More than two decades after he brooded his way off television, one of the Buffyverse’s most beloved characters is being pulled back into the fight, and we now know exactly when. For those who are looking for what happened next after that alleyway standoff in the Angel finale, though, there’s a catch.
David Boreanaz first played the character in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where the centuries-old vampire arrived as a mysterious stranger before becoming the titular character’s great star-crossed love. He earned his own five-season spin-off that ran from 1999 to 2004, where he ran a supernatural detective agency in Los Angeles, helping the helpless and never quite outrunning his own past.
WB/UPN
Publisher Dynamite Entertainment has confirmed that “Angel” #1 arrives in comic book stores on Aug. 19, four weeks after it relaunches its companion “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” series on July 22. Both books are written by Eisner winner Kelly Thompson, with “Buffy” drawn by Stephen Byrne and “Angel” by Giulia Giacomino, and together they pick up the franchise as an interwoven print continuation.
The timing gives the relaunch more weight than it might otherwise have, as these books arrive just months after Hulu scrapped its planned live-action revival, Buffy: New Sunnydale, which would have seen Sarah Michelle Gellar reprise the title role under director Chloé Zhao. Gellar broke the news herself in March, and with the show canceled and the IP locked up at Disney, Dynamite’s line is now the only continuation of these characters. For readers who never stopped following the story on the page, that could be pretty enticing.
Thompson has been careful about how she frames it. The series, she told fans, is “neither a rebooted ‘origin story,’ nor a reboot with the characters older” — it’s closer to a fresh entry point that doesn’t ask newcomers to have prior knowledge, while still rewarding those who have. It’s a tricky balance to strike, though one the Buffyverse comics have managed before.
Dynamite Entertainment
The setup leans into a storytelling style the franchise has always done well. After years in Los Angeles, Angel gets dragged back to where it all started. The official synopsis reads: “And sometimes, you do have to go home again. This is that story.” A new villain named Leviathan forces the return to Sunnydale, and the first issue picks up directly from the events of “Buffy” #1, with Angel narrating the chaos from his own vantage point.
Pairing the two launches was reportedly the plan from the start. Editor Nate Cosby has said Thompson was the only writer he wanted for either book, and Thompson herself has likened the opening issues to an event book, the kind that hauls two casts together for one personal, emotional reckoning before each series spins off on its own. Thompson recently revived Wonder Woman for DC with the acclaimed “Absolute Wonder Woman,” so writing flawed, self-tormented heroes is more or less her home turf.
“Angel” #1 features main cover art by David Nakayama, with variants from Clayton Crain, Meredith McClaren, Meghan Hetrick, and Jenny Frison. That’s a lot of covers for a debut issue, which tends to signal a publisher betting on a tentpole rather than pushing something out quietly. Angel has been revisited in comics more than once since, most recently in a 2021 BOOM! run. A fresh start under a writer of Thompson’s standing reads like a genuine attempt to do the character justice, which, after the Hulu disappointment, is what fans will be hoping for.
Release Date
1999 – 2004
Network
The WB
Directors
James A. Contner, David Greenwalt, Tim Minear, Bill L. Norton, Terrence O’Hara, Marita Grabiak, Skip Schoolnik, David Grossman, Frederick King Keller, Jefferson Kibbee, Michael Grossman, Vern Gillum, Bruce Seth Green, David Straiton, Steven S. DeKnight, Turi Meyer, David Semel, Michael Lange, Scott McGinnis, Thomas J. Wright, Ben Edlund, David Boreanaz, James Whitmore Jr., Krishna Rao
Writers
jeffrey bell, Mere Smith, Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain, Shawn Ryan, Drew Goddard, Howard Gordon, Jeannine Renshaw, Jim Kouf, Douglas Petrie, Tracey Stern, David H. Goodman, Brent Fletcher, Gary Campbell, Jane Espenson, Marti Noxon