Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 #2

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens,

Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover By: Jo Chen

Where We Are: This story takes place after the end of BTVS, S7… The Slayer population of the world has gone from two to nearly two thousand. Almost five hundred are working around the world with Buffy’s organization in squads – or “terrorist cells”, according to the American military. Buffy, Xander, Dawn and a passel of Slayers are currently bunked out in a Scottish castle, where the latest mission revealed a strange symbol carved into human bodies.

Also, Dawn’s a giant.

Page 1: A cup of steaming coffee (or tea with cream) is sitting on a table. In a ‘narrator blurb’ we read, “I used to be a Watcher.”

Page 2 & 3: It’s Giles! Of course. Oh, how he was missed in Issue 1 – he’s not in Scotland.

His narration continues, “The organization existed since before there were cities. The Watchers’ Council, always moving, always secret, but very much alive. There were hundreds of Watchers. And one Slayer.

“Scales have tipped of late.”

Giles is overseeing a large group of those 500 mentioned in the ‘Where We Are’ section. Giles calls a halt to the fighting exercise he is overseeing. He compliments the Slayers on their fighting skills, but then informs them that despite their excellent form, it is all useless. They, you see, are fighting alone and not as a team. They get in each other’s way, they’re not protecting one another’s back and failing to use their single most valuable asset….

Page 4 & 5: We shift to Buffy and her trainees. She finishes Giles’ lesson “… each other.” Buffy calls on three of her Slayers, Leah (the red headed Scottish lass), Satsu (Asian, and who wore a cat mask last issue) and Rowena (blonde and favors baseball caps):

“Would the three of you please kick my ass?”

Buffy, naturally defeats her three teammates… and quite easily:

“Three perfectly valid avenues of attack, good form – on three seasoned, well-trained corpses, one of whom, sidebar: has her best hair ever; Satsu, you’re making me think I need a new look. See me after. So. Let’s break this down. The first clue this was going downhill? Clearly….”

Page 6 & 7: We skip over to Andrew’s team around a camp fire. His lesson is less instructive, as he probably isn’t completing Buffy’s pointers:

“… Lando Calrissian’s outfit. And I know a lot of you were going to say Ewoks, but that’s too easy.”

One of his Slayer’s, a punk-rocky, pink-haired, Mohawk sort has to repeat the question which Andy was supposed to have been answering before obviously getting off on his Star Wars tangent. It’s a question that, no doubt, every single fan has asked – “Why don’t we get a gun?”

Andrew’s response is less than satisfactory and he quickly moves on to headbutts. I do believe that Ms. I-Want-A-Gun will be named Simone. (I just jumped to the future of Issue 23 – and yes, it’s Simone… and yes, she will be a problem.)

Page 8 & 9: Xander is commiserating with Dawn re: Buffy’s continual lack of attention to her sister in order to spend all her time with her fellow Slayer “sisters”.

Xan starts to suspect that perhaps Dawnie made herself a giantess on purpose in order to gain some of Buffy’s attention. Dawn is also using a lake as a bathtub.

Page 10: Xan gets a giant wave of water in answer.

Elsewhere, at “Drextalcorp Recycling Technologies”, which ‘natch is a fake, General “Slayers-Are-Terrorists” is talking to a suit, for which, he has little respect. The skinny – an ‘op’ is taking place that night against Buffy.

Page 11: While suit-guy is trying to convince the General to let Amy and her magic handle the ‘op’, but General clearly would rather find Buffy’s site and nuke her.

Page 12: A mention is made of the “monstrosity that [Amy] calls a boyfriend”. But the main point of this page is to show that the General has a scar carved into his manly chest… a scar matching the corpses that Buffy found last issue. “Twilight”.

Page 13: Xander and Buffy are talking in the hallway of her castle fortress. Again, it’s about Dawn’s current giantess issue, her Thricewise demon dating and Buffy’s continuing ‘guilt’ complex.

There’s also a HUGE shock – Buffy:

“I’m sorry. I’m tired. Just tell me now, so we don’t have to do a whole awkward-dance… are you coming to bed?”

SAY WHA!?!

Page 14: Xander tries to tell Buffy that it would be a horrible mistake, but Buffy’s not hearing it… she swears that this time she can be gentle!

She lip-locks Xan in a way that he has been dreaming of since S1…

… and his head pops off: “So, gentle.”, says he.

“Oh, balls.” says Buffy.

OH – BALLS, is right! A big dream-tease! Joss, you are evil and must be punished! Possibly with a harness, ball-gag and whip of some sort.

Xander’s disembodied head also shares that Buffy’s floor lint is “so Scottish”. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s very funny.

Page 15: Buffy’s dream gets more disturbing as she’s pulled out of a window and then skewered through her hands and feet by a giant demon’s claws. He adds fire and begs her to keep screaming for his delight.

Page 16: In the real world, Amy is standing over Buffy with a sacrificial dagger. The door bursts open with Xander (in cute PJs) and a Slayer Squad. Buffy is still unconscious and her wrists and ankles are being held tightly by magical shackles.

Page 17: Amy’s dagger plunges down into Buffy before Xan can intervene and she screams. Amy gets a crossbow bolt through the shoulder, but she’s already delivered the dagger!

“Oh my God.” Xander says.

Page 18: Xander continues… picking up a dagger that has been ruined, “This is the crappiest sacrificial dagger I’ve ever seen.” HAH – Another Fake-out.

He continues, “You really think we let Buffy sleep without mystical protection? This isn’t open-wand night in Sunnydale, Sweetcheeks. You’re dealing with pros.”

“Open-wand night”… lol… I’m in love with Xander Harris. And, possibly Joss a little bit.

But, Amy isn’t finished by a long shot. As she points out, Buffy is still asleep – she’s been placed in a mystic nightmare that can only be broken by a kiss of true love.

Amy has a big mouth, on top of her amateur-magic hour.

Page 19: On a parapet, a pair of Slayer guards gab. One of these is Renee… Ms. Flirty to Xander from Issue 1 (she of the “nerd points are accumulating nicely”). The discussion of Xan is interrupted by sounds of ‘clawing’.

Page 20: Looking over the parapet, we see a large amount of grody-looking zombies climbing up the walls of the Slayer castle.

In the meantime, back in Buff’s bedroom, Xan is interrogating Amy on this whole mystic nightmare spell… he double checks that a sister’s kiss wouldn’t do the trick –

“Well, a twisted sister…” is Amy’s response.

“Ha! But no, I hate you.”

Page 21: Xander musters the troops when he finds out that zombies have breached security. In addition, he points out to Amy that she can’t go anywhere. She needles him about trying a ‘true love’ kiss to wake Buffy….

Page 22: Slayers vs. Zombies. In Buffy’s nightmare, she’s suffering pain and is curled into a ball of suffering.

An off-panel voice tells her that she can’t give up quite yet, however.

Page 23: “I have so much I need to show you,” says a mystery man whose face we don’t see. He’s dressed in a long leather coat and a red T-Shirt. First impression – Spike!

But this is Buffy dreaming, so it could be another humorous fake-out.

Elsewhere – Satsu informs Xander via com-link that headshots aren’t killing the zombies as expected (Romero-shout out!)

Back in Buffy’s bedroom – Amy is gloating that with all of the Slayers present, there’s no one who can take her on…

“As a friend of mine once said…” another off-panel voice states…

Page 24: “… I’d like to test that theory.”

Yes! And a perfect entrance line, too!

The Good: Oh, my goodness… the dialog! Xander is perfect throughout (well, this is Joss scripting after all).

I’ve warmed up to the idea of Amy as main villainess for this first arc… with one reservation, see below.

The artwork, with reservations (see below).

The twists… especially the Xan/Buffy pairing fake-out.

The fake-out with Amy’s dagger of doom – and I LOVE that the Scoobies are way ahead of her before she even starts.

Willow’s entrance… perfection.

The Bad: I really don’t want to give any ‘bads’ because I loved this issue… but… Giles and Andrew present artwork problems. Now, it’s hard to say if it’s the artist, or the issues one runs into with using actors’ likenesses from the legal perspective, but Andrew, especially, does not look Andrew-like.

Again, poor Dawn is getting short-shrifted as a character … how much more “Buffy doesn’t pay attention to me” do we have to hear from her. Give her something Scooby-ish to do (remember S7 and her researching) or send her back to Berkeley and have her show up only occasionally as a guest-star.

Concerns: I have some concerns about Giles’ and Buffy’s looks this time out (but again, is it the artist or just legal issues with actors’ likenesses?). I can’t name exactly what bothers me about Buffy this time, since I didn’t have an issue with her not being SMG-like in issue 1 – maybe because I was just so excited still that Buffy’s tale continues.

Amy still concerns me with the amount of raw power she’s showing (teleporting? Remember when Willow could only do that as Uber-Wills?) If magic isn’t treated carefully, it could easily become deux ex machina with no internal consistency.

Willow’s hideous dress – very Renaissance Faire.

The Score: Wow, what a terrifically written issue full to bursting with the Xan-Humor I love so dearly. There’s also quite a bit going on, so the issue is always moving forward. We get to see two of our missing and the coming Willow vs. Amy has me tingling. The only downside is Dawn’s continued whining about her problems with Buffy – we did this for a whole season, already. But, I still love nearly everything about Issue #2 of Buffy. It’s better than Angel: After the Fall and miles above Spike: After the Fall #2.

The Xander-Buffy not-pairing.

Amy's backup.


  The Scoobies' backup.

4.75 out of 5-stars.

One last note – during the Buffy run, I wasn’t a Buffy/Xan shipper. I liked them strictly as friends… best friends. But with time and distance from the series, I think I’m ready for them to get a heck of a lot closer now, if Joss intended to pursue Buffy’s attraction outside of her dreams.

And, a small off-topic note: For those Spandeverse-interested, I’ve written the first chapter in the new story – The Coming of the Scooby Army.

Spike: After the Fall #2/4

Written By: Brian Lynch, Art By: Franco Urru, Color By: Art Lyon,

Lettered By: Robbie Robbins, Edited By: Chris Ryall

Cover By: The Sharp Brothers

Where We Are: Spike has survived the last battle in the alley against Wolf, Ram and Hart, but not everything is copasetic. With Angel’s team successful in wiping out the ‘Black Thorn’ group, W & H decided to retaliate against Angel’s ‘betrayal’ by sucking Los Angeles and its environs into Hell. Spike has been holed up in an amusement park and doing the best he can to protect a small group of survivors. Illyria has also survived and found her way to Spike’s side, but she is continually switching back and forth between herself and the remnant of Fred. As Fred, she can be hurt… possibly even killed.

Page 1: The first panel is a flashback to Angel’s last line of AtS: Not Fade Away – “Well, personally, I kinda want to slay the dragon.”

As we know from Angel: After the Fall, he actually managed to turn the dragon onto his side against W & H. He has also made the old W & H office his home base. Spike, in last issue, went scouting for the group’s next hide-out, as they’ve been staying on the move, and came across the office building… and the dragon.

Now, Spike is confronting a beast many times his size and power.

Page 2 & 3: A two page spread of the dragon towering over Spike as our vampire-hero tries to convince himself that he can win this fight… it’s just a matter of how: get under a scale, take out an eye, plug up his smoke issuing nostrils so his head explodes… face it, he’s got nothing.

Page 4: With the dragon not launching an immediate attack, Spike decides to “spare you, for now”. The dragon’s not ready to let him go though, giving signs that he wants to give the vampire a ride to somewhere.

Page 5: The dragon takes Spike to the top of the W & H building where a convenient hole in the wall gives him egress. You could be thinking that the dragon wants him to see Angel – but the other vampire-hero isn’t in residence at the moment. We also get a shout out to the metal desk that Bruge really liked in Angel: After the Fall.

Nice inside joke – but… well, I’ll get to that.

Page 6: Spike runs across –something- a humanoid that appears to be made of electricity, and it isn’t Electro-Girl Gwen. Whoever it is appears to be in a world of hurt while ‘trying to power up’. I don’t remember anyone like this in Angel: After the Fall and have no clue what this guy has to do with anything… I’ll make an updated reference if I figure it out in the other comic review – for now, Spike gets zapped.

Page 7: Recovering, Spike decides get the hell out of there and give the W & H building a wide berth from now on. And, here’s the ‘I will get to that’ part above under Page 5. THIS WHOLE SCENE IS POINTLESS.

Pages 5-7 are utterly for nothing except to fill out the book. In fact, the whole thing with the dragon from the last page of Issue 1 through the first 7 pages of this issue are without any purpose… WTF?!

Page 8: Spike decides he’s spent too much time away from the humans he’s decided to protect and beats a quick motorcycle ride back to the park. But, as we know from last issue, as soon as he left the group was attacked by demons and taken prisoner.

Okay – I’m not ready to let the dragon thing go, yet. I’m really annoyed that the entire scene at W & H served no story purpose whatsoever! Spike didn’t discover that Angel is alive, he didn’t discover that Wes remains tied to Wolf, Ram & Hart (which could have been used as a plot point involving Illyria since she, at least in theory, could be tied to W & H also through Fred’s ‘contract’). He didn’t do ANYTHING with the dragon scene. I don’t recognize any point to the encounter with the electro-form guy who he gets zapped by (but again, I may not remember this being from the Angel: After the Fall comic – nevertheless, the scene came to absolutely no point).

So basically, the first 7 pages of this comic served zero story purpose. That pisses me off… they could have just as easily delved into Spike’s thoughts and feelings about he current circumstances surrounding events and Illyria/Fred instead of wasting that comic space. Alright, deep breath – we still have more, actual, story to go.

Page 9: Spike discovers that everyone is missing. Everyone, except one of the raiders that is; she’s been left behind to scavenge. Apparently, this is a habit and she’s complaining that she always ends up with scut-work. Even though she looks human, we also get this tidbit:

Cast me out all the time, they’re just jealous. This work is piffle. I’ve been here longer than most of them, I’ve been around. Maybe not this body, but this mind, this heart, this… (‘she’ sees Spike and abruptly stops rambling).

Page 10: With the confrontation with Spike, chickie springs spider legs from her back. Spike pulls out a bowie-knife and we cut away:

Page 11: To Spike’s refugees, including Illyria who is now looking and acting like Fred. They are getting the run-down of how things are going to work and what the new rules are: it’s the usual – most of them are going to be killed immediately, the rest will be worked to death as slave labor. There is to be no whining, they aren’t to stare at their new ‘owner’ but they also aren’t to be rude and look away too quickly and of course:

Do not talk too loud. Do not whisper. Speak immediately after spoken to, unless it was a rhetorical statement or a humorous jab about your situation.

So, you know, basically anything they do or do not do can lead to death if their new owner decides to take offense – the basics.

‘Fred’ is caught whispering that she already blanked out on the first two rules and wonders if there was a mention that it was against the rules for her to write them down somewhere.

Page 12: ‘Fred’ is about to get made an example of, but they are interrupted by the ‘supreme leader’ of this group. she’s a wild hair young women with growths down the side of her arms and the personality of a spoiled princess – think Cordy, circa BtVS: S1 – crossed with Harmony.

Page 13: Princess Annoying immediately senses the power around Fred, but its obvious that Fred has no clue that she’s actually Illyria when she’s like this.

Page 14: Spike has defeated Spider-Girl (off panel) and comes racing to the rescue in her truck.

Page 15: Fred exclaims that Spike is there and Jeremy, who we met in Issue 1 as sort of the drafted Lieutenant to the vampire, gives an excited ‘YES!’

With a quick glare by Princess Annoying, he amusingly adds, “I, uh, I love trucks.”

Page 16: Princess Annoying grabs Fred and throws her in front of Spike’s barreling path. There is the horrible sound of smashing metal…

Page 17: … As Fred had changed back to Illyria at the last moment. Spike is meantime hauled out of the truck by Princess Annoying’s minions.

Page 18: As Spike battles the girl-army, Illyria strikes out at the Princess, smashing her face to a bloody pulp.

Page 19: The demoness has a surprise, however. She is able to suck the energy out of anyone nearby her, turning on the group of human refugees. She is almost instantly healed and able to grab and hold Illyria’s next punch in mid-swing.

Page 20: Illyria gets her godly ass kicked. The human refugees (except, conveniently for main-human Jeremy) collapse, with their skin pulled tightly against the bones, as if starved to death and there’s mention that they’re dying and “rotting?” but I can’t really tell by the artwork. Spike at this time, for reason unclear can’t move and the world quickly goes black for him.

Page 21: Spike is awoken by Princess Annoying running her talon-like nails down his bare chest. He’s also been chained at the wrists. Princess Annoying mentions that she can’t use his or Illyria’s powers through her energy-sucking abilities, but she can use his connections. Illyria’s fate remains unclear other than that she is ‘messed up’ right now. She leaves him chained in a room with arms reaching for him from the darkness.

Page 22: From the dark corners crawl the now nearly skeleton-people all reaching out for him and all calling his name pathetically.

The Good: The reveal scene of Princess Annoying’s powers was well handled – and the effect on the human’s around her are pretty terrible.

I liked the artwork, especially in the general action-mayhem scenes.

The Bad: The pointlessness of all of this. Let’s start with nearly one-third of the issue having no reason to be included!

There are some really ABRUPT changes of scenes, even for a comic book, especially from panel 1 of Page 7, where Spike lies after having been zapped to panel 3 of the same page where he is on his motorcycle and leaving behind the dragon who stares after him.

And, the way that the battle with Spider-girl isn’t shown at all – just a “jump cut” so we can spend some, admittedly slightly amusing, scene to the ‘commandant’ informing the refugees of the new rules.

The Score: As I’m sure you can tell, this was a filler issue. A large part of it was utterly wasted when it could have been spent time more wisely with emotionally effective scenes within Spike’s head or with Fred/Illyria. I also don’t find the ‘refugee-Lord of Beverly Hills (Princess Annoying)” storyline to be doing anything interesting. This isn’t about Spike’s growing into his role as a ‘Champion’ in the Angel-mode (in fact, he barely gets a mention) nor about anything other than battle the bad guy. We needed a limited-series focusing on Spike for this?

I’m really disappointed in the average-ness of this whole thing… it could have easily been a subplot in the Angel: After the Fall series without losing a thing – there was no reason to “spin this off” except as a money-grab unless they really pull something out of the air to finish it off in Issues 3 or 4:

Spike confronts Angel's friend, the Dragon.

  Illyria confronts the Lord of Beverly Hills.



2.50 out of 5 stars.

Spike: After the Fall

 

 

Creators: Brian Lynch & Franco Urru

Cover: Franco Urru

 

 

Set up: In the series ending episode of Angel, Not Fade Away, the Angel Investigations team was in some serious trouble. Angel and his allies managed to bring down an ultra-powerful group of evil known as the Black Thorn. Basically, they were the demonic version of the Hall of Doom.

 

Wolf, Ram & Hart were not at all pleased by this turn of events. Angel played them, signing away his right to Shanshu (become mortal as reward for his redemptive deeds) in order to get in close with the Black Thorn group. By doing so, he was able to identify their members who were responsible for much of the evil at the highest levels of government among the elite of L.A.

 

Now, in retaliation, the power behind the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart has pulled all of Los Angeles into Hell itself. A new world order has asserted itself, locking the city and its inhabitants away from the rest of the world and leaving them vulnerable to the legions of devils, demons, and exotic Hellspawn.

 

The team ends up split apart – separated from one another across the expanse of the new Los Angeles… this is Spike’s story.

 

 

Page 1: Spike is ‘somewhere’ in the hellish wasteland of the L.A. region. He’s doing his best to protect the humans who are basically standing around “like deer in headlights” as they try to comprehend what’s happened to them. Their easy pickins for the lizard-man/dinosaurian demons who have found them free meals or tributes to their more powerful Lords.

 

Things go less than well for Spike.

 

 

Page 2: ( Spike’s narration): These loser freaks are better brawlers than the previous loser freaks. Or maybe I’m still tired from the last ones, can’t tell.

 

Spike finds himself getting a bit beat up by the long-tongued, orange-brown skin lizards. And his feeble attempts to talk himself out is, well – lame and unhelpful.

 

 

Page 3: (Spike’s narration, continued): Fortunately for me… I’m not going this alone.

 

As one of the demons asks where another of their party is, Illyria shows up. With her arrival, and her decimation of the ranks, Spike gets a new lease to go for the leader of this demon squad.

 

 

Page 4: As Spike gets ready to kill the leader-dude, Illyria takes it from him. He complains. She ignores him.

 

With the demons killed, its time to deal with the humans rescued by their daring-do. Alas, its Illyria who picks up a crying toddler:

 

This one is wet on both ends. We should end him.

 

As Spike’s monologue informs us, Illyria is: Great in a tussle, slightly less so when it comes to human interaction.

 

 

Page 5: Spike steps in to grab the kid from Illyria and then turns to the large group of bewildered people they’ve just saved. It’s been ‘weeks’ in Hell at this point, though I imagine keeping track of time would be difficult. The sky is a constant reddish-orange. And as we’ll find out (though, I believe its in Angel: After the Fall – both the sun and moon are sharing the sky 24-7.

 

 

Page 6: Oh! Here it is on page 6… the sun and moon are up simultaneously. Spike’s group, for lack of a better name, have taken refuge in the ‘Happytime Studios’ theme park. Uh-huh. Anyway, while not exactly comfortable, at least it has food designed to survive the apocalypse… tourist park hotdogs!

 

 

Page 7: Spike has a quicky flashback of what he’s been going through, lately. The fact that Los Angeles “up and died” and went to Hell. He ran into Fred, but she didn’t stay for long as we know that Illyria owns the body now. Still, she’s one tough god-broad, so it’s a good thing she found him.

 

 

Page 8: Still in flashback, Spike tells us that after he and Illyria and their few survivors began traveling as a group and looking for some sort of permanent base, the few became a lot. And, that became nearly too many. He tells us that the demons began their rule and he wasn’t enough to fight them all… he had to pick his battles. Something a bit more difficult when you’re traveling with Illyria:

 

She chooses a lot of battles, actually. Even if that’s not one of the choices, she’ll find a way.

 

 

Page 9: Spike confers with a guy named Jeremy that they’ll need to move on soon, as there are more and more demons encroaching. This is interrupted however when Spike hears Fred’s voice trying to comfort the toddler they rescued. For some reason this upsets Spike mightily and he grabs and drags her away.

 

 

Page 10: Another confrontation as Spike tosses responsibility for the toddler to a random set of people. He makes it absolutely clear that Illyria/Fred is to have no contact with the bratling. Jeremy is forced to accompany Spike and Fred, as well.

 

 

Page 11: Jeremy is able to work the electronics of the amusement park. Spike’s goal is apparently to distract ‘Fred’, so she’ll re-become Illyria. We see that sometime recently, Illyria was injured in her abdomen… probably while she was looking like Fred. It appears that while in Hell, taking on the form of Fred gives Illyria all of her vulnerabilities.

 

Page 12: Giant robo-duck, amusement park gimmick attack! Fred quickly vanishes and Illyria reappears.

 

 

Page 13: Jeremy is given orders to send Illyria to the House of Horrors if she manages to destroy the duck-o-bot. He asks Spike why he’s so concerned with keeping Illyria in demigoddess mode. Spike snarks… and slaps him.

 

 

Page 14: More snarkage, more slappage.

 

 

Page 15: Spike confirms my hypothesis: For now, Illyria has to stay Illyria to survive.

 

Jeremy offer some words basically stating that Spike doesn’t like to see Fred because he has… had… real feelings for her.

 

 

Page 16: The mood is about to get all sickly sweet, which isn’t Spike in the least. Fortunately, a group of teen brats interrupts. And, like teens everywhere, they’re bored and want to do something fun… despite the fact that they’re in the middle of Hell and surrounded on all sides by hostile demons. They want to start up a few rides. After all, they have taken refuge in an amusement park.

 

 

Page 17: The kibosh is put on the plan, due to noise. Noise attracts attention, attention in Hell is bad. And, also, in Hell – the television only plays “that awful show about the witch sisters”. Spike suggests that instead they go play with Illyria and they can get their asses kicked for fun.

 

Spike decides to take off for awhile. Unfortunately, he’s being watched by the members of the earlier slaughtered demon group. Their plan – slaughter the men, kidnap the women for tribute.

 

 

Page 18: While Spike is out scouting for the next location to move to, the lizard demons are in turn slaughtered by a new group. A greenish-blue woman easily rips through them, while accompanied by a brown, bald woman. Spike lets us know there is a mystic wall that has trapped everyone within the borders of Los Angeles, including the suburbs such as Westwood and Silverlake. The Westwood location has possibilities since the Lord is rumored to be a pushover. Spike rules out Silverlake because “… I’m going to do a friend a favor and stay away. He doesn’t need me dragging my problems to his doorstep”. Clearly one of the Angel team is in Silverlake, which apparently isn’t being overrun – at least not yet.

 

 

Page 19: Spike finds his way to the Wolfram & Hart building, which he is seriously considering as a good place to hide out.

 

 

Page 20: At least, until a really large, fire breathing dragon pops up.

 

 

Page 21: As Spike is having his confrontation with a dragon, Jeremy is being hounded by the bored teens. And, he’s getting a bit miffed that he’s being called on to ‘be in charge’ when Spike can’t even remember his name (he keeps calling him Jerry, which everyone else is picking up on). As he’s trying to tell the teens it’s a bad idea to activate a dinosaur ride, he suddenly becomes aware of a more pressing problem.

 

 

Page 22: A squad of women in tight black cat-suits (including the ones who just killed the lizards planning an attack) swoops in. The humans are ordered to submit to them, or they will face certain death. The teens are cluelessly excited by the interruption of their boredom. Because, apparently, their eff-ing morons.

 

 

The Good: The cover is really nice and the first few pages are really good. Spike trying to deal with an unstable Illyria has possibilities for the mini-arc (this is a 4-issue series). Seeing L.A. turn into a literal Hell is a neat idea… and an appropriate action that you could see Wolf, Ram and Hart carrying out for Angel’s “betrayal”. Most of the art is well done, especially on the lizard-demons.

 

The Bad: The nature of the story gets repetitive. And, the explanation of why Spike needs to keep the Fred personality in Illyria suppressed is drawn out unnecessarily. It has the feeling of filler in order to give the book enough pages.

 

Scoring: While I wanted to see how being sent to Hell impacted Spike, this is mostly just battling one set of demons after the other. Illyria’s situation and the occasional appearance of Fred could have been handled with emotional angst, but I just didn’t feel it. Nothing after the first few pages of the issue really stand out (especially for a $4 comic!) so I grade it 3.25 out of 5 stars.

 

Buffy Season 8 Review, Issue #1

 

 

The Long Way Home, Part I

 

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens, Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy  (uh, yea, Jimmy?)

 

Cover By: Ju Chen, Designed By: Heidi Fuinzu

 

Note: Page numbers may vary with individual reader. I skipped counting the ‘ad pages’ in the ‘page descriptor’ in the review.

 

 

Inside Cover Blurb: “This story takes place after the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Seven.

 

 

Page 1: We open Season 8 of Buffy with a view of the planet Earth, sun rising over the horizon as seen from an orbital perspective. Our narrator for the opening passage is Buffy, herself:

 

The thing about changing the world… Once you do it, the world’s all different.

 

 

Pages 2 & 3: Everybody calls me “ma’am” these days.

 

Buffy and three other young women (presumably Slayers) are rappelling from a ‘copter hovering.


  Comic book Buffy.

 

 

Page 4: As the group of Slayers descends toward a boarded up building, Buffy fires a ‘gun’ at the roof. This fires some sort of magical blasts, which open a rift in a mystical field surrounding the place. The girls land on the rooftop. But with Buffy’s continued narration, we’re reminded that “There used to be one Slayer in all the world.”

 

Now, there are at least (by the last count) 1800. Of these, Buffy and her allies have managed to recruit five hundred of them which is spread around the world. She has ten separate squads around the world. We’re also told there are “even three of me”.

 

 

Page 5: As the group begins to recon the roof, storming toward an entrance, Buffy’s narration continues. We discover that everyone figured that Buffy might be an especial target. To thwart any attempts to find where she is exactly, they have two blondes playing “Buffy Summers”. One of these is “underground. Literally.”

 

The ‘third Buffy’ is currently living it up in Rome (in a very clever nod to AtS: The Girl in Question) which basically sucked because they had a stand in for SMG, and ergo, managed to never show her face. Now, retroactively, we find out why! She also specifically mentions that the faux-Buffy is supposedly dating someone called “The Immortal”, again a shout out and way to make fun of the Angel episode.

 

We further, amusingly, find out that this Rome-Buffy was all Andrew’s idea. He thought it would be really funny after researching him… and obviously finding out his past run-ins with both Angel and Spike. Buffy hasn’t a clue as to why Andy thought it was so amusing.

 

 

Page 6: We’re now introduced to the comic book version of Xander Harris. He’s at ‘Central Command’, playing the part of coordinator to Buffy’s efforts. You might have expected Giles to take that role… at least I certainly did, hmmm?

 

Anyway, the place is full of Slayers. They also have a team of psychics. As Xan is giving information via radio feed to Buffy, one of the other Slayers mentions a situation in Barcelona with a squad. There’s an interesting bit here in which Xan refers to “Rowena”… a WaTchers shout out?

 

 

Page 7: We find out that the Barcelona squad has only seven Slayers and they’ve run into a vamp nest that is larger than they thought. The reason this is of interest is one, we get a quick idea of how organized Buffy’s Slayers are (and wasn’t Spike, back in bad guy days, always afraid of what Buffy would do if she got any real funding?) and also, because we find out that Andrew has a team of Slayers himself and is still in Italy (again, callback to Angel).

 

As Xander is dealing with the Barcelona situation, he seems to have very good rapport with the Slayer, Renee.

 

(Xander, re: Andrew’s orders to take a squad of Slayers to Barcelona to help out): Tell him ten best. Not ten best dressed.

 

(Slayer Renee): Yes, Mr. Harris.

 

(Xander): “Xander.” Renee, I told you, it’s “Xander” or “Sergeant Fury”.

 

(Slayer Renee): Wasn’t Nick Fury a Colonel when he ran S.H.I.E.L.D.?

 

(Xander): I like him better in the Howling Commando days. But, your nerd points are accumulating impressively.

 

 

Anybody else thinks that sounds a bit flirtatious? Which, naturally, makes me think Renee is dead meat walking but we’ll see.

 

 

Page 8: Back with Buffy’s squad, she’s busted into the abandoned building (turns out it’s a church) in order to engage a gaggle of demons. They’re big, they’re brutish, and they’re perfect for a comic book. Alas, they’ve also already managed to take out a few victims, which Buffy isn’t at all happy about.

 

 

Page 9: The Slayers go on the attack and we follow Buffy as she puts in a few good moves, before getting knocked into the disused, large cross. It appears two of our other Slayers may be in trouble… one with a cat-mask on her head and another with long, flowing red hair. No names for these Slayers, yet.

 

 

Page 10: The two Slayers in trouble (cat-mask is Satsu, red-head is Leah [I think]) is saved by another of the paratrooper Slayers. There are also two late comers to the party who must have jumped after our ‘splash-page’. Anyway, no Slayers get killed in the making of this page. But, Buffy sure puts that large cross to good use!


  Buffy kicks. And our mystery starts.

 

 

Page 11: With the demons killed, the Slayers begin to make some discoveries that are a bit unsettling. One, the bodies have an image carved into them. Two, the skin carving isn’t fresh… in fact, it may have been self-inflicted. And three: the ‘random victims’ were heavily armed with automatic rifles… not really ‘civilian-victim’ issue. It looks like somebody came looking for a fight and they lost. Buffy orders Xander to get a good image of the symbol (the Slayers aren’t just wearing mics, but cameras as well) and to “copy Giles on it”. Interesting… why isn’t Giles with Buffy?


  Symbols carved on chests:  never a positive sign.

 

 

Page 12: The baseball capped Slayer also surmises that the forcefield they had to break through was also with the victim-guys. They wanted to be alone with the demons. Buffy doesn’t like the math on this caper, but hopes the symbol they found will clear up the matter. In the meantime, a pair of boots is high above the wrecked, abandoned church. Someone is keeping an eye on our girls.

 

 

Page 13: We jump to another ‘copter. This one is Army. Within, berating some suit is a four star general, who is obviously extremely hostile to our Slayers. In fact, according to him, Buffy and her girls “got a hard-line ideology that does not jibe with American interests”. He further describes Buffy as “charismatic, uncompromising, and completely destructive”. It’s more than obvious that he considers Buffy’s ‘squads’ as just another word for ‘cells’… as in, terrorist cells.

 

 

Page 14 & 15: Still with General Hard-ass. He offers the suit further proof of his assertions that the Slayers are, in point of fact, terrorists: “… Look what she did to her hometown.”

 

The helicopter is flying over the Sunnydale crater. What’s more, there is a government presence on the ground as well. Things get a bit interesting here… there are some scientist bio-hazard suit sorts wandering under the crater (60 feet under) and they report “no mystical readings”.

 

It appears they’ve come a long way in the four years since the Initiative chose to treat the demons as nothing more than exotic animals. Now, we have the resources to pick up mystical energy on hand held scanners. And, they’re looking for something specific….

 

 

Page 16: Just like in a horror-movie, right after the guy reports that he’s all alone down there, he’s screaming. We see a man’s face distorted in his visor, but we can’t make out who it is. And, why in the hell there’s anyone down there at all.

 

 

Page 17: Back at Slayer central, Xander and Buffy are discussing the symbol. Xan thinks maybe it’s a monocle-wearing guy who is frowning. Far more interesting than the symbol discussion though, is when Buffy jokingly tells Xan that he’s a terrible Watcher. His response seems awfully forceful to me as he responds, “I’m not a Watcher… Don’t call me a Watcher”. When you add the fact that Giles has been nowhere to be seen throughout this entire issue (nor has Willow, but I’ll get to her in a second), you start to wonder if the bad stuff between Rupert and Buffy during S7 hasn’t been put behind them. I started wondering if, maybe, they’re on the outs with one another.

 

Now, as to Willow – we find out here that Willow hasn’t been in touch either, lately. She’s missing in action, though there’s no hint here that the two Scoobies we’ve seen think there is any foul play involved.

 

Xander also tells Buffy that she needs to talk to Dawn. Buffy complains that she’s only going to whine. So, one, Buffy and Dawn aren’t on the best of terms either… again! And two, we have a shout back to the fans’ complaints that all Dawn did during S6 was bitch and moan. Xander reminds Buffy that she has a lot to whine about these days….

 

 

Page 18 & 19: Buffy relents under Xan’s pressure and goes to speak with Dawnie. And, we find out that Dawn is a friggin’ giant!

 

Buffy tries to find out what exactly happened to cause ‘Kenny the Thrisewise” to make Dawnie a giantess, but she won’t speak to anyone but Willow. And, here (unless I missed a line earlier) we find out that Buffy’s homebase is in Scotland and her group hangs out in a huge castle.


  Dawn has grown up... and up... and up....

 

 

Page 20: The convo between Buff and Dawn goes about as well as it always seems to. Buffy finally decides to walk away… again.

 

(Dawn, glaring after Buffy): I could swat you like a flea.

 

(Buffy): Your butt looks big in those giant pants.

 

 

Page 21: Buffy goes out on a parapet for some air. And we get into her head a bit about what has happened in the last year: I miss my mom. I miss the gang. And churros. And sex. Great muppety Odin, I miss that sex. Ooh! I just know Dawn had sex with that Kenny and won’t say anything to me -- But, she’ll tell Willow, fine, her first time and it all goes wrong which I’m totally well versed in and anyhow Willow’s the expert on boys since when now?

 

Outstanding. I can’t even feel sorry for myself in a linear fashion. Suck it up, Summers. You’re a big girl now.

 

This scene actually seems like a good place to leave the issue, but we’ve got a surprise awaiting us…

 

 

Page 22: We rejoin General Ass-hat in a large laboratory type facility (Initiative-like?). He looks into a room through one of those sliding panels and reacts with revulsion and shock:

 

How is that thing alive?

 

We don’t know what ‘thing’ he is speaking of at this time, but it appears that it’s whoever they took into custody under Sunnydale. Remember the distorted male’s face in the visor?

 

A scientist responds that it’s obvious that magic is keeping ‘him’ alive. And, it is their belief that ‘Subject One’ was who was keeping ‘him’ alive. Meaning, there were two ‘subjects’ under Sunnydale… staying alive by, probably, eating whoever got buried with them and didn’t survive.

 

 

Page 23: The scientist reports that ‘Subject One’ is more vocal than ‘it/him’ in the other room. Further, he explains that “her” first words were, “I’m gonna help you kill her.”

 

There are several tidbits, here. Subject One considers Subject Two her ‘boyfriend’, even though the General wasn’t sure how Subject Two could possibly be alive, suggesting that the second subject is in a world of ugly.

 

Subject One is also interested in their magical hardware and having a lab for said ‘world of ugly boyfriend’. ‘She’ also wants release from and immunity for any crimes her and said ‘boyfriend’ have committed, if she succeeds in taking Buffy Summers down. And, here’s the real kicker… she wants “a lot of cheese”. Any guesses who Subject One is?

 

 

Page 24: Amy. She says her name is Amy.


 Psychotic, like her mother.

 

 

The Good: First and foremost, I have to give a hand to the artists. Both the fabulous cover, and the excellent artwork within the issue. Outstanding work.

 

I also loved how we get caught up on Xander, Buffy, Dawn and Andrew. We don’t get any hints on Faith, the S.i.Ts., or Robin, but we do get some mysteries surrounding Willow and Rupert.

 

The church-demons… they were great looking! And, I loved Buffy’s takedown of them. I also liked the mystery re: the symbol and the fact that Buffy quickly realized that the ‘victims’ weren’t just a random tragedy. The floating figure was mysterious and is obviously tied to this plotline.

 

The view of Sunnydale (now just a crater). Though, of course, it is located so far from the ocean (see S2, S3 and S5) that it isn’t even on the page. I swear the entire town teleported around for 7 years.

 

Giant Dawn.

 

The dialog throughout was great, especially among Buffy, Xander and even Dawn.

 

 

The Bad: More Amy Madison… really? Her character didn’t make a whole lot of sense in S7 and they continue the psycho-witch routine here.

 

Again… no ocean near Sunnydale… bad continuity (but consistent with the bad continuity in the series ender of BTVS).

 

Psycho military… cliché anyone?

 

 

Concerning: I don’t have strong feelings, either good nor bad, but I do have to wonder how anyone could have survived an entire city imploding and sinking into the ground. Amy Madison just shouldn’t have that type of power, unless she’s suddenly gotten far, far more powerful since she was returned from rat-hood.

 

I’m concerned about how Willow has apparently not kept in touch with the rest of the gang. I could see this in S6, but by the end of S7, didn’t the gang come back together as close as they ever were? Same concerns, but to a lesser extent, re: Giles and his situation.

 

 

Rating: A strong first issue for Buffy: Season 8 comic series and strong for a “Season Premiere”. I like the mysteries set up, similar to setting up a season’s big bad if it’s seen through (i.e., not wrapped up right after “The Long Way Home” wraps). The ‘bad’ is utterly minor and two of them are just a personal preference (evil military may not bother anyone else, and some may really dig Amy’s character as evil witch). I say, “4.25 out of 5 stars”.

 

Chapter 19 has been posted to The Cost of Giles.


Violent Encounters



Another burst of violence has happened that Rick needs to deal with. In the meanwhile, Giles works on buttressing his fortress against Tara and Alican al Rashid. Spike finds his hands full with Hyena.