While we were still in San Diego, Mariah was kind enough to elaborate on one of the biggest moments that was about to (and now has) come in her run as editor of the Angel series. Now that #35 has been released, we're releasing the audio of that interview and, because you've all been so good, we've transcribed it as well. Join us now as we talk about Spike and the reason why he's been acting so very question marky lately:
Buffyfest: So in the most recent is of Angel, #35 there's a huge bomb that gets dropped that according to the soul eater our young William the Bloody apparently has no soul and not even in the he can't sing or dance kind of a way.
Mariah: Nope.
Buffyfest: So how difficult was it given the fact that there had been a lot of discussion about how out of character he had been. How hard was it for you to keep that secret on the low?
Mariah: Well it was very difficult because you hope that people are gonna be patient and wait for the story to unfold because you can't just have that sort of a thing pop up suddenly. There's gotta be some kind of basis for it, you gotta go "Well he's acting at least a little bit differently but he's not totally not Spike". And the thing about him not having a soul is not all there is to it either so there's a lot more that's gonna come in #36 that kind of explains that. But it's a big deal because there's obviously been a lot of stuff that Spike's been doing that's not quite what people are used to and it was meant to be (and I think sort of successfully) Spike in a a sort of a different way. Yeah, it was hard because I wanted fans to understand something was coming but couldn't say what it was, you know it's always kind of delicate.
Buffyfest: Actually, speaking of that what I wanted to talk about was there is a huge difference and always has been in this whole way that the soul thing works with Angel vs. Spike because even when he didn't have the soul, Spike was sorta capable...
Mariah: Of doing the right thing...
Bufffyfest: With the chip and even before the chip he's sort of capable of love whereas Angelus...
Mariah: Is really not.
Buffyfest: Totally incapable. What do you think it is that makes it like that?
Mariah: I think it kinda goes to the episode where they talk about how Spike became Spike. William as a human being was a good man, he was a poet, he was kinda not the best at anything but he was, at heart, a decent person. Angel was kind of an ass. I mean really as a person he wasn't a terrible guy but he wasn't really a hero. he was sort of this philandering, drinking guy. So there's a big different where there base comes from and even though I know they're demons I think that there's a core difference there. I think it's harder for Angel to work at being good than it is for Spike ultimately.
Buffyfest: How do you think that Spike is going to react to his news?
Mariah: He's not gonna be happy about it.
Buffyfest: How about everyone else are they gonna want to lock him up like Angelus, Season 4?
Mariah: It's gonna be interesting to see because a lot of the characters react differently to it. Spike has obviously still been doing a lot of perfectly reasonable good things this whole time too. So I think a lot of characters are gonna have a hard time because there is such a stark difference between when Angel goes because if that happens you've gotta lock him up or get it back in there now. Obviously they haven't had to worry about Spike. Especially between Angel and Spike, though. That kind of thing is going to be interesting in how it plays out.