S8 Comics-- Issue #36

[ms_scarletibis]

So yeah, I realize I'm way behind, and I didn't read anyone's thoughts on this issue.  In fact, I just read it.  There were some things that stuck out in my mind as interesting, curious, off putting or just plain yucky.

Thanks to Emmie for the screencaps.

Comments

[flake_sake]

It was Angel who tipped the scale for me. Why turn a layered interesting intelligent character into a complete douchebag just to fit into a plot that bad?

And now that they are turning Buffy into a character like that as well it becomes even less interesting.

I was waiting for Spike but now that he's here I find that him interacting with those flat shadows of former characters doesn't satisfy me at all.

Buffy was a show that really used to overwhelm me. On other shows you usually got a funny moment or a really cool line in the middle of a lot of boring cliches, on Buffy you got the goodness by the bucket. You thought, wouldn't be cool if...and Buffy went there. But with the comics Buffy has just become like Charmed or something of the sort. There might be a funny line here, a glimpse of potential there, but overall it's just agonizingly lame.

If it was something new, I'd probably just not get into it, but as it is Buffy, which already was so incredibly much better, it's painful to read.

[ms_scarletibis]

But there's something morbidly fascinating about it in a way, isn't it?

I haven't read every issue, but upon Spike's return and the sex frakking, I've popped back in. I still very much don't like it, but here I am...reading it and posting thoughts :P

It's something to talk about; just not something of quality (or substance). IMO, natch.

[flake_sake]

Yeah that's pretty much how I saw it a few months ago. If nothing else they are triggering neat crackfic and generate funny reviews to tear them apart. But lately they also seem to cause a lot of drama and splits within fandom and I really think they're so not worth that.

I agree on the morbidly fascinating though. I'll read the final issues for completism if for nothing else.

[ms_scarletibis]

But lately they also seem to cause a lot of drama and splits within fandom and I really think they're so not worth that.

Agreed.

And agreed again on the final issues.

Though I must be honest--had it not been for the entry of Spike, I wouldn't have bothered with even that. He suckered me into the comics just like he suckered me back into s5 (cause I stopped watching halfway through s4 initially).

[jacobs_muse]

God, the dialogue in these comics is SO BAD!! I can't even imagine the actors saying most of it every time I see a few panels.

Not my canon. It amazes me people get so upset about these things with the storylines being so absurd from day one. This isn't a serious continuation of BTVS. It's crack!fic. Sci-fi/fantasy already gets a bad rap as beneath other genres, so Joss really doesn't need to be making our own fandom laugh and point at the ridiculousness. Let the comics die.

[ms_scarletibis]

This too is a valid point :P

When I think about that Twilight impersonation cover, it makes me think that Joss is saying that he knows what he's writing is ca ca, but he doesn't care cause it sells, much like Meyers work. Although, I don't think she's aware of the tripe she writes...I think it'd be nifty if someone could ask him if he's taking the comics seriously.

[jacobs_muse]

Yeah, I think she was writing the best she was able, sadly.

[speakr2customrs]

The "bonk (which should be "boink," right?) the bad guy" line

Actually 'bonk' is English English for 'boink' and therefore, as Spike is English, perfectly correct usage.

They actually got something right! It has to have been by accident.

[moscow_watcher]

They actually got something right!

Hasn't Joss spent several years in Britain in his youth? It could explain his knowledge of English slang.

[quinara]

*pops in via Petzi*

AFAIK Joss spent a few years here at one of the poshest schools in the country during the 80s - it's led to some very strange misconceptions of what the modern UK is like. (And is probably the reason why Spike often sounds like he never left 1983, rather than just looking like it...) Joss's Britslang making sense often, er, seems more like accident than design, though I suppose we tend to have more of an idea of what he's trying to say...

[eleusis_walks]

Yeah my understanding from British viewers is that Spike in particular is awful when it comes to accurate slang. That works for me though because he's been travelling the world a long time.

[moscow_watcher]

So...the Master's back? Anyone following the comics closer than I am care to explain that one?

My pet theory is that the space-frak has restored him. Space-frak had caused several crucial events in the past and the future (Fray's slayer-ness, Willow getting her powers back). Restoring The Master in some point of the past was one of them. So The Master had to set up Angel to frak Buffy to be restored. All the "powers without names" are The Master's machinations.

[ms_scarletibis]

It's an interesting theory. However, how could the Master, pre-restoration, set up Angel to shag Buffy?

[moscow_watcher]

I think it's called a "time loop" or something like that.

The space-frak in 2010 restores The Master in, say, 2005. He researches the circumstances of his restoration and finds out that he got back thanks to space-frak that has to happen five years later. So he uses the all-powerful Seed to make Angel believe that he has to frak Buffy to save the world.

I know it's pretty non-sensical, but time-travel *is* non-sensical per se. :)

[ms_scarletibis]

Wow...

Alrighty then :p