The Trouble with Comic Book Continuations

[knifeedgefic]

WARNING: the following post may contain rambling, over-used analogies, and poorly thought out arguments. Also profanity and references to dinosaur porn. You are free to disagree with me. It's just my opinion.

One of the many strange ways my fandoms overlap: both Labyrinth and Buffy have fallen victim to the problem of comic book continuations.

Now,

Comments

[lostboy_lj]

This is all spot on. Especially this bit:

Besides that, Buffy was a blue-collar superhero. She had extraordinary abilities, yes, but she fumbled through life just like the rest of us. She went to high school. She dealt with studying. With foul jobs and bad bosses and teachers who were totally out of touch with her generation. Her cream rinse was sometimes neither creamy nor rinse-y. She carried tampons in her purse and a yo-yo. She had to take care of a little sister with the voice of a banshee and a serious kleptomania problem. She had to pay bills and deal with leaky pipes and she couldn't drive. And we LOVED her for it, because she was us--even with the super-strength and the supernatural boyfriends and the whole slaying gig. We related. We were THERE. We got it better than she did, sometimes. We knew she wasn't normal. That none of us are ever NORMAL.

The sad thing is, I think it was very possible to render this sort of hero in comic book form. In a way, she wasn't that different from Peter Parker/Spiderman when you think about it. I think one of the main problems was that the show's finale painted itself into a corner with regards to scale ("epic military drama" instead of "motley crew of misfits saving the day").

For me, Buffy was always an outsider superhero (the girl who burned down her old high school gym) with everyday problems that kept interfering with her mission of protecting the world from monsters. That seemed to be the storytelling mechanic that made her compelling and unique. With all those other slayers running around, it felt like they were losing Buffy's uniqueness. The burden of being the only thing standing between us and hell was part of what made Buffy Buffy. There are other superheroes out there who command armies. Wonder Woman is one of them. But Buffy isn't Wonder Woman, and shouldn't be. She should be Buffy.

Also, it's probably harder to do character development when you have a cast of thousands. I think the smart thing to do (and no, I'm not just saying this because of my own writing) would have been to chart a course towards undoing Willow's groovy spell, so the story could return to the smaller, character-driven world that made it so popular and emotionally vivid. They could've still done cool stuff, and wouldn't have had to worry about moving all these big, clumsy pieces around the map, or trying to devise ways to make the stars of the show actually matter in such a large-scale plot.

And as you've mentioned, the personal touch is gone. There was always a metaphorical tide underlying all the supernatural elements, linking everything back to the real world of coupons and taxes and frayed relationships. Once that connection is gone, all you have is a bunch of silly people running around with axes and blowing things up. There are already a lot of comics out there that have this. BTVS had a chance to be something different, but it seems like they blew it. Like you said: "sex and trains and dinosaurs." Snore.