Comic Book / Angel & Faith

Angel & Faith is a comic book continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that has been running since 2011 (concurrently with the Buffy comics) and follows ensouled vampire Angel and rebel Slayer with a cause Faith as they look to not only redeem themselves for past actions, but also to keep others from making the same mistakes. Much of the series takes place in London at Faith's estate, formerly the home of Rupert Giles, which Faith inherited following the events of Season Eight.

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Angel & Faith provides examples of the following tropes:

General Tropes

• The Atoner: Both of our protagonists.
• Aunt Pennybags: Giles' latest What the Hell, Hero? moment was to leave Faith everything in his will. If you know Faith you know she's usually fun to be around, but she's also putting that new found wealth to good use, from helping Angel and his research to paying off Arsenal football fans when Nadira picks a fight with them.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Faith is very loyal to Angel for this reason, him being the only one who has never "used" her. Also the reason why she helps Angel, is because she really wants Giles back, since he was nice to her, too.
• Brutal Honesty: Giles' aunts, Lavinia and Sophie, in the mold of Cordelia and Anya.
• Call-Back:
  • "Daddy Issues": Faith's accidental killing of the deputy mayor in season 3. It's because she remembers this that she is able to stop another slayer from making the same mistake. Later, her father reveals he knew about this and tries to get her to kill humans that are after him. To save Angel, she ends up cutting off one of the guys' hands and is understandably horrified.
  • "Family Reunion": Faith worried about what will happen to Angel in Quor'toth, since the last time he was in an alternate dimension he had trouble controlling his demon side. It is revealed being in Quor'toth may affect their behavior.
  • Mohra Demon blood from Angel season 1, now being sold on the Black Market.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds has Faith allude to using stakes as dildos. Giles' aunts bust her on this.
• Character Development: Faith has gone from being an Anti-Hero to pretty damn heroic. In-universe even Willow treats her as The Hero of both series, since she's still mad at Buffy.
  • Faith being somewhat of a Celibate Hero also counts, considering her former Really Gets Around tendencies.
  • Take a look at the other main character. He's closer to Booth to brooding these days, with his kind of childish traits such as setting up a mano a mano vampire fight or confrontation simply to be dramatic even getting a little Lampshade Hanging pasting.
• Closet Geek: Not only does Faith have Batman pajamas, she makes enough Star Wars references to make one think she had been hanging out with Andrew.
• Continuity Nod: When Angel, Willow, and Faith go to visit Connor:
  Angel (to Faith): "It wasn't that long ago I had to pull you off your father before you choked him to death. So keep your parenting advice to yourself." Ouch.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Faith and Giles' aunts. Angel also has his moments, particularly during the Harmony issue:
    Angel: You know, when you started this story, I didn't think it was possible for me to care any less. But here we are.
    Angel: I didn't realize how famous you were. Sorry, that stuck in my throat.
  • Spike, probably the biggest snarker in either series next to Xander, shows that he hasn't let up on it since during his appearances this season.
• Fix Fic: The series can be seen as this to Buffy Season 8, which got a very mixed reaction from fans.
• Good Is Not Soft: Faith's compassion has reached the point to where The Dead Have Names and Even Evil Has Loved Ones in regards to vampire drug dealers, while slicing off the arms of human gangsters who threaten her and Angel and attempting to forcibly turn him human so he can let go of having to make amends.
• The Hero: Faith has become this to some, including Willow, and stands as perhaps the best example since Buffy's name is mud after she did what she had to do and Angel more an obsessed Anti-Hero.
• Older and Wiser: Believe it or not, Faith. She's a Cool Big Sis to other Slayers, uses her mistakes as a basis of what to do, and Angel personally picked her because she would guide him or stop him if he becomes obsessed, crazy or dangerous.
• Older Than They Look: Giles' aunts use magic to prevent them from aging.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Connor. Angel refuses any contact with him, even ignoring his phone calls, because he thinks it will be better for him. Connor's fake family, the Rileys, have lost all memories of him as a result of the magic being gone so he has lost them too.
  • Faith.
• Platonic Life-Partners: What Angel and Faith have become.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: Faith.
• Shout-Out:
  • Faith updates Angel on the latest inmates from Batman: Arkham Asylum, while tracking a demon that feeds on trauma.
  • In Death & Consequences does the jacket Faith wear look like it belongs to someone else? Commander Shepard perhaps? Looks like our Gamer Chick had upgraded from the PlayStation the Mayor gave her to an Xbox.
  • Faith says there ain't no saints in this room. Funny she should mention that: that's exactly who her actress Eliza Dushku played in Saints Row 2.
  • And Faith being sick of being responsible for Angel, she's "not friggin' Spider-Man."
  • As mentioned before, Faith references Star Wars quite a bit.
  • First Angel then Faith gain a Friend on the Force named Detective Brandt, a British copper. Name's the same as a hulking, vicious Sergeant Brandt.
• Those Two Girls: Lavinia and Sophie.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Faith. Aside from the occasional Rage Breaking Point, she's now one of the nicest, most down-to-earth characters in either series. Giles' aunts even consider her more level-headed than Angel.
• Undying Loyalty: Faith and Angel, to each other.
• Vain Sorceress: Giles' aunts, who are The Thing That Would Not Leave to both Angel and Faith, but are permitted to stay as part of Giles' will.

Angel & Faith Season Nine

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  Angel: You ever try finishing a sentence when Buffy's all worked up?
  Willow: Oh, that is sexist. And funny and so very, very true.
• A God Am I: Dark Willow in Quor'toth.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted in that Faith turns down a horny Spike because she has matured past this and no longer seeks to be just someone's quick lay.
• Arc Welding: When Whistler shows a vision of the future to come in a world without magic, it's clearly the world of Fray, if you notice the hovercars.
  • This is more complicated than it first seems. Fray is set in a world without magic and Urkonn tells Fray that the 'last' Slayer faced an apocalyptic army of demons, after which all magic (and demons, and the Slayer herself) vanished from the world. It's clearly established though that vampires are normal in this setting - Fray's brother is turned into one and - crucially - is not a 'zompire' or an evolved vampire that appear after magic is restored. It's possible that Fray is set in some kind of alternate timeline or reality, or perhaps there are future revelations that will cause that future to come to pass. The vampires Fray battles (called Lurks in that time period) are very similar to normal vampires in the series, appearing vulnerable to the same things.
• Back from the Dead: Angel's mission this season is to find a way to resurrect Giles in a world without magic; he comes close. After he and Faith obtain the Crown of Coils, they dig up his coffin to find it empty. Nadira and some other slayers come and she tells him to resurrect a dead slayer, though Angel tells her that he can't. The girls instead go to someone they have heard would be able to do it turns out to be Giles. Subverted in that Giles isn't really resurrected, just having his corpse used as a dogsbody by the demon Eyghon. However, it's later played straight, except with a twist.
• Badass Boast:
  • This one:
    Angel: "Willow... can you handle Quor'toth?"
    Willow: "Can I handle an Old One? The embodiment of the most hellish of all hell dimensions? Heh. Here's a better question, Angel. Can it handle me?" (proceeds to punch out Cthulhu.)
  • Another:
    Spike: Me and Angel don't agree on much, but one thing's never changed. Put us together... and there will be blood.
• Big Bad / Big Bad Friend: Whistler is revealed to have been behind Twilight in Season 8 and working with Pearl and Nash.
• Bittersweet Ending: "Daddy Issues". Faith never reconciles with her father, Drusilla is insane again, and Angel and Faith are forced to live with the knowledge of their past sins intact. However, Angel reasons that it is this knowledge which makes Faith the tough, independent girl she has become, as opposed to the frightened, mentally unstable Broken Bird she was.
• Blatant Lies:
  • After Faith tells Spike he'll probably get laid when he gets over Buffy:
    Spike: Well, that's jolly good news for the womenfolk of London, because I'm over her right now... Nah. Even I wasn't buying that one.
  • Later on he goes into a spiel about how he envies Angel for being able to move on after falling for the Slayer. When Angel reveals that Giles' soul was already drawn out and he heard every word, Spike is visibly stunned, only to claim immediately after that his "brilliant plan" to pull Angel out of the void worked. Whatever, Spike.
• Breather Episode: After the hectic-ness of the "Live Through This" arc, we get "In Perfect Harmony", which involves Angel and Faith being recruited by Harmony to find out who wants to blackmail her. Over a sex tape.
• Celebrity Paradox: In Buffy Season 8's "Time of Your Life", The Doctor and Rose made a brief appearance. In "In Perfect Harmony", David Tennant and Billie Piper appear.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Faith assumed this was why her Disappeared Dad suddenly reappeared in her life. In reality, it's because he found out she was a slayer and wanted her to kill someone for him.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  Faith: "So all we have to do is get inside ... survive ... bust your pals out ... survive ... and get us all to a safe dimension. Alive."
• Despair Event Horizon: Faith after her dad shows up and she does something she regrets, which causes her to go see "Mother Superior" in Daddy Issues.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Angel, after his Heroic BSoD in Season 8 having killed Giles. What brings him out of his Heroic BSoD is the hope that can find a way to resurrect Giles.
• Digging Yourself Deeper:
  Spike: I am nothing like Angel!
  Faith: Sure you are. Vampire with a soul, hung up on Buffy, fighting your own kind... you understand each other better than anyone on Earth. That's why you've got this whole back door bromance going.
  Spike: "Bromance?" There is no "bromance"! And definitely nothing to do with back doors!
  Faith: Sure. That's why you keep hanging out even though you say you hate each other.
  Spike: We do not "hang out"! Circumstances thrust us together! Wait, not "thrust." Fate draws us together... we move in similar circles, all right?
• Distracted by the Sexy: Faith looks like she is going to pull this when a slayer picks a fight with some Arsenal football fans, and she later muses how she would have done it before. It turns out Faith used beer as a viable solution to the conflict.
• Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs after Spike is rejected by both Faith and Giles' aunts. He contemplates a stake because it's quick and sunlight because 'going out in flames' seems like an apt metaphor. A similar joke comes up later when Spike hooks up with Harmony. Disgusted, Angel offers to take Faith out to breakfast. Since it's the middle of broad daylight, Faith says he'll burst into flames, which Angel is well aware of.
• False Reassurance: Faith's dad tells her that he is really sober this time. He doesn't tell her that he's been involved in some shady dealings and some guys are after him.
• Gorn: The first issue is very bloody.
• Groin Attack: Faith does this to a possessed Spike. When he returns to normal and asks why his bollocks hurt she replies, "Beats me."
• I Did What I Had to Do: Whistler regarding his actions in Buffy Season 8. His plan was to create a better world where good and evil were balanced even if it meant sacrificing a lot of people's lives.
• Immunity Attrition: Angel calls Spike in to help him deal with Eyghon the Sleepwalker, reasoning that while Eyghon can possess the unconscious or dead, their status as vampires with souls would make them immune, since Angel did defeat Eyghon way back in "The Dark Age" in that manner. However, they're proven wrong; Eyghon has regained his true form and power, and successfully possesses Spike. Fortunately, when Eyghon attempts to possess Angel, the addition of Giles's soul in Angel prevents Eyghon getting full control.
• Interspecies Romance: Whistler is the product of a relationship between a pure-blood demon and one of The Powers That Be. They were killed for this.
• Ironic Echo Cut: In "Women of a Certain Age" two panels juxtaposed, each panel showing one of Giles' aunts, with opposing views of how they feel about Angel trying to resurrect Giles. One thinks he really will succeed and one of them thinks he shouldn't try because he wouldn't.
• Irony: Drusilla shows up alive, sane, and using a demon that feeds on trauma to help those who ask for it. Angel thinks this is wrong so he kills the demon, thereby no longer giving those who would have wanted and needed Drusilla a choice, thinking what she was doing was Mind Rape.
• It Only Works Once: Angel explains that his plan to resurrect Giles is only possible because of Giles's lifelong exposure to various magical artefacts, which absorbed a portion of Giles's soul and provide a tether to it. He also reveals that Giles's ties to Eyghon also play a part in the plan, as the deal Giles and his old friends made with Eyghon in the past means that the demon still has a claim on Giles's soul, with the result that when Giles died his soul essentially went to its "rightful owner".
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Faith's father. He shows up sober for the first time in a long while and you think he might actually want to reconcile with Faith. Wrong. Rather, he wants her to kill an Irish mobster he's been mixed up in shady dealings with, fully aware of her murderous past and willing to take advantage of it for his own benefit. Plus, the guy thinks he did what he had to do to provide for Faith, when he really spent most of her childhood as an alcoholic who ran out on his daughter and only resurfaced now without so much as a hello.
• Kill It with Fire: Angel and Faith fight demons who can regenerate, so they use a flamethrower to burn their whole bodies into ash.
  Angel: Fire in the hole!
  Faith: I've always thought that sounded dirty. I mean, seriously, if I worked demolitions, I'd be giggling like a twelve year old every time I said it.
• Kinky Cuffs: Lampshaded by Faith when some of the zombified slayers are being restrained: "Cuff 'em faster! Boom boom! Am I the only one who's dated a cop? Move it!"
• Male Gaze: Giles after he is resurrected, much to Faith's disgust. Being a hormonal 12 year old will do that to you.
• Manipulative Bastard: Faith's father could qualify as well. Showing up claiming you want to reunite with your daughter when you really want her to kill someone for you, it's no wonder Faith was pissed the fuck off.
• Mercy Kill: Angel and Faith kill the people who took the Mohra Demon blood, as they kept growing giant tumors all over their bodies.
• Mistaken for Gay: Whistler leaves a message for Angel to meet him at a disclosed location on their "anniversary." One of Giles' aunts immediately says "That's why Angel hasn't hit on me."
• McGuffin: An object used for regeneration.
  Faith: "So that's the McGuffin?"
  Angel: "The crown of coils."
• Mood Whiplash: Whistler, after inviting Angel out for dinner to talk, punches a hole through his stomach. After almost killing him, Whistler decides to spare Angel then tells him that once his stomach grows back, he should try the food there.
• Must Make Amends: Angel wants to make up for killing Giles by finding a way to bring him back from the dead.
• Naked People Are Funny: Faith is horrified after Spike drops his towel following a shower with Harmony.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Well done Angel, you killed the demon that kept Drusilla sane and allowed her to help others, understandable after Jasmine's Mind Rape. Now that she's off the rails again she's become even more vicious killing Slayers and giving Nadira even more of a reason to want you dead.
• "Not So Different" Remark: For Spike and Angel. Faith points out that they understand each other better than anyone because they both clearly still carry a torch for Buffy. Spike vigorously tries to deny it, but we know — no matter how much they claim to hate each other, they're Vitriolic Best Buds.
  Faith: Annnd cue the slap fight.
• Oh, Crap!:
  Faith: "Oh, Crap!. Hey, little, when you said we'd have to fight 'Quor'toth itself,' what did you mean?"
  Demon: "The Old One who gives this world it's name. Why?"
  • Yet again when Nadira and some other slayers show up Giles' house. And they know Angel is there.
• Pet the Dog: After realizing that most of Spike's anger stems from the fact that he is not yet over Buffy, Angel plays pimp and gives him Harmony's number as a consolation prize. Naturally he and Faith find them together in the shower the next morning.
• Plot Parallel: "Daddy Issues", which involves Drusilla and Faith dealing with their respective paternal problems. Though Drusilla's have to do with her sire, Angel.
• Rule of Three:
  Faith: "Brooding. Bad decisions. Violence. Rinse and repeat."
• Self-Made Orphan: Subverted. As mentioned above, Faith is made so angry that she chokes and almost kills her father, but is stopped by Angel.
• Serial Escalation
  Whistler: "You think you [Angel] and Blondie knocking boots was radical? A vampire and a Slayer? Try a pureblood demon and an agent of The Powers That Be. Evil incarnate and a servant of good. Or, as I like to call them, Mom and Dad."
• Sex Tape: A plot device of "In Perfect Harmony", where Angel and Faith try to find out who is blackmailing Harmony over a sex tape.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "In Perfect Harmony". The perpetrator behind Harmony's sex tape is her Sycophantic Servant Clem, who is in love with her and only wanted Harmony to finally see him as a hero when he made the tape go away. This being Harmony, she refuses to date him because being rich and famous means you can only date tens. And then he goes back to hanging on her every word. Angel and Faith throw the tape away and go home with nothing but a waste of their time to show for it.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Faith (with a Call-Back to Season 8) when she and Angel go incognito at a party.
• Shoot the Dog: Whistler regarding his actions in Buffy Season 8. His plan was to create a better world where good and evil were balanced even if it meant sacrificing billions of people's lives.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Poor Giles just cannot handle being a fifty-ish brain inside a twelve year old's body. This is one of the lesser examples:
  I'm a grown man, damn it all! I wear Saville Row clothes and drink Darjeeling tea and appreciate the nuances of Dostoyevsky in the original Russian! I am not some flighty, hormonal child who believes the world revolves around him and throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way! (Faith's reaction is that she's enjoying the spot on impersonation of said flighty hormonal child)
• The Soulless: Angel uses the Crown of Coils on a human skeleton. The body heals completely but, as Angel explains, without a soul the man will just die again.
• Status Quo Is God: At the end of "Daddy Issues", Drusilla goes back to being insane, and our heroes live to atone another day.
• Too Much Information: Harmony and Spike re what's about to go down in the basement.
  Spike: If I'm not out in six hours, send a search party.
• The Cameo: David Tennant and Billie Piper appeared in "In Perfect Harmony." Also a Celebrity Paradox since the 10th doctor appeared with Rose and the TARDIS in the future in Buffy Season 8.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: The Hero Of His Own Story.
• Villain Episode: One half of The Hero Of His Own Story focuses on the pasts of Pearl and Nash and Whistler explains his backstory to Angel in the other half.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Angel thinks Connor would be better off without him, so he pretty much abandons him. He doesn't even answer his phone calls, which Faith calls him out on.
  • Angel actually gets a few of these from Faith.
• We Need a Distraction: One of Faith's Slayers picks a fight with some soccer fans. Faith looks like she is going to flash them, only to draw attention to the drinks she bought so they'd lay off.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Drusilla returns, sane, and seeming to have pulled a genuine Heel–Face Turn. So just what is she up to these days? She encountered a demon that feeds on trauma (the reason she is so well,) trained it to work only in that regard, and sets up a shelter for those who have been traumatized, willing to have the demon feed on them so the pain they feel goes away if they ask for it. Angel sees the whole thing as a abomination and Mind Rape, believing people must suffer for what's happened to them and that if they did not feel bad about (in his case, Angelus) there's no reason not to make amends. Faith, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a problem with it since the people are going willingly. After Angel kills the demon Dru is back to being the vicious, Slayer-killing psychotic.
• The Worf Effect: We've never seen Whistler fight in the series, but when he meets up with Angel again he is able to literally punch out Angel's stomach without breaking a sweat. He decides to spare him, though.
• You Remind Me of X: Faith tries to help a younger slayer who reminds her of herself, particularly since she is angry, pushes people away, and feels like she can't trust anyone.

Angel & Faith Season Ten

• The Atoner: When Faith intends to leave Deepscan, Kennedy gets her to stay by offering a mission to find Riley. Faith wants to do this to make up for her actions during the body swap with Buffy.
• Badass Teacher: What could possibly be a more badass gym coach than a Slayer? Faith likely took what she saw in school as lessons of what not to do, as well as her previous training and teaching experience, to avert Sadist Teacher.
• The Bus Came Back: Amy. Dru. Nadira.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Faith understandably prefers using an old-fashioned stake rather than a gun to do her dirty work, since she really isn't too good of a shot.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Riley still remembers what Faith did to him all those years ago, but doesn't hold it against her, saying that the only way for Faith to finally get past that incident is to seek forgiveness in herself.
• Friend on the Force: Detective Brandt, for Angel.
• Genre Shift: Faith's role in the story, and Kennedy and her Slayers, have gone from medieval warriors to almost a Call of Duty clan, replete with special forces outfits, guns that kill vampires with silver bullets and jungle warfare. Faith parts with them after the first half of the season.
• I Take Offence to That Last One: Faith blows off doing research on a wannabe rock star protection gig, attacks him when the father of one of the girls he's with intervenes, and attacks Kennedy when she has to step in. Faith justifies it that he's a pedophile, and Kennedy's rather upset that Faith thinks she's okay with that, bringing it up several times to assure her she doesn't.
• Mission Control: Nadira to Angel.
• Must Make Amends: Faith goes on a mission to recover a missing Riley Finn to make up for sleeping with him while in Buffy's body.
• Odd Friendship: Faith and Fred end up becoming good friends despite being total opposites. Their relationship even parallels that of Buffy and Willow.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Amy is set up as this season's Big Bad despite neither Angel nor Faith having met her on television.
• Starter Villain: Corky, the formerly human pixie thug Angel fights during the first arc.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: You can almost hear Joss on the phone asking why the May 2015 issue ended on such a happy note. Fred recovered and subdued Illyria, Angel and Faith are back together, Zaynetech had recovered their investigations and are set to rebuild, Nadira had comforted Koh and talked him out of revenge before resuming watch over a peaceful Magic Town...and no Kennedy in sight.
  • The season finale shows just what the team is capable of. Magic Town rallies to Angel's aid resulting in a Curb-Stomp Battle, the only casualty being a very minor comic character and Drusilla fleeing for her life. Archeus alone tries to fight but Nadira shows she's some magic goddess and seals him in the statue for a thousand years. The team celebrate with a barbecue and beer bash and everyone gets along really well with no last second twist or tragedy. And the next issue of Buffy has...ah, Buffy choking a demon to death while crushing it's head against a wall.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: For the first half of the season Angel and Faith are off doing their own thing, with the former in London trying to protect Magic Town, and the latter in the States joining Kennedy as part of Deepscan.