"Buffy" season 8, episode 1, The Long Way Home

[moscow_watcher]

The Story:

Buffy and her slayer squad attack some temple. During the landing she reminisces about her life: a year has passed, everybody calls her "ma'am", there is about 1800 slayers in the world and about 500 of them work with the Council. To confuse the enemies Buffy has two doppelgangers, one is "underground, literally", the other is in Rome with the Immortal.
As Buffy's squad breaks into the temple, the action switches to Command Central where Xander is giving orders. Young slayer, Renee calls him mister Harris and says there is "a development with Barselona squad". Xander orders to contact Andrew in Italy and tell him to send 10 slayers as reinforcement, "And call me Xander, or sergeant Fury", he adds.
Buffy and her team enter the temple. There are several dead or unconscious people on the floor with several nasty-looking demons looming over them. Girls destroy the demons and find weird symbol on the chest of one victim. They immediately send the photo of the symbol to Xander and Giles. "I think these boys were looking for a fight" Buffy says. As girls try to figure it out, we zoom out und up until we see somebody who's spying on them from some top position, probably in the air. We only see black military boots and small piece of black coat of the observer who may be suspended in the air or sitting on a floor of an open helicopter cabin.
And in the next frame we see a helicopter - but it's flying over the Sunnydale crater, the door of the cabin is closed and none of the people inside wears black coat. They're military and intelligence types and they discuss the actions of slayer squads whom they see as a threat. "Worst of all they have a leader. Charismatic, uncompromizing and completely destructive... Look what she did to her hometown!"
At the crater's edge there is a tent with more military types monitoring people in spacesuits who are digging a hole in the bottom of the crater. A person in a suit goes down ans reports "It's like a museum down there but no bodies and no mystical readings". Some grabby hands grab him.
Meanwhile Buffy and Xander sit in the Council's library discussing mystical signs on the victim's chest. They can't figure out anything constructive. "You're a terrible watcher" Buffy says. "I'm not a watcher" Xander replies and says Buffy has to see Dawn. "There is nothing I can do till we find Willow" Buffy says. "You could be her sister" Xander retorts.
And Buffy tries. But, as you may already know, Dawn's a giant, because she has slept with a thricewise demon called Kenny. Dawn's angry and she doesn't want to talk to Buffy. "Why do we have to be in Scotland?' - " You don't have to be in Scotland. You have to be in Berkeley". - "Believe me, when I'm person-sized, I'm out of here".
Buffy thinks that her and Dawn haven't really gotten along since the destruction of Sunnydale. She goes upstairs to the castle keep, looks at purple Scottish sky and thinks "I miss my mom. I miss the gang. And churros. And sex. Great muppety Odin, I miss that sex." But she has to be strong because she's "a big girl now".
Meanwhile in some Initiative-type facility anonymous military and scientific types demonstrate two "subjects" to a general. Both "subjects" are kept locked in padded cells. The first "subject" whom we don't see is in deplorable condition: "How is that thing alive?" general asks. The second "subject" is Amy who wants to destroy Buffy Summers and offers help in exchange to access to all the magical hardware, weapons and a lab for her boyfriend now and release and full immunity "after Buffy Summers is down".
"And a lot of cheese".

Critique:

The first issue has a very distinct "back to beginning" feel. "BtVS" has started as a funny hip TV show for teenagers and ten years later Joss creates a new funny hip comic for teenagers. Buffy's losing her virginity was agnsty. Dawn's losing her virginity is funny. In season 4 The Initiative produced a homage to Frankenstein. In season 8 The New Initiative cooperates with Buffy's former classmate.

My first impression is that it will be funny, perky and dynamic. Not sure about depth, though. Joss' tries to write consistent dialogues, but they're still very short as compared with those in the show. And, damn, I miss actors!

Obviously, unlike TV show, comics don't have to feature all the regular cast in every issue. Does it mean that the difference between regulars and recurring characters disappears? If Dawn will be sent to Berkeley after the initial issues describing her unfortunate love affair, we may not see her for a long while. The same with the other characters. Frankly, if the seasonal arc will be about Buffy fighting The New Initiative, I can hardly see anything important for Willow in this story (I suspect Amy has been brought back partly to give Willow something to do). If Xander now has taken Giles' place, Giles himself may be redundant. Hopefully Joss will find interesting stories for all of them. So far, I liked Buffy/Xander and Buffy/Dawn interaction, but I've got the impression that I watched a pre-credits teaser and have to wait another month to watch the first act.

Maybe it's because I'm new to comics but I'm surprised how little story an issue produces. It's roughly 5 minutes of screen time (given that Buffyverse characters speak very quickly and the editing is usually very terse).

So, one issue = 5 min.
4 issues = 20-min. episode.

Which means

1. One 20-min. episode in four months. Frustrating and wank-generating.

2. 24-issue season = 2-hour movie. Not much time for character development.

Questions of a confused reader:

Why Any wants to destroy Buffy and not Willow? Because the show is about Buffy or because something happened between them after The Killer in Me and we'll find about that accident later?

Why military types decided to explore the Sunnydale crater only a year after the catastrophe? Because that's when the story starts or because there are some factors we don't know yet?

Who's "great muppety Odin"? A patron saint of orgasm?

Unintentional fanfiction references:

Buffy in Rome being the wrong Buffy:
Newborn by Addie Logan
http://www.athenewolfe.com/justrewards/viewstory.php?sid=325&PHPSESSID=d120f7044462058ff3c2218743e47772

Military types declaring Buffy and friends dangerous terrorists and trying to destroy them
"Habeas Corpses" by Peyton
http://community.livejournal.com/seasonal_spuffy/148315.html

Bottom line: I'm ready for a fun ride even if 99,9999% of it I'll be waiting for the next small jerk forward.

Comments

[rahirah]

I still plan to buy the series, but Lordy, that's not terribly encouraging. And i share the bemusement about the sex reference. Granted I doubt Joss wants to come right out and have Buffy say "I miss Spike," or "I miss Angel," because I don't think he has any intention of hooking her up with either of them ever again. But if that's the case, he could have just skipped the reference entirely, or (gasp horrors) had her think something substantive like "Ah, Spike and Angel - I've MOVED ON AND AM OVER THEM BOTH, YOU CRAZY SHIPPERS!"

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Granted I doubt Joss wants to come right out and have Buffy say "I miss Spike," or "I miss Angel," because I don't think he has any intention of hooking her up with either of them ever again. But if that's the case, he could have just skipped the reference entirely, or (gasp horrors) had her think something substantive like "Ah, Spike and Angel - I've MOVED ON AND AM OVER THEM BOTH, YOU CRAZY SHIPPERS!"

No, he couldn't. He has to keep all his trump cards ready to play. They have to win him the best sales possible.

He has to succeed at any price because he had too many failures lately. AtS is a brilliant show but it had been canceled because of poor ratings. Serenity is a brilliant film but a commercial flop. Wonder Woman fiasco was the last straw.

So I think he'll keep Spike and Angel as the last reserve in case of emergency if comics sales drop rfdically. And fans will have to endure vague hints about sex, love and loss for a long, long time.

[rahirah]

True. I keep forgetting that no matter how cynical I am, Joss is way cynicaller.

Though if he tries to go for a serious Xander/Buffy romance and then has her swan off to moon over Spike and/or Angel...it will alienate any new fans the comic may have picked up, and piss off old fans at the same time. That could be amusing.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh, but how many fans are now cynicallest?

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Which, IMO, is why the comics are coming out now. He wants to make The Goners and he needs to prove he's got lots of fans willing to shell out their hard earned cash for whatever he puts out for us.
But not commenting about the death of Anya or Spike and hinting around about B/X isn't going to please a big chunk of the fanbase.
The man's got applesauce in his brain pan.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Which, IMO, is why the comics are coming out now. He wants to make The Goners and he needs to prove he's got lots of fans willing to shell out their hard earned cash for whatever he puts out for us.
But not commenting about the death of Anya or Spike and hinting around about B/X isn't going to please a big chunk of the fanbase.

I think he's aiming at totally different fanbase. Younger, more reckless, less characters-obsessed. Those who are interested in sex, not love. Those who regard "Buffy" as regular entertainment. With "a lot of cheese". In other words, those who go to cinema and buy comics.

It's normal. All showbiz is based on these rules. [/cynical]