Comics post, part 2
Jul. 9th, 2009 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beer_good_foamyThis might be my last comics review, I'm not sure. We'll see. Anyway, continuing on from the previous post:
#26, right away, makes the entire preceding arc more or less redundant in about 3 pages. Not necessarily by contradicting it, but simply by saying in just a few panels what the previous issues struggled to say in 22 pages each. No, we don't necessarily get a better picture of what the world looks like now and why, but if they're not going to have the whole "everybody lovesRaymvampires" storyline make sense, or use it as more than a plot device, they might as well do this: just tell us that's how the world is now, ask us to go with it, and then actually do something with it that puts the focus back on the characters.
GILES: I'd ask for an explanation and then express skepticism, demand to be convinced... but I don't think we have time.
Not that there's nothing to roll your eyes at here. For starters it's established yet again that s7 happened differently in this verse – specifically, that The First posing as Warren really was Warren, except presumably with skin rather than without; he must have pissed Amy off while they were trapped under Sunnydale and made her re-skin him. You'd think that unless they're actively trying to break continuity, they'd get it right at least 50% of the time or something. But at least they're using him for something specific, rather than something they could just as easily have had Random Henchman #43 do (as he himself says here, anyone can build a bomb). Also, seriously, steam trains in Germany? Sure, it's a subtler way of showing that we're in an alternate universe than the zeppelins that keep showing up in similar stories, and at least it's a few centuries up from #24, but... still. After 26 issues of steam trains, dozens of castles and quaint Italian villages, the nazi bunker that Faith and Giles hide out in seems to be by far the most modern construction in all of Europe. And then there's Buffy's rather sudden decision to...
But you know what? Screw that. Because at the same time, it also feels like the series is finally gathering momentum (granted, given how the last 10 issues fumbled around in the dark, it'd be hard not to). It's not just "hey, people are acting OOC in an anachronistic setting; tune in next month!" Here we finally get all the major characters interacting with each other, we get follow-up on a lot of the things planted in earlier issues, the writers suddenly seem to know what they want to do with the story and where it's going. If it weren't for the drawn-out nature of the comic and the numerous things we've been told won't be explained, I'd be tempted to say that it's a pretty brilliant setup; plant lots of little puzzle pieces and then put them together into one whole.
One interesting thing is how many themes that show up here are familiar from the season finales of the TV show. Buffy runs from Slayerhood, like she did at the end of s2 and the near end of s5. Willow seems to be going off the edge on the dark magic and flays people (well, demons) again, like she did at the end of s6. Giles rejoins them, also like the end of s6, and Faith like at the end of s7. And of course, Buffy's whole plan seems to be to find a way of undoing the spell at the end of s7 – not necessarily because it wasn't a good idea, though it's nice to see her actually ask herself if it was, but because she can't continue fighting the people who thought it was a bad idea and because she can't see who the good and the bad guys are anymore. Y'know, like at the end of s5. But it's issue 26 out of 40+, and all of this comes too early to have the last 14 issues run along those lines and remain reruns of things we've already seen (or so I hope). There are twists coming.
Rather than round up the plot, which I'm guessing most people is familiar with by now (if not, I'm betting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stormwreath's review has an excellent recap), I'll just look at where the characters seem to be now that we finally get to meet them all again.
Buffy.
The first few pages establish a couple of things: Buffy (and everyone else with her) is hiding from both humans and demons in yet another castle, and she is worried about Willow (as was already shown in Always Darkest). With good reason, it seems, especially since she finally tells someone what happened (will have happened... may yet happen... haven happenof maynoting) in the future. And Buffy actually being glad that Giles is back is a very welcome sight, even if I guess it means we'll never know why they had that falling-out in the first place. Her talk with him is very significant, and shows her finally voicing some of the same concerns that the story has been doing for the last 20 issues or so: that it takes more to not be a bad guy than just saying you're not; that no matter how good her intentions in "Chosen" were, that doesn't guarantee that the outcome was an undeniable Good; that the pressure being put on those she loves might be too much; that she'll end up a killer. Twilight has succeeded in his plan in #11: Buffy's lost her moral certainty. Considering where that moral certainty was leading her, this might well be a good thing. You have to tear things down to build them up again. This isn't about deciding whether the spell was a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to make the best of it, you have to look at the worst of it.
Of course, simply hiding until the monster goes away never once worked in any Jossverse. Fear is the little death, to quote a phrase.
UNKNOWN SLAYER WHO'S POSSIBLY SATSU: What are we waiting for? The judgement of history?
...and so she finally decides to take action. That she decides on Oz of all people is a little surprising – yes, the last time she saw him, an unknown number of years ago, he'd learned to control the werewolf somewhat, but that's a pretty specific and pretty individual problem – not to mention that he couldn't control it as much as he thought. Why not talk to someone who's actually, well, an expert on magic (asking Giles to actually think about it rather than panic along with her), an expert on controlling the demon within (she just dreamt about two of them), or, again, a PR consultant to take the heat off them? But even if it's more of a plan than the previous one, the overall plan is still to run and hide not only from others but from who she (and everyone else) is, and we already know how well that worked out for TV!Buffy in "Anne" or "The Weight Of The World." But if her plan is to de-power the Slayers now, at least we can be sure that that's not how it's going to eventually turn out.
Giles.
Not only don't we get any follow-up on his and Buffy's fall-out, but (hardly unexpectedly) no follow-up on Ethan's supposed death either, so I guess he's out of the running as Twilight. Again, you might argue that it's a bit weird for Giles, of all people, to say that they have no time to research the problem and look at alternative solutions, and to advocate simply hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks appear, but at least he's back to listening to people rather than giving them orders and telling them to go play with the other children. Which is very welcome. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
Willow.
Willow's taking on a lot, and one of her wiccas dying of "brain-fry" is a pretty strong reminder of the forces she's working with here. Much like in s5 and s6 ("You're my big gun, Willow") she's being encouraged to get more powerful both by the situation and her associates ("Use your magic! Get them inside! Turn into a seagull and fly me around so I don't have to drive a car!"). Of course, this all hinges on us buying that the still-unseen human danger to the Slayers is so bad that dropping the magic defenses which actually make the demons harder to fight simply isn't an option. Also, she's skinning again, which is obviously (some might say a tad too obviously) bad. In fact, it's so obviously bad that both Buffy and Giles (and possibly Faith) see it as being bad, so either they're going to repeat the s6 storyline (it's been done before in the comic, after all) or they're going to cause an even bigger problem by trying to stop her. Buffy certainly seems to already have decided on her behalf, both when it comes to quitting magic and potentially awkward meetings with ex-boyfriends. And lest we forget about how closely she's tied to the Slayer organisation, there's plenty of cute Willow/Kennedy scenes in this too.
Kennedy.
Is upset with Faith for whatever reason. Or possibly the other way around. I'm not sure which one is which in the big reunion scene, but there's certainly glaring and posturing going on. Maybe she told Faith about Satsu. Ah, Jeanty; the artist who'll show you how characters feel, but not who they are.
Faith.
Faith's reaction to the battle ("No no no, I'm done with this kind of crap") seems to contradict her final scene in #24, but of course #24 sucked and it's not her first 180 in the comic so far; she seems to be back roughly where she was at the start of NFFY in terms of not wanting to fight, but at the same time immediately steps up as Buffy's deputy. It makes little sense that she and Giles have such a hard time hiding from normal humans if they're really just normal humans – that's what Faith did for quite some time even before, after all, and supposedly Giles' end of their deal was to make this even easier for her – so I suppose we'll have to assume that normal authorities are now getting active help from Twilight. Her big falling-out with Buffy isn't addressed at all, but they only meet for like 10 seconds so let's hope there'll be more interaction coming up. Also, she gets to be sarcastic about Buffy's tactics:
FAITH: I knew it was stupid, going underground! Demons LIVE underground!
...which, much like her line about training being useless in #24, makes me wonder if she's going to occupy the long-vacant spot of resident snarker, and how that's going to play with Buffy. And as throughout Season 8, the Slayers are getting lumped in with the demons.
Dawn.
Is still in the story despite being returned to a human state, so so much for the Kenny arc being the only way to keep her around. She doesn't get to do much here, though I like her very reasonable suggestion of not inviting the demons in.
Andrew.
Gets to be rather mature, and is even badass enough to pun in the face of death. And he gets most of his Slayers out of the trap alive. Good for him, even if he's almost taken in by Warren's speech – if this were TV continuity, surely he'd know that that promise was made by The First? As I recall, they made a pretty big deal of him knowing and acknowledging the difference. It was sort of his turning point as a character. Oh well.
Xander.
Is everywhere, doing a lot, and yet being remarkably non-specific; he's support-o-guy throughout, keeping things rolling, pointing out the obvious ("There are cameras. These are the monitors") and doing very little else; he's certainly not in on any of the heavier discussions in this issue. Whether this is because he has nothing else to do or because he's hiding something... *shrug* Throughout Season 8, his arc has mostly been about enabling Buffy and not criticising her - in fact, encouraging her to not criticise herself. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Slayer Army.
Lots of deaths as the army shrinks from an unknown number to another unknown number, but nobody with a name or a familiar face gets killed so obviously it's mostly a way of showing how difficult their situation is getting. If that Asian Slayer is indeed Satsu, it seems they've abandoned the idea of squads around the world without mentioning it.Maybe with a smaller number of characters, some of them will actually be, y'know, characters?
Oz.
Come on, like you didn't see that coming.
UNKNOWN SLAYER: They're martyrs. They're into it.
Heh. Touché, Jane.
So, all in all, quite a good issue, with crackling dialogue, nice set-up for some personal conflicts, no huge wallbangers that we hadn't already handled, and a general feeling that things are finally moving forward. Given the poor setup of some of the ideas, it's as good as I could expect, and even feels a bit like a very welcome reboot of the comic. Let's rock'n'roll.
#26, right away, makes the entire preceding arc more or less redundant in about 3 pages. Not necessarily by contradicting it, but simply by saying in just a few panels what the previous issues struggled to say in 22 pages each. No, we don't necessarily get a better picture of what the world looks like now and why, but if they're not going to have the whole "everybody loves
GILES: I'd ask for an explanation and then express skepticism, demand to be convinced... but I don't think we have time.
Not that there's nothing to roll your eyes at here. For starters it's established yet again that s7 happened differently in this verse – specifically, that The First posing as Warren really was Warren, except presumably with skin rather than without; he must have pissed Amy off while they were trapped under Sunnydale and made her re-skin him. You'd think that unless they're actively trying to break continuity, they'd get it right at least 50% of the time or something. But at least they're using him for something specific, rather than something they could just as easily have had Random Henchman #43 do (as he himself says here, anyone can build a bomb). Also, seriously, steam trains in Germany? Sure, it's a subtler way of showing that we're in an alternate universe than the zeppelins that keep showing up in similar stories, and at least it's a few centuries up from #24, but... still. After 26 issues of steam trains, dozens of castles and quaint Italian villages, the nazi bunker that Faith and Giles hide out in seems to be by far the most modern construction in all of Europe. And then there's Buffy's rather sudden decision to...
But you know what? Screw that. Because at the same time, it also feels like the series is finally gathering momentum (granted, given how the last 10 issues fumbled around in the dark, it'd be hard not to). It's not just "hey, people are acting OOC in an anachronistic setting; tune in next month!" Here we finally get all the major characters interacting with each other, we get follow-up on a lot of the things planted in earlier issues, the writers suddenly seem to know what they want to do with the story and where it's going. If it weren't for the drawn-out nature of the comic and the numerous things we've been told won't be explained, I'd be tempted to say that it's a pretty brilliant setup; plant lots of little puzzle pieces and then put them together into one whole.
One interesting thing is how many themes that show up here are familiar from the season finales of the TV show. Buffy runs from Slayerhood, like she did at the end of s2 and the near end of s5. Willow seems to be going off the edge on the dark magic and flays people (well, demons) again, like she did at the end of s6. Giles rejoins them, also like the end of s6, and Faith like at the end of s7. And of course, Buffy's whole plan seems to be to find a way of undoing the spell at the end of s7 – not necessarily because it wasn't a good idea, though it's nice to see her actually ask herself if it was, but because she can't continue fighting the people who thought it was a bad idea and because she can't see who the good and the bad guys are anymore. Y'know, like at the end of s5. But it's issue 26 out of 40+, and all of this comes too early to have the last 14 issues run along those lines and remain reruns of things we've already seen (or so I hope). There are twists coming.
Rather than round up the plot, which I'm guessing most people is familiar with by now (if not, I'm betting
stormwreath's review has an excellent recap), I'll just look at where the characters seem to be now that we finally get to meet them all again.Buffy.
The first few pages establish a couple of things: Buffy (and everyone else with her) is hiding from both humans and demons in yet another castle, and she is worried about Willow (as was already shown in Always Darkest). With good reason, it seems, especially since she finally tells someone what happened (will have happened... may yet happen... haven happenof maynoting) in the future. And Buffy actually being glad that Giles is back is a very welcome sight, even if I guess it means we'll never know why they had that falling-out in the first place. Her talk with him is very significant, and shows her finally voicing some of the same concerns that the story has been doing for the last 20 issues or so: that it takes more to not be a bad guy than just saying you're not; that no matter how good her intentions in "Chosen" were, that doesn't guarantee that the outcome was an undeniable Good; that the pressure being put on those she loves might be too much; that she'll end up a killer. Twilight has succeeded in his plan in #11: Buffy's lost her moral certainty. Considering where that moral certainty was leading her, this might well be a good thing. You have to tear things down to build them up again. This isn't about deciding whether the spell was a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to make the best of it, you have to look at the worst of it.
Of course, simply hiding until the monster goes away never once worked in any Jossverse. Fear is the little death, to quote a phrase.
UNKNOWN SLAYER WHO'S POSSIBLY SATSU: What are we waiting for? The judgement of history?
...and so she finally decides to take action. That she decides on Oz of all people is a little surprising – yes, the last time she saw him, an unknown number of years ago, he'd learned to control the werewolf somewhat, but that's a pretty specific and pretty individual problem – not to mention that he couldn't control it as much as he thought. Why not talk to someone who's actually, well, an expert on magic (asking Giles to actually think about it rather than panic along with her), an expert on controlling the demon within (she just dreamt about two of them), or, again, a PR consultant to take the heat off them? But even if it's more of a plan than the previous one, the overall plan is still to run and hide not only from others but from who she (and everyone else) is, and we already know how well that worked out for TV!Buffy in "Anne" or "The Weight Of The World." But if her plan is to de-power the Slayers now, at least we can be sure that that's not how it's going to eventually turn out.
Giles.
Not only don't we get any follow-up on his and Buffy's fall-out, but (hardly unexpectedly) no follow-up on Ethan's supposed death either, so I guess he's out of the running as Twilight. Again, you might argue that it's a bit weird for Giles, of all people, to say that they have no time to research the problem and look at alternative solutions, and to advocate simply hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks appear, but at least he's back to listening to people rather than giving them orders and telling them to go play with the other children. Which is very welcome. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
Willow.
Willow's taking on a lot, and one of her wiccas dying of "brain-fry" is a pretty strong reminder of the forces she's working with here. Much like in s5 and s6 ("You're my big gun, Willow") she's being encouraged to get more powerful both by the situation and her associates ("Use your magic! Get them inside! Turn into a seagull and fly me around so I don't have to drive a car!"). Of course, this all hinges on us buying that the still-unseen human danger to the Slayers is so bad that dropping the magic defenses which actually make the demons harder to fight simply isn't an option. Also, she's skinning again, which is obviously (some might say a tad too obviously) bad. In fact, it's so obviously bad that both Buffy and Giles (and possibly Faith) see it as being bad, so either they're going to repeat the s6 storyline (it's been done before in the comic, after all) or they're going to cause an even bigger problem by trying to stop her. Buffy certainly seems to already have decided on her behalf, both when it comes to quitting magic and potentially awkward meetings with ex-boyfriends. And lest we forget about how closely she's tied to the Slayer organisation, there's plenty of cute Willow/Kennedy scenes in this too.
Kennedy.
Is upset with Faith for whatever reason. Or possibly the other way around. I'm not sure which one is which in the big reunion scene, but there's certainly glaring and posturing going on. Maybe she told Faith about Satsu. Ah, Jeanty; the artist who'll show you how characters feel, but not who they are.
Faith.
Faith's reaction to the battle ("No no no, I'm done with this kind of crap") seems to contradict her final scene in #24, but of course #24 sucked and it's not her first 180 in the comic so far; she seems to be back roughly where she was at the start of NFFY in terms of not wanting to fight, but at the same time immediately steps up as Buffy's deputy. It makes little sense that she and Giles have such a hard time hiding from normal humans if they're really just normal humans – that's what Faith did for quite some time even before, after all, and supposedly Giles' end of their deal was to make this even easier for her – so I suppose we'll have to assume that normal authorities are now getting active help from Twilight. Her big falling-out with Buffy isn't addressed at all, but they only meet for like 10 seconds so let's hope there'll be more interaction coming up. Also, she gets to be sarcastic about Buffy's tactics:
FAITH: I knew it was stupid, going underground! Demons LIVE underground!
...which, much like her line about training being useless in #24, makes me wonder if she's going to occupy the long-vacant spot of resident snarker, and how that's going to play with Buffy. And as throughout Season 8, the Slayers are getting lumped in with the demons.
Dawn.
Is still in the story despite being returned to a human state, so so much for the Kenny arc being the only way to keep her around. She doesn't get to do much here, though I like her very reasonable suggestion of not inviting the demons in.
Andrew.
Gets to be rather mature, and is even badass enough to pun in the face of death. And he gets most of his Slayers out of the trap alive. Good for him, even if he's almost taken in by Warren's speech – if this were TV continuity, surely he'd know that that promise was made by The First? As I recall, they made a pretty big deal of him knowing and acknowledging the difference. It was sort of his turning point as a character. Oh well.
Xander.
Is everywhere, doing a lot, and yet being remarkably non-specific; he's support-o-guy throughout, keeping things rolling, pointing out the obvious ("There are cameras. These are the monitors") and doing very little else; he's certainly not in on any of the heavier discussions in this issue. Whether this is because he has nothing else to do or because he's hiding something... *shrug* Throughout Season 8, his arc has mostly been about enabling Buffy and not criticising her - in fact, encouraging her to not criticise herself. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Slayer Army.
Lots of deaths as the army shrinks from an unknown number to another unknown number, but nobody with a name or a familiar face gets killed so obviously it's mostly a way of showing how difficult their situation is getting. If that Asian Slayer is indeed Satsu, it seems they've abandoned the idea of squads around the world without mentioning it.Maybe with a smaller number of characters, some of them will actually be, y'know, characters?
Oz.
Come on, like you didn't see that coming.
Sidebar: if Season 8 is indeed gearing up towards an attempt to get rid of everything "magic" or "supernatural" from the Buffyverse (or at least the Dark Horse portion thereof, as I'm sure IDW would have something to say about it if their entire cast was reduced to Gunn, but of course Angel canon is finished for the time being and it's not like they're going to actually do it anyway)... then how do you define that? I mean, this is Lovecraft territory; according to Buffyverse lore, the Old Ones were there first. They are natural, as are vampires, demons, gods, warlocks, magic, etc. In our world, it's easy to define: supernatural is that which cannot be explained by natural phenomena. But here, they are actual, explainable, empirically proven to exist, tangible and as real as anything else – Willow even claims magic works according to the laws of physics. How are you supposed to get rid of something like that? How do Buffyverse characters, from their horizon, look at things and deem this natural, that supernatural, this scientific, that magical? And what would be the consequences if you did get rid of it – would it be just a huge cosmic retcon undoing the entire world?Anyway. The metaphor of martyrs (and demons) living underground is obvious (as are the numerous references to Slayers as both nazis and holocaust victims), and doing a nice job of continuing to connect them with both heroes and villains; maybe Buffy will eventually become pope. But at least the early Roman persecution of Christians is fairly well-documented (if over-romanticized in some circles) unlike the human persecution of Slayers, leading yet again to the question of why the hell they would put themselves in this situation to begin with, and what they're actually trying to do about i-
UNKNOWN SLAYER: They're martyrs. They're into it.
Heh. Touché, Jane.
So, all in all, quite a good issue, with crackling dialogue, nice set-up for some personal conflicts, no huge wallbangers that we hadn't already handled, and a general feeling that things are finally moving forward. Given the poor setup of some of the ideas, it's as good as I could expect, and even feels a bit like a very welcome reboot of the comic. Let's rock'n'roll.
