ANGEL: AULD LANG SYNE [IDW; $19.99].

Remember the golden era of the early years of this century when TV viewers could enjoy two full hours of rich, Joss Whedon-y goodness every week? And how, near the end of this blessed age, Buffy scampered to the late UPN, leaving Angel behind on the now equally late WB network, so that the two previously linked programs remained vaguely aware of each other, but full-scale crossovers came to an end?

Well, a similar situation now obtains in the realm of comic adaptations with Buffy gathering great notice with the Season 8 comics managed by Whedon himself at Dark Horse and Angel continuing with a lower profile series of minis at IDW.

The fourth installment of these minis, Auld Lang Syne, has been recently released in trade paperback format, with story by Scott Tipton and art mostly by David Messina, two names with which I was previously unfamiliar.

The strong point of the story is the dialog, which is close enough to the show's that it's easy to "hear" the voices of David Boreanaz and James Marsters as Angel and Spike. Although this is branded as an Angel story, fan-favorite Spike is as important to the tale.

The weak point is the plot, which hinges on two factors which have been done to and even beyond death in the Buffyverse and other places: the are-they-or-aren't-they "return" of emotionally charged supporting characters from Angel's and Spike's pasts, and "psychic vampires," which have become at least as much of a cliche as the more sanguinary types. To an extent, the whole point seems to be to maneuver the two heroes into an encounter similar to what used to happen every time Marvel characters met. Heroes meet, fight, then team up against the real enemy.

The art is serviceable with the likenesses being first rate, and the storytelling and action maybe a bit less so. Pages 49-70, which comprised issue three of the original five-issue mini are drawn by Elena Casagrande. The art is so close to Messina's that I'm not sure I would have noticed the change if the credits didn't reflect it. On close examination, maybe the likenesses are a tad weaker and the storytelling stronger in what might be called the "All-Out Action Issue" of the mini-series.

With Angel and Spike starring, the book uses what has become a standard device of colored captions to show dueling first-person narration. Writer Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman was the first time I recall seeing this; it worked well there and it works well here. A lettering choice that is less successful is the use of a stylized negative font for another character. It makes the dialog difficult to read, at least for my aging eyes.

The story works better as a collection than as five separate issues, but its problems are perhaps best summed up in its title, Auld Lang Syne. It's nice to see these old friends again, but I wish they had something new and different to say.