Buffy #32 - review and spoilery thoughts
The revelation of Buffy's masked nemesis' identity as well as Buffy's current situation have reawakened my interest to season 8 comics. The last time I wrote about them, almost a year ago, vampires were "in" and slayers were "out"; Faith and Giles were fighting demons in a bucolic German town, Harmony became a TV star, while Buffy continued to lose her moral ground. Since then the situation has changed drastically.
Buffy and some of her slayers, pursued by Twilight and regular humans, hid in Tibet, were found by Twilight, fought against tanks and angry Tibetian goddesses and lost the battle. All the redshirts were either killed or taken prisoners. Buffy and everybody we know by name escaped. On the closing panel of issue 30 Buffy discovers she can fly. In the Joss-penned issue 31 Buffy has a conversation with Xander who confesses he's in love with Dawn; while Twilight (who, in case you don't know, happens to be Angel) abducts Faith, Giles and Andrew.
Issue #32 introduces a new arc, "Twilight", penned by a new writer, Brad Meltzer. The issue starts with Buffy testing her new powers which include running faster than a bullet, flying, mind-reading, having telescoping vision, understanding ancient languages and lifting up in the air trains from Scottish castles in the middle of Tibetian jungles (don't ask). Xander has multiple nerdgasms while Dawn is very unhappy about them not thinking about possible consequences (or maybe just jealous they don't pay attention to her).
Willow notices Faith, Giles and Andrew's absence and makes a "send-me-to-the-slayer-who-needs-me-most" spell in hope to find Faith. Instead she finds many dead slayers all around the world and unexplicably comes to the conclusion that Buffy sucks her newly-found powers from dead slayers.
Meanwhile, Amy, Warren and a general who worked for Twilight come to Buffy and declare that Twilight has kicked them out, so they want to help Buffy to kick his ass.
Faith, Giles and Andrew wake up in Twilight's headquarters, which has been apparently designed by Warren as some famous panel from "X-Men/Teen Titans" crossover comic. (Again, don't ask.) Andrew has his own share of nerdgasms. He explains to Giles and Faith that to bring three people in, Any had to teleport three people out. That's why Amy, Warren and general landed in Tibet. Andrew tries to open doors. Twilight enters. "Who wants to hear a really cool master plan?" he enquires (is he having a nerdgasm, too?) To be continued.
~~*~~
It's obvious from the very first page that the issue is written by a comics aficionado. Practically every panel has references to some famous comic hero, or title, or situation. The issue makes inequivocal declaration about season 8's target audience. If you're not a comic fan, you have to either to adapt, to caught up with all the geeky stuff - or stop reading. I have to admit that I could hardly understand half of the references, so, apparently, I missed a lot of fun. Yet, some jokes work even if you don't understand them fully: I don't know where the coinage "faster than a flying bullet" comes from, but when Xander and Warren speak about it with the same awe and their respective girlfriends Dawn and Amy react with the same disgust, it's hilarious.
Overall, the issue is slick and entertaining if you don't think about plot much and radically suspense your disbelief. Otherwise, you start wondering why Amy didn't teleport general's soldiers right into Buffy's castle to arrest her. The art is better than in the previous arc - some of Buffy's panels are really good, especially the "can you phase?" panel. Or maybe I was just tired to see her in combat gear.
Till now, s8 was global. Now it becomes epic. In previous seasons BtVS took place is a small town - yet it was epic thanks to its incredible, larger-than-life love-and-death stories. By making Angel Buffy's nemesis the comic gains the chance to reach BTVS's trademark level of angst. If Joss pulls it off, it would be a great contraposition: Spike has started as Buffy's nemesis and ended up her friend and lover, while Angel has started as her friend and lover and ended up as her nemesis.
Interesting tidbits:
-- Xander takes Buffy's photograph with an iPhone. Another sign of an elastic timeline in which action takes place in indefinite "now".
-- The "character cards" that announce all the main characters, made by Andrew, of all people. Andrew, imprisoned in Twilight's headquarters. I wonder if in the last moment Dark Horse has decided to make *previouslies* for the new audience they expect to gain post-Twilightgate. As you may know, in January, several days after the Twilightgate, Dark Horse sent to retailers a dispatch, where DH editor Scott Allie wrote, besides other things: "Word got out that Twilight, our major villain from Season 8, is in fact Angel, the love of Buffy’s life. This is causing major buzz on the Internet. I was on CBR today, and on Monday Joss will be on MTV’s Splash Page to comment on this-we want to get behind this and use it to drive sales as we enter the climactic arcs." It's pretty possible that the "character cards" were added in the last moment for the newbies.
-- Dawn being the only voice of reason? Weird. Either Meltzer doesn't realize that both Willow and Xander should be very aware of the possibility of nasty consequences, or poor Dawn is prepared to become the next sacrificial lamb. Or both.
-- Interestingly, there isn't anything on page that explains how Willow figures out that Buffy gets her new powers from dead slayers. That Highlander-esque twist is really twisty and dark, and it may become one of the crucial moments in the BtVS mythology. Why Meltzer chose not to explain how she came to that conclusion? Willow could say "I feel dead slayers auras in you Buffy", or "I tried to heal the last surviving girl and felt how her lifeforce is leaving her body to join yours, Buffy" or something like that. But no. Either the writers don't find it important and want us to believe them on their word, or Willow is lying. Or is manipulated.
-- It's unclear if it were Twilight's minions or angry mobs who killed slayers all over the world (the body count as we find out in the next issue, is 206 girls) but with every issue Twilight's actions become harder to justify. My mind boggles as I try to figure out how Joss plans to redeem Angel so that he could continue his heroic exploits on IDW. In the current Q&A sessions with Scott Allie I asked him if Dark Horse and IDW have made steps towards coordinating storylines since the leak and he replied tersely that "for the continuity being made to jibe, steps have been taken." My guess is that in this situation IDW will have to keep Angel in pre-2007 timeline forever.
-- Allie admits that Spike will make an appearance but is reluctant to talk about it. My question "Should we expect a Jo Chen cover with Buffy and Spike?" got a reply: "You gotta wait on the cover. Well, if I have anything to say about it you gotta wait, so who the #$%& knows." The swearword he stuck in his answer was quite unexpected. I wonder if it has something to do with Allie's personal anti-Spuffy stance or because the question was out of synch with his marketing campaign that promotes Meltzer's arc as an epic Buffy and Angel reunion. Or both.
About those happy cuddly reunion-y covers of the issue #34. I ask myself if I am a hypocrite if I say that I feel uneasy about them. Would I be equally uneasy if Twilight were revealed to be Spike and these covers were hyping Buffy and Spike's happy reunion - given that he kills her sisters slayers? I don't know. I hope so. To me, these covers are disturbing, no matter how beautiful Jo Chen's art is. Either they don't reflect the actual content of the issue (which is pretty dishonest from Dark Horse' part) or Buffy really becomes Angel's accomplice in extermination of the slayer race.
I hope that all these kiss-y, cuddly images are nothing but a marketing ploy. I remember how back in 2003 "Chosen" has been heavily promoted as an epic Buffy and Angel's reunion and how misleading the hype has turned out to be. Current promotion campaign could be a Chosen redux. We don't have January data yet, but in December 2009 Willow one-shot sales dropped to 45,000 copies (against 100,000-plus on the first arc), so DH is very interested in attracting the army of Stephenie Meyer's fans with images of broody vampire and cute girl coupled with "twilight" title.
So, what's in store for Buffy? In the same Q&A session Allie has been asked if Buffy fans should be worried about her fate and he replied "yes". I see many possibilities.
1) She may become evil - Twilight's lover and accomplice. Hard to imagine such an option - but a month ago I couldn't imagine that Angel could secretly work against Buffy and exterminating the slayer line, so who knows. Since season 9 is already on the planning stage, Joss could use evil!Buffy as a set-up.
2) She could lose all her powers, become a regular girl and, possibly, get jailed for terrorist activities. Very grim option - but, again, a great set-up for season 9, that could be about Buffy reclaiming her slayer powers.
3) She could become "the" slayer again - the one and only, as she has been before the spell. This option seems the most probable. The return to the traditional status quo, back to the beginning, one hero against all the demons and vampires in the world. Maybe she'll be jailed. Or exiled. Hiding under false identity. In that case season 9 won't be about reclaiming her powers, but about her redemption.
4) She may save the day, beat Angel or convince him to renounce his evil ways, and become the big damn hero again. As much as I want it to happen, recent revelations make it hard - but who knows?
5) She may "turn her sword against her", die and get resurrected in the "Normal Again"-verse. Cracktastic option - but this season is full of them.
6) Joss may push the good old reset button. Very unlikely, but still an option.
I wonder if somebody with a paid account could make a poll on Buffy's prospects by the end of season 8 on Newly_Legion with "evil exterminator of the slayer race", "disgraced human", "disgraced superhero", "triumphant hero", "reset" and "something else - explain in comments" options to vote.
P.S. The geekfest of issue #32 inspired me to write my own little nerdgasm.
Buffy and some of her slayers, pursued by Twilight and regular humans, hid in Tibet, were found by Twilight, fought against tanks and angry Tibetian goddesses and lost the battle. All the redshirts were either killed or taken prisoners. Buffy and everybody we know by name escaped. On the closing panel of issue 30 Buffy discovers she can fly. In the Joss-penned issue 31 Buffy has a conversation with Xander who confesses he's in love with Dawn; while Twilight (who, in case you don't know, happens to be Angel) abducts Faith, Giles and Andrew.
Issue #32 introduces a new arc, "Twilight", penned by a new writer, Brad Meltzer. The issue starts with Buffy testing her new powers which include running faster than a bullet, flying, mind-reading, having telescoping vision, understanding ancient languages and lifting up in the air trains from Scottish castles in the middle of Tibetian jungles (don't ask). Xander has multiple nerdgasms while Dawn is very unhappy about them not thinking about possible consequences (or maybe just jealous they don't pay attention to her).
Willow notices Faith, Giles and Andrew's absence and makes a "send-me-to-the-slayer-who-needs-me-most" spell in hope to find Faith. Instead she finds many dead slayers all around the world and unexplicably comes to the conclusion that Buffy sucks her newly-found powers from dead slayers.
Meanwhile, Amy, Warren and a general who worked for Twilight come to Buffy and declare that Twilight has kicked them out, so they want to help Buffy to kick his ass.
Faith, Giles and Andrew wake up in Twilight's headquarters, which has been apparently designed by Warren as some famous panel from "X-Men/Teen Titans" crossover comic. (Again, don't ask.) Andrew has his own share of nerdgasms. He explains to Giles and Faith that to bring three people in, Any had to teleport three people out. That's why Amy, Warren and general landed in Tibet. Andrew tries to open doors. Twilight enters. "Who wants to hear a really cool master plan?" he enquires (is he having a nerdgasm, too?) To be continued.
~~*~~
It's obvious from the very first page that the issue is written by a comics aficionado. Practically every panel has references to some famous comic hero, or title, or situation. The issue makes inequivocal declaration about season 8's target audience. If you're not a comic fan, you have to either to adapt, to caught up with all the geeky stuff - or stop reading. I have to admit that I could hardly understand half of the references, so, apparently, I missed a lot of fun. Yet, some jokes work even if you don't understand them fully: I don't know where the coinage "faster than a flying bullet" comes from, but when Xander and Warren speak about it with the same awe and their respective girlfriends Dawn and Amy react with the same disgust, it's hilarious.
Overall, the issue is slick and entertaining if you don't think about plot much and radically suspense your disbelief. Otherwise, you start wondering why Amy didn't teleport general's soldiers right into Buffy's castle to arrest her. The art is better than in the previous arc - some of Buffy's panels are really good, especially the "can you phase?" panel. Or maybe I was just tired to see her in combat gear.
Till now, s8 was global. Now it becomes epic. In previous seasons BtVS took place is a small town - yet it was epic thanks to its incredible, larger-than-life love-and-death stories. By making Angel Buffy's nemesis the comic gains the chance to reach BTVS's trademark level of angst. If Joss pulls it off, it would be a great contraposition: Spike has started as Buffy's nemesis and ended up her friend and lover, while Angel has started as her friend and lover and ended up as her nemesis.
Interesting tidbits:
-- Xander takes Buffy's photograph with an iPhone. Another sign of an elastic timeline in which action takes place in indefinite "now".
-- The "character cards" that announce all the main characters, made by Andrew, of all people. Andrew, imprisoned in Twilight's headquarters. I wonder if in the last moment Dark Horse has decided to make *previouslies* for the new audience they expect to gain post-Twilightgate. As you may know, in January, several days after the Twilightgate, Dark Horse sent to retailers a dispatch, where DH editor Scott Allie wrote, besides other things: "Word got out that Twilight, our major villain from Season 8, is in fact Angel, the love of Buffy’s life. This is causing major buzz on the Internet. I was on CBR today, and on Monday Joss will be on MTV’s Splash Page to comment on this-we want to get behind this and use it to drive sales as we enter the climactic arcs." It's pretty possible that the "character cards" were added in the last moment for the newbies.
-- Dawn being the only voice of reason? Weird. Either Meltzer doesn't realize that both Willow and Xander should be very aware of the possibility of nasty consequences, or poor Dawn is prepared to become the next sacrificial lamb. Or both.
-- Interestingly, there isn't anything on page that explains how Willow figures out that Buffy gets her new powers from dead slayers. That Highlander-esque twist is really twisty and dark, and it may become one of the crucial moments in the BtVS mythology. Why Meltzer chose not to explain how she came to that conclusion? Willow could say "I feel dead slayers auras in you Buffy", or "I tried to heal the last surviving girl and felt how her lifeforce is leaving her body to join yours, Buffy" or something like that. But no. Either the writers don't find it important and want us to believe them on their word, or Willow is lying. Or is manipulated.
-- It's unclear if it were Twilight's minions or angry mobs who killed slayers all over the world (the body count as we find out in the next issue, is 206 girls) but with every issue Twilight's actions become harder to justify. My mind boggles as I try to figure out how Joss plans to redeem Angel so that he could continue his heroic exploits on IDW. In the current Q&A sessions with Scott Allie I asked him if Dark Horse and IDW have made steps towards coordinating storylines since the leak and he replied tersely that "for the continuity being made to jibe, steps have been taken." My guess is that in this situation IDW will have to keep Angel in pre-2007 timeline forever.
-- Allie admits that Spike will make an appearance but is reluctant to talk about it. My question "Should we expect a Jo Chen cover with Buffy and Spike?" got a reply: "You gotta wait on the cover. Well, if I have anything to say about it you gotta wait, so who the #$%& knows." The swearword he stuck in his answer was quite unexpected. I wonder if it has something to do with Allie's personal anti-Spuffy stance or because the question was out of synch with his marketing campaign that promotes Meltzer's arc as an epic Buffy and Angel reunion. Or both.
About those happy cuddly reunion-y covers of the issue #34. I ask myself if I am a hypocrite if I say that I feel uneasy about them. Would I be equally uneasy if Twilight were revealed to be Spike and these covers were hyping Buffy and Spike's happy reunion - given that he kills her sisters slayers? I don't know. I hope so. To me, these covers are disturbing, no matter how beautiful Jo Chen's art is. Either they don't reflect the actual content of the issue (which is pretty dishonest from Dark Horse' part) or Buffy really becomes Angel's accomplice in extermination of the slayer race.
I hope that all these kiss-y, cuddly images are nothing but a marketing ploy. I remember how back in 2003 "Chosen" has been heavily promoted as an epic Buffy and Angel's reunion and how misleading the hype has turned out to be. Current promotion campaign could be a Chosen redux. We don't have January data yet, but in December 2009 Willow one-shot sales dropped to 45,000 copies (against 100,000-plus on the first arc), so DH is very interested in attracting the army of Stephenie Meyer's fans with images of broody vampire and cute girl coupled with "twilight" title.
So, what's in store for Buffy? In the same Q&A session Allie has been asked if Buffy fans should be worried about her fate and he replied "yes". I see many possibilities.
1) She may become evil - Twilight's lover and accomplice. Hard to imagine such an option - but a month ago I couldn't imagine that Angel could secretly work against Buffy and exterminating the slayer line, so who knows. Since season 9 is already on the planning stage, Joss could use evil!Buffy as a set-up.
2) She could lose all her powers, become a regular girl and, possibly, get jailed for terrorist activities. Very grim option - but, again, a great set-up for season 9, that could be about Buffy reclaiming her slayer powers.
3) She could become "the" slayer again - the one and only, as she has been before the spell. This option seems the most probable. The return to the traditional status quo, back to the beginning, one hero against all the demons and vampires in the world. Maybe she'll be jailed. Or exiled. Hiding under false identity. In that case season 9 won't be about reclaiming her powers, but about her redemption.
4) She may save the day, beat Angel or convince him to renounce his evil ways, and become the big damn hero again. As much as I want it to happen, recent revelations make it hard - but who knows?
5) She may "turn her sword against her", die and get resurrected in the "Normal Again"-verse. Cracktastic option - but this season is full of them.
6) Joss may push the good old reset button. Very unlikely, but still an option.
I wonder if somebody with a paid account could make a poll on Buffy's prospects by the end of season 8 on Newly_Legion with "evil exterminator of the slayer race", "disgraced human", "disgraced superhero", "triumphant hero", "reset" and "something else - explain in comments" options to vote.
P.S. The geekfest of issue #32 inspired me to write my own little nerdgasm.