Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Angel #2 - The Hollower (part 2 of 3)

Written by Christopher Golden - Pencilled by Hector Gomez - First released on June 9, 1999
Synopsis - Creature Feature - Cool Quotes - References - Continuity - Goofs - Trivia - The Morgue - Cast - Points Of View

Special thanks to Ness of the Watcher's Diary writing the vast majority of
this comic guide and supplying the interior picture scans. Way to go Ness!

Synopsis

The Short: Angel teams up with a cadre of vampires lead by Catherine who are attempting to stop the Hollower, which will drain 3000 vampires then explode releasing their demon souls to inhabit the bodies of living humans, turning them into vampires. Although he goes to Giles for help, he is reluctant to involve Buffy. When she discovers that the Hollower drains the demon from vampires, Buffy begins to wonder if it could make Angel human again.

The Long: (See Continuity #1) The comic opens on a female vampire biting a human by Makeout Point (see Continuity #2). The tentacle of the Hollower appears and drags the vamp off to feed on her. The human, Hatcher as we learn later in the comic, looks up in time to see the last bit of the tentacle disappear.

Cut to the Bronze. We see Hatcher talking to his friends explaining what he saw last night. Buffy, Willow, and Xander overhear their conversation from their nearby table. Slightly annoyed she has another demon to slay, Buffy leaves the Bronze to talk with Giles.

Cut to Angel's apartment. Angel is discussing the Hollower with Catherine and a few other vampires. They don't have much on the demon so Angel makes the decision to go talk to Giles. He's interrupted when the doorbell sounds. It's Buffy wondering if Angel would like to come with her. He blows her off hastily, closing the door in Buffy's face.

Cut to the library. Buffy is talking to Giles about how Angel was behaving. The Watcher shows mild interest and asks Buffy about the "tentacled thing" as the Slayer had put it.

(see Reference #1) Flashback to Vienna, 1892. A scream rings through a house. We see a young woman with blood on her neck running in fear from something. As she climbs the stairs, we see that Spike is already at the top. Along with Drusilla, who is behind the young woman, the two vampires finish her off.

Cut to a large room in the house. Drained bodies lay on the floor or sprawled on couches. We learn they are the result of a party Angelus has thrown. Spike comments on the party just before a tentacle of the Hollower appears. It quickly begins to feed on the vampires from the party.

Escape

One vampire, Karl, is attacked and we see what becomes of the Hollower's victims. The demon from the vampire is sucked out, leaving an empty shell. What is left of Karl explodes into dust. Angelus, Catherine, Spike, and Drusilla make a quick escape. Fed up, Angelus is determined to stop the Hollower.

Flashforward to present day. Buffy is suiting up to go on patrol. She leaves, leaving Giles to do his research. As he searches for a book up in the stacks, a creaking sound is heard and Giles assumes it's Buffy. It's Angel who says he came to see Giles. The vampire immediately mentions the Hollower and Giles is quick to find a reference of the demon in a book.

The passage reads that the Hollower can only consume three thousand demon souls from vampires before it can't hold them anymore. When that happens, the demon regurgitates the demon souls in a spirit form where they can inhabit a human and transform them into vampires. A vampire holocaust as Giles puts it. He offers to help Angel, but the vampire refuses. Just as he rushes off, Giles stops him, telling him Buffy already left to look for the demon.

Cut to three vampires standing where Hatcher got attacked. They're trying to track the blood scent of the Hollower but with no luck. One claims he found the scent and the others follow reluctantly. A second later, Buffy appears, confused by the vampires' behavior. She quickly goes off to pursue them.

Cut to an old man walking his dogs in a park. The three vampires before jump him, ready for a meal. Before any of them can do anything, Buffy appears on the scene and kicks the vamp holding the man in the chin. After staking one, she turns to face the remaining two.

While attempting to stake one, the other vamp is attacked by the Hollower. Taking the distraction, the last vamp runs off, mentioning Angel as he does (see Reference #2). Buffy catches this but the vamp disappears before she can get an answer. She turns back to the vamp attacked by the Hollower. He turns to dust on Buffy who is wondering where the Hollower went.

Flashback to Vienna. A mob of vampires lead by Angelus are getting ready to kill the Hollower. A pair of vampires track the demon's scent back to a manhole. Pulling out a charm that could kill the Hollower, Angelus stands ready to finish it off.

Flashforward to the present day. Giles is interrupted from his research by Buffy. She's ready to warn him of the Hollower, but he tells her he already knows. After briefing Buffy on his recent findings, Giles informs his Slayer he believes he has a way to destroy the Hollower.

The information remains ignored by Buffy who is more concerned about Angel going off to kill the Hollower by himself. Giles reassures her that they're going to help no matter what, but something else is bothering her. Buffy states it's not like Angel to go off on a solo mission and wonders if he has another intention besides killing the Hollower.

Buffy says: ''See, Giles, the only thing keeping a vampire walking around is the demon inside it. When the Hollower sucks that out, the vampire is destroyed. But Angel has a human soul in there as well. There's no telling what would happen if the Hollower sucked the demon out of Angel. Maybe even a miracle, maybe all that'd be left is a human being. Maybe Angel doesn't want our help because he wants to find out.''

Cut to Angel. Catherine and a few other vampires sport flame-throwers while Angel weilds a sword. Charms much like the one he did back in Vienna sit out on a table in front of him. ''All right. Let's do it right this time,'' are Angel's closing words. Concluded in part 3.

Creature Feature

We learn more about the Hollower in this issue, that it drains the demon soul from vampires, and how it will get 3000 of them then explode, releasing the demons to turn living humans into vampires.

We see that certain vampires have better enhanced senses of smell then others, as Angel uses two of his best trackers as bloodhounds in the flashback.

Cool Quotes

Buffy: ''See, Giles, the only thing keeping a vampire walking around is the demon inside it. When the Hollower sucks that out, the vampire is destroyed. But Angel has a human soul in there as well. There's no telling what would happen if the Hollower sucked the demon out of Angel. Maybe even a miracle, maybe all that'd be left is a human being. Maybe Angel doesn't want our help because he wants to find out.''

References

The flashbacks in this issue take place in Vienna.
Vienna is the city and Bundesland (federal state), the capital of Austria. Of the country's nine states, Vienna is the smallest in area but the largest in population.
Buffy: ''...wow, he's fast. Now the Flash is a vampire, great.''
The Flash is a super fast costumed crime fighter from DC Comics that inspired television shows, cartoons and films.

Continuity

This story is set during season 3 of the television series. Since Rupert knows Angel is back is must happen some time after Revelations.
The makeout point shown in this issue may be the same one Cordelia and Xander went to in Phases.
Buffy: ''If I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times -- Nobody messes with my boyfriend!''
What's My Line Part 2 - Buffy said this about Spike when he was planning to use Angel to revitalize Drusilla.

Goofs

Unfinished.

Trivia

We learn Angel speaks German.

The Morgue

Anonymous female vampire: In Sunnydale, drained the Hollower.
Anonymous male vampire: In Vienna, drained by the Hollower (in flashback).
Anonymous male vampire: In Sunnydale woods, staked by Buffy.
Anonymous male vampire: In Sunnydale woods, drained by the Hollower.

Note: At the party that the Hollower breaks into in Vienna, it looks like there were at least 12 vampires in attendance and at least 8 humans drained by them. Only Angelus, Spike, Drusilla and Catherine survived, but we only saw one of the vampires die. There would be at least 7 more vampires and 8 humans, but we don't actually see them die.

Cast

Starring:
Alexander LaVelle Harris, Angel
Buffy Anne Summers, Rupert Giles
Willow Rosenberg

Guest Starring:
Spike, Drusilla

Co-Starring:
Catherine the Vampire, The Hollower

Points Of View

Ness:

We learn more about the Hollower in this part and how Angel is connected to it. I find this part is much like the first. Flashbacks to Angel's past with present day stuff mixed in. Buffy's concern for Angel shows just how much she still cares for him. Though I don't favor B/A shipper stories too much, this one I like. Christopher Golden does a wonderful writing job and I enjoyed how there's a possibility for Angel to become human. The tension created when Angel blows off Buffy also adds to the enjoyment of the story.

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