Spike #2: the Review (Electric Boogaloo).
SPOILERS AHOY! Pretty much for the whole issue. Also, the general warnings for my foul-mouthedness as well as my snark.
Spike: #2
What Happens in Vegas Slays in Vegas.
The Summary: Where to begin? Well, while getting settled in his hotel room, Spike spots that Wolfram & Hart have opened a casino/theatre/bordello (just called 'Hart' or so it appears) complete with stage shows with such titles as "Cirque du Slay" and "the White Room." A demon using Jeremy Johns's body as a vessel presents itself to Spike, offering to show him exactly what is going on with the casino and all the hub-bub in Vegas. Portals are opened, vampires are blown up, and dragons will CLASH!
Onto the Reviewy Part...
The Story: I almost called this review "Bordello of Blood" ...just because it sounds awesome, but "Electric Boogaloo" gives it that touch of classic elegance. Anyways, so W&H are back in business; and by business, I mean they are putting on horrible stage productions (which the Senior Partners likely wrote after drinking copious alcoholic libations and playing 'Vampire Mystery Dreamdate') and selling Hot Topic wares. Oh, how the mighty demonic overlords have fallen...
Spike's met with his first leader-ly challenge of his new adventure... besides, you know, keeping Beck from being mistaken for a prostie or burning everyone around her to a cinder (OH THE POST-PUBESCENT EMO ANGST!!1!). He must decide how to approach the new knowledge that W&H is back. Our hero does what he has so often relied upon in the past- walking headlong into a situation with no plan and not utilizing any form of back-up. You could set your watch to that vampire, I tell you. Reminds me of a certain set of Slayers as well...
In all fairness and less snarkiness, Spike reacts to discovering W&H in a more calculated fashion of sorts. He spots the casino, does reconnaissance by seeing their Cirque du Slay show, walks around the theatre portion of the building, and scouts the perimeter of the building as a whole. However, after all that and assuring himself that his assumptions that W&H have returned are correct, he still has no plan, but opts to simply walk up to the casino portion of the building and leave Beck behind. Spike's really trying to find his way, trying to suss out what his approach to this situation should be, without trying to do what he thinks other people might do. He doesn't need anyone's help to be a leader; he can wear that mantle his own way... He just needs to be careful that he doesn't trip over it in the mean time.
One of the great things about Spike is that he thinks on his feet. It's been one of the staples of his character. For a guy who in his first episode proclaimed that demons don't change, Spike is wholly able to adapt to new situations very well. When he sees that his not-really-plan of getting passed the security guard vampires outside the casino isn't going to work, he simply switches to a new plan- let them take him to "the box" (what CSI: Las Vegas has taught me is where they hold cheaters, swindlers, and criminals in casinos before some big burly fellow starts breaking people's fingers) so that he can see who the higher-ups might be as he suspects that all the blag going on about the casino seems "low-rent" for W&H. Spike gives himself a mental pat on the back- "All going to the plan I didn't know I had."
However, Spike does have his weaknesses that are both easy to figure out and easy to exploit. When one doesn't have many friends and the friends that one does have are fragile humans, it doesn't take much for a Big Bad to latch onto them to make a vampire with a soul more complacent (if at first you don't succeed with Angel, try-try-again with his peroxided grandchilde). Spike's weakness is present in Jeremy Johns, his stalwart second-in-command during Spike: After the Fall and sci-fi convention enthusiast (Angel: Boys and Their Toys). Spike, for the most part, knows how to play the hero routine, knows the cliche things to do and say to let the baddies see he means business and won't be shoved around. He's not prepared, however, when the demon offers to show him everything that is going on with the spooky-doo in Las Vegas. For all his reliance on past experiences as both a villain and a hero to try and figure out what's a trap and what's not, Spike falls victim to one of the classic blunders. The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia, and the second, but only slightly lesser known, is never go through a portal opened by a potential bitter enemy that's zombified your friend as their emissary.
We finally meet our potential Little Bad of the remaining 6 issues of this series in the White Room... Um, White Penthouse... complete with Gunn's "big cat" being turned into a throw rug. I don't know if it was unintentional or not, but I have a feeling that the bar in the White Penthouse is a throwback to Lloyd's bar in The Shining. Heeeeeeere's Johnny! ... We don't know John. Spike might. He receives some flashback imagery of John's family followed by John standing in the dismembered remains of his family ( and I can only hope that Spike didn't kill them because, really, Brian Lynch used that plot device in Spike: Asylum, and it's really played... I don't think that that's where this is going but I felt the need to say it anyway) along with other images of our goatee'd Little Bad which start to mess with Spike's thoughts. It seems that W&H (or whatever W&H splinter group is kicking around) is controlling Jeremy's body is the real Big Bad, and that John is some kind of distraction (which will probably lead to a little reversal later), and that seems to be working as Spike is already convinced that John is the real threat to his person.
There is a sharp divide drawn between the Big Bad's approach and Spike's. As Brian stated oh-so-many months ago, this Big Bad had a lot of plans depending upon which Angel Investigations team member showed up in comparison to Spike's complete and total lack of plans. Spike is given a bevy of options by our not-so-friendly neighborhood evil lawyers-cum-casino-owners about how he can proceed- he can work for them, leave them alone while receiving free room and board, or just go away. Spike, true to form, refuses to accept any apples (or delicious libations) they offer. The demon/W&H tries to reason with Spike, noting that it would be he and not Angel who would recognize that not all evil was supernatural evil and not all evil is necessarily capital letters EVIL. Spike, again, is not swayed. Ah, but the Bads expected this too, but they still want to seduce Spike to their mode of thinking or get him to join them. However, there's a mentally unstable wrench that gets thrown in the Baddie's cogs when John proves to be totally sack of hammers. Whatever John is doing there, he's out to kill Spike... with a magic bazooka. You got that right. A magic fucking bazooka. Apparently, staying in the White Suite allows you to conjure up weapons of mass destruction... and little hobgoblin-y chambermaids when you get a bleach-blonde vampire's blood splattered all over every surface of the room. Also, the magic bazooka can shoot Spike in the torso from a few feet away WITHOUT completely obliterating every bit of tissue and bone between his neck and pelvis... but it can still blow out a huge chunk of the building... Yeah, that's comic book physics right there. I sorta wish that the Official Cannon from Spike: Shadow Puppets got to make a reappearance.
The Bad/Bads are having trouble controlling John, but they warn him that they can hurt "her," which we assume is Drusilla, which calms the ire of the man/sorta-man for the moment. Spike is saved from falling to a splattery not-death by Groo (who is the fourth member of the team Spike mentioned in issue #1) on his Cordy Dragon, which is both fortunate and convenient. Gotta love a Dragonus ex Machina!
Oh, Beck, Beck, Beck, Beck, Becky, Beck, Rebecka, Beck. What are we to do with you and your burn-y self? Beck is so afeared that Spike might be killed (and since he didn't really let her in on the plan that he didn't know he had) that she sets the two vampires guards on fire and causes a tourist stampede. She's got no impulse control, and Spike can do little more than scold her for her behavior. She needs a right slap in the face, but Spike tries for levity and snark. He seems to be unaware that Beck is not teenaged Dawn. Beck's an adult with mental instability as well as barely contained superpowers, and Spike's not really equipped to deal with her level of crazy at the moment. For a fella who's had a little experience with crazy people, you'd think he'd be a little better at his sales pitch, but I think that approaching Beck as he used to do with Drusilla wouldn't work either because she's not at that level of straight-jackety badness so, in the end, he's going to have to find another way to get through to her before they all get deep-fried. I think that Angel's advice might actually be fruitful in this one instance. Of course, Spike wasn't around when Angel and Faith were about to converse about impulses and not torturing people, so that phone call isn't likely. "Hey, Grandpop-sire, can you talk to my young female charge about restraining her preternatural gifts, kthxbai?"
The Art: Franco Urru's pencils are amazing as always. The colours are fab (ETA: Andrea Priorini). However, for the first time like ever, I am wholly disappointed overall with some of the artwork in a Lynch/Urru issue. My heart... is broken. *cries* I'm not sure who got the "additional pencils" credit in this issue (ETA: Nicola Zanni), but, sweet Jesus, I hope that they do not do anything else ever again in this series. I haven't seen a jump in styles this obvious and poorly done since Spike vs. Dracula #5. By page 9, we are greeted with the new non-Urru art... and it's pretty awful. We're talking no-concept-of-joints-and/or-proportions awful. The movement with additional pencils isn't bad (pretty fluid actually), but it just doesn't fit and doesn't hold a candle for Urru's pages.
And a new category...
The Typography: Dear Whoever is Responsible for Putting Copy on Clothing in These Comics, STOP IT. If you can't kern something properly, don't do it at all. That's Typography 101. You obviously can't deal with perspective with text without putting it through a computer-based program, and you've apparently never learned that the "typing on a path" is not always your friend unless you know how to scale and kern the text afterwards. I let the wretched job done on the "Team William" shirts go in the first issue, but no more! Stop skewing the damned font (you dishonor the designers of said font). Creating outlines only works if you know what the fuck you are doing, so stop it before you hurt yourself and make this comic look even more shabby. There are even jagged lines around the text which leads me to believe you are using a raster-based program for copy. NEVER DO THAT! ARGH! Copy should be vector ONLY. Stop using pre-made fonts and just get someone to draw the copy, please?
I give this issue a 6 out of 10. The artwork is only 70% good, and the plot has already become murky and confusing (not as confusing as Season Eight, but I've really begun to lose my patience with any and all BtVS/Ats-related books). I have no doubts that everything will turn out smashing in the end, and I blame a lot of this on the scripts for an ongoing series having to be cut down for 8 issues, but I expect better from an IDW Spike comic, especially one penned by Mr. Lynch.
Spike: #2
What Happens in Vegas Slays in Vegas.
The Summary: Where to begin? Well, while getting settled in his hotel room, Spike spots that Wolfram & Hart have opened a casino/theatre/bordello (just called 'Hart' or so it appears) complete with stage shows with such titles as "Cirque du Slay" and "the White Room." A demon using Jeremy Johns's body as a vessel presents itself to Spike, offering to show him exactly what is going on with the casino and all the hub-bub in Vegas. Portals are opened, vampires are blown up, and dragons will CLASH!
Onto the Reviewy Part...
The Story: I almost called this review "Bordello of Blood" ...just because it sounds awesome, but "Electric Boogaloo" gives it that touch of classic elegance. Anyways, so W&H are back in business; and by business, I mean they are putting on horrible stage productions (which the Senior Partners likely wrote after drinking copious alcoholic libations and playing 'Vampire Mystery Dreamdate') and selling Hot Topic wares. Oh, how the mighty demonic overlords have fallen...
Spike's met with his first leader-ly challenge of his new adventure... besides, you know, keeping Beck from being mistaken for a prostie or burning everyone around her to a cinder (OH THE POST-PUBESCENT EMO ANGST!!1!). He must decide how to approach the new knowledge that W&H is back. Our hero does what he has so often relied upon in the past- walking headlong into a situation with no plan and not utilizing any form of back-up. You could set your watch to that vampire, I tell you. Reminds me of a certain set of Slayers as well...
In all fairness and less snarkiness, Spike reacts to discovering W&H in a more calculated fashion of sorts. He spots the casino, does reconnaissance by seeing their Cirque du Slay show, walks around the theatre portion of the building, and scouts the perimeter of the building as a whole. However, after all that and assuring himself that his assumptions that W&H have returned are correct, he still has no plan, but opts to simply walk up to the casino portion of the building and leave Beck behind. Spike's really trying to find his way, trying to suss out what his approach to this situation should be, without trying to do what he thinks other people might do. He doesn't need anyone's help to be a leader; he can wear that mantle his own way... He just needs to be careful that he doesn't trip over it in the mean time.
One of the great things about Spike is that he thinks on his feet. It's been one of the staples of his character. For a guy who in his first episode proclaimed that demons don't change, Spike is wholly able to adapt to new situations very well. When he sees that his not-really-plan of getting passed the security guard vampires outside the casino isn't going to work, he simply switches to a new plan- let them take him to "the box" (what CSI: Las Vegas has taught me is where they hold cheaters, swindlers, and criminals in casinos before some big burly fellow starts breaking people's fingers) so that he can see who the higher-ups might be as he suspects that all the blag going on about the casino seems "low-rent" for W&H. Spike gives himself a mental pat on the back- "All going to the plan I didn't know I had."
However, Spike does have his weaknesses that are both easy to figure out and easy to exploit. When one doesn't have many friends and the friends that one does have are fragile humans, it doesn't take much for a Big Bad to latch onto them to make a vampire with a soul more complacent (if at first you don't succeed with Angel, try-try-again with his peroxided grandchilde). Spike's weakness is present in Jeremy Johns, his stalwart second-in-command during Spike: After the Fall and sci-fi convention enthusiast (Angel: Boys and Their Toys). Spike, for the most part, knows how to play the hero routine, knows the cliche things to do and say to let the baddies see he means business and won't be shoved around. He's not prepared, however, when the demon offers to show him everything that is going on with the spooky-doo in Las Vegas. For all his reliance on past experiences as both a villain and a hero to try and figure out what's a trap and what's not, Spike falls victim to one of the classic blunders. The first is never get involved in a land war in Asia, and the second, but only slightly lesser known, is never go through a portal opened by a potential bitter enemy that's zombified your friend as their emissary.
We finally meet our potential Little Bad of the remaining 6 issues of this series in the White Room... Um, White Penthouse... complete with Gunn's "big cat" being turned into a throw rug. I don't know if it was unintentional or not, but I have a feeling that the bar in the White Penthouse is a throwback to Lloyd's bar in The Shining. Heeeeeeere's Johnny! ... We don't know John. Spike might. He receives some flashback imagery of John's family followed by John standing in the dismembered remains of his family ( and I can only hope that Spike didn't kill them because, really, Brian Lynch used that plot device in Spike: Asylum, and it's really played... I don't think that that's where this is going but I felt the need to say it anyway) along with other images of our goatee'd Little Bad which start to mess with Spike's thoughts. It seems that W&H (or whatever W&H splinter group is kicking around) is controlling Jeremy's body is the real Big Bad, and that John is some kind of distraction (which will probably lead to a little reversal later), and that seems to be working as Spike is already convinced that John is the real threat to his person.
There is a sharp divide drawn between the Big Bad's approach and Spike's. As Brian stated oh-so-many months ago, this Big Bad had a lot of plans depending upon which Angel Investigations team member showed up in comparison to Spike's complete and total lack of plans. Spike is given a bevy of options by our not-so-friendly neighborhood evil lawyers-cum-casino-owners about how he can proceed- he can work for them, leave them alone while receiving free room and board, or just go away. Spike, true to form, refuses to accept any apples (or delicious libations) they offer. The demon/W&H tries to reason with Spike, noting that it would be he and not Angel who would recognize that not all evil was supernatural evil and not all evil is necessarily capital letters EVIL. Spike, again, is not swayed. Ah, but the Bads expected this too, but they still want to seduce Spike to their mode of thinking or get him to join them. However, there's a mentally unstable wrench that gets thrown in the Baddie's cogs when John proves to be totally sack of hammers. Whatever John is doing there, he's out to kill Spike... with a magic bazooka. You got that right. A magic fucking bazooka. Apparently, staying in the White Suite allows you to conjure up weapons of mass destruction... and little hobgoblin-y chambermaids when you get a bleach-blonde vampire's blood splattered all over every surface of the room. Also, the magic bazooka can shoot Spike in the torso from a few feet away WITHOUT completely obliterating every bit of tissue and bone between his neck and pelvis... but it can still blow out a huge chunk of the building... Yeah, that's comic book physics right there. I sorta wish that the Official Cannon from Spike: Shadow Puppets got to make a reappearance.
The Bad/Bads are having trouble controlling John, but they warn him that they can hurt "her," which we assume is Drusilla, which calms the ire of the man/sorta-man for the moment. Spike is saved from falling to a splattery not-death by Groo (who is the fourth member of the team Spike mentioned in issue #1) on his Cordy Dragon, which is both fortunate and convenient. Gotta love a Dragonus ex Machina!
Oh, Beck, Beck, Beck, Beck, Becky, Beck, Rebecka, Beck. What are we to do with you and your burn-y self? Beck is so afeared that Spike might be killed (and since he didn't really let her in on the plan that he didn't know he had) that she sets the two vampires guards on fire and causes a tourist stampede. She's got no impulse control, and Spike can do little more than scold her for her behavior. She needs a right slap in the face, but Spike tries for levity and snark. He seems to be unaware that Beck is not teenaged Dawn. Beck's an adult with mental instability as well as barely contained superpowers, and Spike's not really equipped to deal with her level of crazy at the moment. For a fella who's had a little experience with crazy people, you'd think he'd be a little better at his sales pitch, but I think that approaching Beck as he used to do with Drusilla wouldn't work either because she's not at that level of straight-jackety badness so, in the end, he's going to have to find another way to get through to her before they all get deep-fried. I think that Angel's advice might actually be fruitful in this one instance. Of course, Spike wasn't around when Angel and Faith were about to converse about impulses and not torturing people, so that phone call isn't likely. "Hey, Grandpop-sire, can you talk to my young female charge about restraining her preternatural gifts, kthxbai?"
The Art: Franco Urru's pencils are amazing as always. The colours are fab (ETA: Andrea Priorini). However, for the first time like ever, I am wholly disappointed overall with some of the artwork in a Lynch/Urru issue. My heart... is broken. *cries* I'm not sure who got the "additional pencils" credit in this issue (ETA: Nicola Zanni), but, sweet Jesus, I hope that they do not do anything else ever again in this series. I haven't seen a jump in styles this obvious and poorly done since Spike vs. Dracula #5. By page 9, we are greeted with the new non-Urru art... and it's pretty awful. We're talking no-concept-of-joints-and/or-proportions awful. The movement with additional pencils isn't bad (pretty fluid actually), but it just doesn't fit and doesn't hold a candle for Urru's pages.
And a new category...
The Typography: Dear Whoever is Responsible for Putting Copy on Clothing in These Comics, STOP IT. If you can't kern something properly, don't do it at all. That's Typography 101. You obviously can't deal with perspective with text without putting it through a computer-based program, and you've apparently never learned that the "typing on a path" is not always your friend unless you know how to scale and kern the text afterwards. I let the wretched job done on the "Team William" shirts go in the first issue, but no more! Stop skewing the damned font (you dishonor the designers of said font). Creating outlines only works if you know what the fuck you are doing, so stop it before you hurt yourself and make this comic look even more shabby. There are even jagged lines around the text which leads me to believe you are using a raster-based program for copy. NEVER DO THAT! ARGH! Copy should be vector ONLY. Stop using pre-made fonts and just get someone to draw the copy, please?
I give this issue a 6 out of 10. The artwork is only 70% good, and the plot has already become murky and confusing (not as confusing as Season Eight, but I've really begun to lose my patience with any and all BtVS/Ats-related books). I have no doubts that everything will turn out smashing in the end, and I blame a lot of this on the scripts for an ongoing series having to be cut down for 8 issues, but I expect better from an IDW Spike comic, especially one penned by Mr. Lynch.