When people say the L.A. is going to hell, Joss Whedon and gang really took that literally. This whole graphic novel series picked right up where the television show ended. The powers at Wolfram & Hart were less than pleased by their defeat at the hands of Angel and his allies. As a result, the pretty much dropped the whole city off the map and into the pit of hell, where it has been overrun by demons and monsters of all types.

This seems to be the concluding volume that deals with all of the issues that have resulted from the storyline, including Gunn's turn to vampirism, Fred's connection with the uber-demon Ilyria, Angel's status of being the vampire with a soul fated to turn the tide (for good or evil) in the ultimate battle, and his relationship with his son Connor.

The illustrations in this series have been amazing, capturing the look of all the originating actors for the various characters. Just about all of the regulars from the series, outside of humorous demi-demon Doyle, appear in the story, though I was disappointed to see that Lorne, demon lounge lizard turned city ruler, seemed to totally disappear outside of cameos in this volume. With that said, it was really awesome to see Cordy return for a while.

This has really been an interesting story, but this final volume seems a bit overrun with plots and subplots so that it really seems to conclude with a whimper. Unlike the television series, fans are left with a lot more hope at the conclusion as well as wonderment as to where the surviving characters will end up.

My understanding is that there will be at least one more graphic novel put out, called Aftermath, that will pick up the story with a new plot.