Comics post, part 1

[beer_good_foamy]

I haven't written anything about the comics in a while, so I might as well do a roundup of the latest couple of Season 8 installments. But since #26 is taking its sweet time getting here so I haven't actually read it yet, I'll do it in two parts.

Tales of the Vampires. Now, this wasn't bad in any way, in fact it was pretty damn good as a stand-alone original fic, but just a bit frustrating. It was hinted that this one-shot would finally address the alleged paradigm shift in the Buffyverse - that billions of people now love vampires unconditionally while those fighting them are hated and feared. You know, the thing that's been mentioned 3 or 4 times in passing in the last 5 issues of the comics.

When toothsome vampire Harmony Kendall landed her own reality show the world changed for everyone – humans, demons and Slayers alike. Quite seemlessly, humanity accepted – no, welcomed the existence of supernatural beings in their midst. (...) No one saw this coming.

No one? Funny, considering that the basic plot boils down to a repeat of something that was already firmly established in the TV series years ago ("Lie To Me", "Into The Woods", "Salvage", Gunn's entire pre-s3 arc, etc): that there are outsider groups who are well aware of vampires, that there are bored emo kids on the fringes of society who think vampires are cool and like to get their blood sucked, and that once you're turned into a vampire you basically become an asshole who's usually better off dust lest you kill (and metaphorically rape) your friends and family. There's one or two comments about vampires and humans having become "symbiotic", but it never moves beyond the settings or interactions that we already knew from the TV shows – certainly nothing trying to explain how the overwhelming majority of this not just fairly intelligent, but also inherently suspicious and rather xenophobic race we call humans supposedly immediately accepted one of the most well-known fictional monsters to their collective bosom based only on an MTV reality show. No one saw it coming? It's supposedly here, and I still don't see it. It's nice that the comics use some of the storylines from the TV series, I guess, but it's a weird setup; we're not supposed to wonder too much about the bits where the comics differ quite a lot from the TV series, but we're supposed to believe that some other aspects of the story make up huge "game changers" despite looking remarkably like business as usual. But I suppose we'll just have to accept Allie's comment that "magic of some kind" is involved (does this story make any sense at all to those who don't read blurbs, letter columns and Q&As? Do those readers even know that all of humanity supposedly "welcomed" vampires?) and eventually Willow will do a counterspell and that'll be that.

That said, it was pretty well-written and made good use of the idea - the TV series rarely showed us the voluntary victims' and subsequent vampires' POV, so that was nice even if it's rather bleak. Strip it of its supernatural trappings and the setting is really Clerks (or possibly SubUrbia) with the original ending, where Dante gets shot and killed for no good reason, and without the humour. Even if I'm left wondering (much like the Kenny thing) if we're really supposed to sympathise with this particular monster. Because, y'know, I really don't. As far as I can tell, the message here is "Jay was an idiot, vampires are still as bad as they ever were, and anyone with half a brain should be able to see that." If any vampires at all, anywhere in the world, are indeed following Harmony's party line that they don't kill people (which Jay buys into even as he's killing his best friend – self-delusion is an important part of any Jossverse), they seem to be in the minority. We're certainly yet to see any of them trying to go the straight and narrow for real, and this issue makes a pretty big point of why they neither will nor can; as both Jay and May show quite clearly, they don't even understand what it means to not kill people. It's not so much a continued muddling of the post-Spike waters as a return to showing them as monsters - not because they're necessarily evil, but because they cannot tell the difference.

Alex is an interesting, if not very developed character, stressing again (far better than in the dismal #24) that Slayers don't really get to not be Slayers even if they don't want to; and I really don't think it's coincidental that the whole thing ends with her, once again, being turned into something else without getting a say-so. If this were headed towards a conclusion in which Buffy takes back the "Chosen" spell, which I don't for a second think it is, then this comic would seem to be a pretty big indication that that would be a good thing. But of course, as many people pointed out after Scott Allie's recent "what if" scenario, TV!Buffy's strength was always that when faced with the two crappy alternatives A and B, she usually managed to find a C.

The message so far seems to be: no, Slayers don't draw strength from each other. But as we already know from the show, and as this shows, they don't survive in complete isolation either. So what's path C here?

The Dark Horse Myspace Presents was hysterically fun, even if the wedding scene was weird with no groom present. As one of the very few peeks into Buffy's head we've had throughout Season 8, it's definitely interesting. Even if it's mostly played for laughs, it's got some interesting darker themes woven in. Buffy, once again, is disconnected from everything, doesn't draw strength from her army, yada yada yada. Her lovers hook up with each other rather than her (a pretty strong indication that she knows Spike joined the cast of Angel, perhaps), and none of her actual family show up at her dream wedding – not Dawn, not Joyce, not Hank, not Giles; Xander is standing best man for Warren, Willow is being held by Dark Willow, and Tara blames Buffy for being dead. And both the bride's and the groom's sides are full of monsters. Apparently there's some debate as to whether this is a Slayer dream or just a normal dream – who cares? All Jossverse dreams are prophetic to some degree, all of them contain a lot of sneaky character study, and they usually have a dream character who guides and narrates the story for the dreamer. Here, the role previously filled by Tara, or the First Slayer, or Cordelia, or Ethan, is played by... Caleb. Who essentially tells her that she belongs here in the dark dirt, with him. Yeah, Buffy really needs a vacation. Nice to finally see the characters looking like themselves, too. Plus, hey, Buffy knows Angel and Spike better than just about anybody, so her opinion has to count for something, right? ;-)

Still... it's been about a year since we had any advancement of the semi-titular Twilight plot, and it's been about 6 months since we had any overarching plot involving a major character to speak of at all (and we don't even know the significance of that plot yet). Fortunately, the upcoming arc seems to promise something along those lines, even if the Slayers messing with South Korea's ability to defend itself has some unfortunate RL connotations. Maybe Satsu turns out to be one of Kim Jong Il's spies? Maybe Oz has gone evil along with Riley? Maybe Willow, taking a tip from Dawn, asks Warren's forgiveness? Well, I'm sure most of you already know, but for now I'll have to wait to find out. But Part II of this post will be around eventually.

Comments

[shapinglight]

I agree with you completely about the Tales of the Vampires. It's not a bad story in itself but it does very little to explain why it is that people everywhere are supposed to love vampires now and hate slayers. Instead, it raises more questions, because it leaves you with the impression that this is something that has been going on insidiously for years, and yet Alex specifically links it to Harmony's TV show.

I should stop expecting this comic to make sense, I suppose, but it still irritates me that one of the most major plot points of the series has been set up so badly.

[xlivvielockex.livejournal.com]

Count me in as one of the readers that isn't reading all the Q&A and the interviews and any of that. I just don't care enough to bother reading all this supplemental information that is becoming more and more clear people need to be reading. Here is a novel idea, instead of doing interviews and Q&A, put it into the actual story. Wow. I know, it is kind of revolutionary so I doubt it will catch on!

I do love your comics reviews though, if only because I haven't bothered to think of the big questions. I am still buying the comics, reading them, but it feels like beach trash to me, the kind of things you to take on vacation and don't think too much about. It's pretty sad that a tv series that used to make me think and debate now has been reduced to something I read in the car while waiting for my husband.

I think I might be the only person in the world that is pissed off about the Dark Horse Presents. We've been told the whole time that Spike and Angel could only be used sparingly in the Dark Horse line and this is what they chose to do with them? No resolutions, no appearances. Nope, the only time we see Spike and Angel is in Buffy's dreams. I can't jump on the oh! it's so funny! bandwagon because if this is how they are going to use the limited appearances they are allowed, what is the point? It would be nice to have more than that.

Then again, considering the rest of the comics so far, having more has pretty much been my constant complaint.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

The Spangel panels were definitely funny, but, plotwise, I saw them as a (pretty lame) wrap-up of what seemed one of the most intriguing secrets - "the betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected". Looks like it's the same time, same place - so, unless it's a mislead, in issue 10 Robyn meant Spike not contacting Buffy after his resurrection.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see you haven't given up sharing your reactions to the comics -- I always look forward to them.

I agree with you that Alex shows that slayers can't not be slayers, but oddly others take her as evidence of the exact opposite conclusion. Your comments make me realize that I've been naively supposing that the slayer spell will have to be undone. But you're right that it was originally meant to be seen as "good" -- which would point us at plan "c". My problem is that I don't see *any* good in the comics. So if it's supposed to be there, it's there the way the "whole world loves vampires" story line is there, i.e. assumed but not shown.

I completely agree that if the comics don't do more to explain/show this world-changing event there's a serious, if not fatal flaw to the whole project. I love doing meta on Joss's material, but if you can't tell the difference between intentional omissions and careless omissions it becomes really hard to know how to read the thing.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

The not-showing, but telling of humanity turning on the Slayers is a serious problem for Season 8. More serious to me than all the crackilicious targets because it's a problem with the plot, the telling and not showing. We haven't had humans shown as a viable threat since Long Way Home and Safe (which doesn't exist in my mind, really). But even in Safe, it's an isolated event in a crazy town. Not the global movement against Slayers that we should be seeing via newsbroadcasts and even lynchings on the street. Actually having humans attack Slayers, humans that aren't connected to the Watcher's Council or Twilight - that has still yet to be shown.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

There's one or two comments about vampires and humans having become "symbiotic",
Maybe you read a different version of the comic than me. There’s one comment that vampires and humans are symbiotic but it’s attached to May’s explanation that vampires can live openly as long as humans trust them mot to kill. Turning isn’t counted as killing by ordinary humans like Jacob’s mother – as far as she’s concerned vampire Jacob is still her little boy. We see vampire’s feed, we see them sire but by what we’ve been shown is that by the ordinary human definition of killing (see previous sentence) no humans are killed in the course of this issue. It could be that these attitudes aren’t representative but it’s a story. Why tell it if it doesn’t tell us anything about the world? Moreover, the world actually makes sense if you assume that Jacob’s town is typical. The difference between this and Lie to Me is that the world has changed enough for Chanterele and Co to have real evidence for their view that vampires are no more dangerous than drunk drivers and a cleaner safer alternative to drugs.

Certainly nothing trying to explain how the overwhelming majority of this not just fairly intelligent, but also inherently suspicious and rather xenophobic race we call humans supposedly immediately accepted one of the most well-known fictional monsters to their collective bosom based only on an MTV reality show.
In the real world sure but the Buffyverse ain’t real. In the real world it’s simply not credible that humanity could ignore the existence of vampires and demons if they were real and as depicted on the show. If you can accept that fiction for the sake of the story, then the idea that most people have shifted from convincing themselves that demons aren’t real (in the face of all the evidence we’ve seen to the contrary) to convincing themselves that vampires are harmless hardly seems a problem.

Alex is an interesting, if not very developed character, stressing again (far better than in the dismal #24) that Slayers don't really get to not be Slayers even if they don't want to; and I really don't think it's coincidental that the whole thing ends with her, once again, being turned into something else without getting a say-so.
In #24 (which I agree was dismal) the Slayer who says she never wanted to be Slayer turns out only to be saying it because her fight wasn’t going so well and there in the first place because she wanted to get out there andfight the good fight. Alex wasn’t a Slayer to all intents and purposes until she staked May in a very human fit of jealous rage and regretted it only because she didn’t want to fight Jacob. Identity’s a complicated thing. I’d guess most of us have wanted not to be who we are at some point but it’s rarely a long term solution to anything.

[candleanfeather.livejournal.com]

Not following the comics, apart reading the reviews, makes it hard to comment on anything, but from what I've seen here and there even their physical representation confirms this "return to showing them as monsters": their bestial/demonic traits seem greatly accentuated in regard to how they appeared in the show.

And once again you put your finger on something that doesn't make feel at ease in JW work : being unable to tell the difference between good and bad makes you a monster who by all means has to be staked. When the show aired I loved how they slowly changed Spike's approach from an "oh, he's baddy, bad, bad" vilain to a much more subtil view of him : that in spite of all the changes he was going through, in spite of all his efforts at being good he was still lacking something fundamental (the soul) that made him able to have a real grasp on moral questions. The way they used it gave a tragic dimension to his character and to his efforts. Now the way they use this inabilaty seems to be more like a condamnation, which feels to me like blaming someone for a handicap. What I don't like either is how easy it is to relate this to RL situation (even though it's not the author's intent)and certain political ideologies : if you want to go with the most evident, sociopaths too are unable to feel any empathy towards others but if they can be condemned for crimes they committed, they can't be condemned for who they are: it's not something they choose. What I want to say, is that JW, and the authors who participate in S8, by showing morally impaired monsters are,whether they want it or not asking morally complicated questions about these monsters but that their refusal to acknowledge this complexity (because that's not the story they are telling)leaves the door open to interpretations that couldn't be called, er, let's say, "humanist".