Spike: Asylum


Spike: Asylum is a five-issue comic book limited series based on Angel television series. It was released from September 2006 through January 2007. The five issues were collected together in a single trade paperback in May 2007.

Plot

Ruby Monahan has gone missing and her family recruits Spike to track her down. It seems Ruby has been checked into "Mosaic Wellness Center", a rehab facility designed to cure the demonic. Evidence shows Ruby is instead being tortured severely inside Mosaic so Spike agrees to infiltrate.
Whatever is going on, many of the clients do want to murder Spike, having a history with him, and are willing to hurt his newfound encounter-group friends to do so. And just where is Ruby anyway?

Writing and artwork

Cultural references

Timing

In his blog, writer Brian Lynch has commented on when the comics takes place within Buffyverse continuity:

Canonical issues

Angel comics are not usually considered by fans as canon. However unlike fanfic, 'overviews' summarising their story, written early in the writing process, were 'approved' by both Fox and Whedon, and the books were therefore later published as officially Angel merchandise.
Later, Betta George from Asylum appears in Lynch and Joss Whedon's canonical . The Mosaic Wellness Center is seen briefly, and Spike refers to him and George as going "way back". Later references under Lynch's pen as the series went on would place the events of Spike: Asylum more definitively within the chronology of the series.