Teh wha? Peter David, writer for the upcoming Spike graphic novel, posted the artwork for the first few pages. (Note: It's quite graphic--avoid the last two pages if you'd rather not see a bunch of Victorians bleeding from the eyes) On one hand, I'm quite pleased, as Fernando Goni's illustrations show an unusually good resemblance for comic book adaptations, but what we can glean from the storyline has me (and a fair chunk of the fandom by now) seriously confused.

(The following contains spoilers for the last three seasons of Buffy and season 5 of Angel. Blogger has no equivalent of the LJ-cut. Fair warning.)

Okay, so we knew that Cecily and Halfrek were one and the same from the brief moment of recognition in "Older and Far Away," and we knew Cecily was a Vengance Demon in 1880 when she pulled the diss and dismiss on William, as she and Anya recall wacky vengance hijinks during the Crimean War (1854-1856) in "Lessons", so that much is okay. But if Hallie kills off all the people that make fun of William at the party, then who exactly does William earn his nickname with, torturing them with railroad spikes? I always assumed he started with guy at the party that inadvertently gave him the idea.

We know from "Fool for Love" that the whole "spike" thing happened while he was still in London, though his dynamic with Angelus later in the episode indicates that at least a few weeks have passed. It can't have been too long; we know it's still 1880 from the tagline. Hmm, cross-referenced with "Destiny"... the events surrounding Dru's infidelity have to take place in between the two 1880 "Fool for Love" scenes, because it's in "Destiny" that Angelus tells him to find a new name. Also, the events most likely occur after the events of "Lies My Parents Told Me", as Dru still calls him William, and Will appears not to know about Darla and Angelus yet (or at least has no reasons to not want to travel with them) and remains naively confident of Dru's fidelity.

I had always imagined the chronology went: Cecily and the other aristocrats shame William at the party, Dru turns William, a few days pass (Anne: "I've been beside myself for days!), William returns home and turns his mother, William stakes his mother's demon, William is thoroughly traumatized and does not attempt to reconnect with anyone he knew as a human, Dru brings William back to meet Angelus and Darla, William and Angelus engage in zany hijinks, Angelus and Dru do the wild monkey dance, (William's hatred of Angelus begins! Angelus encourages "Willy" to find a better name, one less likely to encourage penis jokes), in his rage, William hunts down all those that mocked him and proves his machoness torturing them with rainroad spikes (Ooh! Dru's infidelities with Angel provoke William to try to prove he can be like Angelus, so he goes out and slaughters all the bullies in a delightfully ironic way, like a good little Emo boy that has acquired superpowers and a handgun), the four are chased out of London by an angry mob, William adopts the moniker "Spike" (and Angelus facepalms).

Issues with this series of events: William has already dropped his upper class accent by the time he returns for his mother, but if he hasn't met Angelus by that point, Angelus wouldn't know his old accent, and wouldn't question him about it in the Yorkshire scene (the second 1880 scene) in "Fool for Love." Though if I recall correctly, William is already most of the way to the typical Spike accent when he meets Angelus in "Destiny," so there's really no hedging that. Though Petrie's "Fool for Love" commentary makes it clear that Angelus is remarking about William's new accent when he remarks "And when did you start talking like that?", perhaps in retrospect, we could twist canon and assert that Angelus is talking about William's sudden burst of confidence. For the first time, William holds his ground and stands up to Angelus. The line "when did you start talking like that?" makes sense both ways. Bwaha, my retrospective logic is awesome! I should work for the Bush administration.

And I realize I've gone off on a tangent for the overwhelming majority of this post and haven't even confronted the plot hole discontinuity these few pages of the comic present. If Hallie kills all of William's detractors, who does William have left to torture? Random strangers? In order to follow Angelus' style, they should be people William has a connection with.

Joss has been Jossed.

Hopefully, we'll get a clearer idea of where Peter David is going with this newer, more sympathetic Cecily when the actual comic comes out. I couldn't find a release date, and it's not among the comics listed in the "Coming Soon" section of the IDW website through June, but the Angel comic is slated for June and it's not listed there either. *shrug*

*reads back over post*

Wow, I am a deeply pathetic person. This wasn't supposed to be a quarter of the length it turned out to be. But my new observation that William was SO COMPLETELY EMO is worth it. The geeky glasses, the crying in public, the obsession with the Popular Girl who most likely barely knows he exists, the poetry with the word "effulgent" in it, the vows of eternal love with the loopy goth girl that finds him in tears in the alley... and to be left-handed in the Victorian era! Oh, the angst! Thank god I don't write fanfic, because this is just begging to be mocked shamelessly.

I'll be getting back to my schoolwork now.