One of Season Five’s best episodes from Angel (read our Season Five DVD review) involved Angel’s transformation into a puppet. Well, now it’s Spike’s turn! The recent mini-series from Brian Lynch and Franco Urru is now available in a trade paperback which includes an army of puppet ninjas, a telepathic fish, a guy with a giant brain and a helper monkey, oh, and did I mention Spike is turned into a Wee Little Puppet Man!
Spike: Shadow Puppets
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The story follows Lorne and Spike making a trip to Japan where the Smile Time demons have set up a new base of operations. On arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun the pair are immediately attacked by a horde of puppet ninjas (how cool is that!), and their reunion with Beck and Betta George (introduced in Spike: Asylum and their new ninja pal Tok Shinobu. Together the team makes a run on the Smile Time Japan facility, but it seems Spike, Lorne and Beta George take a small wrong turn and end up in the “Don’t Room.”
Those familiar with Season Five‘s “Smile Time” (and if you’re not, why did you pick up this book? how did you even find it?) know what that means. The threesome find themselves puppetized, and then the fun can begin in earnest. Brian Lynch captures Spike’s spirit, insecurities and insanity (all exponentially maximized in Puppet Spike). Puppet Spike is quite a bit of fun to watch, as is the comic relief of Puppet Lorne. Franco Urru‘s drawings are the perfect fit for the zaniness and the madcap puppet savagery unleashed.
I love how this book gets crazier and manic as it goes along. Spike takes on puppet ninjas, then is turned into a puppet, then is forced to take on puppets made to look like Angelus, Fred, Gunn, Wesley, Drusilla, and others. Through all of this our hero takes hits to his pride and vanity along with a real beating including getting his arm ripped off and getting impaled. Fun, fun, fun!
The trade paperback also contains a short writer’s commentary where Lynch discusses some of the hidden jokes of the script and background props (my favorite by the way is the Angel puppet hanging by a noose in Spike’s apartment early in the tale). Also included are all the covers for the mini-series, which I always appreciate being included in collections like this.
Fans of the show, and fans of Spike in particular, will really enjoy this tale. Although you don’t need to have read Spike: Asylum or seen “Smile Time” to enjoy the read, both are referred to and built on in this new story and fans who have experience with both will get the most out of it.