Joss-xian Universe

Angel & Faith #6: “Daddy Issues” #1 review

2012-01-27T15:28:00.003-06:00

Cover by Steve Morris

The nitty-gritty:People are going nutty. Angel and Faith think it has something to do with a newplayer in town, Mother Superior, and a demon from Giles’ past. Meanwhile, afigure from Faith’s past shows up looking for her. Spoilers about the specialguest stars after the jump.

Art: Had a toughchoice between covers this time. On the one hand, there’s the Steve Morriscover with the really cool, and probably foreshadow-y concept of Young Gilesemerging from a Giles Matryoshka doll. On the other, you have that reallydynamic Rebekah Isaacs cover of Angel and Faith in action… it kinda looks likean Oriental painting from afar. In the end, concept won out.

After last month’s rather disappointing art, I was ecstaticto see Rebekah Isaacs back on art duties. How do I say this without fawning?Why bother? This is gonna sound like fawning because it kinda shamelessly is.Deal. With. It. The storytelling mechanic is superb. The layouts are prettytraditional but employ a variety of wideshots and close-ups to effectivelyconvey actions, emotions and mood. And it’s also nice to get a sense of scaleof a location.

Finch

Likenesses continue to be a strong point for Isaacs, withsome really nice panels with some special appearances. The one panel of Buffy(in the flashback of Faith stabbing Deputy Mayor Finch) is great. But Isaacs’greatest achievement in terms of likenesses here is in her rendering ofDrusilla. Dru may not be insane at the moment… but she’s pretty damn creepystill and Isaacs nails her delicate beauty and mannerisms. And she definitelyhasn’t lost any of that mystical allure. Her entire court is a perverse boudoirwith her fawning attendants all gathered around her throne. In a church.Chick’s still a little loopy, if you ask me.

I may have generally disliked Dan Jackson’s colors in theprevious issue, but paired with Isaacs again, he’s redeemed himself in my eyes.Especially in the scene that reintroduces us to Dru. The lighting is sumptuousand opulent, and the reflections and flickering light really plays up thecreepy vibe created by the thought of a vampire nesting in a deconsecratedchurch.

Drusilla

Writing: It’shard to imagine that Christos Gage is relatively new to the Verse. It’s apleasant surprise as this book is the best thing to have happened to the Angelfranchise in a long time. He just gets it. The book moves along at a fairlyclipped pace but the character development doesn’t feel lost in the plot.There’s a sense of continuity in his occasional reference back to past events,but he doesn’t dwell on these, rather, using them as punctuation points forstorytelling.

The title may be a little on the nose, but it definitelyseems to be an apt descriptor of the arc. And oh boy… do these characters allhave daddy issues… You have Giles who was clearly at odds with his father aboutthat trivial affair about destiny vs. choice. Then you have Angel who was agiant disappointment to his father before he killed the old man after he wassired. In a way, Drusilla is very much the perverted spawn of Angelus, as thedemented and broken vampire that we have come to love was essentially theproduct of Angelus’ loving ministrations. And of course, the bastard sired her.Then you have Giles, who as far as we know had no biological children, but overthe years of hanging with the Scoobs became their spiritual father figure.Faith was the last addition to his brethren, and the sole heiress to his wealth(not insignificant, it seems) and estates (and ponies). Speaking of Faith, herown dad pops up at the end of this issue, setting up yet another source ofconflict. Faith’s dad has never actually been referenced to the best of myknowledge. Except, perhaps once, when Faith was masquerading as “Hope,” whereshe basically makes an offhand comment about her father not caring if she livedor not. Sure, it could’ve been fiction, but I think it’s more poignant if Faithwas pulling from her own grief there. And in a way, Giles is pullingdouble-duty as a guiding light for both Angel and Faith right now, as theynavigate post-broken Seed London a lot through his diaries. Yeah… LOTS of daddyissues there. Only way to liven this crazy party up would be to toss Connor inthe mix… Hmm…

"I'm her daddy."

Gage has often said that Giles was the third most importantcharacter of the book. It’s not just talk; Giles really is front and centerhere. Not only does his past near death experience with the Lorophage drive alot of the central action in this issue, and of course Angel’s obsession withbringing him back means that his presence is constantly felt. However, what’sreally awesome here is that Gage has seized upon an opportunity to flesh outsome of Giles’ pre-Ripper days and written it in such a way that’s not just agratuitous flashback but rather a fitting piece of the thematic puzzle. And hey, it's always nice to see more of Giles. And Priggish!Giles is still quite a badass. Not only does he calmly hipcheck a classmate, he carries about a pretty nifty looking blade in his schoolboy blazer.

Giles, pre-Ripper

I’m also digging the frequent appearances of some of thesupporting characters. Nadira is gonna share the spotlight soon, I think. Well,if Isaacs’ cover for #9 is any indication, it’s gonna happen in a big way! I’dlike to see her character evolve more, but I’m sure that time will come.Especially given how elated she was about learning that Nash and Pearl were inthe Jolly Olde at the end of #4. But the character that is quickly piquing myinterest is Alasdair Coames. I really liked the tenseness in his interactionwith Faith in this issue, which makes sense when considering their last knownconversation, where Faith takes out her guilt of nearly smashing a vial ofMohra blood on Angel’s head on him, telling him that taking his advice almostmade her do something horrible to a friend. It’s only fitting that Faith isn’ttaking Coames’ suggestions quite as eagerly this time around.

Overall: A. Thiswas a fantastic issue. The flashback with Giles was excellently executed, andthe introduction of two big players in this arc will inevitably bring out somegreat drama.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #5: “Slayer Interrupted” review

2012-01-13T16:12:00.002-06:00

Cover by Steve Morris

The nitty-gritty:Buffy’s having bad dreams… and she thinks that something is hijacking herSlayer dreams to tell her something. Meanwhile, her roomies are having secondthoughts about having a Slayer in the house. And if there weren’t alreadyenough problems in her life, Buffy makes a startling discovery about herself.

Zompire attack!

Art: This is Steve Morris' final cover for the Buffybook, and boy, does he go out with a bang. This, IMO, is his best cover todate. Buffy looks terrified and is wearing couture! Buffy’s nightmares areliterally upon her; they’re the basis for the beautiful yet disturbing print onthe dress. It’s an arresting image, and hints quite explicitly at what’s to beexpected in the book. Adios, Steve. Looking forward to seeing the rest of yourwork on the Angel & Faith title.

The returnof Karl Moline! And it features some of his best work in the Buffyverse post-Fray. Moline’s strength has always beenhis dynamic panels. Basically, if it moves fast and there’s plenty of chaos,he’s your guy. This is on full display in the first few pages of this issue.The action is easy to follow despite the frenetic pace.

Moline’s weakness in the past, IMO, has always been indrawing nuanced facial expressions, often veering into the realm ofcaricatures. However, there’s a marked improvement here, with an emphasis onBuffy, naturally. The last two pages contain the best Buffy he’s ever drawn;first the shocked realization that she may be pregnant and then the anxiousresignation when she sees the positive pregnancy test.

First Response?

A couple of things to note about Buffy’s dreamspace. Itseems to be a desolate wasteland version of San Francisco, with a damagedGolden Gate Bridge and a largely collapsed and crumbling city skyline. Is thisa hint of things to come should things continue as they are? It does seem thatway, with the fairy saying: “It’s simple dreaming. She wants you to undo whatyou did to this world.” Even more cryptic is why Buffy sees herself in her“Time of Your Life” outfit talking to the First Slayer.

Writing: Dreamscan be really cool visual pieces. They can be loopy as hell, and in the case ofa Slayer, unsettlingly prophetic. “Slayer, Interrupted” takes us back intoBuffy’s dreamspace where we begin to see hints of where the season is going.

“You are not the Slayer. […] Only the Slayer can pull theblade from the ground. You are not the Slayer.”

"It's not for you."

Of course, in her dream, Buffy is unable to pull the bladeof the broken Scythe from the pile of rubble. The fairy responds by tellingBuffy that the Scythe isn’t for her, but rather for Willow. This could meanseveral things. Firstly, that Willow is now “the Slayer,” whatever that means.Secondly, the fairy also says: “The Slayer’s a part of you. But you’re not agirl anymore.” The obvious reaction to this would be a good head scratch.Slayerhood has never been something that’s just connected to girlhood. Ofcourse, this could be just a wrinkle thrown in to confuse readers as to wherethe plot is really going. I mean, there’s even a built-in caveat, with thefairy saying “Dreams have a way of losing themselves in translation.” Perhapsthe only real important bits of information here are the bits about how the“Scythe could be the key to restoring magic to the world” and the hint thatBuffy may be pregnant. While pregnancy obviously does not a woman make, we aregetting information through Buffy as a filter, and she may equate motherhoodwith womanhood.

"You are not the Slayer."

What’s interesting to me is how Buffy now fails at doing thevery thing she could do in Season 7: King Arthur-ing the Scythe from the earth.What’s even more interesting is the bond that Buffy and Willow share. It’s acontinuation of the relationship the two have had over the years, first withWillow being one part of spell that merged the mind, heart, and hand with theSlayer (interestingly enough, that triggered the first appearance of the FirstSlayer), then the mystical walkabout in Buffy’s mind when she was comatose withguilt, and most recently, Willow channeling her magic through Buffy in order todefeat Amy in “The Long Way Home.” The first three events were catalyzed bymagic, but it seems, their “dream spaces bleed together,” and Willow was ableto enter Buffy’s dream space without the use of magic.

The deal with the broken Scythe is quite poetic. Other thanBuffy, Willow was probably the other person most connected to the Scythe. Willowwas the one who connected with the Scythe in a manner that even Buffy wasn’table to, to use the essence of the Scythe and channel that power intoempowering the Potentials. Just as the Scythe was capable of destroying theSeed of Wonder and cutting off the magical realms, it may now be the key tobringing magic back. I think it’s pretty obvious that Willow’s sudden departurein this issue will signal the start of her journey in her own miniseries.

Andrew Chambliss does an admirable job of telling what couldhave been a messy story. The voices are largely on the money and the story is aspiritual sequel to “Restless,” where Buffy’s dreams once again hint at thingsto come. Also nice was how certain seemingly forgotten elements from Season 8are given their due notice, with Buffy acknowledging the sacrifice of one ofher doubles. It’s also nice to see Buffy openly acknowledge how much she missesGiles.

A thing I noted, is how in the span of 5 issues, the Vampyrbook has been referenced twice now. I foresee the importance of the book comingto the fore when the vampire arc comes into play.

Overall: A-. Great one-shot. Justwish I knew what was what faster. And Buffy’s preggers?! Whuh?

Angel & Faith #5: “In Perfect Harmony” review

2012-01-08T23:13:00.000-06:00

Variant cover by Rebekah Isaacs

The nitty-gritty:Harmony shows up with a crisis: Her career is on the line because she pulled abotched “One Night in Paris” and now she’s being blackmailed. A briefprocedural romp turns up some surprising (“I love you, Harmony”) and hilarious (“Those are so fake”) truths. Alongthe way, our leads learn a lesson or two.

Art: I love theRebekah Isaacs variant cover, with Harmony in total vamp face on a ten poundnote as the Queen of England, and Clem as a Grenadier guard. It so captures themood of the piece, their respective roles in each other’s lives, as well astheir respective mindsets. On top of that, the composition of the piece is justgreat.

Moving on to the interiors: I was a little underwhelmed, tobe perfectly honest. While I’ve generally liked Phil Noto’s work on his Tumblrblog, as well as some of his Dollhouse covers, the art in this issue was justkinda flat. I think the style kinda worked in that it reflected the material(it’s a lot lighter), but it just felt incongruent with the more noir feel thatwas previously established.

A quick breakdown of what I liked/disliked about the art. I’mnot a huge likeness Nazi. As long as I can recognize a character, I’m good.Noto’s likenesses aren’t the best here. I mean, it’s not difficult to figureout who’s who, but Faith looks like a tired old lady at times (yeah, Faith and“tired old lady” in the same sentence). And while I’m against gratuitousT&A posing, I’m also against making the characters look lumpy andshapeless. Again, Faith looks like a tired old lady. And Harmony is just asshapeless in some of the panels. It’s a crying shame. Noto draws a great Clem,though.

The good of it? Well, like most of the artists who’ve workedon the canon books so far, Noto has a great understanding of how to keep thingsinteresting even when the characters are just talking. The characters actuallydo stuff, like real people. And that’s what saves the art for me. For example, check out the pages inHarmony’s changing/powder room. While the Noto’s Harmony looks nothing at alllike Mercedes McNab, it’s not hard to see the character in those pages. She’sequal parts ditz and elitist bitch.

The color style is a little different here, despiteretaining the same colorist. It looks like Dan Jackson switched it up a littleto match Noto’s more open and sketchy draftsmanship. The problem is, too often,the colors just seem kinda flat too. The pages lack the kind of texture thatIsaacs’ pages tend to have. London just seems a lot less noir in this issue,which is what I feared would happen, given Noto’s style. It’s not bad. It justdoesn’t seem to jive with the established vibe of the series so far.

Notes:

Faith’s arm tattoo is missing. Scott Allie hassaid that it’ll be fixed in time for the TPB.
I thought it was really cool that instead ofjust leaving the mirror blank, Jackson colored in a reflection for the flowerdelivery guy, but of course, Harmony doesn’t cast a reflection.
It’s kinda nice to see what Clem’s Grrr-facelooks like… it was shown from behind and implied to be scary in Season 7 of BtVS, but this is the first time we’veactually seen it.

Writing: First ofall, let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. This is a one-shot. It’sreally not connected to the previous arc in any obvious fashion, except forperhaps the exploration of the themes of culpability and redemption, albeit ina slightly roundabout way.

Surprisingly enough, Harmony and Clem turn out to beexcellent foils for Angel’s character. It’s kinda nice to see Angel come moreto the fore this time, as the first arc was more focused on Faith’sdevelopment. In stark contrast to Angel’s “brood and live in remorse”philosophy, Harmony adopts a more nonchalant way of handling her guilt: shedoesn’t. However, as Faith pointsout:

“But look at her. She has zero guilt about anything she’sever done. And she’s making more of a difference than we ever did… My point is,maybe we should think about lettinggo of the past a little.”

Angel counters that with his usual glass half-empty:

“What scares you more? The idea that we might be thinkingtoo much about what we’ve done? Or what we’d become if we forgot?"

Clem’s entire blackmail scheme is basically a hero fantasy.The general premise is to cause distress to the damsel and then rescue her fromsaid distress, thus appearing to be her white knight to earn her favors. Thereis a parallel to be drawn here with Angel’s whole Twilight deal. Ironically forAngel, he’s at his most heroic when he’s just helping the helpless and he’susually at his darkest when he succumbs to his Messiah complex.

This issue works because of Christos Gage’s snappy script.Yeah, there’s that potential blunder with Angel inviting Harmony into the flat,but apparently there may be an explanation for that coming up. Blunder aside, I was actually reallyimpressed with the depth of the material here, especially with the socialcommentary stuff.

I’ve heard some complaints that Harmony seems a little “toosmart” here. I’d disagree. She’s not smart; she’s the product of a well-oiledPR machine. Her every move is calculated. The very reason that this particularsex tape getting out will cause a scandal is not because of the usual shame orwhatever (she’s released 12 tapes, so far, in 3D re-releases, no less) butbecause it’s footage of her violating one of her tenets of Reform Vampirism: Nosiring. Kinda like that Dustin Lance Black scandal from a couple of years back.(NOTE: Merely pointing out the similarity of the situation. No judgment at all.Unprotected sex in a monogamous partnership is actually very safe, as long asboth partners are clean.)

Funnier still is Harmony’s parroting of quotes from famouspeople, ranging from second-hand material from Charlie Sheen to Thích Nhất Hạnh(“some Asian guy”). She uses these quotes to basically bolster her belief thatshe’s actually doing good. And in a twisted way, I guess she kinda is. Thepoint is, Harmony has mastered the art of the sound byte. And for some reason,people gobble that crap up. People rally around quotable statements. It’s likehow “Never Forget” was on just about everyone’s Facebook statuses on 9/11(that’s an entirely separate rant).

With that said, Harmony’s PR plan for cleaning up Angel’simage is a little problematic for me, mostly because it seems that Angel wasactually agreeing that he was going to take good humans to the new universewith him, once it was ready, and leave the bad ones behind to be gobbled up bythe demons. So apparently Angel was going to play god with the whole Twilightaffair? That pit keeps getting deeper… see China yet, Angel? Pretty relieved tosee that Angel tossed that “image-rehab plan” in the trash. Which is totally inline with his character. Yeah, it might improve his image but that doesn’tchange anything that really matters. As Angel says:

“There’s always been people who hate me. Usually with goodreason. I don’t see how this is any different.”

And if Faith wasn’t convinced before that turning Angel intoa real boy wouldn’t have changed anything other than his undead status, I thinkshe’s pretty clear on that now.

Overall: B. Apretty good story, with a couple of minor issues, IMO. I dug it, but can’t waitto get to the next arc.

Buffy Season 9 #4: “Freefall” Pt 4 review

2011-12-16T19:26:00.001-06:00

Georges Jeanty's variant cover

The nitty-gritty:Buffy faces off with Severin who reveals his real beef with her. Meanwhile,Spike and Eldre Koh race to her rescue, while having a rather earnest talkabout Spike’s feelings towards Buffy. A familiar face pops up to stir things upat the end.

Art: Georgesfinishes the arc with a “snap, crackle, and pop”. The fast-paced action iscrisp and clear while the quieter scenes are quite tenderly rendered. Spuffyfans will probably squee through an entire week’s worth of clean underwear at acouple of pages.

As mentioned in my last review, I was pretty convinced thatSeverin was the guy who made his first appearance in Season 8 #40. I’d saythat the flashback scene at the beginning of this issue vindicates my claim.

Severin = Glasses Guy from Season 8 #40

My only gripe about the art in this issue is that Sev isportrayed a little too “Mwahaha! I’m the Big Bad”-ly. For a guy who feels likehe’s doing the right thing (“I’m not the bad guy”), he sure goes for the hammy villainclichés. Woulda liked something a little more subtle. More angry, even emo,less mustache-twirling.

Michelle Madsen’s colors continue to aid the storytellingprocess wonderfully. From the use of a dull green filter for the flashbackscene, to the shadows under Buffy’s eyes after the ordeal, Madsen’s work isdamn commendable.

Buffy and Spike being drained by Severin

Writing: Justlike the first arc of Angel & Faith,this first arc has largely been about getting our protagonists on the samepage. As self-centered as this may sound, the magnitude of her actions arefinally catching up with Buffy and forcing her to face them now. She made thecall she needed to make (break the Seed to save the day), but there areconsequences (e.g. zompires) to that call.

Severin’s backstory is still a little foggy: did he gain hispowers as some result of the Seed breaking? Or did he always have them, butjust didn’t know it? I mean, the Siphon is apparently feared by demons olderthan vampires; some kinda cleaner that comes in and sucks out the mysticalenergy from “all who possess supernatural power. Vampire, demon… even Slayer”(Freefall #3). And somehow, Simone was aware of Sev’s presence, and tracked himdown to unleash him on Buffy. Seeing his anger towards Buffy for changing theworld so that he had to put his zompire girlfriend down, I don’t see a reasonto disbelieve anything he told Buffy in the previous issue. But he did omitcertain selective nuggets of truth.

Severin’s powers may be pretty scary, but right now, he’sjust a guy being played. In a way, Sev’s pretty much like Buffy in that hedoesn’t want to face up to the consequences of his own choices. He and hisgirlfriend decided that they wanted to become vampires. And when that didn’twork out as planned, he killed Clare out of self-defense. And blamed the sire,Alessandra. Until he was directed at Buffy. He takes out his guilt by killingother vampires, building himself up to be the good guy (“If you hadn’tdestroyed the Seed, I wouldn’t have had to put any of these vamp freaks down”).Because of his denial, I find Severin to be a rather sympathetic character. AndI’m not convinced that he is the Big Bad. Big Bad’s are supposed to be theplayers not the pawns. And c’mon… a Big Bad who’s played by a pink mohawkedSlayer bully? How sad is that? No, I’m hazarding a guess now that allegianceswill sooner or later change, and there’ll be a switch in which teams somepeople will be playing for. I have my eye on Dowling for now…

Speaking of Dowling, I found his save very symbolic of thenew world order. Dowling is seemingly an everyman character with noextraordinary powers seen yet. In the past, guns were usually deemed to be aninferior weapon (“These things? Never useful” – “Flooded” 6.04). However, it’sDowling with his “gun a-blazing” that saves the day where a Slayer and a vampirenearly bite it, pun intended. The mundane triumphs over supernatural prowess.

Simone visiting an injured Severin

So where do we go from here? Simone’s back, and it soundslike her original plan was to depower Buffy and then kill her. Which trackswell with Simone’s previous attitude; she is a bully and she knows that herchances of taking Slayer!Buffy down in a fair fight are pretty slim. And thenyou have Severin. Technically, he was doing a public service by killing allthose vampires, but in a world where vampires are still revered, that’llprobably have quite a lot of blowback, seeing as the authorities arrested Buffyfor slaying a vampire. And as long as they keep anything supernatural fromSeverin’s hands, he’s just Regular Joe rotting in a cell. Oh, and I’ll cave andmention that that Spuffy ship is in harbor, full hull and ready to go. And Buffy's room-mates are now aware of her Slayer status. How this bodes for Buffy remains to be seen. Heck, I wonder if she'll still have a job as a barista after this whole fiasco. The Scoobies are still a scattered bunch, with Xander and Dawn generally staying out of this whole mess. But it looks like Willow and Buffy are finally listening to each other, so perhaps that bridge will be rebuilt.

Re: the quality of writing: Andrew Chambliss is a competentwriter. He’s written for some acclaimed shows. The story tracks along fine andI think he’s got the timing just about right. The only problem, and really,it’s more of an observation than anything else, is that he needs a little more“snap, crackle, and pop.” The scripts aren’t lifeless. In fact, far from it…there’s good stuff here. But Chambliss hasn’t quite mastered the Master’s art justyet. He’s close, but there’s this intangible element that’s missing, and that’sthe secret ingredient that makes Joss Whedon, well, Joss. It’s right there inthe first issue, that effervescence, that extra spring. Chambliss’ work is morestraightforward. There is less playfulness. And I want the playfulness. I wantthe drama. I want Buffy the VampireSlayer.

And now, a rare thing I do, but let’s jump to the lettercolfor a sec. Next month’s one-shot, we get “a story that harks back to Season 8issue #5.” Going from the Steve Morris cover, I’m guessing that hints at thereturn of the fairies, last glimpsed in Season 8 #40. In other words, more thanlikely, more fallout from the breaking of the Seed of Wonder. Oh, and there’salso mention of the fact that we’ll “say goodbye to a key character.” Willowrunning off to her miniseries for a bit? Or is this the Scooby crossover eventwe have been told would happen? Or does the word “key” mean anything?

Overall: A-. It’sa good end to a good start.

Angel & Faith #4: “Live Through This” Pt 4 review

2011-12-04T09:26:00.001-06:00

Cover by Steve Morris

The nitty-gritty:Angel and Faith are embroiled in a bloody showdown with Nash and Pearl. Whilethe evil brother/sister duo is momentarily distracted, Angel and Faith discoverthe horrifying truth about the potency of the Mohra blood, post-Seed. Nash andPearl now have what seems to be the last remaining vial of Mohra blood and areapparently planning on using it on someone. Faith has an honest talk with Angelto clear the air about their relationship, with surprising results at the veryend.

Art: Let’s start withSteve Morris’ cover featuring Pearl and Nash looking all alien and evil. Andthe image is worth a thousand words. We’ve been told that they’re halfdemon/human hybrids. But so far, all we know about them is that they’re reallypowerful and quite a bit sadistic. This cover says all that and a whole lotmore: they’re pretty much batshit (a room full of hanging skeletons) andbelieve themselves to be new world royalty of sorts (peacock feathersEVERYWHERE!).

Rebekah Isaacs continues to impress, switching effortlesslybetween frenetic action sequences interspersed with some great charactermoments. Isaacs also has a natural eye for cinematography, knowing when to pullback and when to zoom in to truly sell a moment. The page of Faith finallydeciding to use the Mohra blood on Angel is a great example of this.

My only complaint in the art department is the seeminguniformity of the victims of the Mohra blood. While the desired effect isachieved (i.e. “Eww, gross! Walking tumors!”), as a biologist, I’d have lovedto have seen some more variety in the general morphology. It doesn’t help thatthere isn’t much variation in their skin color (I mean… humans are naturallyquite bland in coloration), resulting in several pages that are just awash withflesh-tones.

Giles?

But gripe aside, the last few pages are a testament toIsaacs’ skill as the lead artist on this book. The twist at the very endsuggests that something wacky is afoot, with Angel acting and sounding like Giles(to be answered in Issue #7, according to a tweet by writer, ChristosGage). Even a cursory look atthose panels of Angel indicates that Angel has somehow adopted Giles’mannerisms. See the way he handles his glasses and reads. More mystery!

NOTES:

I’m now convinced that Isaacs is finding a wayto slip in an American fire hydrant in just about every issue. See the posterbehind the bar at Pearl and Nash’s residence.
Faith runs into Alasdair atthe Grand Entrance of Hyde Park.

Writing: And sowe come to the conclusion of the first arc. The climax is quite horrifyingsimply because of what our protagonists nearly did: Angel was planning onresurrecting Giles with the Mohra blood and Faith was a second away fromslamming a vial of Mohra blood on Angel’s head to make him a real boy again.Either deed would’ve condemned either Giles or Angel to the same fate as theroomful of walking tumors. And in a brief reversal of roles, Angel consolesFaith, mistaking her ill feelings for guilt for nearly using the blood onGiles, not knowing that Faith’s guilt was for nearly using it on him: “Faith.We’ve got enough on our conscience without worrying about things we almost did.”

This first arc has mostly been a study of Faith’s head andwhere she is at the moment, and how she’s adjusting to the role of leader,friend, and judge. Continuing the vein of self-doubt expressed in the previousissue, Faith continues to question her qualifications for any of those roles.In response to Alasdair’s comment that how best to dissuade Angel of his crazyplan was up to her “judgment,” Faith simply says: “Yeah, well… yesterday myjudgment almost got Angel killed.” She’s also well aware of the fact thatshe’s currently treading on thin ice with the whole “friend” issue too, havingto play double agent with her Slayers and Angel. Faith is clearly uncomfortablewhen an elated Nadira embraces her, thanking her for giving her some hope andfocus. She voices this issue in her conversation with Alasdair: “You know whatI’ve been thinking about? That I’m lying to everyone in my life. Everyone who’ssupposed to be my friend. Just like I used to in the bad old days.”

"What I didn't have as Twilight was someone I could trust.
[...] Someone to tell me when I was going too far... and to
stop me if I wouldn't stop myself."

However, in a display of maturity that belies the usual MOof the Scoobies, Faith comes clean to Angel: “And, Angel, if you cross linestrying… I’m gonna stop you. Whatever it takes.” Angel acknowledges this,stating that’s exactly the reason he wanted Faith watching his back; because heneeded someone who would try to stop him, even if he wouldn’t stop himself. Thisdenouement is, IMO, the point of the entire arc: to bring the characters tothis point, where they’re finally on the same page. Both characters nowunderstand where they stand with each other. Christos Gage does this withenough grace that the moment feels authentic and not canned and cheesy (orcheese substitute-y).

It’ll be interesting (and a fairly painful wait) to seewhere Angel’s character is going next, especially in light of the last twopages. While Angel was a major driving force of “Live Through This”, it’sFaith’s character that’s progressed. I’m hoping for more equal development inthe future as Angel’s name is also in the title. The wholeAngel-as-the-second-coming-of-Giles thing is intriguing, and an excellent endof the arc since it raises some new questions which will be addressed in thenext arc, as per Gage’s tweet referenced above.

Random things I’ve noted:

Pearl and Nash are not immune to each other’spowers; Nash momentarily stuns Pearl when a blast meant for Faith hits hissister instead.
The power that the Terrible Two has isexhaustible. At least Angel guesses as much, and Whistler makes a note of therough shape the two of them show up in: “You two look like you was rode hardand put away wet.” Nash plays it down by saying that they left because theydidn’t want to risk breaking the bottle, which I’d believe if they had leftright away after finding themselves in possession of a vial.
The Terrible Trio (Nash, Pearl, and Whistler)apparently have big plans for the vial of Mohra blood, and the alteredproperties of the blood makes it even better for their plans.
Why the hell are Nash and Pearl takingorders/suggestions from Whistler? It’s not like Whistler has any moreconnection to the Powers that Be anymore, and regardless, they don’t seem likethe kind of people who play nice with others.
It would appear that the Terrible Two heal veryquickly. Pearl takes a slash to the gut that draws blood and a bite to the neckfrom Angel, and yet seems to be perfectly healed afterwards. Nash gets bashedin the face a few times, but doesn’t seem too beat up.

Overall: A-. Asolid end to a pretty solid first arc. Sets up some new questions for future arcs.

Austin Comic Con 2011

2011-11-14T16:35:00.001-06:00

Attended Austin Comic Con again this year.
I must say that it was quite nice going by myself... less pressure keeping people entertained and I got to linger for as long or as briefly as I wanted to.
Also, was able to make multiple trips in a day as needed without having to consult others.

Highlights of the event include meeting the lovely Jo Chen. Unfortunately, she had lost her voice, and wasn't able to really talk. But she was very gracious and accommodating. Got her autograph on a couple of Buffy books as well as a signed poster size print of her cover for Buffy Season 8 #5: "The Chain".

Also met Yanick Paquette who's currently on the Swamp Thing books, and had previously worked on some Batman books. Very amiable fellow and he really enjoyed chatting with fans.
Commissioned a Batman headsketch from him for $60.

A bunch of Buffy/Angel/Firefly alumni (James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter, Juliet Landau, James Leary, Adam Baldwin) were there too, but I dunno... I guess I'm much more of a creative force person than a fan of the actors, per se. In other words, I'd much rather sit through a session in which creators/writers/artists talk about their process than hearing anecdotes from the set by the actors. Especially if most of those anecdotes have already been posted multiple times on the web over the years.
Long story short, I didn't budget any money for photos with the celebrities. Spent it on art and other stuff instead.
But I did catch a glimpse of Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly and Serenity) as he greeted a fan. He chews his gum with his mouth open... just saying. :)

It's an overwhelming experience at times, walking through the display space. There's so much cool stuff that I was in danger of making random purchases every few minutes. And with the Square, many vendors/artists are now also accepting credit cards, so not having enough cash no longer becomes an excuse, and one must rely solely on sheer willpower at times. And sadly enough, I'm a little lacking in the department. Until the guilt kicks in. It finally did, and I had to take myself out of the Con to stop myself. Also, it was lunch time.

Anyway, check out my pics of the event below:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #3: “Freefall” Pt 3 review

2011-11-10T23:54:00.001-06:00

Variant cover by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty:Buffy meets the new Slayer-wannabe and crashes at his place. She then learnsthat the breaking of the Seed has serious implications in the metaphysics ofvampire siring. Xander and Dawn still think it’s a good idea for Buffy to turnherself in to the cops, while Spike is off tracking what he believes is athreat to Buffy. What he learns is rather surprising which leads us to a majorcliffhanger ending.

Art: This is thebest work I’ve seen Jeanty produce this season. So far. Every single panelfacilitates the story, switching deftly from wide establishing shots toclose-ups. There is a natural flow to the art, and the character interactionsare nuanced and expressive. And the zompire is pretty damn scary looking.

Dexter Vines’ inks and Michelle Madsen’s colors are fabuloushere. The colors, especially, are really nice and I really liked how Madsen used a muchmore somber palette for Severin’s flashback, which is contrasted nicely againstthe warmer, kinda sepia-tinged present day scene in Severin’s loft.

A couple of things I noted:

1. The name of the demon realty company is Nomed Realty. Yes, that’s “demon” spelt backwards. According to Jeanty, “When in doubt, reverse it.” Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot would be proud.

2. Art gaffes: Severin’s girlfriend, Clare has a choker and knee-high socks that appear when she’s a slavering beast, but disappear when she’s not. Also earlier, since the issue opens right where the previous one ended, it appears that Severin had lost his substantial jewelry between issues. Also, the configuration of the corpses don’t line up from the previous issue. Yes, apparently I’m a little anal-retentive.

3. Probably a good thing that Buffy didn’t crash on Xander and Dawn’s couch, since it appears that the cops were there the very next day; Xander and Dawn are still wearing the same clothes that they were in the previous issue.

4. Severin looks very much like the guy covered in blood in Issue #40 of Season 8. Dark hair, dapperly dressed with a penchant for accessories.

5. Willow continues to be a Mac girl. And Dawn and Spike apparently have iPhones.

6. Buffy apparently managed to sneak back home for a fresh change of clothes.

Writing: AndrewChambliss ratchets up the tension along the way, bringing us to an electrifyingcliffhanger that makes waiting an entire month to see what happens next prettyagonizing. Chambliss has the voices down, no doubt about that. This issuestrikes a nice balance of providing some nice character moments as well asmoving the plot along.

We start with Buffy’s thoughts on Severin’s powers:

“There isn’t supposed to be more magic in the world. There’ssupposed to be less. But turning vamps into corpses isn’t exactly magic. Justsucking what’s left of it from the world.”

Which basically sums up the entire situation. It’s our firstinkling on how Severin’s powers work. And from his backstory, he seems to bejust a guy who’s trying to do good, neutralizing vampires who are siring newvampires, and taking out the new breed of ravening zompires.

Clare, the zompire.

Which is where a fascinating new piece of vampire mythologycomes in. Apparently, pre-Seed destruction, the siring process required a demonto pass into our world to possess the dead body. However, since the breaking ofthe Seed, the gateways into this world are now closed, throwing a major wrenchinto the siring process since the demons can no longer pass into this world,and thus, newly sired vampires post-Seed-breakage are zompires. It also throwsa curveball at previous vampire canon in the Buffyverse. If the demon can nolonger possess the corpse, what then is the animating factor? Why do we havezompires instead of just plain drained corpses? It had been my originalimpression that siring was pretty much a perversion of asexual reproduction.Perhaps it's half and half. The blood ingested infects the body with the samebasic vampire physiology of the sire, rendering the reanimated corpse with allthe plusses and minuses of being a vampire (e.g.super-strength/speed/endurance, aversion to sunlight, etc) but requires anactual demon "soul" to get into the body to keep the ravening beastsomewhat tempered. Thisway, the blood swapping actually serves a purpose. Coz if all that's importantis the demon essence being injected into a body, you could theoretically turnjust about any corpse (preferably fresh) into a vampire. The blood as a carrierof some of the metaphysical transformation keeps that whole "sucking"thing relevant. And in this case, keeps the mythology from truly falling apart.

Siphon

Elsewhere, Spike’s hunting down a perceived threat to Buffy.He tracks his quarry down to Alcatraz, where he meets our demon fugitive fromIssue #1 and #2, Eldre Koh (yes, the character that Andrew Chambliss had talkedabout at NYCC 2011, except back then, everyone thought he had said “El Draco”).As I had thought, Eldre Koh is a case of classic misdirection, where he hadbeen built up as a foe in the past, but it turns out, he’s an ally who’slooking for Buffy not to harm her but rather to thank her for helping him freehimself from his captivity. Koh tells Spike that the rumors that Spike hadheard about something coming for Buffy weren’t about him, but rather of theSiphon, “a being who rips mysticalenergy from all he touches. All who possess supernatural power. Vampire, demon…even Slayer.” Sound familiar? The Siphon sounds like a real nasty piece of workthat even ancient demons all fear his arrival.

Meanwhile, somewhere at Fisherman’s Wharf, Severin seems toconfirm that he is indeed the Siphon, telling Buffy that “every time [he kills]a vampire… [he gets] stronger.” He casually mentions that after taking out thevamp nest they’re about to attack, he may be even stronger than Buffy. Buffykicks in the door to reveal an entire nest of dead vampires. Buffy’s surprisedthat all the vampires are already dead, to which Severin replies “I know,” hishands crackling with power. Unless this is yet another misdirect (if it is, mymoney’s on Tumble being the Siphon… the guy is way too mellow), then I’d saythat it’s pretty clear that Severin’s the Siphon. Given Jeanty’s variant coverfor the next issue, I’ll take a whack at it and say that Spike and Koh may berushing into a rescue mission in the next issue.

Severin = Siphon? Ruh-roh...

There’s a fair amount of exposition in this issue, with thewhole zompire business, and Severin’s history, and well as the Siphon, and yet,the narrative is largely free to breathe without feeling bogged down. Whereasthe previous issue largely felt like setup, this one felt like the beginning ofa series of payoffs towards the larger picture.

Overall:Fantastic art and gripping writing. A.

Angel & Faith #3: “Live Through This” Pt. 3 review

2011-10-31T22:54:00.000-05:00

Variant cover by Rebekah Isaacs

The nitty-gritty:Still hell-bent on resurrecting Giles, Angel continues to track down the sourceof the Mohra demon blood. Faith is still along for the ride, but she’s steelingherself for what it is that she thinks she’ll have to do to stop Angel’sself-destructive behavior. Things come to a bloody (literally) head as wecannonball our way into the arc finale.

Art: RebekahIsaacs and Dan Jackson continue to be a dynamic duo of artgasms. Jackson’scolors just work so well with Isaacs’ clean lines. I continue to love thatIsaacs isn’t a slave to likenesses but instead continues to deliver excellentrepresentations of the characters. Even though Angel is in typical brood mode,Isaacs gives us subtle variations so that he doesn’t look like a certainactress in a certain popular vampire franchise (I am happy, I am sad, I am inlove, I am angry… oh wait, Botox killed my ability to show emotion). Faith onthe other hand is a masterpiece in displaying human emotion rendered with asensitive hand. Every raised brow, twitched lip, and slanted eye tells youexactly what she’s feeling, and that nuance continues into her body language.

Blissful suckage.

The subtlety doesn’t stop at the main players, though. Theopening panel of the book, with the young woman sipping a martini with a dazedand blissful expression on her face while a vampire slurps messily from herneck perfectly evokes what the script then tells us, that people come to demonjoints like that “for a taste of magic [….] getting cozy with demons…”

Furthermore, I like that London isn’t being portrayed as ahomogeneous society; it made me happy to see the Sikh man walking down thestreet and the other Slayer with Nadira also seemed to be of Indian descent. Giventhe racial and cultural hodge-podge that the UK has become, it’s nice to seethat reflected in the art. Though… I’m not sure how the soccer (football, ifyou’re from a Commonwealth nation, which I am) fans will take the suggestionthat they’re hot-headed drunks… Oh, and the Fire Hydrants poster was hilarious to me, given the amountof flak that Isaacs received for putting an American fire hydrant in London inIssue #1.

Writing: Christos Gage is a good writer,there’s no question about it. But let’s be real… this issue is quite simply abridge to bring us over to the next issue. That’s not to say that it’s simplyfiller; it does its job admirably, teasing us about Faith’s dilemma as well aswhat’s to come.

It’s interesting how Faith’s talk with Nadira mirrors someof what she thinks Angel’s issues are: “As long as you have power… you’re gonnafeel the need to use it.” Faith’s internal monologue about forcing the Mohrablood on Angel is a nice continuation of her train of thought from the previousissues. It’s nice to see that Faith has doubts about whether her initial planto turn Angel into a real boy will stop him from his self-destructivetendencies:

“Would you finally cut yourself the same slack you gave me?Or would you just get yourself killed doing the exact same stupid crap you arenow?”

Faith and Angel revisit the Mohra blood issue

The simple answer is probably the latter; that Catholicguilt she so aptly pointed out in the previous issue isn’t a trait that Angeluswears with pride, so that’s pretty much Angel.

It’s funny how Faith is resisting being the responsible one,and yet, as it’s candidly pointed out by Alasdair Coames, it’s really herchoice. She chose to be a mentor of lost Slayers way back at the end of “NoFuture For You”. She chose to try and rehabilitate Angel when no one elsewould. And right now, she’s chosen to stick by Angel through his crazy plan,despite having reservations about the whole resurrecting Giles deal. UntilFaith comes to grips with her role as the “grownup,” her ability to help bothAngel and Nadira (and other Slayers) is seriously hampered by her running away.It’s the Buffyverse… running away from internal demons never works out.

Overall: Some nice character stuff, with some really niceart, but the plot’s kinda stalled, with mostly repeats of what we already know. B.

SlayAlive's exclusive interview with Steve Morris, Buffy Season 9 and Angel & Faith cover artist

2011-10-22T15:58:00.001-05:00

Giclee print design by
Steve Morris

Hey gentle readers.
Just in case you haven't heard, the very awesome Steve Morris very recently (like I received the answers at 1 AM recent!) did an exclusive interview with me for SlayAlive.
It's really more of an introductory interview, in which we cover his early work, his current side projects, and of course his current work on the Buffyverse books.
Please check it out HERE.

Buffy Season 9 #2: “Freefall” Pt. 2 review

2011-10-14T15:37:00.000-05:00

Variant cover by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty:The brave new world’s moving on, and Buffy seems to be caught in a rut, in thatshe still can’t fully participate in the world she created. Everyone else seemsto be moving on with their new lives. Elsewhere, the mysterious ex-demon prisoner skulksabout, and another mysterious new player with some new powers enters thepicture. Oh… and vampires are still in, and Slayers are still public knowledge.Duh.

Buffy arrested.

Art: Everythingis pretty much standard Jeanty here. Characters are expressive, the action isfluid, and Jeanty continues to effectively mix close-ups and wideshots to effectivelydirect the reader’s attention. For example, after being arrested, the pagebegins with a close-up of Buffy’s face as she runs through an inner pity ditty,then pulls out to show us that Buffy is indeed arrested, before panning over toher interrogators.

Couple of things to note:

1. It seems that Xander has reclaimed his yellow PJbottoms with the blue ducks; Dawn was last seen wearing them in Buffy Season 8#40.

2. Also, Xander’s t-shirt with the “Human See HumanDo” is an inspired Planet of the Apesshoutout.

3. For some reason, Buffy doffs her coat after herchat with Spike.

4. Speaking of outfits… it appears that Buffy maybe wearing the same wedge-heel boots that she wore in the opening of BuffySeason 8 #40.

5. Art continuity error: In the morgue, we seeDetective Cheung walking in the doors. The corpse of Cynthia Daniels is in thefirst row of tables in front of her. However, when we get to the panel fromabove, the room seems bigger, with an extra row of tables where the doors andwall used to be.

Michelle Madsen’s colors continueto work well with Jeanty’s art and Dexter Vines’ inks. The colors areappropriately muted and purplish in the shadowy alleys and you can feel theharsh starkness of the fluorescent lighting in the morgue. While the colors adddepth and dimension to every page, they never seem to be at odds with Jeanty’scartoony style.

Writing: Followingin the footsteps of one Joss Whedon has gotta be intimidating. Andrew Chamblissis no rookie to the Whedonverse, having written for Dollhouse, both in TV and print format. While the issue does feelquite a bit light in terms of gravity (haha, get it?) – it seems mostly like apiece to finish setting up some stuff so that we can get to the real good stuff– it does breeze along quite nicely.

"You don't realize how the
destruction of the Seed affected
everyone. You only think about how it affected
you."

We continue to see theramifications of the destruction of the Seed. The debt collector demon isunable to get back to his home dimension because all the gateways are nowclosed. Willow quite pointedly states that she thinks that Buffy is beingself-involved (“You only think about how it affected you.”). My only problem with this scene is that it seems pretty oldhat. Aside from seeming fairly redundant (yes, we get it, internal mojostill works!), this is a conversation that should’ve happened ages ago. Butyes, Willow is decidedly POed. To be fair, Willow is being pretty self-involvedherself. She doesn’t deny that Buffy broke the Seed out of necessity; she justdoesn’t like the outcome (“Maybe… But that doesn’t mean you can sit back likeeverything’s over. You’re going to have to deal with the fallout eventually.”).Spike is still hanging around with advice, snappy comebacks, and his version oftender support. Xander and Dawn are enjoying domestic bliss, complete with“You’re in the doghouse/sleeping on the couch” clichés.

On the surface, it sounds likeBuffy’s regressed a little back to her “Why me?” phase. But that’s on thesurface. Buffy has alwaysstruggled to fit in with her world. She struggled to fit in as a regular teen,a college student, a girlfriend, a daughter, a sister, a young adult working ashitty job, a mentor, and quite recently, a general. All those roles have always been complicated by the words “Slayer,Chosen, and One.” It seems that even in a world of her own making, she can’twin. It’s quite telling when she wonders, “What does the real world haveagainst me? And why doesn’t it want me to live in it?” This is juxtaposed withDetective Dowling’s earlier quip at his partner (“Have you been watchingreality T.V. lately?”), which brings us back to the present status quo in aneat little way without seeming redundant (i.e. that vampires are still invogue, and that Harmony had her own TV show, followed by a stint on Dancing with the Stars). And it goes back to Buffy’s realizationin Season 8 #40, where “the troublewith changing the world is… you don’t.” And so, she continues to struggle tofind her place in this new world, which also calls back her mini “when I growup” moment in Riley’s van in the previous issue. The problem is, despite allthe possibilities out there, there are only a few things that Buffy does well(“And apparently the only thing I’m good at finding are vampires”).

Severin's mojo at work

That brings us to the mostinteresting plot development of this issue: the introduction of one dappergentleman with some strange mojo up his tailored sleeves. It would appear thatthis unnamed man (well, we all know his name is Severin from the solicitationsfor future issues) is at the center of Buffy’s current problem: being blamedfor the strange unmarked corpses that keep popping up lately. It turns out thatSeverin is somehow able to burn out the demon within a vampire, leaving behinda corpse. “How what why” is as much on our minds as much as it’s on Buffy’s,after he saves her from an attack. It would appear that Severin’s powers are quiteremarkable, able to take out a bunch of vampires all at once. It would suggestthat his initial forays were probably practice kills of sorts, taking down avampire at a time (see Issue #1). It appears that Buffy’s also pretty good atbumping into comely young men in dark alleys… we’ll see how that works out forher this time, I guess.

Oh, and meanwhile, the ex-con of ademon from the previous issue is skulking about, looking for “destroyer magic”.Little is known about this guy for now, but from his previous appearance, he isformidable. It’s interesting that both he and Buffy are now fugitives though…

Overall: A littleexpositiony but a good read. B+

Exclusive SlayAlive Q&As with Scott Allie and Georges Jeanty

2011-10-10T20:47:00.001-05:00

Hey gentle readers.

Just in case you guys aren't in the know, I'm one of the Mods over at SlayAlive, and we've had a terrific run of exclusive on-going Q&As with Buffy Season 9 and Angel & Faith editor, Scott Allie, as well as Buffy Season 9 main artist, Georges Jeanty.

Our most recent outing with Allie can be found HERE, and our just completed session with Jeanty can be read HERE.

And, if you'd like to check out our archived Q&As for any reason, the Allie archive is HERE and the Jeanty one is HERE.

We also had the pleasure of doing a session with the ever gracious Rebekah Isaacs for Angel & Faith #1. Read that HERE. Oh, and if you feel like it, you should drop her a congratulatory note... she and her beau just got engaged.

In other news, my review for Buffy Season 9 #2 may be a little late... I'm stuck on a research cruise, and I don't think I'll be getting my copy until sometime Thursday at the earliest... but we'll see.
Later days, folks!
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it.

Angel & Faith #2: "Live Through This" Pt. 2

2011-09-28T23:31:00.001-05:00

Cover by Steve Morris

The nitty-gritty: Coming straight out of the cliffhanger from last issue, Angel’s on a quest to bring Giles back. Crazy? Perhaps, but it’s the only thing driving our boy right now. And for that very reason, it’s why Faith is serving as his reluctant wingman “rid[ing] shotgun on his crazy train.” Because she feels that she owes him that much, for being there and pulling her out of the wreckage of her life when no one else would.

Art: I have quite a bit of love for the Rebekah Isaacs and Dan Jackson duo. Isaacs is the only other artist who has worked on Buffyverse material that I think gets it. Yes, it’s a licensed comic, so some weight is placed on likenesses. And while her likenesses aren’t studied and painstakingly copied from screencaps, they work. No, Angel really doesn’t look much like David Boreanaz, but I dunno… I buy that it’s Angel from the expressions, the mannerisms, the way he moves in battle.

Faith resigned to watching Angel's back

There are some great moments here. While I loved the flow of the entire chat between Angel and Faith in Giles’ flat, my favorite panel in the entire book is of Faith’s look of defeated resignation as she comes to the conclusion that she owes Angel to watch his back, even if the plan is crazy, and even if she knows it’ll end in a wreck, because he did that for her. The expression on Faith’s face is a thing of beauty in how sensitively it’s rendered.

Splash page of Angel
and Faith crashing
into battle

Isaacs’ action sequences are quite fun to pore over. While the first fight seemed rather boring at first, there are certain things that one does pick up on upon the second read. Notice that Baphon (the horned demon) flees the fight after his right horn was damaged by Faith? Which makes sense, since his power and worth to his boss are in his horns. Another cool thing to note: the splash page of Angel and Faith crashing through the glass ceiling is very reminiscent of Jeanty’s cover for Buffy Season 8 #24: “Safe”.

I love what Jackson brings to the art. His play with light and color adds a lot of dimension to the art, and most importantly, it doesn’t seem incongruous to Isaacs’ art. No overly “realistic” gleams on reflective surfaces, which would just be jarring. Two great examples of when his colors really help enhance the ambience are the demon fight club and the final fight scene. In the former, there’s just this seedy feel to the entire place, and in the latter, the fire and its glow just add to the tension of the moment. Eh… we’ll just end this section with me saying I liked it. I like understatement.

Writing: What Christos Gage does very well is to move the action along, even when it’s just a scene with people talking. He sets up the central conflict of the issue, and likely the entire arc, in the first scene, with Baphon taking off while taunting Faith to “enjoy the merchandise,” because she would need it if she keeps sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. The merch is of course Mohra blood, and we all know what Mohra blood does, from the episode “I Will Remember You,” where coming in contact with it revives Angel’s dead body.

Gage has a pretty good handle on the character voices, and while the first issue may have lacked a little bit in the humor department, there’s plenty to go around here, from the flubbed Harry Potter reference (“Abracadabra” vs. “Avada Kedavra”) to the (intentional?) bungling of Wolfram and Hart (“Jacoby, Meyers, and Satan”) to the dig at Twilight the character and the franchise, to one of the grandfathers of social networking sites (Friendster), there’s plenty to chuckle at (“Okay, I missed an episode[…] I missed a whole damn season”).

Where things get a little dicey is in the whole soul + magic metaphysical stuff. We have Faith on our side, basically giving Angel the “snapped neck = nonmagical death” spiel, but then we have Angel telling us that magical deaths are reversible because “magic is spiritual. It establishes a connection to the soul” and since Giles spent his life “immersed in magic,” it stands to reason that his soul bears a connection and hasn’t moved out of reach yet. Which if true, begs the question of how Tara was any different in that regard? She was a practicing witch until the moment she died, so why couldn’t she have been resurrected? Is Angel playing straight here? He knows that the Mohra blood will resurrect Giles’ body, but the soul part, that’s gonna be tricky with no magic around. Will Angel succeed? I’m highly doubtful. More than likely, Angel is going to have to learn the lesson that ironically, he once taught Faith, and it is echoed in some variant here by Giles:

Angel can't just undo his sins; that would be too easy.

EDIT: Writer Christos Gage has addressed my comments about how Angel thinks he can resurrect Giles when it didn't work with Tara:

You are right. Clearly Angel is deluded...or there's something he's not telling Faith...or the Watcher Files are exceptionally detailed. SOURCEThe resurrection issue is indeed one that has a lot more to it than we've shown so far. Stay tuned! SOURCE

Which brings us to the next point. It’s interesting how the title of the arc is invoked multiple times in this issue. First you have Faith’s internal monologue about how being surrounded by crazy people will probably end up killing her, unless they get themselves killed first. Then, you have Angel who not only has to survive any encounter with any number of POed Slayers and anything else affected by Twilight, but also has to be able to live through his guilt. You have Faith in the flashback having to live with her own guilty conscience. Then you have both Angel and Faith trying to live through their night’s adventures. And finally, the sense of threat that both Nash and Pearl present also brings into question the survival of our dynamic duo. I mean, c’mon, energy blasts vs. battle-axe and broadsword…

Faith and the Mohra blood

Gage ends the issues with a couple of cliffhangers. The return of Pearl and Nash, obviously, but also that final shot of Faith eyeing a few drops of Mohra blood while thinking “But he’s still a vampire with a soul. A monster who hates himself for being a monster. He’s never gonna let himself off the hook. Unless I make him.” I don’t think that Faith is considering restoring Angel to real boy status; that wouldn’t change the fact that he would still be trying to fix what he did, and it would be infinitely more dangerous for him then. Is Faith thinking of eliminating Angel’s fix to the entire issue? Taking out the Mohra would eliminate a part of the equation and render the entire thing moot, but from what it looks like, it’ll also put Faith in the path of Nash and Pearl. And that thing about crazy people going to be the death of her… I’ll wager that it’s foreshadowing Faith’s doom soon, and methinks that Angel will have to choose to either revive/save Faith or alleviate his guilt with his resurrection plan.

EDIT: This review by Harrison Cooper has changed my mind a little about Faith's motivation at the end. While I maintain that I personally think it won't change Angel beyond giving him a heartbeat, Faith seems to think that Angel's self-loathing stems from his vampire with a soul status, and perhaps she thinks that if she changes that, Angel will finally stop hating himself, or at least be on the 999999-step to recovery. My prediction for what will happen still holds, though.

Overall: It’s a great follow-up to the last issue. Plenty of good character moments, setting up a lot of new questions, while constantly grounding us in the ethos that the world is fundamentally changed. And a new cliffhanger ending. Yay! A-

#MyBuffyLife Guest Blog

2011-09-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

Hey all.
I just realized I should have pimped this out a while ago, but I'm occasionally a space cadet.
Anyway, I recently did a guest blog spot for Dark Horse Comics about what I, and we in general over at SlayAlive were looking forward to in Season 9 of the Buffyverse.
You can read the guest blog spot HERE.
I'd like to personally thank Spencer for the opportunity. I enjoyed writing the piece and I hope I represented the hopes of the community over at the forum.
As usual, comments are always welcome.

Buffy Season 9 #1: "Freefall" #1

2011-09-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

Dark Horse 25th Anniversary
retailer incentive cover
by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty:What do you do when you’ve lost most of your mission, alienated most of thepeople who used to look up to you, single-handedly destroyed the “spark ofcreation”? Well, try to move on… and moving on is what Buffy tries to do, withsome questionable life choices involving a lot of alcohol, tabletop dancing ina very short skirt, and some not-so-good choices involving some of the men inher life is hinted at. In twenty-two pages, Joss returns us to the world of theScoobies, post-Seed-breakage, and deftly weaves in elements of future threats,tensions, plot points and more than likely, more angst. It’s an issue that setsthe tone of a smaller season and raises questions.

Art: I’m not evengoing to bother addressing the “Ugh… more bobblehead stick figures, childishscribbles, blah blah blah” criticisms beyond saying that art is subjective, andI like what I see, and if you associate “cartoony” synonymously with “childish,”then well, I think you might want to revisit some Calvin and Hobbes.

Characters interacting/not interacting

Alrighty, let’s talk art here. It’s not Jeanty’s strongest work, but there are some greatmoments. The emphasis on how everything is kinda being filtered through Buffy’seyes is established right from the very first panel; the solid black that thencuts to Buffy’s bloodshot and extremely hungover eyes. The pan-out from hereyes effectively establishes the tone of the scene: Buffy is hungover after arager. For the most part, it’s solid storytelling, with Jeanty’s usual panache.Characters interact with each other and their surroundings in very recognizableand relatable ways. Heck, even when they’re not interacting, they do it in verynatural ways (note Aura texting while Spike and Willow are recounting theirSeason 4 encounter after Spike’s been chipped).

Likenesses are a little touch and go. The Scoobies arepretty recognizable, but Andrew and Riley require a little bit of context toID, initially. The new characters seem pretty fun. Anaheed and Tumble arepretty much your typical hippie/hipster hybrid. The new demon guy (presumablyEl Draco) looks pretty intimidating, with his facial tattoos/markings andpenchant for ripping things apart. Those glowing blades look pretty damage-inflict-y.Hey, there’s gotta be a reason why a guy like that was kept in a magicalcontainment field of sorts, and is guarded by an entire battalion of armedpersonnel.

As usual, the attention to detail is quite fantastic. Theapartment looks appropriately college-age or struggling young adult-esque,rather. The cheap paper lanterns over the counter, the Christmas lights on astring… Hell, even Buffy’s bedroom furniture looks like it came from theclosest IKEA.

Photo of Scoobies in happier times

Easter egg time: Note that Buffy still has that picture ofWillow, Xander and herself. Xander can’t be seen, due to the placement of thebeer bottles, but I’m positive that it’s the one of the three of them fromtheir Season 1 days, looking very happy. It also looks like Tumble is a fan of Mass Effect, no doubt an Easter egg ofsorts, given that Dark Horse also publishes the Mass Effect comic books.

Oh, and a warm welcome to Dexter Vines on his first fullissue of Buffy Season 9. For those not in the know, Vines inked most ofJeanty’s variant covers for Season 8. His inks nicely complement Jeanty’spencils and they look pretty good here.

Writing: Joss isback in the driver’s seat. Solo. And I would let that man drive me throughBangkok blindfolded (Have you seen the traffic in Bangkok? Or the streets?).The plot of the book is deceptively simple; a series of flashbacks to the partyintercut with Buffy dealing with the aftermath, recalling and regretting heractions from the night before. Collectively, these scenes help establish thecurrent status quo: Buffy’s moved out of Xander and Dawn’s place, Xander and Dawn are still together, Willow’sseeing someone new (Aura), Spike’s still cruising with the space roaches, Rileyis now a terrorist hunter, and Andrew is heading a disaster-relieforganization.

Party shenanigans

The abrupt intercutting may seem jarring, but they actuallyreflect the way Buffy feels quite well, recalling fragments here and there, andalso capturing the sense of confusion she feels. The party scenes are filledwith a Buffy that’s trying to see the brave new world that she created as abetter place. She’s drinking, tabletop dancing, juggling for the amusement ofothers, playing some form of water wrestling game, and generally overwhelmed bythe prospect of actually having an adult life. Riley calls her out on it,telling her that she can stop convincing herself that things are better now.While hungover, Buffy admits that guilt is almost always on her mind. She evenmakes the comment that her major hangover is probably some form of karmicpunishment for eliminating magic. And later, when in conversation with Willowregarding the Seed, she’s extremely defensive.

However, the new status quo isn’t all about Buffy. The otherScoobies are going through some stuff too. Willow’s still adjusting to thedeparture of magic from this realm, and something is afoot with Xander that hedoesn’t want Dawn to know about. Riley’s hunting regular ol’ terrorists nowsince demon hunting dried up some. No word on Sam, but according to Buffy, he’sstill “married.” More intriguingly, there are certain teasers woven in thesepages that hint at tensions and dangers to come. For one, there’s the case ofthe dead girls and the mysterious circumstances that surround each death. Thenthere’s El Draco, the demon who escapes his mystical prison due to theweakening of his bonds because of the destruction of the Seed. From thesolicitation for Issue #2, it sounds like Buffy will catch wind of themysterious deaths and start Sherlocking about, while El Draco may prove to bean ally of sorts, if the variant cover for Issue #4 is anything to go by. And just in case you missed it, the two cops, Dowling and the Asian woman are on the variant cover for Issue #2 too.

And finally, the last page, that hilarious payoff from aseemingly sinister transaction from earlier on. It alludes to two things thatare central to the mission statement of this season. The first being the morerestrained tone of the season, with it being more intimate and smaller inscope. Buffy’s problems won’t just be of the supernatural variety, though itsounds like there’ll be plenty of that too. But she’s still baking, and cookiedough her still has to deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up, anddeal with a future she probably never thought too much about before. And then,there’s also the fact that the scary looking demon guy is now a bona fide debtcollector. It speaks of how the demon community has also been impacted by theshattering of the Seed (e.g. some of them need to get crummy jobs too).

“Freefall” is an interesting title for the first arc. Thetechnical definition of freefalling is “anymotion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it” (Wikipedia). However,nontechnical usage allows a skydiver’s fall through the atmosphere to be called“free falling”, in which the aerodynamic drag prevents them from achieving trueweightlessness (as in real freefall) and thus, the skydiver feels the sensationof his body weight being supported by a cushion of air. This “cushion” is anillusion, and I think the title describes Buffy’s current predicament quite aptly,and likely serves as foreshadowing too. Buffy’s freefalling through life at themoment, and that illusion of normalcy (the world is better now, right?), her “cushion”if you will, is preventing her from seeing the dangers ahead. Dangers thatSpike’s trying to warn her about (in her defense, he is being extremely vagueabout it). Repercussions that Willow’s trying to warn her about (also beingrather vague about it, possibly because she doesn’t know too much about thematter). And hey, Simone driving to San Francisco in a VW van full of weapons... yeah, it's like G.I. Santa coming with fun gifts... The way things are progressing, the end of the freefall will be a rudeawakening which might be painful (hey, falling without a parachute is never agood idea), or Buffy will end her denial before she hits the ground hard. I’mguessing the latter scenario.

I will say that there is a tad overindulgence here in some of the callbacks to previous seasons, but as a long-time fan, that's about as objective a statement I'll make about that, since most of it filled me with joy. Though... unless Spike and Willow heavily edited their story about what happened in that dorm room in Season 4, then people are gonna know about Spike being a vampire... just saying.

Overall: A prettysolid start, laying down the foundation for what’s to come. Color me intrigued(it’s a shade of teal). A-

Angel & Faith #1: "Live Through This" Pt 1 review

2011-09-01T23:44:00.003-05:00

Angel & Faith #1 cover
by Steve Morris

The nitty-gritty: Angel is back on his feet, and together with Faith, he’s trying to do some good again. Elsewhere, factions are forming against Angel, namely disgruntled past allies and employees (Whistler and Pearl and Nash, a brother-sister human/demon hybrid duo) and past victims (Nadira, a Slayer who lived through an encounter with Pearl and Nash).

Art: Ah… Rebekah Isaacs seems to be the new darling of the Dark Horse creative team and it’s easy to see why. Her art is quite fetching really: clean and crisp action, good likenesses without that slavish feel you get when faces are copied off promotional pictures, expressive faces and body language (look at Faith mid-dance, noticing that Nadira isn’t having any sort of chuckles despite the oontze-oontze atmosphere), and just plain effective storytelling. Her panels are nicely detailed, but just so, without feeling cluttered and distracting (fine, three geographically incorrect fire hydrants appear, but if that’s what you choose to fixate on, that’s your choice).

It’s also nice to see continuity between Season 8 and Season 9. Just in case you missed the way Giles’ death paralleled Jenny’s, Isaacs recreates both those moments in tandem for you, the latter being pretty much a copy of the moment rendered by Season 8 artist, Georges Jeanty. Isaacs also draws Giles’ flat so that it’s virtually identical to how it appears in Season 8. Even Giles’ knickknacks are identical! I guess Angel and Faith haven’t felt the need to redecorate, but that coupled with all Giles’ family portraits and other possessions definitely help set Giles up as the third most important character in this series.

A minor nitpick: On the final page, the top panel makes absolutely no sense when compared to the composition of the room based on other panels... maybe the foreshortening effect is a little too drastic, but the couch seems to have moved several feet towards the wall with the Egyptian statue. As I said, minor... but I'm obsessed with IKEA catalogs...

Angel flooded by Giles' memories

Writing: Christos Gage may be new to this whole Buffyverse thing, but I think he gets it. That opening sequence is extremely effective. First, it elicits the emotional response that comes from seeing the recently dearly departed. And it’s Giles being the badass that has been hinted at several times. Wearing tweed. He magically binds the Plagiarus demon with the memory of one of the best days of his life: falling in love with Jenny Calendar. Which brilliantly ties the past with the present: with Giles’ death, the binds that contain the demon deteriorate and the threat returns. Fast forward to the present: Angel and Faith taking care of business. Even though Giles isn’t in the scene, he’s always present. His death is on Angel’s conscience and the wave of memories that hits Angel when the demon’s blood gushes all over him doesn’t help.

Nadira's vengeance

It’s nice to see that Giles’ death isn’t the only far-reaching consequence of Angel’s stint as Twilight. Unsurprisingly, he’s managed to piss quite a few powerful factions off, both by being so good at being an evil SOB and then backing out of the whole Twilight deal, Nadira is basically the poster child of a Slayer who survived one of Twilight’s numerous attacks on the Slayers; the sole survivor of a Slayer squad training in the Azores when they were attacked by Pearl and Nash, the brother-sister half-human/demon hybrid carnage machine, while Angel watched. She’s decidedly pissed off, and out for blood to avenge her “sisters”. And then, on the flipside, you have Whistler who’s less than happy that Angel backed out on the whole Twilight deal, though, to be honest… I’m not sure why Whistler is mad at Angel and not Buffy… Buffy was the one who broke the Seed… Angel was Twilight’s little voodoo puppet at that point. And then you have Pearl and Nash, who are basically mad at being played by Angel, since he promised that they would help him usher in a new age, a “new stage of evolution”. Again… not that much that Angel could’ve done, being Twilight’s bitch and all. But I guess Whistler and the Terrible Two are just pissed that Angel had a change of heart, and was fighting off what he had set in motion before being wholly possessed by Twilight. These two have been confirmed as the Big Bads of the series, and it’ll be interesting to see what shenanigans they’ll be up to over the course of 25 issues. Surely it has to be more than shooting lasers from their eyes and magical light sabers as well as what seems to be an insatiable bloodlust.

Whistler scheming with
Nash and Pearl

Other than deftly setting up the whole series in 22 pages, Gage also manages to capture the voices of the characters brilliantly. While heavy with details, the book never feels like an exposition dump. Gage deftly weaves in various points of references from Season 8 and beyond (e.g. “I hear things about you. That you’re friends with her. Buffy. Or that you tried to kill her. I don’t know what’s true.” “It’s… complicated.”), nodding at important events while keeping things flowing organically.

Hell-A

The characterization is probably what’s most impressive. Angel is repentant, fully acknowledging his sins, and not shirking the blame that he could easily deflect with a “I was possessed” Hail Mary. No, as per usual, Mr. McBroody-Pants is well, brooding. He doesn’t try to brush off his responsibility for Pearl and Nash’s actions, even though he doesn’t remember it. His culpability is left ambiguous, as he mentions sometimes being more under Twilight’s influence than others. Angel doesn’t try to wash his hands of the blood he’s shed, despite Faith’s attempts to try and absolve him of some of his guilt (“Like when you killed Giles. B said when it was over, you didn’t know what happened. So it wasn’t you.”). While appearing wishy-washy on the surface, it’s the following statement that not only rings true but also speaks of Angel’s character: “I wish I could say that. I really do. But there were too many times I was in my right mind. Times I could’ve turned back… asked more questions… Really though about what I was doing. But I didn’t. And now I have more death on my conscience than Angelus ever did.” Angel isn’t shirking responsibility when he states that he was occasionally more under Twilight’s influence. He’s blaming himself for drinking that Kool-Aid, for believing the spiel even when he should’ve known better, and for not being stronger (“More good people taken from the world because I was weak.” While he knows why he did it (Hell-A, see "After the Fall" by IDW), he knows that he's on shaky moral ground there. I commend Gage and the rest of the creative team for keeping things murky, for not writing a clear-cut “Angel is guilty for X, Y, and Z but not A, B, and C” story. Simply because Angel himself doesn’t know where he could draw the line, or rather, where he should. And more in the background, Faith’s conflict of interest is woven in there. She’s trying to help Slayers like Nadira, but at the same time, she’s harboring the person that most of them would love to stake for the hell he’s put them through. In the words of Gage himself, things could get awkward, and I’m sure they will.

The final page is a doozy. As previously mentioned, Giles’ ghost is always present. I do wonder if living in his flat is a good idea for Angel. Faith makes note of as much: “Listen… Angel… it’s nice you wanna pick up the ball for Giles. I’m down. Hell, I’m kinda doing the same thing with the girls. And I’m all for using the Watcher’s files to find people who need help, demons who need killing, the whole nine. But you gotta stop obsessing over every detail of his life.” Even when he’s gone, Giles’ presence looms over the two central characters. His flat isn’t just HQ central, it is Giles’ tomb, and Angel and Faith are buried within, with all his artifacts and baggage. And hey, Angel’s decision at the end… that may well take us from ghost to zombie territory. And for Giles’ sake, I hope not.

Overall: A solid beginning for the series. It sets up the sources of conflict as well as firmly sets us in the new status quo. A

WonderCon '11 interview with Georges Jeanty

2011-04-12T19:32:00.002-05:00

I recently conducted an interview with Buffy Season 8/Season 9 artist, Georges Jeanty on behalf of SlayAlive, a Whedonverse fan forum that I moderate.
You can read it in its entirety HERE.

Enjoy.

You can visit Georges' webpage by clicking on his banner below:

Steve Morris releases his first "Angel and Faith" cover

2011-04-06T00:06:00.001-05:00

You can check it out HERE. Morris will be the regular cover artist for Angel and Faith. So far, a Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty variant are confirmed. A Rebekah Isaacs cover is also floating about, but whether or not that's a variant for #1 remains to be seen.

Also, if you're interested in checking out Morris' audition pieces, you can find them HERE.

Rebekah Isaacs talks about ANGEL & FAITH to TFAW.com

2011-04-05T12:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have a Twitter account and would like to follow the main creative team for Season 9, just click on their names below to be linked to their Twitter accounts:

Editor: Scott Allie
Buffy Season 9 co-writer: Andrew Chambliss
Buffy Season 9 artist: Georges Jeanty
Angel and Faith writer: Christos Gage
Angel and Faith artist: Rebekah Isaacs

And for the good folks who've provided so many of these great videos, you can also follow TFAW.

More tidbits from WonderCon '11

2011-04-04T18:00:00.001-05:00

TFAW.com speaks to Georges Jeanty and Christos Gage.

Comics Continuum speaks to Christos Gage about Angel and Faith.

Buffy Season 9 news from WonderCon '11

2011-04-02T09:18:00.003-05:00

First up, for those of you who like the visual/audio experience, TFAW.com has video coverage of what went down at the panel.

For those that just want the information, here's a rundown of reports so far:
1. AssignmentX: The Scoop on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9

2. AssignmentX: Angel comic books will become Angel and Faith

3. Assignment X: BUFFY creator Joss Whedon will be actively involved with Season 9

4. Bleeding Cool: Dark Horse announces Angel and Faith comic and Buffy Season 9 details

5. CBR: Gage is Touched by "Angel and Faith"

6. Buffyfest interviews Andrew Chambliss, co-writer of Buffy Season 9

7. Comics Alliance: Dark Horse announces Buffy Season 9, new Angel and Faith series

More Buffy Season 9 news from ECCC 2011

2011-03-20T14:59:00.000-05:00

Scott Allie speaks to MTV about the current status of Buffy Season 9; creative teams lined up, some scripts in, some covers, Joss is "heavily involved," etc.
It's a short clip, so enjoy.

Geek: Event Coverage - MTV Games

Buffy Season 9 news from ECCC 2011

2011-03-07T15:39:00.001-06:00

According to a friend, the juicy bits (parts pertaining to Season 9, that is) start around the 43:15" mark.

Thank you, readers.

2011-01-28T11:52:00.002-06:00

So, I've been obsessively monitoring my stats for this blog since discovering the option to do so a month or so ago (it's really cool!). Apparently, most of my readers are in the northern hemisphere, with Australia being the only place I'm being read below the Equator.
Anyway, I wanted to thank you all for your interest and shared love for the Buffyverse. Especially those of you who actually took the time to leave your thoughts and comments.
It's always a pleasure to read insightful comments about things that I may have missed, or different interpretations of things.
So, again, thanks! :)

With the close of Buffy Season 8, this blog may be updated a little less routinely. I still have the Riley one-shot to review. And if I choose to, there are a few early issues that I missed out on.

But, there'll be new Dollhouse books coming out, so those will be reviewed when they come out. And, I've a few of the IDW books that I could cover in the meantime.

So here's to a long painful wait to Season 9.

Buffy Season 8 #40 review

2011-01-27T00:38:00.005-06:00

Cover by Jo Chen

The nitty-gritty: The story picks up six months after Issue 39. The gang has relocated to San Francisco. The army has backed off, but is keeping an eye on the Slayers. Buffy is extremely unpopular with the Slayers these days. Some of the groundwork for Season 9 is laid down.

"The trouble with changing the
world is..."

Art: Let’s start with Jo Chen’s cover. It’s a sad riff on her cover for #1, with the mood being the polar opposite of that first cover. Where Buffy once stood tall and optimistic, smiling and confident, she now clutches her broken Scythe, her spirit just as damaged, her skin blemished by cuts and scrapes, her clothes slightly tattered. The image captures where Buffy’s at in the present, but thankfully, it’s not where she ends up at the end of this issue. More on that later. Just as Chen’s cover for #40 bookends the season by riffing on her cover for #1, Jeanty riffs on his opening panel from #1, reversing the composition by depicting a moon looming over a darkened earth versus the world basking in the light of the rising sun in #1. Twilight. It’s all very poetic.

Other than that, there are a handful of other callbacks, either to earlier issues, or even to the non-canon earlier run of Buffy comics. There are the Eeyore sweatpants that Buffy wore in “Wolves at the Gate,” Hoopy the bear (from the early run). There was fight between the three Slayers and Buffy, which calls back the sparring match between Buffy and Leah, Rowena, and Satsu from Issue 2. The General’s execution is remarkably similar to Ethan Rayne’s death.

"Let's go to work."

The final image of Buffy leaping into action is a beautiful callback to the very first time we see Buffy in Season 8. The differences are equally as interesting as the similarities. In both cases, Buffy is leaping into action. However, this time she’s flying (hah!) solo, whereas in her first appearance, she was flanked by her A-Team. Instead of wielding hi-tech weaponry, she’s now stripped down to the basics; stake in hand and grim determination. On a meta-level, even the scale of the image is highly suggestive of her current place in the world; in #1, her first appearance was a two-page splash, whereas here, she occupies less than half a page.

But let’s talk about the art on its own merits. It’s a strong finish from Jeanty. This is the stuff that he excels at: drawing nuanced human interactions. Jeanty’s art perfectly complements Joss’ script, running the gamut from hilarious to heart-rending, and finally arriving at inspirational.

Unlettered page of Kennedy
telling Buffy that Willow
dumped her

I had previously seen a few unlettered preview pages, and despite the “silence,” the art spoke for itself. It was resoundingly clear that Willow had left Kennedy, not the other way around. I knew that Dawn and Xander had followed through with their plan to move in together, despite the absence of Xander in the page I saw. I knew that Willow missed magic in the panel of her just looking at her hands. That’s the power a great silent performance has; communication really isn’t about the words. Rather, it’s how we connect. And despite being two-dimensional renderings, these characters still connect with me. And Jeanty’s eye for human emotion and seemingly random details (the shelf full of Xander’s geek toys in the apartment) greatly facilitates this.

No one calls her "ma'am" anymore
these days

Writing: Joss is truly boss. After a season of high stakes shenanigans, earth-shattering sex, kaiju smackdowns, and globetrotting, Joss takes us back to the heart of his creation: the girl. Not the figurehead general, not the god, but just Buffy. In just a few pages, Joss introduces us to the new status quo. Buffy’s now living the glamorous life of a waitress (again!). No one calls her “ma’am” these days. In fact, Slayers are generally pissed at her, going so far as to drop calling themselves “Slayers.” She’s basically living with Dawn and Xander on their couch. The military has backed off, but are keeping a wary eye on the few remaining cells. The General is a disgraced veteran of the war, and is promptly executed in cold blood by Simone, who has a murderous agenda that will crystallize in Season 9. We’re briefly introduced to a new player who will also return next season. Elsewhere, Spike’s still riding with the roaches, keeping an ear to the ground for threats. Oh, and Angel currently stays with Faith, and appears to still be in a state of extreme shock. Faith is now the heiress of Giles’ estate, including the “horses,” while Buffy’s sole inheritance is the “VAMPYR” book. It’s a sentimental gesture as it’s the first item that Giles tried to give Buffy, and is now the final thing he ever gave her. It’s also been confirmed by Scott Allie that the book is also one and the same as the Slayer handbook that was mentioned in passing in Season 2. Faith’s words to Buffy are: “You know what this says? It says you’re the Slayer. You’re the only Slayer. You always were” to which Buffy responds: “Then I really did fail.”

"It says you're the Slayer."

Which brings us to the matter of “twilight.” Twilight may have had a physical manifestation in Angel (the figurehead), the realm, and Evil!Kitty (the physical manifestation of the realm), but it’s also been an on-going theme in the season. While many have pointed out that twilight refers to the transitory periods between light and dark, twilight also has the distinct connotation of being the period of decline following glory and success. “Chosen” ended on an uplifting note; Slayers were rising everywhere, the final image we see is of Buffy’s beginnings of a smile, as she looks over her past (Sunnydale) and at the brave new world she helped create. It was her finest hour. And that brings us to Season 8. Twilight. The decline.

Buffy, the vampire Slayer

However, as earlier stated, twilight is the transitory period between light and dark. Things are always darkest just before the dawn. Buffy may have been at her darkest and lowest this season, but if the closing is any indication, we’re headed for the light next season. Joss ends the season with a less optimistic, but ultimately more realistic view on change. Whereas Buffy started the season saying “The thing about changing the world… once you do it, the world’s all different,” she closes the season saying:

“The trouble with changing the world is… you don’t. Not all at once. You just inch it forward, a bit at a time, and watch it slip back, like the Greek guy with the rock. And you hope that when you’re done, you’ve moved it up a little, changed it just enough. You hope. Let’s go to work.”

Buffy references the myth of Sisyphus, the original Absurdist hero. In her own way, Buffy is an Absurdist hero. She’s always refused fate, fought against the inevitable, the hopeless. And she’ll go on fighting. She restates her title ("I'm Buffy, the vampire Slayer") and goes to work.

There's plenty of other interesting character stuff (hell, the entire issue is interesting character stuff) too. Willow's preemptive break-up with Kennedy speaks of her insecurities. She claims that "Kennedy liked being with a superhero," which has no textual basis whatsoever. In fact, Kennedy was into Willow way before she knew the extent of Willow's power. If nothing else, the power imbalance caused by the breaking of the Seed is the major factor here. Willow doesn't like being the weak one in the relationship, and so she projects her insecurities onto Kennedy, which while understandable, is rather unfair. And Kennedy seems majorly crushed by it. And, as it turns out, Willow has her heart set on another: Aluwyn. Though, I'm not quite sure if Willow actually loves Aluwyn, or the idea of Aluwyn and all that she represents.

Elsewhere, the reversal of big sis/lil sis roles between Buffy and Dawn is quite amusing. Season 8 began with the two of them on a rocky patch, but since then, they've both grown up. While there is still a fair amount of teasing ("Bossy-Pants"), they're in a much better place then they were in Issue #1.

Perhaps the most interesting (and predictable) dynamic seen here is the Faith/Angel one. Faith has taken Angel in, mostly because no one else wants anything to do with him. Just as Angel didn't give up on her before, Faith now returns that compassion.

The future promises to be interesting. Willow’s quest to reconnect with Aluwyn, Simone’s vendetta, the new guy, the spin on the Angel/Faith dynamic, the return of the Angel franchise under Dark Horse’s roof. The wait for Season 9 will be agonizing, to be sure.

Overall: A

ETA: Elena raised an excellent point (see comments), and I thought I'd try to address it here. So here goes. I think an argument can be made for how Buffy is an Absurdist hero. The Buffy we see here is less hopeful, less optimistic than when we first see her. The riff on her opening words of the season illustrates this clearly. She's resigned to inching that rock forward and watching it slide back. And in that understanding, that moment of clarity, she basically becomes Sisyphus, trudging down the hill to start pushing his rock uphill again. She knows that it's all pointless, she says so herself. But she does it anyway. This quote by Albert Camus, in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" is strikingly apt in describing Buffy's condition:

"His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing."

Issue #35 kinda solidified Buffy's status as an Absurdist hero. She rejected paradise to return to an earth that was in its death throes. She scoffed at the inevitability of earth's destruction, rejected the universe's plan ("I never do what I'm meant for") despite Angel's claim that the outcome was "beyond [them]. The only absolute in the earth is that it will end." It's not happiness that Buffy fights for; she fights for her family. Buffy is basically exemplifying the third example of Camus' absurd man, the conquerer. The conquerer lives in the present (" But today is different than later") but paradoxically, he must also recognize the hopelessness of his struggle and he doesn't expect to be able to change the world (see Buffy's closing statements). Thus, I submit Buffy is an Absurdist hero, of sorts.

Lookie what my boy made me!

2010-12-21T01:36:00.001-06:00

So... my boy is pretty much awesome and he made me a word cloud using words from this blog.
Check out the awesomeness HERE.
Clicking in any of the words initiates a blog-wide search for articles in which those words appear. Kinda nifty...

Buffy Season 8 #39 review

2010-12-09T23:40:00.002-06:00

Variant cover by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty: Buffy and Angel do mighty battle. Willow taps into the Seed’s power and starts playing Earth goddess. All around, the battle against the invading demons rages on with tons of casualties all around. A heartbreaking death drives Buffy to change the world once again.

Art: The scale is pretty epic, with a massive war waged between foreign demons and Slayers/military/local demons. Jeanty steps up to the task admirably here, despite his prior acknowledgement of not being so good at the military stuff. But then again, drawing demons is not quite the same as guns/tanks/planes. Where Jeanty excels is in delivering the drama, in the smaller moments, when the camera can zoom in tighter so to speak. And that’s utterly necessary at this point in time as he not only has to deliver the goods on the crazy action but more importantly, he has to sell the dramatic beats. Make them believable. Make them painful. Make sure the hard sells are earned. For the most part, I bought it.

SNAP!

Angelus snaps Jenny Calendar's neck

There are plenty of deaths here. Heavy casualties on all fronts. Girls being ripped into pieces, burned to a cinder, melted, etc. Demons bisected, impaled, trampled. Heck, even the Master gets his head punched in. But the death that had to be perfectly executed was Giles’. It’s a poetic death, right down to the abrupt execution in the hands of a possessed Angel. Personally, I thought that a close-up of Giles’ dead face would have hit the angst button a little harder than the shot of Giles’ prone form. The shock and then rage in Buffy’s face is palpable as she picks up her Scythe from Giles’ dead grasp, and finishes what he had attempted to do; destroy the Seed.

SPLAT

The direct consequences of her actions mark the rest of the issue. The shockwave hits anyone connected to magic, as they feel “the death of magic.” The most obvious case of loss here is Willow, of course. Having just tapped into the Seed’s power, she’s experienced the ultimate connection (a callback to her realization in S7 that everything in the world is connected). Having that ripped suddenly from her leaves her in anguish and horror. The last time Willow showed so much pain was probably in “The Killer in Me”, where she realized that she had let Tara go, even for a second.

There is a brief moment levity in the midst of all the high tension drama: the end of magic also marks the end of Amy’s magical skin for Warren, and he quite unceremoniously goes “SPLAT”.

Interesting things to look out for:

The demons that Giles arrives at the battle with are the very same kind that Buffy and her Slayers killed in a church in #1. They’re also the very same kind that Giles had a meeting with regarding the Twilight sigil early on.
The gargoyles attacking Leah and some Slayers are the same kind from “No Future For You”.
Jeanty pays homage to the original bat-face: Nosferatu.
Ironically, despite the crazy apocalypse-y stuff that’s going on in the world, Venice, the sinking city, is still doing just fine, instead of being underwater.
There seems to be a continuity error: Buffy is seen picking the Scythe up from what has to be Giles’ hand but, in the panel with Angel looking down at Giles, saying “When they’re all gone, you’ll understand,” Giles is clearly empty-handed.
Jeanty draws a very pretty Vi (yeah, okay it’s not that hard to draw a pretty girl looking pretty, but the likeness is excellent).
The painting/print on the wall of the New York branch is Gustav Klimt’s “Judith and the Head of Holofernes,” also known as “Judith I”. When asked about why he chose that painting, Jeanty said: “I always thought that painting would make a good Slayer image. Having just removed the head of a Vampire.”
The top panel of the final page is almost a direct copy of Cliff Richards’ work from “Anywhere but Here.”

Writing: This is the last issue co-written by editor Scott Allie and Joss. Finally, we’re at the big one. The one that made Jeanty “angry.” The one that made associate editor Sierra Hahn “ill.” The one that has been summed up by Allie with the words “devastation.” The reason for this is simple: the death of one Rupert Giles. We’ll get to that in due time.

There are some good character moments here. As seen in the previous issue, Faith is leading the Slayers in battle aboveground. Her final interaction with Giles is rather sad, seeing as he kinda cuts her off, and then takes the Scythe from her. “For Buffy.” All Faith says after surrendering the weapon is “Right”, which is quite telling. Given their relationship before this, it is rather insensitive of Giles, but then again, he had a war to win and so it’s understandable. Sad, though.

Speaking of Giles… here we go. He’s basically set up for a noble death right from the get go. He comes galloping in on some kind of demonic steed, commanding an army of PO-ed Earth-demons, commanding them to give “no quarter” and spare none. He chops a demon in half with a massive broadsword, saves Leah from a fiery death, and then takes the Scythe and runs underground with it. Then, seeing the clash of the titans (though greatly depowered, since “their power fades in proximity to the Seed”), Giles realizes that it’s up to him to stop the madness. He doesn’t just toss the Scythe to Buffy because he knows that she “wants to stop [Angel] -- not kill him.” Ignoring Xander’s pleas to not “get between those two,” Giles states that “that’s exactly where she needs me” and goes to destroy the Seed, While many seem to be confused as to Giles’ motivation in coming down to the Seed, I think it’s quite clear what he meant to do. The Scythe was never meant for Buffy per se. He knew that Buffy had followed Angel down. That could only mean that the battle was continuing below. And as he pointed out, Buffy would try to stop Angel, not kill him. So handing her the Scythe at this point was pointless. No, the only way to end all the madness was to go to the source of the problem, the very heart of the matter itself. The Seed. Angel wants to remove it. Buffy wants to protect it. It only makes dramatic sense for Giles to want the third option: destroy it. That’s my interpretation of what he meant when he said that he needed to be between the two of them. Giles has always been the Big Picture Guy, and the Big Picture right now is that the world is going down the crapper fast, and at the moment, the two beings that would even give Earth a fighting chance are too busy violently pounding each other senseless (not in the sexy way). And so Giles does what needs to be done. Or tries anyway. And is taken out in a way reminiscent of Jenny Calendar’s death. As I said before, poetic.

Giles’ death fuels Buffy’s rage. Even in her non-uber-superpowered state, she deals Angel a massive blow, sending him flying. Picking the Scythe up from Giles’ lifeless grasp, she finishes what he meant to do, shattering the Seed and destroying the Scythe in the process. Doing so releases Angel from Twilight’s hold, and it seems that both Angel and Buffy have lost their new powers. The insets with all the Slayers looking shocked suggests that with the breaking of the Scythe and death of magic, the Chain has now been broken. In NYC, one of Vi's witches says "We lost connection with Sunnydale..." and the next text box continues "... but that's not all..." implying that they're aware that they've lost more than just the connection to Sunnydale. While the Slayers won't lose their powers (if Aluwyn's right, and I see no reason for there to be a twist in that tale), they are essentially cut off from the magic that brought about their existence in the first place. The magic that Chooses presumably left with the breaking of the Seed, hence no more Slayers being Called. Buffy's last words in this issue ("No more") also brings to mind Scarlet Witch's "No more mutants" in House of M, in which she basically decimates the number of mutants in the X-Men universe.

"Betrayal. The closest,
the most unexpected."

Ironically, it's Buffy who breaks the Chain, finally bringing about the literal disconnect she felt earlier on (see #11 “A Beautiful Sunset”). And since irony is such fun, I'd point out that this happens after she literally felt the 206 dead girls inside her (see #33 “Twilight” Pt. 3). Or well, she claimed she did... but it seems that the dead Slayer magic sponge explanation was a red herring of sorts, since it was Twilight all along. Unless of course those explanations aren't entirely mutually exclusive.

Willow's anguish

Speaking of irony and connection, Willow, who had been so connected all this time, connected to the Slayers she helped activate ("I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere." - Willow, "Chosen), connected to the soul of magic, great earth mother goddess, whatever, is suddenly very alone. If there's any sympathy for Willow, it's because she's lost a great deal more, on a personal level, than anyone else. She was the most connected, and now that connection's gone. And in the irony also lies poetry. Just as Willow ripped Buffy from heaven, Buffy now rips magic away from Willow. What makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow is that it was Willow who basically set the first domino piece in motion: she brought Buffy back, apparently causing a disturbance in the Slayer line, allowing the First to act. In order to defeat the First’s army, Buffy decided to empower the Potentials with Willow’s help. Empowering the Potentials reset the status quo, and suddenly Buffy is the candidate for bringing about Twilight. She does so, and in order to stop it, she destroys the Seed, cutting off our world from magic, effectively cutting Willow off.

And so, Buffy changes the world. Again. And we’ll soon see how the others are taking to this brave new world. To the coda then…

Overall: A

PS: A shoutout across timezones to Nauman Ghani from Malaysia... nice to know that a fellow Malaysian is reading these comics.

TFAW.com Interviews Scott Allie on Buffy Season 8 #39

2010-12-03T13:56:00.000-06:00

There are three videos. The first two are about Buffy, and contain spoilers for #39 (DUH!), some hints about #40, and some very vague sketches about Buffy Season 9. The last one is more focused on Allie's other upcoming gigs.
Enjoy!

Buffy Season 8 #38 review

2010-11-23T00:58:00.006-06:00

Variant cover by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty: Angel gets his ass majorly kicked by his and Buffy’s offspring. Evil!Kitty lays the mind control whammy on daddy, and sends him off on an errand to bring him the Seed, which he calls his “soul”. Meanwhile, Buffy and Co. work to protect the Seed from the invading demons. Dawn’s badly hurt in the process, but very much still alive. For now. Oh, and the stench of betrayal is so ripe right now that #39 is probably gonna be a cesspool of “Et tu, Brute?”

Art: I heart Jeanty’s work. That is all. For reasons why, check out my previous reviews. Okay fine, let’s talk about another aspect of his work that totally sucks me in. One of the indications of a good comic artist to me is the ability to draw the reader’s eyes to the focal point of each panel, to basically direct a scene. In crowded panels, this can often be difficult. What’s even more rewarding is being able to go back to a busy panel, and pick out multiple points of interest. For example, in the panel where Xander calls Dawn “heavy”, Xander and Dawn are clearly the main focus. They’re right in the middle, and hey, Dawn’s hurt. But there are other nuances to the panel. Spike’s arm is still smoking from catching on fire, and Willow’s hand is still a little fiery from casting an immolation spell. The end result is a gestalt; the whole is really more than a mere sum of its parts. Having multiple points of interest makes a moment feel more organic, and it reminds me that good actors never stop acting while on a take, even if they’re not the focus of the scene. And Jeanty’s renditions are good actors.

Writing: I’ll be frank... we’ve hit the dreaded mid-arc crisis… the point where it’s quite clear that we’re there solely for the purpose of bridging the gap between the previous issue and the much anticipated next one.

"But it's you who will finish it..."

We’re reminded that Twilight basically became inevitable when Buffy activated all the other Slayers, and as the yang to Buffy’s yin, it’s apparently up to Angel to “finish” what Buffy started. Apparently Twilight Incarnate (aka Evil!Kitty) wants the Seed of Wonder, calling it his “soul.” And Angel gets to play errand boy. And not by choice. As mentioned in the previous issue, removing the Seed would essentially doom the world, and this is echoed here (just in case we weren’t paying attention).

"I'll see you when this is over."

Despite covering many major story beats, what saves this issue from becoming a mere bridging piece are the quiet moments between characters. There’s a beautiful moment between Buffy and Giles in which they discuss the fact that Giles had been looking for a totem that could kill Buffy and Angel, which ends with Buffy forlornly concluding with “I get it. All this started when we shared the power. We changed the world… bound to be some casualties. Wouldn’t be the first time for me. It’s what we do.” The scene then continues with Giles finally telling Buffy that she’s surpassed his expectations and hopes (“You’ve become something I never could have imagined […] I don’t mean the powers”). It ends with what many have interpreted to be Giles’ final goodbye to Buffy (“I’ll see you when this is over”). Wouldn’t be surprising as there is a crazy amount of pain to be had there. Giles then runs off, and his mission remains unclear, which could lead one to speculate that he could perhaps be the one to betray Buffy.

"All we gotta so is destroy it --
all this fighting ends"

On the note of betrayal, it seems that the rest of the Scoobies are also in line for a shot at the title of Brutus. Xander is set up as a candidate over the issue of Dawn’s welfare. We know that he’s already planning a hypothetical future with the younger Summers sister, and seeing her badly hurt has shaken that. The General posits the inevitable (falsely?) simple choice: destroy the Seed and “all this fighting ends”, or protect the Seed and live with all the danger, death, and misery too. It’s easy to see how a guy with Xander’s dating track record might consider the alternative world.

As for Willow, on the surface, it appears that she’s currently under the thrall of the Seed, having put the Master in bondage. However, I’m not quite so sure that Willow is possessed though. An alternative hypothesis would be that Willow is working with some greater knowledge about how the Seed works, possibly from her mystical daydream with Aluwyn. It’s possible that Willow is transferring guardianship of the Seed onto herself, given her supplication to it:

“Awake in peace! Your eyes that dart the rays of the sun, whose divine power is great on the head of the goddess! Your heart that is the beat of life that gives life to all! The Queen of Earth undying – the Regent in the West and in the East, the Divine Mother who ascends to the throne – Let your sworn protector stand against your enemies – keeping evil from those who are faithful to you!”

"Let your sworn protector
stand against your enemies"

A few interesting things to note here. Willow refers to the Seed as the “Regent in the West and in the East.” The sun rises in the East and sets in the West; both dawn and dusk are called “twilight,” which suggests a cyclic relationship, as twilight is the point in time before day and darkness. There is no new beginning without an end, and in both cases of night and day, twilight marks the end of either phase. Poetically and thematically, it makes sense. Season 8 was always supposed to bridge the gap between the post-“Chosen” world with the FRAY one. It’s the in-between story, marking the end of one age and the start of a new one. In retrospect, this play on title vs. framework also recalls the title of the ancillary MySpace Dark Horse Presents short “Always Darkest,” which is a play on the idiom “It’s always darkest before dawn”. Things are pretty much at their worst(?) at the moment, but according to the aforementioned idiom, things always look their worst just before they get better.

There are also oblique references to the “Star Spangled Banner”, from which this arc got its title. More interestingly, Willow talks about letting the Seed’s sworn protector stand against its enemies. Well, seeing as she has the Master, who is the Seed’s protector shackled and beaten up, it would appear that her supplication is counter-intuitive. Unless Willow is basically transferring guardianship of the Seed. Which would be supported by the next bit, in which she requests that evil be kept from those who are “faithful” to the Seed, in which we see Buffy kicking foreign demon butt.

Short side bar: "Death of magic" is a very vague term. We don't know if all magic will die, or just this plain of existence will be cut off. If the Seed is the fount of all magic and creation, it then stands to reason that destroying it will essentially wipe everything out. However, we've been told that this isn't true at all. There would be "vestiges" (funny how a snake lady is the one who uses that term). Ergo, not all magic is wiped out. Also, it's implicit then that Fray's time happens because the Seed is destroyed in one way or another. Well, the world is still very much still around, so creation itself doesn't go kaplooey.

And the most interesting thing is, it seems that Future Dark Willow (FDW) has/had contact with Aluwyn, because she was the one who gave Aluwyn the message to give Willow. And just as the portal was opening in #19, FDW is seen in the throes of an orgasm, the same expression she had when she used Kennedy to contact Aluwyn earlier in the arc. Which lends credence to the idea that Willow will become one of the "vestiges" that Aluwyn spoke of. That she's cut off from any grand lightshow (Aluwyn said that the world would be cut off, no more magic coming in), but she in herself is magical (immortality ad glowy green hands, etc).

And of course, the final case of betrayal comes from Angel, or rather Twilight. More on that in the next issue, of course.

"Twilight."

Overall: B+

Buffy Season 8 #37 review

2010-11-03T01:35:00.001-05:00

Variant cover by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty: The Scoobies are en route to the Hellmouth aka “Suckydale”. Spike gives Buffy the skinny on what’s going on with the whole Seed of Wonder, but Buffy’s brain being in Cinemax mode completely misses the important bits when she starts fantasizing about canoodling with Spike. Meanwhile, Angel is off killing monsters, saving people, atoning. Typical. At the Hellmouth, Buffy faces the Master, while elsewhere, Angel comes face-to-face with Twilight Incarnate. Loaded? Yeah, it is… but it’s tight.

"It's Sunnydale... Take us home."

Art: Let’s start with the cover, because I think it’s mighty awesome, and may possibly be my next favorite Jeanty cover, after Georges’ cover for #5 (“The Chain”). It features a much younger Buffy looking scared, surrounded by decomposing corpses of her classmates. A dead Xander and Willow also lie at her feet. It’s a powerful image as it isolates Buffy, cutting her off from her comfort zone; i.e. home. Which is an interesting juxtaposition when placed in the context of her return to Sunnydale, her home for seven years. Whether the cover is foreshadowing something to come, or merely a red herring, remains to be seen. However, it does highlight an important element: Buffy’s returning to Sunnydale. To the place where she met the Scoobies, died twice, fell in love, was heartbroken. To the place where she was just a girl. A simpler time. Sunnydale isn’t just significant to Buffy; it’s an emotional place for the rest of the Scoobies too. Xander clearly states this: “Will, wait! It’s Sunnydale. You can’t leave me out of this. Take us home.” But more of this babble in a bit.

Back to the art. There’s some beautiful stuff here. The tenderness of the Buffy/Spike scene in the beginning. The little exchange between Dawn and Xander. Willow’s astral walkabout with Aluwyn. The short but extremely poignant talk that Faith and Giles have. Jeanty gets to the heart of each of those scenes and renders them with a brilliant cinematographer’s eye as well as directorial intent. Ironically, it’s probably the fact that his style is slightly cartoony that actually makes this work, as it communicates emotion so much more effectively than a more stagnant but photorealistic approach may achieve.

But the characters are only part of the equation. What makes Jeanty’s work so appealing to me is that he fully utilizes space. There are enough elements to keep things visually interesting. That said, his set pieces aren’t just there to fill up space. The characters interact with them, and so, the props become extensions of the characters’ “acting”. The way Buffy lets the towel rest on her shoulders, the way she sits on a chair, the way Faith’s reflection lends an interesting way of showing how Faith feels… it’s all part of good storytelling. And likenesses be damned (as I previously pointed out, Jeanty still kinda struggles with Angel’s face), the ability to tell a story in an interesting visual fashion is so much more important to me in a comic book.

Writing: This is the first co-written piece by Joss and editor, Scott Allie. And the execution is flawless; the pace is tight, the character dialogue true to form. There is a considerable amount of mythology-building in the first few pages, and while it may seem like a bit of a braindump all at once, it really isn’t, if you’ve been paying attention so far. The exposition covers what the Seed of Wonder is, what it’s capable of, and a hint or two about what happens should it be destroyed. We don’t get many answers here, other than some stuff pertaining to the Seed. The Master’s return is left unexplained for now (the reason comes in the next issue, rest assured). The Seed of Wonder is basically an origin myth in itself, and as with all origin myths, everyone has an angle.

A couple of things get set up in this issue. First of all, Xander and Dawn’s relationship goes a step further with Xander proposing that they move in together, should they survive the current apocalypse. And Dawn agrees to the plan. However, as most readers would probably have pointed out, alarm bells should be going off at this point since just about every single one of Xander’s love interests have met their untimely demise in one way or another. And going by the Jo Chen cover for #38 and the preview for it, those alarm bells aren’t entirely unjustified. But given how obvious these “clues” are, I can’t help but feel that they’re a red herring of sorts.

Another issue that gets set up is the Fray universe, which is implicitly referenced in the little bit of exposition that Aluwyn gives Willow. Apparently, destroying the Seed will prevent hell from pouring into our dimension, but at the cost of magic, which will no longer be accessible either. Only “vestiges” would remain; “vampires, the Slayers already Called”, which does explain why the Slayer line kinda dies out for a couple of hundred years, until Fray is Called. The betrayal of the closest and most unexpected is also recalled here, but in typical suspense-building mode, no definite answer as to the identity of the betrayer is given. Aluwyn’s sad expression would suggest that Willow is the betrayer, but that remains to be seen. What does seem certain is that the Seed will be broken, and the Fray future is not being retconned out of continuity here. At least, not according to Scott Allie.

Now… going back to Sunnydale, where it all began. Literally, with the Seed being there and all. It really does feel like we’re headed home. We’re now basically down to the core Scoobies again, and all logic points to the betrayal of the nearest and most unexpected being conducted by one of the core members. We’ve been promised sad times ahead, so brace yourselves.

Angel meets Twilight.

The Master is revealed to be the Protector of the Seed, which does reek a little of irony, as he’s the one charged with protecting the Seed from the non-Earth demons. What I’m really loving about these last few books is just how tightly coordinated they are. The Master is dismissive of the Twilight universe, calling a “soulless shell”. In the preview for #38, Twilight incarnate (aka Evil!Kitty) charges Angel with the task of bringing it its “soul”, the Seed. According to Aluwyn, removal of the Seed would flood the old world with demons and chaos, bringing about its death, so that “the new world can thrive”, which corroborates Spike’s earlier cork in the bottle analogy. It would appear that as one universe dies, the Seed is taken up by another.

Overall: Strong issue. Great art, fantastic ride. It really does feel like we’re closing big.

Buffy Season 8 #36 review

2010-10-12T23:04:00.005-05:00

Buffy Season 8 #36 cover by Jo Chen

The nitty-gritty: We get flashbacks of Angel’s Twilight beginnings. A dog made him do it. Kinda. Too much detail for a sum-up. Next! We also see some Spike backstory. In the present, Spike saves the day with him steam-punk ship manned by giant bugs, while Angel leaves the scene to do his own saving elsewhere. Oh… and the Master is alive… (really)… and he apparently has the Seed of Wonder (what now?!), which is what the Scoobies apparently need to save the day. Da-yum… that’s a lot of stuff to cover in 22-pages.

Art: Jeanty is in rare form. Angel is much improved (largely benefits from more close-ups, which Jeanty has gotten good at), but it’s his Spike that’s incredible. Maybe there’s something about James Marsters’ angular face that translates well to paper, but Jeanty’s Spike is right on the nose, right off the bat. Everything from the likenesses to the mannerisms is true to form. Then again, Spike always had a slight exaggerated air about him, and those ticks translate very well to comic pages.

Buffy reacting to Spike's words

More importantly, IMO, is the great storytelling mechanic of each page. Every panel flows seamlessly to the next, and even the frenetic aerial battle is mapped out so well that the entire segment registers as a single cohesive scene. There are also more nuanced accomplishments; such as the way Jeanty handles the conversation between Buffy and Spike. You have Buffy going from aggressive, to contemplative, to defensive, to upset. The characters aren’t just going through the motions here; they’re full out interpreting the script for you too. Time and again, I’ve praised Jeanty for his ability to take his craft a step further by making the characters act. I’m a broken record.

The steampunk ship that Spike arrived in is an interesting mix of 80s camp and SyFy, which meshes well with Spike’s Billy Idol look.

Lost reference: Oceanic

Let’s talk pop culture references. As per usual, Jeanty couldn’t resist inserting a little something extra, and this time, it’s quite literally huge. Like a freakin’ plane. Yes, that’s right Lost fans. The Oceanic makes an appearance, losing a wing in the process.

And how about that final page for impact? Jeanty draws a mean Master, and seeing ol’ “fruit punch mouth” glowering over a glowing Seed is the perfect ending for an issue that mainly served as exposition fodder.

Writing: It’s the return of Joss! It’s kinda strange, but this is the first Joss-written arc since “Time of Your Life”. Well, co-written arc. Allie will be co-writing issues 37 through 39. But whatevs. So, the issue at hand…

Angel crashing into S8

There’s no denying that this issue is exposition heavy. It kinda has to be. The first half essentially sets up both Angel and Spike in context of the roles that they have, or will play in S8. However, the events that lead directly to their literal crashing into the S8 storyline are ambiguous at best. As announced recently, IDW will be ending their ANGEL run in 2011, and they are currently working with Dark Horse to sync up their stories. It’s been confirmed that Spike’s story and how he came to own a strange ship and its even stranger crew will be explored in Brian Lynch’s 8-issue SPIKE book. While it’s disappointing that such a sprawling story (hey, it’s taking more than four years to tell!) couldn’t contain the “hows?” and “whatfors”, it’s kinda cool that through doling out story elements for IDW to tell, the entire Buffyverse is now becoming a cohesive whole again, rather than the fractured universe it was in before.

Spike ID-ing Angel as Twilight

Joss is possibly the best person when it comes to writing dialogue for his characters. Even when they’re saying impossibly mushy crap like “But you have my heart, so what can I do”, you kinda buy it. Even during the run of the TV series, there were lines that depended wholly on the delivery to sell them. Hearing the dialogue with those well-known voices definitely helps. Joss understands his characters, and he nails the characterizations with the appropriate verbage. Spike’s “Ooh, that’d be Angel, then” is classic, with Spike identifying Twilight as Angel from cellphone camera footage on YouTube. Spike is the most in-character that he has been in a long time. Right from his entrance (crashing into Big Ben) paying homage to his first entrance into the Buffyverse (crashing into the Sunnydale sign), to his calling Buffy and Angel out on their shenanigans (“One, under all that demon viscera, you still reek of him, and that’s not a treat for me -- but it can’t be Buffy if she doesn’t bonk the bad guy, right?”). And so far, Spike is living up to his boast about knowing more than anyone else about what’s going on.

A subtle nod at the "Prince"?

Fun tidbit: Willow turns Angel into a frog, apparently by mistake. Well, Willow has never been a fan of frogs, claiming that she has “frog-fear” previously.

Ol' Fruit Punch Mouth

Back to the Master for a sec: What the hell (pardon the weak pun) is he doing back? And looking very much alive in a not-so-much-like-talc way. Explanations need to be forthcoming for this latest (and actually, completely unexpected) plot twist to make any semblance of sense at all.

Overall: It’s a solid beginning. But it’s just that. The revelations mostly seem superficial at best, without any real amount of detail for them to either make sense, or resonate. More to come is the word on this.

Buffyverse goodies from Dragon*Con 2010 courtesy of TFAW.com

2010-09-07T22:46:00.003-05:00

Parts 1 and 2 of TFAW.com's interview with Georges Jeanty re: Season 8 and Season 9

The complete "Buffy Season 8: Looking Back" panel with Georges Jeanty and Scott Allie:

Georges Jeanty releases 4th Buffy Season 8 Sketchbook!

2010-08-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

Taken from Georges' website:

"Collects behind the scenes materieal from issues #16-25 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic.

The new Buffy The Vampire Slayer Sketch Book #4includes an original cover Head Sketch of your favorite Buffy character by Georges!

Also, sketch Books #2 and #3 are still available!"

Books cost $20 and $5 for domestic postage, or $8 for international deliveries. All prices are in USD.

The biggest news to hit the Buffyverse since... well, since Twilightgate

2010-08-19T20:14:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was a pretty big day for Buffyverse fans. Squirreled right at the end of the new Riley One-shot comic book was an announcement that the ANGEL franchise was moving back under Dark Horse Comics' roof. This caught everyone unawares, since the passing of the baton hadn't even been hinted at previously. In fact, these tweets from both Scott Allie (Buffy Season 8 editor) and Chris Ryall (Editor of many of IDW's ANGEL books) made it clear that both companies were working together to produce cohesive stories, but there was no hint at all that they were working towards a suitable handoff at all. Heck, even Allie's reticent admission that we would see Angel and Spike again in Buffy Season 9 hinted at things going back to status quo, where Joss would use those characters sparingly (see Buffyfest's exclusive interview with Allie at SDCC 2010). This all changed Wednesday, when eagle-eyed fans read that announcement. And as per usual in the passionate fandom, the fecal matter scatter radius beat any modern day nuclear weapon. But amidst all the fan chatter that went on (and believe me, "chatter" is kinda an understatement), two voices that were noticeably absent were those of the publishing houses.

Until today. Dark Horse's press statement can be found HERE, while IDW's is available for perusal HERE.

From what it sounds like, the entire IDW run (at least the main ANGEL book) will be absorbed into canon, since Dark Horse will use the events that transpire in the IDW book to bridge the gap between "Not Fade Away" and Buffy Season 8. Fans of the IDW's run can rest assured that Dark Horse plans to honor the work from that run, and not nullify it.

What remains to be seen is how the ANGEL and SPIKE books will be handled after crossing over to Dark Horse. This quote from my SlayAlive EXCLUSIVE with Scott Allie in the wake of the SDCC 2010 announcements may shed some light on the issue:

SlayAlive: Let's talk Angel and Spike. You confirmed that we would be seeing them in Season 9. Given that IDW will still be publishing books on these characters, is this something that's come up in your discussions with them, so that everyone's on the same page so nothing too crazy happens with a character (e.g. undergoes a secondary mutation into a more feral form or something like that)?

Scott Allie: Yeah, we've had the conversation with IDW, and S9 won't have the same continuity issues that S8 had with IDW's books. Angel won't be in Buffy's book very much, masked or otherwise, and whatever Spike does in the Buffy title will fit with what he's doing in his own title.

Since Allie's talking about S9 here, I'm interpreting this to mean that Angel and Spike will most likely have their own series under Dark Horse, and that they will occasionally intersect with Buffy's series (since Dark Horse plans of releasing multiple titles under the S9 banner). This of course is my interpretation of the response in light of recent developments.

Time will tell. For now, I'm kinda happy that both titles are moving back under the same roof. Just don't disappoint us, Dark Horse.

The Terminator: 2029

2010-06-09T00:26:00.000-05:00

The nitty gritty: Written by Zack Whedon, art by Andy MacDonald and covers by Massimo Carnevale. Set before the first Terminator movie, it focuses on Kyle Reese before he's sent back to the past to protect one Sarah Connor, mother of the infamous resistance leader, John Connor.

Art: Andy MacDonald's art is a no-brainer for this franchise. It's adequately dark and gritty to convincingly convey the harsh times in which Reese and his friends live in. His eye for cinematography is also admirable, invoking the feel of a camera as it pans and zooms to deliver a sense of scope as well as communicate intimacy.

Writing: As a prequel to the original film, Whedon's script doesn't seem to offer much more than some nice background on Reese before his mission in the past. Where he succeeds is setting up the pieces for the continuation into the Terminator franchise, set in 1984.

Since the only film taken into account here is the first one (complicated licensing issues), Whedon is more or less free to play with the mythology. In this tale, Kyle Reese survived his bodyguard mission, but was later apprehended and kept in a facility where he was interrogated first for information about time displacement tech and the machines, and later on, after Skynet attacked, the questions turned to being about the Resistance. Flash forward to 2029, an aged Kyle Reese is rescued by his future pre-time travel self. Released from captivity, he seeks out Kyle's best friend, Ben, asking him to follow him back to the past, to find and rescue him from his captors as he believes that whoever held him all those years were instrumental in building Skynet.

Ben refuses, wanting to stay with his recently requited love, Paige. Which is when you know that things will go horribly wrong. It's a predictable cliche, and one that many feminists will label "woman in the refrigerator", and in this case, it's rather undeniable. Paige doesn't really serve much purpose, other than being Ben's obvious romantic interest, and her death is the event that drives him towards his heroic future (or rather, past), setting up Whedon's next foray into the Terminator universe: The Terminator: 1984.

Other than the obvious feminist slight, the story's pretty solid. Again, as a prequel, it doesn't offer too much, but taken collectively as an exposition piece, which no doubt it was intended to be, it does open up the narrative possibilities for future possibilities, without drastically changing the events of the first movie. I'll be adding the next 3-issue arc to my pull-list, to see where Whedon will take us next. Given the bomb that was Terminator Salvation, and the disappointing cancellation of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, this may be the best thing to happen to a tired but classic franchise.

Serenity: Float Out

2010-06-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

The nitty-gritty: A eulogy from the perspective of three former colleagues/friends to one of the most-mourned characters in the Whedonverse. A nice surprise at the end... the first definitive step into the future for the franchise.

Art: Patric Reynolds' grittier, more sketch-like style is definitely a departure from previous comic entries set within the Serenity-verse. But it fits so well, given that much of the Serenity-verse we've seen so far is for the lack of a better word, kinda grimy. Reynolds' art captures the dynamism of the action scenes and his characters are expressive and believable. Although this is a one-shot focusing on Wash, Reynolds' handle of Zoe is so much better. He captures her character perfectly. My only gripe is that there are at least two instances of sound effects in space... c'mon people... Firefly got it right, which would technically make this an in-universe continuity error! Tsk-tsk.

Writing: Patton Oswalt delivers a nice eulogy, but for long time fans, this really adds nothing new to our understanding of Wash, beyond being a sentimental recap. We already knew that Wash was brave, resourceful, and loyal, and so there's really nothing of real intrinsic value here. That's not to say that it isn't a good story. It's well-written, and the surprise that came on the last page was worth the cover price in itself.

While Scott Allie (the editor) acknowledged that there were no "grand scheme for Serenity right now" in an exclusive interview with SlayAlive, I'm happy that they've taken a definitive step forward. Until then, I guess we have the Book graphic novel to look forward to for now.

Scott Allie talks about the future of Serenity and Buffy Season 8

2010-06-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

Check out the SlayAlive exclusive interview with Scott Allie HERE.

Buffy Season 8 Art Contest

2010-06-03T11:57:00.000-05:00

Check it out HERE. There are some uber-sweet prizes to be had, so that should be incentive enough to join.

Buffy Season 8 #35 review

2010-05-10T23:27:00.000-05:00

The nitty gritty: Buffy and Angel are in Twilight (yes, it’s a place). They argue about destiny and choice. Meanwhile, the rest of the Scoobies are being attacked by “placenturians”. Buffy and Angel return to turn the tide on a losing battle. The battle is interrupted by the dramatic entrance of a familiar face, setting the stage for Joss’ final arc. September is so far away!

Art: From a storytelling perspective, it works pretty well. Jeanty has been pretty consistent in this arc, and #35 is no exception to the rule. It, however, does lack some of the stronger moments seen in #32 and #33. As usual, Jeanty excels in the quieter moments; his rendering of the Buffy/Angel scenes rivals his work in #31. Not only are his renderings of the characters’ expressions nuanced and evocative, it’s the little touches like having Buffy fidget with her constantly changing wardrobe that truly bring a scene to life.

Interesting thing to note: the glow is gone. More on that below.

As pointed out in last month’s review, Jeanty also has a knack for conveying the general mood of the scene in his layouts. The Buffy/Angel scenes are framed in very ordered panels, reflecting the peace and pleasure of the new reality. In contrast, the battle scene is chaotic, with slanting panels, conveying a fragmented and disjointed point of view, rapidly switching foci and angles.

Despite the positives, the art isn’t completely above reproach. Some of the battle scenes seem a little crowded. The problem with Jeanty’s art is that it loses some of its appeal when the details disappear… and it invariably does so in larger battle scenes.

Oh, and the Spike full-page panel was quite nifty. Saw it coming, but nifty all the same.

Writing: I will admit that I walked into this one with some trepidation. Not only was there a lot riding on this issue to make sense of the whole “Twilight” deal, but this would also be the last issue for quite a while (since #36 doesn’t hit thestands until September 2010). This issue directly answers a few of the questions left hanging in the last. Firstly, the depowered Slayers have been repowered, presumably the same time as Faith in the last issue. Secondly, it’s pretty explicit that Angel doesn’t know everything about Twilight (“You don’t even know, do you? You’re guessing as much as I am, Twilight”) and neither is he aware of the price of his ascension (I-I didn’t think it would be…). Thirdly, Buffy is back in control, as alluded to at the end of #34. In true Buffy fashion, she’s immediately wary of her current location, claiming: “It’s a trap. It’s always a trap. That’s how it is -- we get one moment of peace -- […] we catch our breath, we turn around -- […] the vicious orcs come over the mountain.”

It’s probably pertinent to note that the “glow” is gone. I went back to the end of #34 to check, and the glow is gone then too, right when Buffy begins to ask some pointed questions. Here, she remarks that “something was in that apple, ‘cause what I’m feeling is a whole lot weirder than “afterglow”, implying that while Buffy was aware of her actions, she wasn’t fully in control of herself, which as far as I know, is essentially a reiteration of the fact that the universe was driving the Buffy/Angel sexmobile in #34. The glow was essentially “joy” (#33), driving the two together, “urging them on” (#34). Once that glow subsided, things go back to normal, somewhat.

At least, Buffy is back to normal. Angel still seems to be drinking the Twilight Kool-Aid, assuring Buffy that she’s wrong and that “It’s not a trap”. Then again, Buffy only started acting funky once the glow happened, or more accurately, when she finally listened to it. Angel, on the other hand, was already playing Twilight for quite a while then, which leads me to believe that Angel isn’t out of the woods just yet. As far as I know, the latest subject of fan ire is the fact that Angel seems to not be acting like Angel. Personally, I’m willing to wait this one out a little longer… afterall Angel has been under the influence of Twilight for a longer period of time than Buffy. His actions have been erratic at best, and while Giles doesn’t think that “"killer" is the right word”, he had quite single-mindedly been pushing Buffy to become the yin to his yang. There are many who have been pretty vocal about their fear that Angel has now become irredeemable, and that S8 has become the most heinous case of character assassination that Joss has ever orchestrated. When asked if he thought that Angel was redeemable after all that he’s done, Brad Meltzer said in a recent interview with Buffyfest: “After issue 35, yes.”

Which brings us to the question of when that turning point is. Let’s start with context. Buffy and Angel are probably the best example of fate’s bitches in the Buffyverse. Chronologically speaking, Angelus regained his soul, and then kinda wandered the world aimlessly for a while, until the Powers That Be decide to pull him out of his funk, and use him as their Champion (or one of them, at least). He meets Whistler, whose main directive is to give Angel a reason to fight. What better reason than love? They hit up LA, where Angel first lays eyes on Buffy, the newly Called Slayer. He watches her, sees her vulnerability, witnesses her strength, falls in love with her, and decides to join the good fight. They meet in Sunnydale, after she relocates, conveniently on the Hellmouth. Her arrival in Sunnydale is preordained. Her new Watcher is already employed at the local high school, and Angel is there waiting. In the Wish-verse, we see what would have happened if Buffy had for some unknown reason wound up in Cleveland instead. She would never have become the Slayer she was destined to be. Buffy was always prophesized to die at the hands of the Master. Even in an alternate reality, she ends up in Sunnydale, does battle with fruit punch mouth, and loses. But unlike the Buffy of Sunnydale, this Buffy didn’t have friends, or at least none there to revive her (though, to be fair, it’s a lot easier to recover from drowning than a snapped neck). The point is, this would have been an entirely different person. That person wouldn’t have become “worthy” of the ascension.

But Buffy’s never been known to just take her fate lying down. A recurring theme has always been an iteration of The Terminator’s “No fate but what we make” motto. And so, it comes as no surprise when Buffy says “I never do what I’m meant for” and responds to Angel’s (rhetorical) question, asking if she would just walk away from the universe’s grand plan, with an insouciant “Yup”.And so, after some weird cosmic sex, Buffy walks out of this sounding like herself again. Which is a huge plus. The scene also calls back “Normal Again” (S6), with the rejection of the possibility of a world where she can be happy for the harder one. Buffy may be many things, but selfish has never been one of them. At least not when it comes down to the final crunch.

But what about Angel? Returning to the question at hand, when in this issue does Angel become redeemable again? Is he actually redeemable? This is the guy who tries to convince Buffy to stay with him in Twilight, ignoring the plight of her family down on the lower plane. The guy who tells her to “leave behind the lower plane”. Not exactly hero-worthy words. But then again, neither was his speech in “Amends”. And so, reading, and rereading this issue, I pondered the question of Angel’s redeemability, and why Meltzer actually thought that he would be back on track after #35. And then, it kinda hit me. It’s in the bloody subtitle: “The Final Chapter: The Power of Love”. My problem was that I had been reading people’s reactions to the issue for two whole days before I read the issue myself (delivery to shop was delayed), and so I had begun to fall into the same despair that some had felt. That Angel only went with Buffy because he wanted to be with her. Which is true, but why? Love, of course. It’s actually rather poetic that the entire reason Angel had a purpose in the first place is quite possibly the very same reason he was pulled out of the Twilight funk too. I mean, in Willow’s own words: “Love makes you do the wacky” (“Some Assembly Required”, S2). Am I saying that Angel is in the clear now? No. But the battle is halfway won, now that he’s done being the universe’s bitch (at least in this instance). And what steps will be taken into remediation will ultimately decide if Angel truly is redeemable. But hey, willing to wait… still not quite clear on how Angel became Twilight, so I’m hoping for more enlightenment along the way.

In the past month, I’ve read multiple posts from the fandom (some quite intelligent ones, from people I respect, and others… not so bright ones, usually by the scornworthy) accusing Joss of essentially “losing it”. That he had lost the plot entirely by perpetuating rape and playing “Sky Bully”. The silliest claim I’ve read is that Joss is retconning the universe into a sexist one. Right… I’d point out that the rape imagery isn’t new to BtVS. The Cruciamentum, the typical Watcher/Slayer dynamic, the horrific creation of the first Slayer… all rape imagery. But all overturned by the same girl. The universe has never given a crap about women’s suffrage or the right to wear pants. It only cares about the tenuous balance.

This quote from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chosen Collection bonus disc gives me hope that although Joss plays with matches, he knows what he’s doing:

“If you just keep your politics in the forefront, […] that’s a speech; that’s not a show. It’s bad. You have to go to the dark place. The dark place where the fairy tales live. And so you have to be incredibly responsible about what you’re telling people, the role model you’re giving them. At the same time, you have to be incredibly irresponsible in what they do, what they experience, what they go through. You have to teach kids that beer is foamy.”

In short, he’s making the distinction between his personal beliefs, and his entertainment ethics. That in order to create compelling characters and drama, you have to allow them to do all the crappy things that real people do. Cheat, steal, kill, lie, scheme, drink, etc. The Buffyverse isn’t an ideal universe; women are still discriminated against (how many times have villains, both major and minor, alluded to both Buffy’s sex and stature in a dimunitive sense?). So I don’t see flags of misogyny suddenly popping up. I can understand a critique of the show as a whole from a feminist POV, but not claims of a sudden reversal of beliefs.

But back to discussing the issue for a moment. As previously pointed out, this issue makes it explicit that Angel really doesn’t know all that much more than Buffy about the whole Twilight deal. Which leads me to ask: Was Angel necessarily right in his claim that Buffy’s powers had entirely nothing to do with the global Slayer massacre? Certain attributes are definitely un-Slayer-ish… e.g. the ability to fly, go to speed of sound, the uber-strength, telescopic vision… But going by Giles’ depiction of nature and the universe, “nature isn’t wasteful” (#34). So what about all those dead Slayers? In the past, the power passes on to the next Slayer. But in the new world order, where does the power of dead Slayers go? Why not send it to a receptacle, if you’re already going to make her uber-powerful anyway? What about the fact that Buffy’s attire kept switching to that of previous Slayers? Slayer memories? Or that Buffy is now the ultimate Slayer? The Form of the Slayer, in Socratic philosophy? The ideal in which all Slayers partake? Plato does state that "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge. And that’s kinda what Angel is telling Buffy. They’ve ascended, Twilight is their new world where they can start over. Angel is essentially making the “Allegory of the Cave” argument. And hey, Buffy… well, neverone for the books. She rejects it. Rejects the new reality for the world that she’s connected to. Connection… that’s what she’s always wanted. It was there all the time, but it wasn’t until she’s given a way out that she realizes it. “That’s what I need to fight for. Not happiness. Not humanity. Them. Those people”. Buffy isn’t rejecting those things because they’re not important. She’s merely stating that she’s choosing what’s real over abstractions. And I commend her for it.

Overall: I liked it. For now. As long as I’m on the right track with my long ruminations. It’s not the best written piece of S8 (that honor is probably reserved for Joss), but once you dig deep, there’s good meat here. Sure, some people may not like where the bones are headed, but then again, some people will never like fish. That’s the nature of the beast. And god, did anyone see where my analogy went? September then.

Buffy Season 8 #34 review

2010-04-09T00:03:00.000-05:00

The nitty-gritty: I should preface this review with a
disclaimer. Here goes. If you didn’t like the way the last issue ended, this one isn’t going to convince you otherwise. Right then. Buffy and Angel have sex. A LOT of it. BUT! There’s more to it. The origin of Slayers and vampires is revisited here, with some new material to fill in the gaps of what we know from the past. And that bit in the solicitations about the world coming to an end… they weren’t kidding. The birthing pains marking the coming of a “new reality”. Is it good? Yes. My concise exclamation was “Crazy sauce!”

Art: Oh dear lord. Jeanty knocks this so far out of the park that I’m speechless because of the vacuum. Well, not really... Speechless, that is. Jeanty is at his storytelling best here, illustrating panel after panel of characters that do more than just stand about. Each and everyone of the characters act, move, emote, fly, frak, etc.

Speaking of frak… I guess there’s no point in trying to avoid the elephant in the room. The sex.There’s plenty of it. All Buffy and Angel essentially do is boink in this issue. And Jeanty’s art takes us there. It’s steamy and passionate. The contact is almost tangible, the adrenaline and endorphin rush is palpable. Through personal communication, I was informed that he had purchased three sex manuals for research purposes, and it shows. In an issue where the most epic screw is supposed to happen, I guess it would be a downer to just keep things strictly missionary, especially since these two have become pretty much superhuman at this point. There are some rather “athletic” positions assumed here. For the more reserved, don’t worry, this really isn’t anywhere as graphic as Sex and the City, which in light of more recent TV programming (e.g. Spartacus: Blood and Sand and The Tudors) seems rather tame. But despite the heavy emphasis on earth-shattering (no really!) sex, Jeanty manages to avoid falling into the porno trap. I’m sure that many will probably disagree about the art direction, but it is my opinion that it all remains tasteful, albeit disturbing, since the world is literally tearing apart at the seams while the two are being vigorous on land, in the air, and even in outer space.

There really isn’t a single “lazy” panel in this issue. Jeanty achieves a strong balance of close-ups and dynamic shots. Motion remains a strong suite, and not just in the fast-paced areas; even in the quieter moments, nothing seems stagnant. An example of just how cinematic the art is when beads of sweat/saliva are used to show just how fast Buffy and Angel are going. My favorite detail,however, is the close-up of Buffy’s neck as Angel instructs her to “fly up a little”. The bite scars from all those years ago are a nice touch, and one that’s extremely relevant here, as another panel calls back the scene where Angel drained Buffy in “Graduation Day, Pt. 2”. The panel where her hand digs into the wall is very reminiscent of her hand crushing the pewter pitcher/vase in said episode.

Other things of note: In the first chunk of the exposition montage, two of the Slayers should be instantly recognizable. The first being the first Slayer, of course. In fact, the vampire she’s shown to be fighting is the same one she fought in the Prologue of Tales of the Slayers. The second girl is Claudine, who was featured in the story “The Innocent”, also in the same book. And as a pop-culture throw in, note that the vampire that Claudine fought bears a remarkable resemblance to Sweeney Todd.

On a final note on the art, I must say that the layout of the issue was astounding. The way the panels were framed also told a story. We had the regular boxes for the Buffy and Angel scenes, but the scenes with the Scoobies and of the world are framed in “shaky” boxes, indicating the rumbling ground. The flashbacks/past are illustrated in panels that resemble torn parchment. Michelle Madsen’s colors nicely complemented the art, switching from the pallid green tones of Twilight’s HQ, to her usual coloring style for the Buffy/Angel scenes, to a more sepia-tinged palette for the past.

Writing: Brad Meltzer continues his streak of hard-hitting plot-driven stories. As promised in last month’s review, and in the tagline for this issue, the “true history of the universe” is revealed. The gist of it goes like this. There is a watchful universe. Not necessarily a sentient one, but just a force that monitors the balance of things. When the first vampire arose, a Slayer followed soon after to keep the vampire population in check. “Generation after generation, the battle would be fought. And lost. And lost again. But the balance would always be kept”. Apparently the universe is pretty bad at math, since the unfairness of the battle never fazed it; things kept going, as long as the balance was kept. And the universe kept watch, waiting to find the Slayer who would measure up to its test. Enter Buffy Summers, who did what no other Slayer had done before; “she shared the power”, or rather, along with Willow and the power of the Scythe, she “created” it, giving the world “a new breed. A new evolution”. In doing so, Buffy passed the test, and her newfound powers are her reward; the power to ascend the metaphysical ladder. “The power to survive the Twilight”. And Twilight is here. As the sex intensifies, the world begins to tear at its seams, with earthquakes, seaquakes, volcanic eruptions,cyclones, tsunamis, etc all occurring at the same time. According to Giles: “This isn’t just the earth’s reaction. It’s how the earth gives birth to a new reality”. This, of course calls back “The Monkey’s Paw” from #32, where Dawn says: “You don’t get the good without getting the curse”.

As alluded to in the last issue, Giles seems to have known this for a while now. In true Watchers’ Council tradition, there are plenty of skeletons in the closet. The events that are taking place now are the manifestations of what was deemed to be a Watcher myth, one that freaks them all out so much that in the past, when theythought that Twilight was coming, thirty Watchers ended their own lives. Which, in view of the Slayer mythos is actually more than fairly ironic. The Shadowmen, the predecessors of the Watchers’ Council, created the Slayer in order to protect them from the rising vampire threat. But in doing so, they opened a whole new can of metaphysical worms and opened up the possibility of a Slayer ascending the metaphysical ladder, and thus dooming them all.

Giles, ever the pragmatist has been searching for a “totem” to “kill a god”. Interestingly enough, the totem is suggested to be the Scythe. And while the Guardians were a deux ex machina plot element, I have to wonder how they would tie into the larger mythology. The Guardians were the ones who created the Scythe for the Slayer. They were the ones who watched over the Watchers. Presumably, the Guardians are aware of the metaphysical ladder, and what will happen when a Slayer ascends it. Is it possible that the Guardians created the Scythe, not just for the Slayer, but alsoto be used on the Slayer, should it become necessary? In the most recent Q&A conducted by SlayAlive with Georges Jeanty, Jeanty referred to the Scythe as “one of the most powerful weapons in the universe”. It’s been mentioned before, and hinted a couple of times in the same Q&A session that the Scythe will play a significant role in the issues to come, which makes sense, since the Slayer mythology is now directly tied to it.

Meltzer does a pretty good job layering the many elements of this story in this issue. There’s a solid balance with the showing vs. telling; we don’t get just told what’s happening, but rather, we see the world going to hell, layered on top of Giles’ exposition. And on top of all that, we also see the causes of the mayhem, Buffy and Angel in mid-coitus, seemingly oblivious to the destruction they’re literally leaving in their wake. Which seems rather odd, but they’re apparently being spurred on by the universe, bringing about Twilight. Willow makes the connection that Slayers and vampires aren’t that different at all; both are “humans infected by demons”. Thus, Buffy was always meant to make that connection, and whatever it is that Buffy and Angel are becoming will herald in a new kind. And the imbalance that will once again plague the universe will be equalized by the return of “the ancient demons and magicks”. Which again calls back Dawn’s words from #32 (Dawn is turning out to be quite the meta-commentator), that “the more power [Buffy] gets – the bigger the monsters we’ll have to fight”. The tightness of the script, and the cohesiveness of the last three issues so far show that plotting is indeed Meltzer’s strength.

What remains to be seen is what exactly triggered the return of Willow’s powers in #31, and Faith’s in this issue. And if all the other Slayers have been similarly repowered. The most pressing questions still remain to be answered: Does Angel know about the cost of his co-ascension? Is Buffy fully in control of her actions? What exactly is Twilight? And the list goes on. May cannot come soon enough!

Overall: Another solid issue, barring some unanswered questions.

Buffy Season 8 #37 Jeanty variant cover unveiled!

2010-04-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

The good folks over at Buffyfest posted this amazing cover for Buffy Season 8 #37 today.

Loving the retro feel to it... there's a creepy old skool comic cover feel to it, without feeling as referenced as all the covers of the previous arc.

The cover is crazy good; possibly Jeanty's best cover to date, and seeing a decomposing Xander and Willow in the foreground is kinda disturbing.

Interesting that Buffy is in her high school gear, and that Xander seems to be pre-ocularly challenged. It's also been noted that Willow seems to be wearing her outfit from "Welcome to the Hellmouth".

Wonder why the folks over at Dark Horse decided to release this cover early, though... Could it be because as Scott Allie said in his Q&A session for Issue #32 that:

"Some people will be excited and mystified by one of the covers for #37—speculation will run rampant."

Curiouser and curiouser...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Collection

2010-04-03T17:43:00.000-05:00

What may this be, you may ask? If you're a fan of the show, I hope you didn't ask. This, for the uninformed, is a 40-disc piece of TV heaven, collecting all 7 seasons of the televised show, with some added bonuses.

Why did I get it, since I already have all 7 seasons (pirated copies of course, terima kasih Malaysia)? Erm... coz it's pretty? Also, it was 47% off on Amazon.com. And, I did recently purchase the ANGEL collection, so these two items can now sit happily side-by-side on my media shelf.

Buffy Season 8 #33 review

2010-03-06T12:49:00.001-06:00

The nitty-gritty: Twilight is finally unmasked. Surprise… the covers for #34 don’t lie… it’s him. There’s a hint or two of a major mythology expansion coming in the next issue. You will either hate, or love it. ‘Nuff said.

Art: Strong panel work throughout by Georges Jeanty. The panels featuring Xander giving Buffy a pep-Buffy and Xander talk

talk are some of the best work that Jeanty’s put out thus far, with remarkable nuance, expression, and dynamic storytelling. The panels of Buffy and Angel interacting show an amazing range of emotions and actions; with some of the best “acting” I’ve seen from Jeanty’s characters. The way that Angel points when he tells Buffy about how she “fundamentally shifted the balance of power in the world”… it’s a gesture that Angel’s used before, on-screen. The way Buffy smacks Angel’s hand away, commanding him to “get away from [her]”. Buffy’s look of utter horror as she finally sees the man behind the mask. Had I not been spoilt as to Twilight’s identity already, it would’ve been so much more rewarding to go through that with Buffy.

My only minor quibbles are his renditions of Faith and Angel. Jeanty has shown in the past that he draws an amazing Faith, but in this issue, as well as the last, she’s not been drawn in a flattering light at all. One could argue that she’s a little rough around the edges from the wear-and-tear, but when has Faith never looked good? Even when covered with battle wounds that would shame Beowulf. Jeanty’s Angel is a little inconsistent, but the learning curve is quite impressive. While the close-up of his mug is a little off, the later panels indicate that Jeanty seemed to get more comfortable drawing him.

Michelle Madsen continues to complement the overall product, once again switching palettes in order to convey the general mood of each scene; e.g. warm and bright for the Buffy/Xander pep-talk, and cold and menacing for Twilight’s HQ.

Writing: This has been the issue that we’ve all been waiting for. Heck, if the leak hadn’t happened earlier this year, it would’ve been even bigger. As it is, internet chatter is going nuts, with more pages of forum discussion per hour than I’ve seen in a long time. In fact, the last time I saw so much heated discussion go on was when the covers for #34 leaked. It’s a controversial issue, and I doubt that wasn’t expected at all. How this will all pan out remains to be seen, so there are some loose ends still dangling for now. Oh, and a quick note, I’m going to be using “Angel” and “Twilight” interchangeably, as it best suits the context.

How does Meltzer hold up? Up to the reveal, the writing and pacing is solid. We learn several things that are so artfully placed in dialogue that the exposition never clips the pacing at all. As it turns out, Twilight’s HQ is hidden three seconds in the future (what that really means beats me, but I guess it explains its elusiveness). There is an interesting exchange between Warren and the General (“My H.Q.! It was my genius that built it! And for Twilight to think he can steal it from me --!” “Relax, soldier. We’ll be back on track soon enough”) hints that the three exiles (or at least two of them) may not entirely be on the level, as Dawn points out.

More interestingly, Meltzer preps the stage for the next issue, which according to an interview with Newsarama, is “where the Buffyverse mythology really comes into play”. There are several foreboding hints as to what this new twist will be. According to Scott Allie in a Buffyfest interview, "Giles explains the secret history of vampires and slayers."

This is heavily hinted at in several places, the first being Giles recognition of Twilight’s abilities sounding extremely familiar. Apparently Giles has been withholding information that will explain what Buffy’s become. Once again, it’s hinted that Buffy is a child of prophecy, with Twilight saying: “Every Watcher wonders if his Slayer might be the girl… and you’ve had more reason than any. […] I figured with all your recent jaunts… to England… to Germany… I thought they all knew what you were really looking for. But now, thanks to your silence – she has no idea what she’s become.” Later, in response to Andrew’s enthusiastic cheering on of Buffy, Giles responds with a foreboding “No. Not this time. Regardless of what Buffy does – there is no winning.”

So that’s up to the big reveal. What about after that? Well, this is the bit that gets a little difficult to judge, since everything’s just kinda crazy at the moment. Some things just don’t seem to add up, and this could either be attributed to bad writing (I hope not!) or ignorance on the part of the readers. As Scott Allie has said at least twice now, Twilight’s plan will only truly become clear after reading #35. So I’ll hold off on deciding whether it’s the case of the former or latter for now.

So what is it exactly that Buffy’s become? According to Angel, Willow was mistaken, and that Buffy’s power, like his “has nothing to do with the other Slayers”, and that what’s happening to them “is what [they’ve] been waiting for. What [they] earned. What [they] need.” Vague at best.

Where things don’t seem to add up is the difference in Angel’s attitude. Before the reveal, he’s pretty much a dick, joking about which of his three captives wants to die first. He beats Faith up pretty badly, and is in the process of threatening Andrew when Buffy crashes the party (literally), and takes him on in an aerial battle. It’s then that he switches over to Earnest Angel, spilling his guts to her, explaining how he hadn’t been trying to kill anyone, but rather his agenda was to distract the world’s governments and demons, keeping the body count as low as he could while he pushed Buffy into becoming what she’s become. That’s where things get a little shadier. From the hints so far, what Buffy’s become may not necessarily be good, so if Angel was pushing her towards that, then that makes him two shades darker.

He then appeals to her, telling her that the feeling in her gut isn’t “just rage, or confusion – and for once, it’s not even guilt”. What she’s apparently feeling is him. Them. Together. Their bodies glow whenever they’re close because it’s “joy” that they feel. Buffy feels it, and knows that he’s “right” (not that he's necessarily in the right or anything, but rather, to her, it's apparent that he's at least correct about what she feels). Coupled with the glowiness, it does sound more than a tad mystical, and possibly not entirely voluntary, if she were in the right mind. It ends with a kiss, or does it? An interesting tidbit to note, Willow seems to have a pretty good idea of what Buffy’s doing, despite the fact that she can’t see her, possibly alluding to their connection in the mode of “TLWH” Pt. IV.

So where does that ultimately leave us? It’s a damn exciting issue, for better or worse. It places us right in the middle of the arc, and there’s more drama ahead. How the rest of the Scoobies will react remains to be seen, but if that variant cover for #35 is to be taken literally, Buffy’s not going to be happy for a while. A lot is riding on this arc, and on a technical level, Meltzer hasn’t disappointed yet.

We’ll see.

Buffy Season 8 #32

2010-02-03T21:57:00.000-06:00

The nitty-gritty: The subtitle says it best: “Buffy has F#©$ing Superpowers”. Really. While Buffy and Xander try to determine the extent of her newfound abilities, Willow embarks on a mission to find their missing comrades, and instead, unearths some unsettling truths about the origin on Buffy’s new powers. It’s good…

Art: Oh, this is good. Like real good. Like “bloody-hell-is-this-amount-of-good-sustainable-to-the-end?!” good. Jeanty manages to draw every single panel with so much life and vigor that it’s hard to not feel as though the characters are really animated. Jeanty draws some of his best Willow panels yet; the sequences where she finds the dead/dying Slayers all over the world show us his grasp of Willow’s facial expressions as she goes from queasy to horrified at the brutal
global massacre of Slayers. The storyteller in Jeanty is full-steam here, effectively conveying the action and setting of each sequence with a nimble repertoire of wideshots and close-ups where appropriate. My only real gripe with the art are the couple of panels with stick figure-ish characters, as well as that one depiction of Faith lying on the ground. While I’ll usually defend Jeanty against accusations of “infantilization” of the female characters, she actually does look like a small child there..

On top of the pop-culture references made in the script, Jeanty manages to squeeze in a couple of his own. Buffy’s outfit is an homage to Jenny, from Dr. Who, while the variant cover image heavily references the cover to Action Comics #1.

Writing: 2010 is looking up for Season 8! We got a strong start with the Joss-penned “Turbulence” last month, and Brad Meltzer’s opening chapter is quite fantastically written. This was an issue that did exposition the right way. It grabbed you by whatever bits you available and took you for a ride. Meltzer covered the gamut of emotional responses, from the light-hearted pop-culture-saturated opening sequences to the drama of Willow’s horrifying discoveries. Xander testing the usual stable of superhero powers on Buffy was funny, as were the responses from Dawn and Amy, when they finally figured out what Xander and Buffy were doing. Even better yet were the meta-humor moments. The first being Willow's "It doesn't mean that every month -- on every Wednesday -- it has to be the end of the world". It calls back Buffy's "Must be Tuesday" comment about Dawn being kidnapped in "OMWF". The second self-referential bit is pretty much Buffy denying the appeal of her own existence in response to Xander's description of Kitty Pryde.

In a break from the drawn out plot progression that Season 8 has been notorious for, this issue actually addresses the emergence of Buffy’s newfound powers very quickly. We learn the origin of Buffy’s new abilities from Willow, after her horrifying tour of the global massacre of Slayers. As it turns out, Twilight has mobs of marauding murderers killing Slayers all over the world (a shout-out to Kuala Lumpur, my hometown! WOOT!), and Buffy is the receptacle of all the power from dead Slayers, including the ones who died in battle in Tibet. This is a poignant twist on a couple of levels. It’s a direct contrast to all the superhero jokes earlier, as Buffy realizes that her growing powers are no laughing matter as they come at a hefty price. What remains to be seen is if this was something that had been happening for a while now, but in gradual amounts, and the sudden decimation of the Slayer population just gave her a very big boost, or if something else triggered this new development. Meltzer handles all this exposition deftly, switching effectively between Buffy’s exploration of her new powers with Willow’s discovery of the dark truth behind those powers.

That said, there are a couple of minor quibbles in terms of the writing. For one, the “fraptions” are quite unnecessary. They don’t seem to quite fit, especially since they originate from Andrew, who’s pretty much lying knocked out for more of the issue anyway. While it’s a cute superhero reference, it really doesn’t add anything here at all, and it just seems like too much being attempted all at once. For another, the confusion spell mentioned in “Turbulence” just seems to make things a lot more confusing for the reader. Apparently, a confusion spell was cast during the war, so that no one would notice that a few important characters had been taken hostage. However, the captives seem to have memories of being at the new camp, the one which Willow “magicked” them to. And Satsu and Willow seem to remember them being present post-war. At this point, it sounds like Faith, Giles, and Andrew could have been kidnapped post-war, without the need of the confusion spell. The spell doesn’t hurt, but it really doesn’t help either, so it just seems kinda unnecessary at the moment. The other thing that bugged me was why it was ever considered that Buffy’s new powers were some kind of karmic reward for defeating the three goddesses. Buffy defeated the goddesses with the help of her new powers. Reward typically comes AFTER the deed. Final gripe (I swear!), Faith was… kinda off. If there was a character that just came off as kinda strange, it would be Faith, with her ‘roid rage and all.

Thoughts: So… “The Monkey’s Paw”. Kinda macabre little story by W.W. Jacobs. It’s basically a cautionary tale about being careful for what you wish for as you may just get it, albeit in a manner that was neither expected, nor desired. You can read the whole story HERE (it’s really short), or read the Wiki page HERE. Basically, a family is kinda destroyed because of an imprudent wish. The monkey’s paw grants three wishes to three people. It has passed through the first two owners to the current owners. The father wishes for 200 pounds. The very next day, the son is killed in a work-related accident, and as compensation, the family is given 200 pounds. After the funeral, the mother of the deceased boy decides that she will get her husband to wish her son back to life. He does, but regrets doing so as he knows that his son was pretty much shredded in the accident, and being dead for days now, would be quite a sight to behold. Just as his wife opens the door, the man makes his final wish, and wishes his son back to death. Interestingly, if you click on the List of adaptations of The Monkey’s Paw, the BtVS episode where Dawn tries to resurrect Joyce is listed (5x17: "Forever"). Therefore, it’s fitting that it’s Dawn who’s the voice of reason here. She understands that nothing ever comes for free, and that “you don’t get the good without getting the curse”. That proves to be true here, as Buffy’s new awesome superpowers come at the cost of dead Slayers strewn all over the world. And she’s still getting stronger. As Willow notes: “You’re getting faster.” More troubling yet, the apparent moral of the “The Monkey’s Paw” lies in the factsheet that accompanies the merchandise, that it was enchanted by a holy man, who “wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow". This sounds very reminiscent of Angel’s words to Buffy in her “dream” in #20: “You can’t change a person’s past. And just by telling them, you’ll change their future into who knows what.” Was #20 foreshadowing of sorts? Perhaps.

What remains to be seen is if Twilight knows that Buffy is getting stronger with every dead Slayer, and if it’s part of his master plan. If he knows that Buffy is getting stronger with every Slayer he kills, then why does he want her so juiced up? And if he doesn’t, will this be his downfall? And what the hell is his master plan? I guess we’ll find out next month in “Twilight Part Two: The Master Plan”. Speaking of master plans, where the heck do the three outcasts stand in this grand scheme. Are they on the level, or is this a lure to get Buffy into some deathtrap of sorts? I mean, Warren did build that ridiculous “death trap” machine thingamajig.

Overall: Great issue. Just nigh on perfect, barring the minor quibbles. However, it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about an arc, and this one got off to a good start. Now, if Brad really delivers on the next 3 issues, and Joss really brings it for his finale, Season 8 will be saved from mediocrity.

Buffy Season 8 #31

2010-01-26T00:58:00.000-06:00

The nitty gritty: The war is currently at a standstill. The goddesses are still rampaging their way through Tibet, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake. Meanwhile, Buffy has new superpowers that she’s hiding from the crew. Where do we go from here? SWOOSH! WHAK! WHOOP!

Art: First thing to note, it’s pretty damn neat. Second thing to note, this would technically be a rush job of sorts, since Joss’ script was actually late in coming in, and Jeanty had to go from working on the “Twilight” arc to doing this. It may not be his best work to date, but it’s pretty solid throughout. Jeanty is clearly in his element here, drawing an intimate issue after the large-scale scope of the previous couple of issues. He absolutely nails the conversation between Buffy and Xander. Panel after panel of the two talking is conveyed with great attention to their facial expressions and body language. Everything is tenderly wrought, and plays out beautifully. The tenderness and nuance seen here is second only to their moment in #28 (which, IMO, was Jeanty’s best work of 2009).

On another note, I’m absolutely adoring Buffy’s sleeveless military-inspired vest. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Buffy in a cute outfit, so this just feels “right”. Also… probably good to note that he’s put Dawn back in outfits with numbers on them.

Writing: This is Joss. It’s so Joss. It’s so good to have him back at the helm again, for the second time in a couple of months. Whereas the writing in “Retreat” oft times felt a little off, Joss returns the series to grace by nailing every line. From the banter about the “Andrews Sisters” to the aforementioned sensitive dialogue between Xander and Buffy, everything just feels so effortlessly (deceiving, I know) Buffy. The conversation is written with wonderful sensitivity, even when Buffy is ribbing Xander about being a “disgusting paedophile” or a “cradle robber”. The meat of the discussion shows us how much Xander has matured over the years, shown by the way he deals with Buffy’s confession of her feelings for him. It would have been easy for this scene to go all melodrama on the reader, but Joss reigns it in just enough that we’re treated to another tenderly-written (tender is the word I intend to abuse for the sole purpose of writing this review) scene between Xander and Buffy. Xander is assertive without being condescending, despite the fact that he points out that Buffy “went – through gay – to [him]”. Buffy on the other hand doesn’t come off as “the worst person in the universe”, despite her assertion that she is. Being Joss, he even manages to throw in a little Twilight foreshadowing (and Twilight reference) at the beginning of the conversation, by having Xander mention that he was always Team Riley because he was her only “boyfriend who wasn’t a psychotic demon”.

As this is also a bridging issue between “Retreat” and the upcoming “Twilight”, Joss does deal with a few loose ends. Early on in the issue, Willow regains her powers from what she claims is the “fallout from some cataclysmic mystical event” that “hasn’t happened yet”. This isn’t the first time that Willow has demonstrated a sense of nonlinear time. The first instance of this was in “Anywhere But Here”, and it was implicit in her explanation about how the temporal anomaly worked in “ToYL”. More importantly, Willow’s magic returns to her in an explosion of yellow-green crackling energy. It would appear that the possible source of Willow’s returned magic is her death in the distant future, since her death was marked by similar crackling energy. If that is so, then it’s only fitting that Joss wrote this issue himself, as his last foray into the numbered issues of the season was in “ToYL”, in which he set up what I currently think are the game-changing events. For him to start paying off the seeds he had sown is rather poetic.

This of course has major implications for the Buffyverse. Willow somehow survives the magical purge, and becomes something not quite human. Her youthful visage some 200+ years into the future would suggest immortality. The cataclysmic explosion caused by her death would also indicate that although FDW didn’t have much magic per se, her entire self was magical. But is Willow merely a victim of fate here? I would argue that she isn’t. Willow has never been the fatalistic one, and if she had a mantra, it would be Sarah Connor’s “No future but what we make”. Against all odds, she brought her best friend back from the dead. Despite knowing what she knows about the laws governing death, she demanded that the gods return Tara to her. And in the Willow one-shot, she notes that her path is “where none’s beaten”. So no, Willow is not a victim of fate. She chooses her own path and her destiny. Willow is also highly intelligent. At the end of “ToYL”, Buffy says the following: “I’m cute and blonde and popular but I’m not stupid, Will. You dragged me here and then told me exactly how to get out. Everything, every lie, to get us here.” Why the deliberate positioning? Did Willow find a way to cheat fate again? If her death really is the game-changer, then the cataclysmic event allows present-Willow to regain her powers. Where this takes us is still anybody’s guess. Does Willow regaining her magic in the present help avert, or bring about the future with the magical purge? If it averts Fray’s future, does that mean that that particular future is now an alternate timeline?

Switching gears again, it’s important to note that Willow, even when fully powered is unable to handle the three goddesses, and suffers multiple punts from them. In his usual irreverent mood, Joss dispatches with the three goddesses in the simplest way possible: brute strength. Buffy deals with them the way Joss has often dealt with pesky plot devices: jam them into a hole. Willow believes that burying the goddesses will restore the Slayers’ powers. That remains to be seen. Buffy’s mysterious new powers, on the other hand… I can’t wait to finally understand what’s up with that. Willow doesn’t believe that it’s from the same event that empowered her.

An interesting tidbit: Buffy’s coming out as a Slayer was generally taken to be a metaphor for coming out of the closet. Joss revisits that here, when Buffy says: “It involves something I don’t really understand. That, honestly, freaks me out, and I was hoping not to mention”. Kennedy’s response is “You’re a dyke”. Can’t blame a girl for being on the nose.

On the Twilight front, he currently has an undisclosed number of Slayers, as well as Faith, Giles, and Andrew captive. A confusion spell is keeping anyone from missing them, but it’s a short term tactic to buy time. It seems that Twilight has something he wants Buffy to see, “if she is able to see at all”. I’m just thankful that all the cryptic language will come to an end soon, and we’ll finally be able to see Season 8 in its entirety and make sense of it all.

Overall: This was quite an issue. Deceptively simple and linear, but with some things to mull over. More will become evident soon.

Willow one-shot: "Goddesses and Monsters"

2009-12-28T15:56:00.000-06:00

The nitty-gritty of it: It’s a quick foray that details some of what happened during Willow’s magical walkabout, pre-S8. More specifically, it details the choices made that led Willow into the scaly embrace of one Saga Vasuki, more familiarly known as Aluwyn.

Art: Karl Moline continues with his quirky linework. Which of course means that physical likenesses are somewhat of an afterthought here. That’s not to say that he never succeeds in getting the faces right (the main panel of Tara is a pretty good likeness and some of the close-up panels of Willow are ridiculously good). Willow generally looks caricature-ish, but he does nail her essence. The same can be said about Moline’s Kennedy, who does bear some resemblance to Iyari Limon, but it’s her mannerisms that he nails. Moline’s strength lies in his ability to convey a dynamic scene, and he excels at it here. There are no stagnant panels, from the faux-Harry Potter-esue opening right until the little back and forth between Willow and Aluwyn. That’s the good. The bad. Well, Moline is notoriously uneven with even the main characters. Willow goes from looking like a Peanuts character to a Betty Boop caricature of Summer Glau in the space of one panel. And that closing panel of Willow was just strangely not Moline-ish at all. Moline’s style is also a lot less subtle than what I’d generally prefer, with his expressions generally appearing rather exaggerated, instead of nuanced.

Writing: It’s been too long since Joss had a turn at his own creation. And it’s a welcome return. Once again, Joss infuses a tale about a character’s hubris with whimsy, drama, and tragedy. This isn’t a guided tour of Willow’s walkabout insofar as it details the choices, desires, and emotions of Willow, leading to her literal entanglement with Aluwyn. In short, the journey is not spatial per se, but rather, “within”. On the surface, it may seem that the issue just simply raises more questions than it actually answers. However, it answers the most important question of all: Why did Willow get entangled with Aluwyn? The answer is of course simple: She does it because she’s Willow. She will walk the path less traveled and chart her own path. Her pride and intellect are her best traits, but in the trope of all tragic heroes, they’re also her tragic flaw.

In a poignant moment, Willow dashes the hopes of Tillow shippers by finally saying a goodbye of sorts. She admits the truth; that she had lied about her actual motivations for the walkabout. It wasn’t just about understanding her power, or learning her fate. Underneath it all, she “wanted” and “hoped” for Tara. But seeing Tara, Willow realizes that Tara “was [her] journey”, but that part was completed. She now has to move forward, and that new journey involves Kennedy. Perhaps it’s also telling that the number of Elementals gets pared down as Willow comes closer to her truth. When Willow first meets them, at least twelve are visible: evanescence (gas), fate (mysterious, with the book), agelessness (the tree), beauty (the double-faced floral), the wild (the furry lady), logic (math), passion (fire), mutability (water), justice (blind-folded with the scales), destruction (the Kali-esque goddess figure), perception (the Picasso-esque one), and energy (the lightning bolt). In the end, only three feature prominently. The wild, logic, and water (incidentally the most mutable element; it’s found in all three phases, solid, liquid, and gas) are probably the most descriptive of Willow as it speaks of her raw potential, the control she exercises over her power, as well as the fury that she can unleash.

More subtly, the mutability of water (its ability to cycle between phases) is a nod towards the ouroboros, the serpent that consumes itself. This is what Willow refers to Aluwyn as at one point (“That you run in circles, the snake that eats its tail”). What is interesting is that the ouroboros is a symbol of cyclicality, self-renewal, unity, and in a way, immortality. The duality of existence that Aluwyn refers to – how “order” and “chaos” are “intertwined like lovers. As if the universes don’t depend on both.” – reflects the unity represented by the ouroboros. The subject of Willow’s immortality is front and center in this tale, mentioned at least twice in the text (“’Cause you’re a goddess” and “See about re: goddess”) and once in the solicitation for the issue. It’s perhaps no coincidence then, that mortality/immortality was brought up in an issue in which the concept of the ouroboros is brought up several times, both explicitly and implicitly. The solicitation itself brings up the number of times that Willow has reinvented herself, changing, maturing, and renewing herself. Through Aluwyn, Willow seeks to grow again, to learn about her power, perhaps learn more. Immortality is about persistence, and in nature, things that persist are often things that adapt well to their surroundings. Thus, mutability allows one to survive the test of time.

Aluwyn's comment about how "chaos" and "order" are intertwined is also an oblique reference to the title of this one-shot. There is no order unless there is chaos, and so there can be no gods (or goddesses) without monsters. However, there are no clear lines dividing the monsters from goddesses here. As is the case for many deities, goddesses can have monstrous facets. The protector of one is the demon destroyer of another. Willow seems to recognize this false dichotomy when she says: "And for truth, I choose the trickster."

In a way, the writing of this issue is satirical, in that Willow’s want to get to the core of the matter (the “story”, specifically) is foiled by the “loop”. The adult-contemporary pop iPod rotation, the old tropes, the games. It’s all to get her to tread the expected path (fan expectation). Instead, Willow (and Joss) does the opposite, by renouncing the false premises, and braves the path “where none’s beaten”.

Overall: A (the writing definitely pushed the grade up)

Damn...

2009-12-19T14:46:00.000-06:00

Well... I finally started up a separate blog to post my reviews and thoughts on anything Joss Whedon-ish in nature.
As you may be able to tell, it's mostly Buffy Season 8 stuff, but I'll get around to transferring the few ANGEL: "After the Fall" reviews I wrote, and perhaps one day finish them off. I will say this now, I've quit buying the ANGEL books for now. I entirely skipped "Aftermath" because it was atrocious, and bought Issues #23 through 25, but for now, I'm done. I do NOT agree with the way that IDW is handling the license, and as I'm a firm believer of "less is more", especially if "more" means that the main story stagnates while a bunch of tangents are explored. I respect that IDW is a business. I just don't agree with their business philosophy. Like I don't believe in Wal-Mart's.

Also... Dollhouse reviews sound viable... but again, it'll all depend on how much time I can invest in this past-time of mine.

Buffy Season 8 #30

2009-12-19T14:40:00.001-06:00

Finally, the much anticipated #30. Overall, brilliantly conceived, but not so well executed. It’s still much improved from the somewhat dismal #29, though. Still in the middle of the war raging on in the Tibetan countryside, Buffy and Co. realize that the wrathful goddesses that they summoned earlier are very good at being wrathful and very destructive. Problem is, they’re on no one’s side, stomping, destroying, and killing indiscriminately.

Art: As in with most of “Retreat”, Jeanty’s blocking isn’t as good as it used to be. It may be attributed partly to the fact that he doesn’t enjoy drawing the war stuff. In general, though, the message is conveyed pretty clearly. Where there seems to be a problem with the art now lies predominantly with Madsen. Like in #29, her mud/dirt details just seem to be slapped on, with no real texture or grit. The same can be said about her camo work, which is pretty bad. But the biggest crime here lies in the Satsu/Kennedy confusion, simply because their outfits keep getting swapped.

First Kennedy is wearing the orange shirt. Presumably the same shirt she was wearing in #29. Then you see a girl wearing green pants and another wearing pink pants helping flip over the overturned jeep. The one in pink is presumably Kennedy, since she was last seen wearing pink pants. The girl in the pink hops into the jeep with Buffy and Willow. However, the driver looks very much like Satsu. Same hair, same features the way Jeanty draws Satsu from afar. Which would explain why Kennedy is with Faith, back in the temple. She’s the girl who asks, “Are we going to get our powers back?” But didn’t Kennedy hop into the jeep? Evidently not, because now the girl driving the jeep is wearing GREEN pants! But she’s wearing an orange shirt! Flashforward to Buffy’s speech, Kennedy is wearing an orange shirt, and Satsu a green one, and a chunky purple beaded necklace that’s never seen again. But Satsu is now wearing saffron yellow pants. While I understand costume changes, it’s kinda ridiculous for the characters to be changing clothes constantly, one time apparently in the jeep! If the likenesses weren’t so good, I would consider them unknown Slayers (but the quickie change in the jeep is still unforgivable… unless the girl wet herself).

That said, I really liked what Jeanty did with the scenes with the goddesses. Focusing on just their ankles as the jeep weaves its way through the battlefield is a good way to emphasize scale, as well as hide the goddesses’ privates. There’s also a sense of Jurassic Park-ness, with the jeep weaving around the giants. That said, Jeanty’s forte remains in his character work. The scene between Buffy and Riley is very well executed, as are the ones with Bay and Oz. Jeanty’s Buffy remains as expressive as ever; the shock and horror that registers on her face as she realizes that the goddesses aren’t on their side is completely believable. The resolve on her face when she addresses her army is palpable. With a month off, here’s hoping that Jeanty can truly return to form for the next arc.

Writing: Much improved from the last issue, but with some issues to iron out. Espenson is simply not well-suited to the medium. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what gives that impression, but the writing is just clunky. Thematically, however, #30 works. The “WTF?!” moment that had been heavily anticipated and discussed can be summed up as such: "Oh, my god that's brilliant! And why didn't I see that coming?” Buffy is hit by a huge amount of magic from a powerful goddess. When she wakes up, she begins to float into the sky. Buffy’s flying and it's absolutely brilliant. Because Buffy's eventual ability to fly has been foreshadowed by Whedon this entire season. First, when she flies with Willow in “Anywhere But Here” and is too afraid to open her eyes. Next with Twilight in “A Beautiful Sunset” where she grits her teeth, bearing it because she must. Then we have her jumping off of flying cars in “Time of Your Life Part II”. Then as a flopping fish in “Retreat Part I”. Let’s also not slight her courage in leaping off a skyscraper in Tokyo to save Willow from Kumiko in “Wolves at the Gate Part IV”. She'd been progressing to this point of being able to deal with this power the entire season and no one saw it coming! It was all right there, laid out in front of us - the story had been building up to this point for a long time, but it still came as a complete shock.

The latest developments will probably play a part in how Buffy will be able to face Twilight. And it's such an awesome metaphor that only in giving away power, can one truly know power. It's like that saying, if you love someone, set them free. If they return to you, then your love is true. You cannot be caged by your love or your power - through being open, you can be connected to true power. There's a thread of transitive power underneath this entire season and it’s becoming quite apparent now. That perhaps after you've been given power you shouldn’t cling too tightly to it, but that you set it free so it may choose to return to you. If it's truly yours, it will return to you. And isn't that very Tibetan-style, only in letting go of everything can you truly know yourself and fully actualize. The Buddhist prayer of "letting go, always letting go" that will lead you to enlightenment.

Hughes' cover makes so much sense now. When Buffy was Called, Excalibur was forced into her hand. It was a burden to carry the sword or in Buffy's case, the shining stake. Another interesting parallel to note is that in many tellings, Excalibur is engraved on both sides; one side with the command “Take me up” and the other with “Cast me away”.

I've also gotta say that this new power is something I'm not sure will be unwelcome or perhaps gladly received. Buffy's been saying this arc how she's tired of standing over people. Well, now she's flying over them. It's an ever greater price to pay for great power, the disconnect between her and humanity. Flying in past was shown to leave her as a helpless pawn. Now, instead of her in another's power, she can fly on her own. And this gives Buffy something she's always wanted - freedom. That's what flying symbolizes to me. Physical strength symbolizes to me power. But flying has always seemed to strongly represent freedom. And this is what Buffy's wanted ever since her character was first introduced.   Buffy enjoys having power, but she's always wanted freedom. Being able to fly is perhaps a way for her to have a more balanced give and take with her powers. Because while flying does involve distance, there's also the joy of this perspective and the freedom and thrill of it.

A couple of other interesting things to note. It seems that the Summers women share a common intuition. Dawn, like Buffy realizes that the goddesses aren’t on their side either and calls for a retreat. It’s also interesting to note that there is a vague revisit of “The Long Way Home Part IV” in this issue. In “TLWH IV”, Buffy orders Satsu to go for the wound, unless people got stupid. It showed Buffy’s compassion then. Even in a dire moment, she still held to her creed as a protector, not killer. This compassion is evident again, when she orders her army to help all the injured, regardless of their affiliation. However, Satsu is forced to kill a sniper who was about to shoot Buffy. Guess he was stupid for trying to mess with Satsu’s girl…

Also, Riley is finally vindicated, or at least appears so in the revelation that he’s been working for Buffy all long. His motives for doing so remain unknown, as is the whereabouts of his wife. Ex-wife, perhaps? Dead wife? His giant Twilight sigil also seems to have faded, though I think that’s mostly an artist oversight.

All in all, a pretty satisfying end to a very uneven arc. But the promise of what’s to come is tantalizing.

~ Emmie and Xi

Buffy Season 8 #29

2009-12-19T14:37:00.000-06:00

And so we reach the penultimate chapter of Espenson’s arc. What happens? Twilight’s goons meet the depowered Slayers in a head-on battle, complete with MANPADS, Chinese assault rifles, and pretty much not a chance in hell for Team Buffy. “Yeah, I’m starting to think there’s a reason no one’s written a suspense novel where the conflict is wolves vs. tanks” pretty much sums it up.

Art: Kinda torn on this one. There are some panels of brilliant story-telling narrative, but it doesn’t quite hit the high notes of the previous issue. Part of the problem is presenting the scope of a battlefield. The strongest panels in the midst of all the chaos are the ones that focus on the character moments. Jeanty’s ability to tell the reader what exactly is going on in Buffy’s head is the highlight of the issue. And the couple of panels of Faith preparing to go into battle, when read with the context of the Buffy/Faith conversation in the previous issue really made me feel for Faith.

Things to pick out:
1. Andrew’s Union Jack jacket makes a comeback.
2. The Wiccan girl with the Mickey Mouse ear-hair is back. If you’ve no idea who I’m talking about, she’s in #1 in the first panel we see of Xander standing in the Scotland command center. She’s one of the two girls generating a glowing ball between them. She’s also seen in “ToYL”, in the panel where Rowena commands the Slayers to obliterate the snake-demon army.
3. The return of Buffy’s pigtails, albeit temporary.

Writing: After last month’s solid issue, Espenson’s script was quite disappointing this time around. The story moved along fine, and there was a fine mix of drama, action, and laughs, but the gripes are in the details. There are several instances of rather awkward dialogue transitions. For one, the transition between Oz asking Bay to hand him the baby, and Willow exclaiming “No! Don’t protect the baby!” is odd. Perhaps the art doesn’t quite translate the scene, but it doesn’t look like Oz is asking for the baby to protect him from Willow at all. The other instance is during the discussion about “noise” vs. something real. It’s a rather big leap to go from discussing RADAR to “Hey—the two of us – we never had magic.” I get what was being expressed, but it just seemed like a random outburst to me.

And again with the bloody inconsistency with the spelling of “magic/magick”! Yes, some have stated that “magics” is probably not acceptable, thus “magicks”, but why use “magickal” then when “magical” is wholly correct? Especially when the blurb on the inside cover uses “magical”. Editorial fail again?

Another thing is just the random waste of certain characters. Faith and Kennedy feature quite prominently in several scenes, and yet their lines are mostly throwaway ones that could’ve been given to just about any character. Faith, particularly, feels wasted, kinda like she was towards the end of S7, except even more so. The only scene in which she felt remotely consequential was in the scene where she prepares to go to battle. The Monroe sidestory just seems like a random addition now. I was hoping for something more substantial than just having werewolves help out in the battle. Speaking of editorial fails, why the hell in Monroe alive? Bay specifically mentions her regret for attacking him in #27 because it may have made him a martyr. Implying that she killed him. As in ripped out his throat. Monroe was shown lying on the ground with a ripped out throat, while his werewolf buddies skedaddled and left him behind. And yet he’s alive and well? And Andrew’s little special assignment… well that was an utter waste of yak hair since it didn’t come into play at all!

Final thoughts: Interesting that it’s implied that it is Buffy, not Willow, who unleashes the wrathful goddesses. In light of the solicitations for #31, her decision here will come back into play. However, to give credit where it’s due, it is Buffy who once again thinks outside the box for what seems to be a solution. It also seems that Buffy is now done “retreating” and is now going “full-throttle forward”.
Sidebar: Remati is the other name for Palden Lhamo, so whoever pointed that out over at Whedonesque was right. Funny thing is, only Remati (of the three goddesses mentioned) is usually considered wrathful. Vajrayogini is usually associated with “methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth (by transforming them into paths to enlightenment), and for transforming all mundane daily experiences into higher spiritual paths” (Wikipedia). Ekajati’s “ascribed powers are removing the fear of enemies, spreading joy and removing personal hindrances on the path to enlightenment. Ekajati is the protector of secret mantras and "as the mother of the mothers of all the Buddhas," represents ultimate unity” (Wikipedia). Now… Jeanty mentioned that Espenson had done a bunch of research on these goddesses, so I hope he’s not overselling her efforts here, and that her choice in goddesses will come into play soon, presumably in #31. Aside from Remati, the other goddesses play a role in assisting in the achieving of enlightenment, and Ekajati is supposed to represent the ultimate unity. Perhaps they can show Buffy the way to achieving a more holistic unity of Slayer and person…

~Xi

Buffy Season 8 #28

2009-12-19T14:36:00.000-06:00

Part 3 of Espenson’s “Retreat” arc… and I think we’ve finally struck gold. All-around gold, but there will be plenty of praise for the key players. What do we have here? Basically the calm before the storm. With the exposition that was #27 out of the way, we’re now able to get down to the single element that makes the Buffyverse so compelling: i.e. the human aspect.

Art: Jeanty provides us with some of his strongest pencils since “A Beautiful Sunset”. There is a sense of motion throughout, and his likenesses are pretty consistently strong. This being an Andrew-centric issue (most of the issue unfolds from Andrew’s perspective behind a video camera), Jeanty is particularly good at Andrew. But his characters don’t just look good, they “act” like the characters would on screen. The tenderness in the scene where Xander is examining Buffy’s hand is palpable, and Buffy’s face when she says, “You think? I can feel more now” expresses just the perfect mixture of trepidation and insecurity. What follows is a wonderful blend of child-like content, punctuated with longing. The moment just plays on perfectly, and because of the detail to little character ticks, it all feels alive and yanks at your heartstrings. What’s even niftier is how upon rereading the comic, seemingly inconsequential things add more to the scene. Amy the cat, can be seen hovering in many of the panels, but my personal favorite (see if you can detect my bias) is when the cat scares away the little puppy in the Willow/Oz scene. Cats are evil… it’s official now!

An obvious difference between the last issue and this one is how the clever pairing up of characters has significantly reduced the strain of having multiple characters clutter up a scene. As a result, there are a lot less wideshots, and many more close-ups, which is fitting, since the focus here is on trust and connection between the characters.

Madsen should be commended again for her atmospheric colors. In moments of openness and honesty, we get her usual bright, saturated palette. Scenes that contain distrust are oftentimes, for the lack of a better word, shady. This is most obviously seen in the Andrew/Giles scenes. It is also perhaps symbolic that when Willow is about to leave Oz in the room, she’s exiting a space of brightness, and about to step into the dark. Oz’s renewal of her faith keeps her in the happy place.

Pop culture note: Aside from Andrew’s Bobba Fett hoodie, a couple other Dark Horse franchises make guest appearances. In the panel where Andrew is rummaging through his stuff to find the video cam, Hellboy and an Alien figure can clearly be seen. Also, Sesame Street’s Count is clearly seen on Buffy’s t-shirt during her bonding session with Faith.

The art is nuanced, quirky and delightful with an incredible attention to detail that only raises the standard of strong characterization. (Faith’s disappearing tattoo notwithstanding. Maybe she’s just following Angel’s example on the path to redemption. Step one – stop killing people. Step two – remove tats.)

Writing: Jane Espenson delivers a ridiculously dense and multi-layered script that actually translates beautifully, unlike her previous work in “Harmonic Divergence”. In what is proving to be a game-changing arc, Espenson successfully expounds on what was meant by letting the power through you into the earth, as well as establish some key character moments.

Slayers aren't repressing their powers, but letting the energy flow through them and back into the Earth. The “poison” is bottled up in supernatural human beings, like the Slayers and Willow. It's not repressing power, but letting go of power. But the question remains: what is the source of this power and is it inherent to a person? Is letting go of power perhaps letting go a bit of their identity? This is what Willow fears, but Oz reassures her that she's still Willow Rosenberg without the magic, assuring her that she “can be done”, that she too can have a life, something which Willow resents him for having.

This desire to let go ignores the fact that the world is in danger of being destroyed every May (if not several times a year). The power that Willow sought and now struggles to let go of was something she chose. She chose to arm herself with this power in order to help Buffy fight the demons and save the world. Just as the power consumed her once before during her dark arc, here too we see the negative consequences of her choice to fight alongside Buffy – she feels she cannot have a family or a normal life.

Power, by its nature, is not evil. Having power doesn’t define you; how you use your power defines who you are. You are what you do, but your power is the tool you use. It’s a puzzling and panicked logic that leads to the Slayers feeling "weak,” having let go of their power, and leaving themselves vulnerable to Twilight coming with all kinds of pointy and explosive weapons.

It is perhaps telling that the most vocal “malcontents” are our three lesbians: the witch who granted the Slayers their power, and the two Slayers who have most ardently embraced their power. Perhaps hiding who you really are and turning the other way may not be the best solution. Kennedy sums this up best: “It’s bull$#@&.” Is this just merely a moment of weakness? Faith makes it seem so: “It got to me. What we had to do. What I had to do. I’m not strong enough to have to be that strong.”
.
Where will this lesson lead? Will it be another Helpless where the Slayers are without their powers and instead rely on their wits to defeat their enemy? Perhaps in realizing that they don't need their powers to survive, they'll realize that the power isn't who they are, but what they use to become who they choose to be. Just as a person would go to medical school to become a doctor, arming themselves with this knowledge, so too will a warrior arm themselves with weapons to fight.

This issue also puts into perspective the criticism that #26 felt too rushed and jam-packed. Deliberately so. Here we have the very literal slow-down effect. The world slips away and the characters are finally interacting on a deeper level. Connection. The frantic pace of #26 retreats into the flashbacks and exposition of #27 and the promise of a solution. We see this potential realization of a life without magic and what it brings - deeper connection, something Buffy’s been desperate to feel for a long time (“Connection. Why can’t I feel it?” – “A Beautiful Sunset”).

This deeper connection doesn't come consequence-free. Feeling more, besides the ability to feel happy, means you're more vulnerable to pain, both emotional and physical. Buffy gets this one-two punch at the close of the issue, first witnessing Xander and Dawn's romantic liplock just as she was seeking out that deeper connection with him, then leading to Twilight's army discovering their location. The battle is imminent. Will their defenses be enough without magic and Slayer powers? Doubtful. Which means more emotional and physical pain is coming. And that’s where a Slayer lives and breathes.

What’s next? Warriors, by their nature, don’t retreat for good. They retreat in order to rally for the next battle to come. The Slayers may have laid down their power and with it their most powerful weapons, but not for long.

It’s interesting to have the issue about rooting out the truth told by Andrew, the one whose looser grip on reality has been called into question in the past. Now it’s Andrew who is questioning everyone’s loyalty and consequently becoming a less likely suspect – reestablishing and betraying trust. This happens repeatedly through the issue. First, with Buffy and Faith bonding over the need to rest and be normal segueing to the intimate scene between Xander and Dawn who talk around what they’re really trying to say. Flirting with the topic and each other, much? Then Xander and Buffy connect and share the secret of what happened to Willow in the future – their trust in each other having never been stronger or more intimate. This revealed secret leads to Andrew questioning Giles, then Giles questioning Willow. This loss of trust in Willow is restored with serene faith from Oz when he hands over his son, Kelden, into Willow’s hands. More trust in Willow follows with Buffy’s confession of killing her in the future and Willow’s immediate trust in herself that everything will be okay and she’ll work harder at the “no-magic thing.”

The Scooby Core is strong in this moment, Xander’s trust in Buffy leading to Buffy’s trust in Willow and Willow’s bolstered trust in herself thanks to Oz reverberating back down the line. Buffy seeks to complete this circle, going to Xander to tell him how her conversation with Willow went as he’d made her promise and here comes the final betrayal of trust – Buffy walks in to find Xander and Dawn together, kissing. Her best friend, one of the “people that [she] loves[s]” and might have started thinking about in a more intimate way, and her sister, who represents all the normal that Buffy wants in her own life. Buffy’s expression, shock and hurt and “feel[ing] more”, fades back into her stoic general’s persona. The cycle of trust is stymied, but not yet broken.

~Emmie and Xi

Georges Jeanty's 3rd Buffy Sketch Book

2009-12-19T14:35:00.002-06:00

Received an e-mail last week from Jeanty announcing the upcoming release of his 3rd Buffy sketchbook. Release date is September 4th, 2009, and the books can be purchased either from Jeanty's website, or picked up at DragonCon this year. Volume 3 will collect the "Wolves at the Gate" arc, and presumably also collect "A Beautiful Sunset". For those not in the know, these books are filled with sketches, thumbnails, conceptual drawings, and the like. But more interestingly, they contain Jeanty's commentary about his work and process, which offers a rather nice "behind-the-scenes" look at things.
They go for $20 a pop, and price is inclusive of an original head sketch by Jeanty.

Buffy Season 8 #27

2009-12-19T14:35:00.001-06:00

Part 2 of Jane Espenson's "Retreat" arc... pretty much what most second books in each arc is like: exposition. Nothing much really happens, beyond exposition and some build-up for the later parts of the arc, as well as the season. A few character moments here and there, but they're quiet small ones, not like the jeans of a Hannah Montana pre-teen with a Bedazzler.

Art: Fundamentally, this issue is all exposition, and this is true, even right down to the art. There are few close-ups of character faces, and those close-ups are usually of the secondary characters. Oz gets the most mug time, and Jeanty's pencils are pretty hit-or-miss here. There are panels where he nails the Oz-isms, but then you'll get the faraway shots that look like Andrew's been subbed in. Perhaps it's good that Oz and Andrew don't share face-time in this issue; the latter gets written off as the "womanly man" who's being made comfortable. Back to the point at hand: Most panels are busy, the curse of a large ensemble cast. There's just no way to detail everyone's faces to the liking of some fans, and Jeanty does his best by playing with perspective; characters closer get more detail than the ones set farther back. One note: Bay does bear a striking resemblance to Dichen Lachman... most panels of her are less detailed, but the one close-up of her smiling while narrating how she introduced Oz to the Bon religion is spot on.

Landscapes are amazing, and the detail is quite astounding. Madsen's colors add life to every page, reserving a warmer more vibrant palette for the Tibetan scenes, a sepia-tinged wash for the flashbacks, as well as a colder color scheme for the villains. Why she succeeds so well is because the colors don't fight for dominance with the pencils, but rather enhance them. Instead of aiming for photo-realism with the colors, Madsen's style meshes very well with Jeanty's more cartoony style, and results in what I find to be a more harmonious union.

Writing: The pace has slowed down some from the last issue, but Espenson keeps us moving along without too much slack. My only criticism of the writing is the placement of the scene where the guy points out the "spike". It's a single page, and it just broke the pace of Oz's exposition, since right after it, Oz continues. IMO, the scene in question should have been allowed to continue from the opening sequence, without losing any momentum. Since the scene ends with Twilight commanding the guy to "Pinpoint the location", opening the next scene with the location tag is still appropriate.

Other than that, Espenson's script delivers the funny without sacrificing plot. The introduction of Oz's baby was hilarious. Side note: The dog is extremely cute! Also, she manages to translate Oz's usually more taciturn character to page not so much by limiting his words (well, he's telling the story...) but by having Oz tell the story the way Oz would. Laid-back and unfazed, even when Giles is constantly pushing him to get to the point. And speaking of Oz, the Oz/Willow exchange was nicely handled, despite the space constraints, and the dialogue is about as Oz/Willow-ish as can be.

Couple of other things to note.
1. Twilight again references how well he knows Buffy.
2. While this is mere speculation, Riley seemed to play down the "spike". Trying to protect Buffy and Co. or genuine skepticism? Hmm...
3. Twilight's motives are actually called into question by "spike" guy when he says "I don't like this. If we're against magic, it seems so wrong..." in response to Amy's bone-casting-magic-locating spell.
4. Speaking of "magic", anyone else notice the inconsistency of the spelling of the damn word? It's spelled "magic" in the little blurb on the inside of the front cover too.
5. Willow is apparently powerful enough to mask a HUGE spell with another spell... just as Buffy predicted in the previous issue.

Buffy Season 8 #26

2009-12-19T14:34:00.000-06:00

Holy cow! After 6 months of low urgency, despite the intended purpose of the "Predators and Prey" arc, the adrenaline rush from just reading this issue has me all tingly still. It's 22-pages of non-stop chaos, illustrating exactly how bad things are, not just in terms of the attacks, but also the counter-attack schemes stacked up upon each other.

Writing: I was a little nervous at first, after reading "Harmonic Divergence". That clearly wasn't Jane Espenson's strongest work. This, however, had renewed my faith in her abilities. The voices are spot on, and the pacing of the story is pitch-perfect, allowing the characters to come through the madness. The only point of confusion would be how the real Warren knew what lies the First had been stuffing into Andrew's ears in the Season 6-7 interim. Unless, killing Jonathan to make themselves gods was something that Warren had talked about with Andrew in Season 6. Jonathan was the little black sheep of the Trio, so to make him the sacrificial lamb for their selfish schemes wouldn't be way over the top to believe. But otherwise, minor plot hole of sorts... The two pages of Buffy and Giles having a conversation about Willow and the events of "Time of Your Life" are amazingly reminiscent of their little chat in "Grave". The Buffy/Giles reconciliation is about as organic as the way they dealt with their animosity at the end of S7. Buffy's tearful hug when she sees Giles speaks louder than any number of pages of chit-chat can. She's missed him, and despite their fallout in "NFFY", he is important to her. Also, she probably now understands why he tried to keep her out of the whole Gigi affair, having dealt with Simone herself. Dealing with rogue Slayers, not the best feeling in the world, seeing as Buffy knows that she's the reason they have power in the first place. It's an organic enough transition, and the gravity of the season thus far finally sets in when Buffy again addresses the issue of where the Slayers stand in the cosmic balance, but this time, she's a little more on the nose when she asks Giles if the Slayers are really the bad guys. In other words, Twilight's plan is working marvelously as he has planted the seed of self-doubt in her, and now has her on the run. My guess is at the end of this arc, like many penultimate eps (or around there) so far, Buffy regains her faith (hmmm... metaphor?) in herself and goes back to being the Buffy in the closing panels of "TLWH".

Art: For the most part, rather glorious. The subtleties in so many of the panels is what makes Jeanty the perfect candidate to be carrying the bulk of Season 8, just like the tons of little references, and in-jokes in the TV show. There are no wasted panels at all. Even something as mundane as a panel with Willow and Kennedy snuggled in bed contains an interesting detail: look at the book on the nightstand. It's Wicked. I don't think the reference is lost on anyone there. I will admit, I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and the sequence of the invading army coming over the bridge just reminded me of the departing orc army as they leave Minas Morgul in The Return of the King. Another instance of unwasted panel space is the Wiccan girl who dies from a "brain-fry". In the panel where one of the Wicca girls yells "Second shield down!", you can see the other girl's face contorted in concentration, trying to keep the last shield up. Then you have the napalm explosion, and you see her dead, apparently from trying too hard. It's subtle details like this that make the art truly alive for me. Oh, and Georges... totally caught your own little bit of shameless self-promotion! If you've no idea what I'm talking about, check out Faith's shirt when she interrupts Buffy's chat with Giles. The hippo is Jeanty's logo/mascot.

It's been a while since I've commented on the letters and colors, but I'll just say that it's all very impressive work this month. The letters convey everything clearly, without being ostentatious, and the color scheme goes so well with the different moods. Madsen's mood lighting in the catacombs is perhaps only outdone in her consistently awesome colors in the battle sequences. She may not have the subtle command of light of Fabio Mantovani, but given Jeanty's slightly more cartoony style, her vibrant colors mesh well with the pencils.

All in all, big thumbs up.

Buffy Season 8 Tales of the Vampires: The Thrill

2009-12-19T14:33:00.001-06:00

First break of the year from the Season 8 story, but instead of taking a jaunt far away from it, this issue offers a complementary view of the world in the Bufyverse post-"Harmonic Divergence". Written by Becky Cloonan, it introduces the protagonist, Jacob ("Jay"), and the world he lives in (i.e. bored teen living in rural-ish suburban small New England town hell). What it does is it finally shows us two things that were quite sorely missed in the "Predators and Prey" arc of S8; how the general public are reacting towards vampires, as well as how Slayers are now social pariahs. Thoughts will follow in the appropriate section.

Art: It's not the best looking art out there, but strangely enough, I found it quite charming. It fits in quite well with the quirky stable of varying art styles of the previous Tales of the Vampires. However, allow me one MAJOR gripe. In the variant cover by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, the three vampires that beat Jacob up are shown to be reflected in the screen of the video game! Did someone miss the memo about how vampires in the Buffyverse don't reflect? They don't sparkle either, just FYI.
Anyway, moving on. Found the dream sequences to be quite brilliantly rendered. The shot of Alex's butt made me think of that "I Like Big Butts" song.

Loved the deliberate usage of red whenever Jay feeds. Stylistically, it just works.

Thoughts: While in general, this issue does explain why vampires are accepted (as long as they don't kill), there's nothing new there. We already knew this from "Harmonic Divergence". All the issue really does is ram home the point about the "symbiotic" relationship, though one could probably make a case for parasitism too. However, what I found unsatisfying is how it doesn't explore grounds other than the extreme; at least in this bored little town, everyone seems to be down with the vampires, whereas Slayers are considered to be outcasts. Even Jay's mom hardly reacts to her son joining the legions of the undead. Note the metaphor in the scene where she's slicing a pomegranate. Other than the fact that it's all red and juicy, it does bring to mind the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades, where Hades tricks Persephone into consuming pomegranate seeds in order to keep her as his queen of the Underworld. Because she doesn't consume them all, she spends part of the year with her mother, Demeter, the goddess of grain and fertility, during which the Earth is fertile (basically the explanation for seasonal change). It's an interesting metaphor for the themes of death and rebirth that are so intrinsic to so much vampire lore.

Another point to make I guess is the difference between the general population and Alex. While people are bored and getting their kicks by getting sucked on, thus indicating an appreciation for the supernatural, Alex echoes Buffy's old lamentation about never wanting to be a Slayer, and merely wanting a "normal life". Girl however gets screwed over twice here: first, when she didn't get a choice about being called as a Slayer, and secondly, when it's hinted that she would be sired anyway, even against her will, as Jay notes that it "isn't about her choice. It's about [his] choice".
I did like that we didn't get the portrayal of vampires as fuzzy cuddlies. In fact, Jay at one point considers killing his mother so that he could have the house to himself and May. It's a stark reminder that the Jay we see after being sired is merely a shell containing a ravening demon.

All in all, enjoyable read. Definitely a worthy addition to the Tales of the Vampires anthology.

Buffy Season 8 #25

2009-12-19T14:32:00.001-06:00

Okay... where to start? Hmmm... how about how much I loved this issue? Yeah, that's as good a place as any. This, and #22 have been the only two issues of the entire "Predators and Prey" arc that I've really liked. #21 was okay too, but the clunky start kinda robbed it.

Art: I guess there was a silver lining after all, in last month's hiatus from overall quality. The Richards' stinky art was coupled with Krueger's stinky writing. But it gave Jeanty time to do this, deliver art worthy to be compared to "WatG" again. The pencils are definitely some of the strongest I've seen in a while. And personally, I think Jeanty may have done his best SMG likeness to date in the panel right after Xander tells her Dawn's dirty li'l secret.

Inks and colors were good. Especially the colors. After last month's debacle... Madsen also returns to grace with this issue. The colors are nice and crisp, without any of that nasty green she used on the tentacled monster in #24.

Couple of little things I noted. One, Leah's shirt apparent gets shorter in the span of a few panels. The first panel we see her in (page 5), her sleeveless checked shirt reveals a teensy bit of midriff. The next page, you see that the shirt is now longer in the 2nd panel (and solid green), and by the third panel, it's checked again, but now, it's been Britney-fied! :) And then after the fight with the six vampires... Leah changes clothes into a lime green polo.I just thought it was funny that it's always Leah who gets the instant clothes/weapon change. See the battle royal in #15 for Leah's magical ability to switch weapons very quickly.

Writing: Doug Petrie returns the series to grace with some great writing. The wit, the wordplay, the pop-culture references (like real pop-culture references, not generic ones like that used in #24... I really am hating on #24). All there. And even better, some great lines between Dawn and Buffy. Xander gets some good ones too, but they're not as poignant, as it should be.

I find it hilarious that the "army" we were expecting consisted of six vampires, who were probably kinda drunk if they thought that it was a good idea to storm the Slayer fortress. Wonder if there were more of them (hence, "army") but the rest just came to their senses faster. That said, whoever has been feeding Slayer Org. intel really needs to cross-reference before sounding the alarm. I mean, Willy the Snitch was a wee bit more reliable than this. Six vampires... pfft!

Really liked how this issue wrapped up the Buffy/Dawn abandonment issues too, by giving us Buffy's side for why she's been ignoring Dawn's predicament. I'm glad to have Dawn back to normal. The thing with Kenny was actually quite sweet (he calls her "Dawnie" too), and I'm glad that they finally got to have that talk that should have come instead of the magical smiting. Or was that "magickal"? Seems that all Dawn had to do was apologize for what she did to free herself of her magical freakshow. Nifty.

One little aside: Wonder how Lorelahn and the rest of the forest peeps are gonna take the death of their buddy? I mean, did Buffy really break the truce? And then hurl the munchkin and kill him/it? The panel that shows him lying in a heap post-toss shows "X"s for eyes... usually a comic notation for dead. But how cool is it that Buffy actually speaks whatever crazy language the forest people do? Or at least understands it.

Now... two months before #26. But hey, "Tales of the Vampires" one-shot as a fill-in. Could be good...

Buffy Season 8 #24

2009-12-19T14:31:00.001-06:00

Dear lord, what a bloody let down. Let me just start by saying that this went completely against any expectation that I may have had. I'll be the first to say that I usually wouldn't hold that against anything... unless it was pretty awful. That said, let's jump into it shall we?

Plot: Faith and Giles accompany new Slayer, Courtney, across Germany to pay a visit to a mysterious place dubbed the "Slayer Sanctuary". There they discover that the sanctuary is actually a sacrificial ground for unwilling Slayers. Yes... it's quite nonsensical

Art: Meh. Actually, more along the lines of meh-gack! It started out meh, then went towards gack. The one area that Cliff Richards always seems to earn praise is in his likenesses. Personally, I've never cared too much for his likenesses (they were serviceable, but with no charisma), and unfortunately for this issue, the same gripe surfaces. His Faith and Giles are serviceable at best... they bear a remote resemblance to the actors. But capturing a character goes so much deeper than just capturing the bone structure and proportions of a character. To truly capture a likeness, the character has to "act" like the real thing. The quirks, the charms, the mannerisms, the posture. Richards' characters don't act. They stand about and fake it.

Nevermind that... his landscapes fake it too. What's with all the flying scraps of paper?! Seriously. Go count how many panels feature scraps of paper billowing in the wind. The Germany I remember was insanely clean! Or at least I didn't see scraps of paper everywhere. Onwards anyway... usage of space... not one of Richards' strong points either. His panels fail to evoke any sense of space... they're always so claustrophobic with everything just kinda crammed in there. There are no details, and large rooms are always featureless. An example would be the town library. Instead of showcasing the cavernous space, the lofted skylit ceiling, we get rows and rows of identically sized books. Even the shelves are boring. The floor hopelessly drab. And in many of the panels... nothing at all. Much like his cavernous space in #10 where Buffy and Willow meet the Andy Warhol demon. It all boils down to a lack of creativity. Or at least a failure to translate. It's like the first Tomb Raider game when you look up at the ceiling and see just black, instead of the ceiling or the sky.

And finally... hydra-hair. Enough said.

Writing: I was hoping that #21 ("Harmonic Divergence") would be the low point of the arc, or even the entire season. Too bad, I'm sad. Where this fails is where it makes its leading lady feel like a recurring guest star instead of taking us deeper into what makes Faith tick. Even though Faith is featured prominently in the issue, she really doesn't say or do much that means anything. That makes it an utter waste of space for me. An even greater waste is the complete non-existence of character chemistry between Faith and Giles as partners. In fact, the partnership seems to have disintegrated, with Giles being all stuffy and commanding, and Faith reduced to pouting and mouthing off.

The tone is somewhat reminiscent of "Gingerbread", complete with the German demons. The plot is kinda nonsensical, but not much more than "Gingerbread", and some of the wackier episodes of seasons past. The premise behind a Slayer Sanctuary is intriguing, and the twist is kinda wicked, but it just doesn't pay off. There's just a complete disconnect between Faith and the events that transpire. She's just not there. That's a great fault of the writing. Where is the connection between the Faith who's regretful (and quite a bit guilty, judging from the words spoken by the manifestation of her fear) about letting one of her first vampires go, the Faith that then kills the demon, and the Faith at the end?

Verdict: Quite utterly fail!

Buffy Season 8 #23

2009-12-19T14:30:00.001-06:00

The skinny: #23... gotta say, not as blown away by it as I had hoped to be. A big part of it is because it kinda suffers from middle-child syndrome. The writing isn't terribly imaginative, nor is it awful. It's just... average. And right now, I'm just really wanting to get to the climax of this pseudo-arc of sorts. And usually, we should be there by now... except for the whole "5-issue arc" deal. Pfft.

Art: Jeanty's work is on par with his previous good work here, no major gripes of any sort. But definitely not of the caliber of "A Beautiful Sunset". That one's hard to top. However, I will note that this issue was pretty heavy on the faraway less distinct style he has with characters. The detail isn't any more lacking than usual, and it works in the medium. I will however note that his landscapes are pretty detailed and well-thought out. He deftly captures the mood of the trashed Italian village, and his little touches like the graffiti are quite inspired. Little thing to note though... a mild inconsistency in the early scene in the control room. Xander is shown to be standing behind Buffy in two panels, and in the next, he's behind Willow. While one could argue that he merely moved, upon closer inspection, Buffy and Willow have switched positions too, swapping sides. It's not a big deal, but it is a minor inconsistency. All is forgiven for his well-executed action sequences though, particularly in the fight between Simone and Buffy. The sense of motion is clean and clear in its intent, and it's quite a joy to watch Buffy in fluid action. My two favorite series of panels are the ones of Buffy swinging on the chandelier, and the two wide panels of Buffy and Simone at a stalemate. The former for its depiction of fluid action, and the latter because of Jeanty's impressive command of camera angles - using the panels to "pan up/down". It's also throwaway symbolism for Buffy having the upper hand, and Simone not being afraid to fight dirty and almost literally hitting below the belt.

Writing: Drew Z. Greenberg does an adequate job of giving Andrew some great moments, but some of Andrew's lines miss the mark and sound rather forced. The nerd babble was hilarious, and the wide breadth of geek trivia that Andrew includes in his ramblings was fitting, but phrases like "Whaaaat uuuuuup!" just veer off-course. He does share some good moments with Buffy, and the dynamic between the two is not as I expected (i.e. geek bonding, Buffy's patience). In fact, their relationship culminates into a rather nicely written climax where Simone offers Buffy the option of walking away with the Ragna demon in exchange for Andrew. Turns out, Simone isn't very fond of her ex-Watcher and wants to hurt him. Buffy refuses on account of not walking away from "[her] people" because it's not "who [she] is".

The Andrew development is actually quite well done. While it may seem that his "I'm just one. The needs of the many outweigh the needs--" speech may seem to recall the old Andrew of "Storyteller", where everything is a canned speech from some piece of pop-culture, his actions at the end speak for themselves: he is truly sorry for the damage that he has done, and wants to make amends. He's not just putting in the hours of compiling data of the Ragna demon because it's his job, he's doing it because he feels sorry. Buffy acknowledgement that Andrew is now part of "the family" pretty much made his day, from the expression on his face in the final panel.

Finally, something that has been picked up on quite often, it seems. While superficially, Buffy abandonment of Simone and her Slayers after freeing the Ragna demon may echo the scene where Angel does nothing to stop Darla and Drusilla from massacring a roomful of Wolfram and Hart associates, I didn't read it as such. For one, it's quite explicit that Simone wants to hurt Andrew. I doubt she would have just let Buffy, Andrew, the Italian squad, as well as the civilians just walk away without some kind of fight. There is nothing to suggest that Simone was backing down; she was outnumbered, but not beaten. The only safe way to ensure a relatively safe retreat was to employ a diversion. Ragna demon = big diversion. Seventeen Slayers (Simone's sixteen plus herself) should be more than able to take on one Shelob-lite. While some girls may get hurt, it's a case of better them than us principle. Simone and Co. have defected from Slayer Inc. In short, they're no longer Buffy's "people". It's been shown time and again that Buffy puts her people over the fate of the others (i.e. trading the box of demon spiders for Willow, at the risk of allowing the Mayor's Ascension, leaving Ben alive when Dawn needed her more). It may not be her only MO, but it is one of them.

All in all, quite entertaining. Definitely better than #21.

Vampy Cat Play Friend

2009-12-19T14:29:00.001-06:00

Another comic tie-in for Buffy Season 8 over at Dark Horse Myspace Presents. Click here to collect the spoils. It's pretty freakin' awesome and cool!

Buffy Season 8 #22

2009-12-19T14:27:00.000-06:00

This issue has definitely rekindled my extremely high expectations (and usually, high opinion) of the series. While #21 left me a little cold (except for the thought exercise), this issue took off right from "Monster. Big &*&@ing monster".

Let's work our way from the superficial to the deeper, shall we? (careful... I'm beginning to sound like Andrew... must be the anticipation for #23).

Georges' art is bloody fantastic. His facial expressions convey the emotions without becoming too camp, which can't be said for many people. The guy's a great penciller with a cinematographer's eye, switching from close-ups to panoramic shots with such fluidity that it tells a story in itself. One minor gripe though... he always draws the same action poses. That bent leg kick that Kennedy delivers to Satsu's gut... it's the same one that Soledad used on Harmony, and unless I'm mistaken, it's the same kick used by the random Slayer on Gigi in #6. Or that caught-in-midair-in-a-somersault move that all the Slayers apparently do (check previous issues). It's not that big a deal, but I've got a photographic memory for certain details, and so the repeats get... repetitive (*sigh* not at my wittiest today). But minor... moving on. Oh, and a great plus-side... Kennedy's suspenders, a nod to her more quirky sense of style in S7. DeKnight's writing hits true and fast. What struck me about this issue is that even though it's only part of a larger picture, it does feel like it had a true beginning, middle, and end, and it all meshed together really well without feeling rushed and truncated. The writing... there's a degree of macabre humor here that was only hinted at in "Smile Time" over at AtS. And even then, there was less gore involved (the puppets were stuffed, not full of oozing organs), and the degree of organization was less... organized. I mean, talk about an issue loaded with humor that a biologist can appreciate. First, the giant Vampy Cat creature is composed of millions of Vampy Cats, just like a multicellular organism is composed of millions/billions of cells. The fact that the Vampy Cats are telepathic is even more suggestive of a neural network.

On to deeper thoughts. A friend and I were having a discussion a while back, about the significance of the closing sequence of "The Long Way Home", where Buffy accuses General Voll of not liking that a whole bunch of women now have power. Said friend argued that it was just a residual feminist kick from having dealt with the misogynistic preacher from S7, and stated that Voll quickly corrects her that it's not just men Buffy's standing against now, it's the whole of mankind. Which I conceded to be quite right, except that it would seem odd that given the precious commodity of word space, that something like Buffy's words wouldn't have been chosen with utmost care. In this issue, I think it's pretty clear that the issue partially lies in the fact that the Slayer organization is almost entirely female. First, there's Satsu's conservative garb in her brainwashed stupor, claiming that "girls should kiss boys and have their babies![...] instead of running around hitting people all the time[...] We should be ashamed of ourselves". All this while "impregnated" with the Vampy Cat (see another "Swell" connotation here?). Then, there's the bit about "We're nothing but a bunch of self-righteous little ovaries", which eerily echoes Voll's first comments about Buffy's new army. And then... "Eat their #%&@ing ovaries!"

There is almost no subtext here... these are misogynistic values being spattered all over like guts. Whether the rest of humanity is aware or not, Twilight is no champion of equality, like I've heard some people argue. He wants the scales tipped, the previous status quo returned, but remember, this is a pre-"Chosen" ideal, before girls came into power. His words to Buffy in #11 are quite clearly misogynistic, where he taunts her crying to be "just like a girl". The man is aligned with Warren, who's probably the second largest misogynistic prick in the Buffyverse (1st is Caleb), and now, had planned on unleashing an army of demonic Hello Kitty knockoffs that have a taste for ovaries. I think I've made my case here.

Identity seems to be a big theme here. First, with Satsu's reveal that her being gay "destroyed" her parents. But more importantly, there's the bit about what a Slayer is. We keep coming back to this question, the word on the street now is that Slayers are toy-destroying psychos. They are feared, they are hated, and Buffy wants to retreat underground. She claims that they have to "stop being whatever we've been and focus. Be more than human." The same church bell has gone off about how Buffy's not seeing the error of her ways, and that she should be thinking about integrating herself (and the Slayer army) with humanity. But the point is, Slayers are different, and they are more than human. Not in the elitist sense, but that they have a destiny and duty that others don't. They are charged with being the force to beat back evil. Elitist would have been Gigi's plan, to become a master race and beat down humanity. Slayers are the uber-mensch but with great power comes great responsibility (okay, totally going Andrew here). The Slayer organization has in no way seen themselves as superior to mankind. They still hold the view that they are the good guys, the Chosen few (what's a couple thousand in the exploding human population?), the warrior of the people.

Parting comments: I liked that Harmony was referenced, since she did start the ball running. First Anderson Cooper, now Larry King; the ditz sure is burning up the talk show circuit, hitting the A-listers of talk. Who's next? Oprah? Please not Tyra! Though it would be fitting... the next ANTM will feature vampires. What better way to stay thin than to be on a liquid diet?

Satsu's growth as a character (to me) feels like the emotional core of the story. I'm beginning to feel that Kennedy will never get leading-lady status. She's great as a supporting actress, and probably too good. She's the catalyst in the story, and although she gets a few great lines, she's exactly where she stood at the start of S8. She drops in, she moves things along, but she's never really developed. Kinda like Faith, in S7 of Buffy.

Can't wait for #23 now... Buffy and Andrew together, when they're supposed to be going low profile. Yeah, that'll be interesting.