The title should have prepared me for this, I guess.
WOT?? No. NO. I DO NOT LIKE THIS.
Eternally-young sorceress-type socialite "great-aunts"? This is not anything I want for Giles. I've only read three pages of Angel & Faith #10, but I DON'T LIKE THIS DEVELOPMENT. A lot of that is because I have just finished reading the immensely fail-full second volume of Avatar: TLA: The Promise*, and because I see so many opportunities for ageism and internalized misogyny (on the part of the characters; the writer is a man, which probably isn't going to help an awful lot) in this setup.
BUT, I think the biggest reason I had such an instantaneous strong negative response is that Giles doesn't NEED to have mysterious family members. He doesn't need to be related to a line of powerful magic users. It would be lovely if we got to meet a pair of quiet old ladies - or boisterous, high-spirited old ladies - who could show us a side of him we have never seen, Rupert Giles as nephew who was a high-strung over achiever as a kid and a terrifying rebel as a young adult, who worried his family and broke his parents' hearts. But to give him some quasi-Arthurian magical lineage backstory seems to me to diminish both the realism and the soul of the character and the story he is a part of.
I could end up loving this. I could finish the issue and want a whole spin-off series devoted to Lavinia and Sophie. Somehow, I doubt it.
* Which is a fascinating story and has about three truly brilliant, inspired things going on and directly addresses the complications of colonization in a way that neither of the shows has even touched on, and YES GOOD MORE OF THIS...but which is also primarily concerned with portraying most of the characters as one-dimensional at best**, and being really gross when it comes to misogyny and ableism.
** Zuko, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and the new character Kori are generally well-written, at least...
ETA: What is Killer Croc doing in a Dark Horse comic?
EOATA: Yeah, no. Just...no.
Eternally-young sorceress-type socialite "great-aunts"? This is not anything I want for Giles. I've only read three pages of Angel & Faith #10, but I DON'T LIKE THIS DEVELOPMENT. A lot of that is because I have just finished reading the immensely fail-full second volume of Avatar: TLA: The Promise*, and because I see so many opportunities for ageism and internalized misogyny (on the part of the characters; the writer is a man, which probably isn't going to help an awful lot) in this setup.
BUT, I think the biggest reason I had such an instantaneous strong negative response is that Giles doesn't NEED to have mysterious family members. He doesn't need to be related to a line of powerful magic users. It would be lovely if we got to meet a pair of quiet old ladies - or boisterous, high-spirited old ladies - who could show us a side of him we have never seen, Rupert Giles as nephew who was a high-strung over achiever as a kid and a terrifying rebel as a young adult, who worried his family and broke his parents' hearts. But to give him some quasi-Arthurian magical lineage backstory seems to me to diminish both the realism and the soul of the character and the story he is a part of.
I could end up loving this. I could finish the issue and want a whole spin-off series devoted to Lavinia and Sophie. Somehow, I doubt it.
* Which is a fascinating story and has about three truly brilliant, inspired things going on and directly addresses the complications of colonization in a way that neither of the shows has even touched on, and YES GOOD MORE OF THIS...but which is also primarily concerned with portraying most of the characters as one-dimensional at best**, and being really gross when it comes to misogyny and ableism.
** Zuko, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and the new character Kori are generally well-written, at least...
ETA: What is Killer Croc doing in a Dark Horse comic?
EOATA: Yeah, no. Just...no.