Comic News
There hasn't been much talk of yesterday's blast of news about the comics. I take that to mean that most of LJ is pretty much "over it".
But for those who aren't, or who are at least curious, there were a series of developments that were particularly auspicious for our sector of the fandom. A special shout out to our own angearia who arranged for last night's Q&A with Scott which went very well and was particularly interesting.
1. Season 9 will be co-written by Joss and Andrew Chambliss, who wrote some of the best Dollhouse episodes (most notably: Spy in the House of Love).
2. Chambliss's favorite season of Buffy is season 6
3. Spike will have a significant role in season 9. The bug ship won't be around for much longer. He'll be interacting with Buffy and other characters as well. This was referred to in a couple of places. My personal favorite was in response to a Buffyfest question to Chambliss about whether he was unhappy about not getting to write Giles, who is dead, Faith and Angel who are in the other book, or Spike who will be off in his bug ship. He basically said, uh... dudes... Spike's totally going to be around. (I admit, it was not unfun to hear an unfounded presumption about Spike's non-importance get smacked down). The other way this point was made was saying Spike would be "too busy" in Buffy's book to do Angel cross-overs.
4. Allie refused to answer about what might happen between Spike and Buffy, by sayinig that it's "worth waiting for". (I'm pretty sure this is where someone runs in with the Charlie Brown icon, perhaps renaming Lucy "Scott" instead of "Joss". But I have a lot of reasons for thinking that at a minimum it means we aren't just going to get a Spuffy is dead, dead, dead, I tell you, sort of story.)
5. Angel will be off in his own story, with about the same relationship to the Buffy story as obtained when both BtVS and AtS were on the air. That book will be edited by Joss, and will be written by writer whose name I forget but who is basically a comic writer. The DH acquisition of the Angel characters was not in order to smush Angel and Buffy back together. Their stories will be told more or less independently, with different arcs and different thematic concerns.
6. Speaking of which, Allie denies that B/A can be "repaired". If anything happens, it'll take a lot of time, and at best there's a hope that something new will happen.
7. A big Bangel fan, who has been in contact with Allie, has thrown in the towel and renounced Joss and all his works. Whatever reassurances she got about the future of Bangel weren't very reassuring, I'm guessing.
8. Faith, who is a personal favorite of mine, is finally going to get top billing, co-sharing the title with Angel. That means that her role in the Angel book will be more than that of care-taker/mentor or whatever. She'll have her own agenda.
9. Angel and Faith will be working out of London. Giles will be a shadow over everything. Which should be very interesting given the Faith-Giles connection, Faith's loyalty to Angel, and the fact that Angel is the guy who murdered Giles.
10. The new Angel writer acknowledges that Angel was possessed when he killed Giles, but says that doesn't excuse everything else he did as Twilight. This gives me hope that Angel won't get his usual "brood for a day, then go back to calling yourself a champion" story line.
11. The AtF panel showing Spike in the distant future is not regarded by Allie as canon. Which means that Joss is free to kill Spike, Shanshu him, or have him disappear into a nether dimension with Buffy to fulfill that panel in the Frey comic if he wants to. It was not unfun to hear that in view of one fan's vehement insistence that we could take that panel as evidence that Spike will end up soulless at some point.
12. Dru will be showing up in season 9. This is not thrilling news to me, because I think she's a bore. Although it wasn't stated explicitly, it was implied that Illyria will be showing up in season 9 (not the Angel book) as well. Joss is particularly interested in her. Again, not thrilled. I think she/he/it's a bore.
But hey, 11 out of 12 is pretty good! The general mood is to tighten up the writing (by not having the story bounce between authors), to make the scale smaller (good by mecha-Dawn) and to deal more with character development. Since those are all standing complaints about season 8, it seems like there's room to be optimistic in general. I'm pretty darned excited!
Allie won't say when Espenson's 8-page piece will be released, but it's set between #39 and #40. Jane writing Spike is yet something else to look forward to.