Lots of moaning ahead I’m afraid on the changes that have been made with the new Buffy comics

[frelling_tralk]

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer': Jordie Bellaire, Jeanine Schaeffer Talk Taking the "Ultimate Marvel" Approach to the New Series

JB: I think me and Jeanine when we first started talking about the project, we both talked about how we both love Willow. I think Willow definitely has a lot of charm being this sweet, quiet, bookish girl, but she really

Comments

[rogueslayer452]

Yeah, I wasn't onboard when I heard that they were rebooting the comics and putting them back in high school with a Gen Z-twist or something like that. Because really, what's the point? I never understood why anytime something is remade they want to go, "but we're remaking it for modern audiences!" as if audiences now cannot understand something from the 90s or even further back. It makes it seem like they think that younger audiences are stupid to not understand something that predates cell phones or social media

[frelling_tralk]

Badfic is exactly what it sounds like to me as well, in some of these cases the writers are just making up character traits as they see fit

[rogueslayer452]

Exactly, everything you wrote.

Also, what you said in the post:

That’s one of the most bizarre changes to me in fact, it’s meant to be more inclusive to use neutral pronouns I guess, but the whole concept of Buffy from the beginning was celebrating female power?

The more I think about it, the less sense it makes to change it. I mean, I also get probably wanting to be more inclusive with being neutral and everything, but it really doesn't make sense when, aside from the whole aspect of the series was about the power of women, the prophecy itself in-verse was created by the Watcher's Council who were entirely patriarchal. Which was what made the whole point of Buffy rejecting and refusing the Watcher's Council in the first place so incredibly important, not to mention the importance of everything in the series finale when all Potential Slayers ended up becoming Slayers. So wouldn't having this gender neutral prophecy (or a version of a prophecy like that) make more sense if it was already following an established canon post-Chosen?

[frelling_tralk]

Honestly yes, I don’t see how it can be considered an improvement to remove ‘one girl in all the world’ when that’s so tied in with how Joss originally envisioned the show. Even the changes to the Master and Drusilla remove a lot of Joss’s original intentions. This is one of my fav videos for showing how Bts handled the patriarchy https://youtu.be/1jKYm4GpTvw (watch it, it’s awesome! ) Yes it’s probably more cool and modern to replace the Master with a female villain, it’s probably cooler to not have Drusilla as the insane and ruined victim of Angelus, it’s probably cooler to have Willow secure in herself from the very beginning, but there was a purpose behind those choices. Giving us updated and more traditional badass female characters with a female Mistrass who keeps Spike as her pet makes for a fun villain, but also doesn’t exactly capture the power and meaning of the original story and why so many connected with it

[infinitewhale]

by still why is this reboot comic even necessary?

Money. Since Fox owns BOOM, it's all pure profit more or less. They only had a few options. Reboot from S7, do fill-in-the-blank or reboot entirely. They've had success with other IPs rebooting, so that's what they did with Buffy.

[frelling_tralk]

That makes sense sadly :( I know they have done a lot with different slayers from the past in the comics, but I’m guessing they never sold in anything like the same numbers as the comics with the Buffy name on the front, and I’m sure that the marketing people are very aware of that

You see the same attitude with the new tv series being discussed, they were keen originally to promote it as a Buffy remake, even though the creator has said since that she does want it to feature a new slayer and a new cast of characters, but the impression I can is that the higher ups cannot imagine relaunching the franchise with just slayer and leaving off the Buffy name all together

[infinitewhale]

I fully believe the original intent was a Buffy remake. That was met with universal NOPE. I know the runner came out awhile later and said it would be a different slayer, but I don't think it's a coincidence it seems to be dead since then. It's been like 7 months since and not a word about it.

I'm wary of all of it. I know some fans like the idea of the franchise continuing, whether it's like these reboot comics or continuations. They like that the 'verse continues in same way. Me... So many of things I like have gone that route and sooner or later the bad outweighs the good and the product is lessened. I don't like the idea of Buffy turning into Alien or Predator or Terminator.

[frelling_tralk]

Oh interesting, you might be might about that! It did seem like it was very clearly spoken of as a Buffy reboot in the beginning before all the backlash, but then I was convinced when the showrunner involved came forward to say that she loved the original characters and that was never the plan, but yes it does seem rather telling that it’s all died down since then

[infinitewhale]

I can send a link to the comic if you want. But yeah, Buffy is nothing like Buffy. It's irksome, but that's been true of all the comics. Even in Whedon's, she's a brainless sociopath for the most part. In this, she doesn't dress like her, doesn't talk like her, doesn't have her personality... I can't help but be bugged that the writers don't ever seem to have anything to say about her, either.

Much like there was a point to Willow, there was an even bigger one to Buffy. She was the blonde, personable, popular, fashionable, preppy-ish girl that gets hacked up in an alley in horror films. Helen from IKWYDLS (I don't think it's a coincidence they lifted angles from that movie for Helpless). To change that, is to not be Buffy Summers. Even Giles, he's kind of like a wikipedia version of him. He's more S3 Wes than Giles. About the only character that is much like their TV counterpart is Xander.

The art is great (save the blue eyes whhyyyyy). That's about it.

[frelling_tralk]

Totally agree with all your points on Buffy :) She was a very specific character archetype from the beginning, the entire concept of the show was build around it. And this has nothing to do with anything really lol, but I feel bad for Helen every time when she almost makes it out of that alley, she and Ryan’s character were the more interesting characters than the ones who survived by far

I can't help but be bugged that the writers don't ever seem to have anything to say about her, either

And I find that very odd as well, in all of the questions about the character changes Buffy never really comes up, so I assumed that meant that she wasn’t going to be portrayed very differently. I would have thought the main character would be the first one you talk about when you’re selling your reboot though :shrugs:

And I would love a link if you have one! I have seen a d/l on my flist, but it doesn’t seem to work with my iPad when I click on it, and I’m still computerless at the moment

[infinitewhale]

For most links you need a cbr reader or something to change extensions to .rar and then unzip them. You might not have all that on a phone.

http://userscloud.com/1ud3p9wxerrf

You can read it here, though, without having to DL anything.

http://boards.4channel.org/co/thread/105491178

You can ignore everything after 105491440.

[frelling_tralk]

Thank you! :)