recounted in due course.

The issue continues with Faith. She's in downtown London together with 2 other slayers who are fighting a vampire while Faith takes care of a girl that has been biten by the vampire. She'll be alright, the bite wasn't deep. In the meantime Nadira is ready to dust the vampire, but right before, Faith grabs her hand and stops her telling her to take a better look. He is not a vampire, but he is human, and Nadira almost killed him. The man says that we wanted to be sired and he asked for it, but since this is against the rules she didn't sired him so he decided to sire himself and took a bite on her. Faith tells the girls to call the police and an ambulance. Nadira feels so guilty that she had almost become a murderer, only to feel even worst by saying that in front of Faith who has already been there, done that. But Faith knows that the only reason that she saw that coming tonight and that she was able to stop Nadira, is actually because she has been on this road herself and she had done the same mistake but Buffy didn't stop her in time. Faith has dealt with it and payed for it and now she has used her past mistakes to actually save a life.

So Faith changes the conversation asking the girls if they know who is "she" that didn't agree to sire the guy because it's against the rules. Nadira says that probably is the "Mother Superior" and when she rejected to sire him that drove him over the edge and suggests to go after her. But the third slayer says that the Mother Superior hasn't broken any of Harmony's rules. Nadira replies that they are vampire slayers and that's what they do, kill vampires, and asks if it's illegal to kill a vampire that follows the rules. And we then learn from Faith that it is still a gray area, but killing a vampire that follows the rules will only result in starting a war. What they need is a reason to kill her and since most vampires come with skeletons in their closets, Faith now is on to that.

Next we find Angel and Faith training on the rooftop of Giles' residence. Faith tells him about Mother Superior while they train. Angel has heard of her, she attracts goth crowd like flies but she obeys the rules. Faith adds that she stays out of sight and she doesn't use her real name. Angel tells her that many vampires pick a different name when they get turned, it's a kind of tradition in some bloodlines and he doesn't seem eager to deal with it. But Faith draws his attention when she mentions that she thinks that Mother Superior is up to something since she has already run into 2 different nut jobs that tie to her. Not totally crazy people, more like too drunk people who don't give a damn about anything, not even their lives or the lives of other people. And Angel has met one of them as well. Faith surprised, tells him that she thought that his only mission was to bring back Giles. But Angel adds that it's kind of related, the last entry in Giles' diary that was talking about the Lorophage demon, he checked it with the watchers' files and found out that the demon has hibernation cycles. They sleep for decades and then wake up to feed themselves when "the stars of the old ones who birthed them align" which means now.

They go together to Alasdair telling him about the Lorophage demon. He says that this kind of demon is possible to cause an epidemic of madness but unlikely at the same time. There were cases that the victims went completely mad from all the traumatic experiences that were forced to surface but very rarely and only when the attack has been interrupted. The Lorophage demons prefer to drain every drop of their victims' brains and by that they kill them. Faith disagrees bringing Giles as an example, who has survived a Lorophage demon's attack and didn't die nor went mad. But Alasdair adds that Faith has no idea of his days as a Ripper and what he did and how he used magic. Faith still disagrees saying that being young and stupid doesn't make one crazy. Before things get worst between them, Angel interferes wondering why the demon leaves the victims alive. Faith's theory is that the demon is being controlled but Alasdair says that Lorophage demons are resistant to magic. So Faith corrects her theory saying that maybe the demon is hypnotized by someone, by a vampire, as Angel adds. Alasdair tells them that if the theory is correct, that means that this is a serious threat and they must put aside whatever else they are working on and focus on that. Faith kind of angry tells him they got it and they leave the house.

When outside, Angel asks her why she behaved like that, since they went to him to ask for his help. But Faith just thinks that he talks too much like every old guy. She has asked the girls to check a little bit and Daphine texted her that the newest residents of Arkham Asylum, people who had lived through very traumatic experiences and would be the perfect meal for a Lorophage demon, have all gone mad and gotten obsessed with Mother Superior. But what Angel doesn't understand is what does a vampire gain from making people crazy. There is only one way to find out. Daphine informed Faith that Mother Superior lives in a deconsecrated church that was turned into a nightclub and they decide to go and find her to end all this.

They attack going inside the church, asking the crowd, human groupies and minor vampires to take them to Mother Superior. But the crowd attacks and a fight starts. Angel doesn't have the patience for that, and most of all, he hates churches since they bring back to him very bad memories. Nuns used to be his specialty, torturing them, killing them, and he had a vivid imagination. One could say that that was Angelus, but Angel remembers everything and Angel knows what Angelus did and how good that made him feel. Some of his worst memories are from his time in London. So, wanting to end all this fighting, he knocks on a door trying to find Mother Superior, telling her that "it's time for confession, you go first, Mother Superior, it starts by "Bless me..." But before he finishes he sees Drusilla inside the room sitting on a throne, being worshiped by her minions telling him that she knows what comes next. After "bless me" it comes "Father...isn't that right?"

Meanwhile somewhere in a pub, a man approaches Nadira and another slayer who have a drink. He knows they are slayers and he is looking for Faith. Nadira tells him that they have never heard of her, but even if they had, why should they tell him? The man replies that he has the best reason in the world, because he is her daddy.

Angel thinks that there is something not right with Drusilla. She tells them she became somewhat nostalgic, a girl that almost became a nun so she decided to set up shop in a church. And the more things they change the more they stay the same. Angel understands what is not right with Drusilla, she is sane!

Part Three (Issue #8)




Previews
Daddy Issues #1

Trivia

 * Issue 6 marks the first time Faith meets Drusilla.
 * EW.com reports a Drusilla spin-off will pick up directly after Dru's appearance in "Angel & Faith" #9.