WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Angel #2, available now from Boom! Studios.
Angel has been an indelible part of the Buffy-Verse for decades, yet his latest comic book outing is far from anything that fans would recognize. In fact, this iteration of Angel's story has taken readers to a whole new world. Not only that, but yet another reality's version of yet another iconic character has stumbled into the titular vampire's life. As exciting as it might be to see Oz all over again, nothing about his most recent appearance bodes well for anyone involved.
Angel #2 (by Christopher Cantwell, Daniel Bayliss, Nimit Malavia, Patricio Delpeche, Maria Agustina Vallejo, and Becca Carey) as found nearly every member of Angel Investigations embroiled in one horrifying development or another. For Angel, that is battling demons within an enchanted dollhouse, while the rest of the team has been split between a budding zombie outbreak and a particularly interesting interdimensional visitor. Everyone's favorite werewolf has made his way back into their lives, and while this isn't the Oz that the team at Angel Investigations know best, any version of him is a welcome one.
First introduced in the second season episode "Inca Mummy Girl" from the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, Daniel Osborn (portrayed by Seth Green) was a student at Sunnydale High School who quickly became both a member of the Scooby Gang and Willow Rosenberg's primary love interest. Despite his calm, collected demeanor, Oz had plenty of his own dark secrets, primarily his existence as a werewolf. Oz spent years locking himself in a cage whenever his lupine condition posed a threat during the full moon, while also aiding Buffy and the others in their battles against the forces of evil. Eventually, Oz made the difficult decision to move to Tibet where he hoped to find help with his curse, or at the very least the means to live with it.
While the primary Oz would go on to make a new life and family for himself in Tibet, he has still played an integral role in the Buffy comics at infrequent intervals. Of course, the world of Angel is no the one fans know best, nor is the world this Oz has come from. It turns out that this Oz's world is even worse than expected, as he hails from one where Angel seemingly never regained his soul. Instead, the alternate Angel held onto his persona as the evil Angelus before slaughtering every other member of the Scooby Gang, and there is no telling how much of that horror may have followed Oz through whatever door he entered.
The Oz of the television series may not have found any closure until well after the cameras stopped rolling, yet his alternate reality counterpart doesn't seem to be in a position to find any of his own. Unless venturing to the world of Angel can help him to save the reality he left behind, this Oz's only hope of a happy ending may be once again leaving everything he knows behind.
With any luck, whatever it is that he is running from won't be another near-unstoppable darkness. Considering how many friends they have already lost in the past two decades to similar threats, seeing another Oz disappear may be more than anyone at Angel Investigations is prepared to handle.