Angel Love #8 (1987)
Angel Love #8 (March, 1987)
“I Know it’s you, Mary Beth”
Creator/Writer/Penciller – Barbara Slate
Inker – John Wm. Lopez
Letterer – Bill Yoshida
Colorist – Bob Le Rose
Editor – Karen Berger
Cover Price: $0.75
Okay, here we go… the final issue of Angel Love (until the Special). Ya know, as a young kid growing up in Brooklyn I was led to believe that everything in the world happened there. Sesame Street? Yeah, that didn’t look unlike my neighborhood… minus the muppets. Television shows, movies… everything seemed to happen where I lived. Here we’ve got an issue of Angel Love guest-starring New York City Mayor, Ed “How am I doing?” Koch. Seriously… he’s even on the cover. Growing up, he was kind of a big deal to me, probably because he was the first Mayor I knew about. He and Mario Cuomo will always be the fellas that ran my old stomping grounds.
Anyhoo… let’s see if Angel can squeeze any bone marrow outta her big sis, all under the watchful eye of Mayor Koch.
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Picking up right where we left off, Angel’s gotten the ol’ heave-ho from McMeal Headquarters by big bad Bernie. She’s totally lost it… she’s yelling, crying and waving her arms like a madwoman as Maureen tentatively looks on from inside. Before Angel can destroy any property, our old friend Everett wanders by and asks what’s up. Angel starts spilling the beans… however, notices that if she sticks around much longer, she’s gonna be late for her shift at Balloon.
The pair hops on the subway and heads homeward bound. While on the train, Angel fills Everett in on the entire story… which causes him raise an eyebrow. He thinks his red-headed pal may have lost her damned mind… he is sorta-kinda using “kid gloves” here, and attributes her lapse in reality to her desperation. As you might imagine, Angel doesn’t wanna hear it.
When Angel returns home, she finds Wendy “sobbing” on the couch. Not crying, mind you… actually saying “sob, sob, sob”. Gotta love Wendy! After some empty remark from Angel, Wendy realizes that her future may not be on stage or in the movies… but on television! And so, she begins giving her Emmy (that’s the one for TV, right?) Award speech with a carton of orange juice.
We head back to McMeal HQ, and get a scene with Maureen/Mary Beth herself. She’s worried what might happen if her “secret” comes out. After all, her campaign slogan is “She Speaks the Truth”, how can she come out as a low-down dirty lying liar! Her internal monologue is interrupted… not by Angel Love story-advancing device “the ringing phone”, but by a knock at the door. Why, it’s… Mayor Ed Koch! How’s he doin’? They’ve got a dinner date at this fancy schmancy restaurant where the waitresses wear rollerskates… hmm…
Speaking of a fancy schmancy restaurant where the waitresses wear rollerskates, we shift scenes to Balloon where we join Ms. Angel Love working as a rollerskating waitress! It’s just a normal night for Angel… annoying yuppie customers, yadda yadda yadda, until… the Mayor of New York and an aspiring Councilwoman enter the scene. Maureen’s all “ruh roh” and she and a confused Koch beeline it back to the Mayoral limo.
Angel returns to the pad… to find Wendy is still delivering her Emmy acceptance speech. She sneaks past to her art studio, and finally realizes that Halo is missing her… halo. She brings her doodle back to life, and spills her guts to it. Halo is an optimistic angel, and suggests that Mary Beth would eventually come around and give her a buzz… then, the phone rings! It’s not an issue of Angel Love without a ringing phone!
Sadly, it’s not Mary Beth… but Doctor Chin. She has some grave news… and for the first time, she delivers it without a smile on her face. Turns out that Angel’s mother has taken an even further turn for the worse… and they’ve called for a minister. Angel is heartbroken… however, she’s got an idea!
She calls Everett… who is currently swappin’ spit with his militant girlfriend Lola. She tells him it’s an emergency, and she needs him to get a car for her. Lola tells Ev’ that he’d best not even think about leaving for that “bleached out redhead”… and if he does, he shouldn’t expect to see her around when he gets back. Everett leaves anyway!
And so… Everett drives Angel to Maureen McMeal’s apartment building… and, get this… Angel puts on a ski mask… climbs up the side of the building… climbs into McMeal’s open window… and puts a GUN to Maureen’s head!!!
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Well… that certainly escalated!
Yup, we’re definitely building up to something… but what? Is Angel going to mug her sister of her bone marrow? I mean, really… this is getting nuts. Angel’s been spiraling deeper and deeper into just this whacked out desperation… which, I guess I can kind of understand… but, we’re getting kind of cartoony here.
Everett goes from irritating bird-hater and cockroach killer to unwitting accomplice here. What’s more, he may have given up his militant girlfriend Lola in the process. While I would have much rathered Wendy be behind the wheel, I can certainly understand why Angel would choose Ev’ instead.
Angel finally realizes that she left the halo off of Halo, and so we get another scene of all that mess. When I started reading this series, from just looking at the covers and the DC House Ad, I figured this scribbly cartoon angel would have had a much larger part in all of this. Here we are in the eighth and final issue of the series, and this is only the second time we’re seeing her.
Wendy is sadly used sparingly in this chapter. She does, however, steal the scene(s) she’s in. It’s never really made clear if she and Angel are close… outside of being roommates and all. Like, are they close friends? Are they sisterly… or is their relationship all based on convenience?
Speaking of sisterly… man, is ol’ Maureen/Mary Beth a jerk. I’m sure that we’re going to learn that she was either abused, neglected, or experienced some sort of childhood trauma during the Angel Love Special, but for now… she’s horrendously cold. Poor Mayor Koch didn’t get to eat at the fancy roller-skate restaurant… which may be the worst part of all!
Overall… the heavy scenes are really outweighing the fun ones, which I think I would put in the negative column. It’s still quite good, and it’s still got heart… which, to me is the most important element of a story like this. Although I’m not sure what to expect from the upcoming Special, I’m looking forward to it regardless. Hopefully we end on a fun note… and not the somber one that I’m almost expecting…
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