They Keep Killing [Spoiler]
THIS is the Spike I love. Just a few issues ago in the Angel comics, they had him having a conniption wad because it was suspected that he didn't have a soul any longer. And, tellingly, I do not remember what the explanation eventually wound up being, there*. But here, in Lynch's hands, he much more characteristically insists that the soul doesn't define him. It's something he WANTS, not something he needs.
Angel is ruled by his soul. Angel cannot, in fact, EXIST without his soul. But Spike is his own man, and he remains Spike with or without it. The soul in the Buffyverse has often been talked up to be a conscience or moral centre, but Spike worked those out on his own. Watch them click into place in the Summers' bathroom... (Or, y'know, _don't_ watch it, since that scene is pretty brutal.) I couldn't help but dance, even as my heart SHATTERED INTO MICROSCOPIC BITS**, when Lynch and Mooney got that absolutely right.
I fully expected Jeremy to get the soul***, since we had just seen him probably-killed. I knew from the show that that isn't exactly how resurrection works in the Buffyverse, but I figured they would toss out some specious comic-canon-offshoot explanation. Clearly, I have been reading too much post-AtF Angel and not enough Lynch, or I would have realized that wasn't going to happen. Giving Dru the soul is just...OH SO BRILLIANT. I've always pondered the fact that she and Harm never got a shot with one when the other main vamps all did, and I pretty much cannot wait to see how this goes. I know for absolute certain that it's going to be painful and awful to watch her go through what's coming, but I can see this doing for her what "Beneath You" did for Spike (that is, it bumped him from One of My Favourite BtVS Characters to One of My Favourite Characters on Television.)
Now, I have no delusions that Lynch's major changes will be allowed into the canon, and he'll of course have to leave all of the characters (at least, the ones he didn't create) how he found them. But gee wiz, would I like to see this stick!
And Lilah... I knew it was her from the first shot of her back, and I wanted badly to tear the page to pieces. It's bad enough to be Wesless, but it's downright _evil_ for W&H to use it's apparently Red Dwarf-esque single-slot hologram projector to bring back LILAH, of all of my least favourite characters. Lynch you assface, I don't appreciate having my emotions manipulated like this. Why don't you just bring back Caleb, too, while you're at it? (Do not bring back Caleb.)
* Oh, yes. After consulting the comic arc in question, I have been reminded that it was the soul flu. A truly genius piece of phlebotinum if I've ever heard one. Also in this arc was the expert opinion of Laura Weathermill, Watcher You Call When Wes and Giles Are Otherwise Indisposed (Read: Dead and Owned by a Different Company, Respectively) And You Don't Fancy a Murderous Psychopath, that, "There's no way you could simply lose your soul without more SIGNIFICANT problems arising." Honey, can we have more than ten or twelve pages of interaction with the man before we make proclamations about the state of his ethereal whatnot?
** "Daaaanciiiiiiiiin' hwith teeeears in myyy-hy eyyyyyyyes/Weepin' for the mem'ry of a life gone byyyyy"
Alternately, "Mmmmy heart daaaancessssss/Oh-woah, mmbut NOT for joooooooooy"
*** By the way, people, we seriously need to stop sacrificing Jeremy to our crazy uber-powerful female not-really-allies-exactly. Can we agree to do that, for me?
I had planned to read just about anything _but_ Whedonverse comics tonight, but apparently I'm going to continue to indulge this obsession (and brave another non-Lynch Spike comic) and get started on The Devil You Know.
...assuming this gigantamous thunderstorm doesn't knock out my power, of course...
Angel is ruled by his soul. Angel cannot, in fact, EXIST without his soul. But Spike is his own man, and he remains Spike with or without it. The soul in the Buffyverse has often been talked up to be a conscience or moral centre, but Spike worked those out on his own. Watch them click into place in the Summers' bathroom... (Or, y'know, _don't_ watch it, since that scene is pretty brutal.) I couldn't help but dance, even as my heart SHATTERED INTO MICROSCOPIC BITS**, when Lynch and Mooney got that absolutely right.
I fully expected Jeremy to get the soul***, since we had just seen him probably-killed. I knew from the show that that isn't exactly how resurrection works in the Buffyverse, but I figured they would toss out some specious comic-canon-offshoot explanation. Clearly, I have been reading too much post-AtF Angel and not enough Lynch, or I would have realized that wasn't going to happen. Giving Dru the soul is just...OH SO BRILLIANT. I've always pondered the fact that she and Harm never got a shot with one when the other main vamps all did, and I pretty much cannot wait to see how this goes. I know for absolute certain that it's going to be painful and awful to watch her go through what's coming, but I can see this doing for her what "Beneath You" did for Spike (that is, it bumped him from One of My Favourite BtVS Characters to One of My Favourite Characters on Television.)
Now, I have no delusions that Lynch's major changes will be allowed into the canon, and he'll of course have to leave all of the characters (at least, the ones he didn't create) how he found them. But gee wiz, would I like to see this stick!
And Lilah... I knew it was her from the first shot of her back, and I wanted badly to tear the page to pieces. It's bad enough to be Wesless, but it's downright _evil_ for W&H to use it's apparently Red Dwarf-esque single-slot hologram projector to bring back LILAH, of all of my least favourite characters. Lynch you assface, I don't appreciate having my emotions manipulated like this. Why don't you just bring back Caleb, too, while you're at it? (Do not bring back Caleb.)
* Oh, yes. After consulting the comic arc in question, I have been reminded that it was the soul flu. A truly genius piece of phlebotinum if I've ever heard one. Also in this arc was the expert opinion of Laura Weathermill, Watcher You Call When Wes and Giles Are Otherwise Indisposed (Read: Dead and Owned by a Different Company, Respectively) And You Don't Fancy a Murderous Psychopath, that, "There's no way you could simply lose your soul without more SIGNIFICANT problems arising." Honey, can we have more than ten or twelve pages of interaction with the man before we make proclamations about the state of his ethereal whatnot?
** "Daaaanciiiiiiiiin' hwith teeeears in myyy-hy eyyyyyyyes/Weepin' for the mem'ry of a life gone byyyyy"
Alternately, "Mmmmy heart daaaancessssss/Oh-woah, mmbut NOT for joooooooooy"
*** By the way, people, we seriously need to stop sacrificing Jeremy to our crazy uber-powerful female not-really-allies-exactly. Can we agree to do that, for me?
I had planned to read just about anything _but_ Whedonverse comics tonight, but apparently I'm going to continue to indulge this obsession (and brave another non-Lynch Spike comic) and get started on The Devil You Know.
...assuming this gigantamous thunderstorm doesn't knock out my power, of course...