Comics *Very Spoilery*

During this quarter I ended up reading the "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" Season 8 comics. I really can't read full novels (since I choose books more than 500 pages most of the time) because of time and class restraints. One of my classes had four books alone. I hate stopping in the middle of a novel and leaving it for a couple days or even whole weeks. I'd rather wait and read it when I have oodles of time to enjoy it. Such as now and summer break.


Anyway, the first comic is called "Long Way Home," and was written by creator Joss Whedon and George Jentry. Of course, it is a semi-introduction comic, starting with Buffy explaining how she changed the world. 1800 Slayers now exist with her closest friends the leaders of the squadrons. Buffy, as usual, is alone, feared and revered by the world. The new big bad of the series is a character called "Twilight." He only makes cameos throughout the series and has an intricate plan involving pitting slayers against each other, the governments of the world, and the demons that haven't fled underground.


"No Future for You" is my favorite so far in the season 8 comics ("Tales of the Vampires" is my favorite overall, but as a spinoff, it doesn't really count in this section). "NFU" brings back badass dark Slayer, Faith, with all her trashy talk and self-loathing. Faith, I have to admit, is one of my favorite characters. She doesn't bitch and complain as much as Buffy does. We find out that she's the "go-to girl" for dirty deeds in the new slayer order. You have little kids turned into vampires? No prob, just get Faith to kill the little buggers. No need to burden new slayers with such a difficult job. Faith lives in a shabby apartment in Cleveland (the other Hellmouth) by herself and its there where she finds Giles waiting for her. Giles gives her a mission that involves killing a rogue slayer. That starts off the story with Giles teaching her everything there is to know of the English aristocracy in order for Faith to go undercover and get close to this dangerous slayer. All in all, Twilight's symbol makes an appearance and Faith and Giles team up to help other slayers who are going down the wrong path, "a slayer's social work program" as Faith says. The next comic out this May continues this story line.


"Wolves at the Gate" brings back Dracula! A group of Japanese vampires steals Dracula's secrets of turning into fog, animals, etc, and plans to elimanate the slayers by using Buffy's scythe to return the girls to normal. Buffy get Xander to visit the Dark Prince and they set off to Tokoyo to stop these new vampires' plan. The only thing I didn't like about the story? Buffy's sudden interest in Satsu and their sleeping together. Really? After Faith, Buffy was the straightest person on the show! Oh well, I guess they had to in order for Buffy to realize how alone she really is, again.


Now onto the spin-offs...


I absolutely love "Tales of the Vampires." You could know nothing about Buffy and enjoy the stories interwoven throughout. The stories flip back and forth from the past to the future. An elder vampire tells the tales to a group of young watchers-in-training. I love how the writers included stories about Spike and Drusilla's time in Prague and Angel's nightmares of his past victims (including Season 2 favorite, Jenny Calendar). The main story of the young watchers is frought with anxiety when one of the watchers, Edna Fairweather, becomes aware that another vampire is in their mist. In between the stories, she pieces together who it is and ultimately faces off with the sire of the elder vampire. My favorite line as Edna blacks out is "He was right. I am in love with the Baker's boy." Edna then wakes up and tells off all the adult watchers for being stupid. One of the Watcher's remarks that she'll be running the Council in no time with her attitude. The next set of frames shows Edna letting off steam with a walk through London. It shows her going into the Baker's shop. The last frame is the hook. The name of the shop is Giles's. (Which if you don't get it, the whole story was about Rupert Giles's [Buffy's current watcher] Grandmother! Ok, I'm a nerd for getting spazzed out about that.)

The next comics are the Omibuses which are stories that are "inbetween" the seasons. The first one is a preseason one and then the others follow suit with explaining what Buffy does during the summers. Interesting and Entertaining. I think they have one more before they catch up with the Season 8 comics.

"Fray" was a pleasant surprise. I was leery reading about a totally futuristic slayer, but Wheadon doesn't disappoint. Since there is only one anthology out there, I'm not going to go too into it. The next one should be out soon so I'm looking forward to it.

So that's it for now on comics. I can't wait to get my hands on the next season 8 one. I should have more blogs up soon with movie reviews, news, etc. Dark Shadows has been more "active" so I'll be posting about that. Cheers!