Ok, so this Hellmouth event is a WHOLE mess if you’re reading the trades. In order to truly understand what’s going on, you need to skip between this volume, Angel Vol 2, and the Buffy/Angel: Hellmouth trade, in the following order:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #8 (aka the end of Buffy Vol 2)
Angel #5 (The Road to Hellmouth)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #1 (of 5)
Angel #6 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #9 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #2 (of 5)
Angel #7 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #10 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #3 (of 5)
Angel #8 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #11 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #4 (of 5)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12 (Tie-in)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #5 (of 5)

I started this volume coming off Buffy Vol 2 and was SOO confused, but it all made sense once I picked up the Hellmouth trade. (Also read the Buffy: Chosen Ones one-shot before this and just know that the Buffy in there is from another dimension.) But also, you need to finish this volume for the end of the Hellmouth volume to make sense. It’s ROUGH.

That said, I want to like this but the art is such a horrible mess that I can’t even enjoy the story. Characters are just completely unrecognizable, and that’s true of the other titles in this event also, but the art in this one is actively bad. For some reason Lopez draws the whites under everyone’s pupils, so every single character constantly looks like they’re bug-eyed. He gets a special mention of the straight-up AWFUL job he does with Cordelia, who is only occasionally recognizable by her ombré hair. Characters show up and you genuinely don’t know who they are from panel to panel.