For a significant portion of the Buffy fandom, the romantic tension between Angel and Spike has never been a reading so much as an obvious fact the show was too cautious to state directly. Well. The canonical comics have now stated it — and in a manner so absurdly meta that it could only have come from the Buffyverse.
The moment arrives in Angel #26, published by IDW. The arc in question, “Boys and Their Toys,” is set in the aftermath of After the Fall — the comics continuation of the Angel television series — during which Los Angeles was briefly sent to hell and Angel’s team became unlikely celebrities. Hollywood, naturally, came calling. The result is a film called Last Angel in Hell, starring Nicolas Cage as Angel and Jorge Garcia as Charles Gunn. Already extraordinary.
Spike is represented in the film by a character called “Sara” — an amalgamation of Spike and Darla, Angel’s sire. And in the film-within-the-comic, Angel and Spike kiss. Onscreen. Canonically. “They could have gotten one fact correct,” Angel mutters while watching it. “Just one.”
Which is, of course, the joke. The ship has been confirmed through the most roundabout possible route: a fictional movie based on real events, filtered through Hollywood distortion, presented to us as both acknowledgement and deflection simultaneously. The Buffyverse being the Buffyverse.
The episode “Power Play” in Angel‘s fifth season had already laid the groundwork with Spike’s throwaway line about their shared history — “except that one time” — a line that fandom promptly elevated to scripture. The comics, in the Whirlwind storyline, established that the vampire gang of which Angel and Spike were both part had a fairly liberal approach to such things. There was always something there. The comics know it.
What makes issue #26 interesting beyond the ship confirmation is what it does with the broader theme of their relationship. When a convention spell transforms cosplayers into their costumes, Spike ends up wearing an Angel mask — and becomes him. Spike-as-Angel then spends the scene lamenting being a once-evil vampire on an endless quest for redemption. Which is not, as the comic carefully notes, entirely inaccurate.
Groosalugg refers to the transformed Spike as “Spangel.” Directly. The writers are not being subtle.
Two vampires with souls. Identical redemption arcs. A centuries-long bond of rivalry, camaraderie, love, and resentment that the show never quite had the language for. The comics are giving them language, a panel at a time.
Angel #26 and #27 are available from IDW Publishing.
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