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BtVS season 8 issue 4: summary, analysis and conspiracy theories about that pesky kiss of true love, Ethan Rayne's fate and DH's anti-Spike stance.

In a nutshell: the first arc looks like magnificent storyboards for Michael Bay's next movie. And - Bander, sir!

Summary:

Issue 4 starts with the flashback of the scene in Villains in which Willow kills Warren. Inexplicably Willow's hair is red in this scene, although it was black on TV. Obviously media change causes some weird color shifts, because Willow's eyes are absolutely blue right now.

Meanwhile Buffy talks with Dawn about Willow outside their Scottish castle; the shadows they cast suggest two suns in the sky. Is it AU? Dawn says that Willow is like a mom for her. (In the previous issue we were told that Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies hadn't had news from Willow for a long time. In seasons 5-7 Willow\Dawn interaction was minimal except the moments when Willow tried to kill her - first unintentionally, then intentionally. Just saying.)

Meanwhile Warren tortures Willow (we only see her eyes and hands in (quoting Joss in Chosen) "a rictus of revelatory pain". Warren channels his inner Darth Vader and tempts Willow with darkness. She refuses: her spirit is strong because she is helped by five mystical beings connected with her in some supernatural way.

Back at Slayer Central, girls, who are reopening the portal, say that they can send one or two persons maximum through it. Buffy chooses a slayerette named Satsu - beautiful Japanese girl with cool katana - as her back-up. Before entering the portal Buffy asks Satsu is she has a lipgloss, and notices that Satsu's lipgloss has cinnamon taste - like the one on her lips after the kiss of true love. (Heh. In penultimate panel on issue #2 we saw Satsu on the castle wall fighting zombies when the kiss of true love occured.)

Portal reopens, evil military types on the other side send a death ray through it. But turns out good guys had magically figured out that bad guys will send a ray. They have put a mirror in front of the portal so that reflected ray is sent back to destroy bay guys. Buffy with her scythe and Satsu with her katana enter the building of The New Initiative throught the portal. Two girls armed with one scythe and one katana defeat about a hundred men heavily armed with guns.

Xander locates their position: they're two miles south of Sunnydale.

Buffy finds Amy who does her magic thingie against the slayers. Somehow Willow's spirit transmits to Buffy her magic abilities and Buffy defeats Amy too. A spirit of Amy's mother makes a cameo appearance and says that she saw Amy's nightmares. Warren and Amy escape with generic "This isn't over, Slayer". Buffy rushes to Willow who is OK and smiling. "Problems?"

Buffy asks Willow to heal wounded and dying soldiers. She sees a door with a number "30" on it. "OK, Ethan", she says. "You got yourself get out of jail free card." But Buffy's late. General Voll kills Ethan Rayne and tries to kill Buffy. She slams him at the wall and discover *that* sign on his chest.

"Twilight is coming", general says. "For you, for all your monstrous spawn ... You've upset the balance, girl. Do you really think we were going to sit by and let you create a master race? ... You're not human. You've been to war with demons, with the First, but, believe me, you've picked the wrong side. 'cause God help us, if you win then you'll decide that the world still isn't the way you want it, and the demon in you will say just one thing: "SLAY". We're not waiting for that to happen. We will wipe you out. Not just monsters anymore. It's you against the world. You're at war with the human race."

"Oh", Buffy says. "...kay".

Analysis:

The conclusion of the first arc is exhilarating and sad at the same time. The ambition looks enormous. So far, nobody wrote a convincing "human race vs super-human race" story.

I suppose on a RL level the situation is unsolvable. What happens when the principle of equal opportunities stops working naturally, from within? The race of superhumans can't peacefully co-exist with the race of humans. Their very existence creates a huge inferiority complex in ordinary people. They can either live in isolation from each other or fight for survival and the humans can't win by definition. The situation is very Joss Whedon-worthy, because he, as nobody else, can write natural human reactions in supernatural situations.

The problems he tackles in The Long Way Home are epic and, so far, they had never been explored properly. The greatest sci-fi writers tried to create a model of co-habitation of humans and superhumans, but nobody was able to find a convincing formula. I suppose Joss had been planning to explore this issue in Firefly, with the character of River.

Could Joss pull off such compelling story in comics without compromises? The tragism of "human race vs super-human race" story has a very Jossian scope, that's for sure.

But...

The choices Joss made so far give me the impression that he won't dare to delve into the heart of the matter and will boil the season down to more traditional and superficial "Bad Initiative vs good slayers" story. Because he consistently eliminates any serious stuff (Ethan Rayne's death is just another proof that this story doesn't need adult characters) and basically serves teenage audience with teenage love agnst, funny quips and cool fights.

The very idea of fighting against evil humans without modern weapons sounds very artificial. Opposing a mirror to high-tech weaponry works OK as a trick but what if bad guys used a bomb instead a ray? Obviously we're not supposed to care about such trifles. Anyway, Willow will heal everybody with a wave of her hand.

There is nothing wrong with it. It's just a different genre. It's all very McGyver-ish, and it works great if we accept the fact that the story has the McGyver level of credibility - i.e. is flippant, light-minded fun where we suspend our disbelief and don't mind implausibilities and give-aways.

Like, Warren is torturing Willow, but she's OK because some magick-y superbeings help her, and, as soon as Buffy arrives, she heals herself instantly. And she can heal everybody else. But she can't restore Xander's eye. Obviously because he looks super-cool with his eye-patch.

The same with Amy: she's a super-witch, she can do almost anything but for some inexplicable reason she has spent a couple of years in Sunnydale crater unable to get out.

The same with supernatural props; portals were hardingers of apocalypses in TV show, but in comics they became just a handy means of transportation.

I see no room for adult characters and adult themes in this kind of story. It's very season one-ish so far. So I think that "human race vs super-human race" story will boil down to "good slayers vs evil Initiative" type of story. Soon we'll find out that The New Initiative is only claiming tо represent the human race and they're just a bunch of evil misogynists whom Scoobies will defeat with quips and jokes.

Commercially, it's a great project. The core audience need good cheesy fun; they couldn't accept dark seasons and now Joss fixes his mistakes and caters to his audience because he needs a successful project after a number of flops.

I wonder if Joss had ever pondered upon the idea to write a novel. Because I think that his current ideas are more suitable for a novel than for a comic. Is writing novels so un-prestigious in America? Or it's just the matter of money?

Conspiracy theories:

Theory #1. The Kiss of True Love, or Bander!

Buffy has been kissed by somebody who had Satsu's lipgloss on his\her lips.

It can't be Satsu herself since she was on the castle wall fighting zombies and shouting "kill the head isn't working!" in her walky-talky when the kiss of true love occurred.

It can't be Willow because she has just arrived.

It can't be other slayerettes because creating such a complex mislead, with the participation of one extra, for another extra is stupid waste of time and paper.

The answer is evident. It was Xander.

I think Joss is repeating himself. (I remember reading somewhere that people lose their ability to create anything original after 40. Just saying.)

I suppose Joss recycles his kiss trick from Our Mrs. Reynolds. In Firefly 1.06 Mal Reynolds, inaware about Inara's love for him, thinks that she has kissed his fake "wife" - a con woman whose kiss puts people to sleep. Since both Mal and Inara fell asleep, Mal assumed that Inara has also kissed "mrs.Reynolds'. But in fact Inara kissed unconscious Mal and got her poison from *his* lips.

The situation is easy to apply here: Satsu tried to seduce Xander at the same time as Amy was performing her spell on Buffy, so she has left some cinnamon lipgloss on his lips.

Xander-as-the-kisser explains why Willow, who, AFAIK, doesn't have telepathic abilities, knows there is a person who's in love with Buffy in the room. She has just arrived and she doesn't know anybody but Xander. And she knows that he loves Buffy since season 1.

It's as simple as that.

Theory #2: Ethan can't die, or clutching at straws.

Has anybody paid attention to weird shadows in Ethan's cell? The light from a rectangular door creates a triangular pattern on one wall, then - oval pattern on another wall. Is it hack-work or it means that the whole tableau is an illusion created by Ethan who is very much alive?

I asked many people including professional artists, could the forms of these shadows mean something. All of them told me that it may be the matter of composition, balancing the light and the dark on the panel. Still, I hope that Ethan isn't completely dead. It just doesn't make sense.

Theory #3: Dark Horse vs Spike, or old wounds

People who read letters column, may have noticed a message of a fan who calls himself Shawler. (S)he hates Spike with a vengeance and colorfully describes how he loathes him. "Spike raped Buffy of most of her humanity and all of her humility... Please don't have Angel or disgusting Spike show up in this series!"

Interestingly, it's the second anti-Spike letter DH publishes. One may assume that the letter is carefully chosen to represent DH official policy: forget about dark themes, season 8 is about cool guys and cute girls. (And a lot of cheese.)

But there is something more. Back in 1998 DH had a row with James Marsters who played Spike. According to James Marsters Question and Answer Database by Bookworm54 JM was very vocal about his displeasure.

(4-04 Starburst) I'm angry about the comic book. I wrote a story that was very clear - it was a twisted romance. They hired a writer and treated it as a Gothic gross-out tale, which wasn't what I wrote. It was a good story, people responded to it, I appreciated that. But if they had done it the way I wrote it, it would have been ten times better. Dark Horse was dishonest with me with how they brought me into the project and what they told me it was going to be. I feel now, unless I can have total control over every single stage of it, I don't have any trust at all. I thought, in all my naivety, that I would have more control if I stopped being an actor and started being a writer. Of course, I found out that is not true.

I can't remember any other occasion of James dissing anybody. He's the nicest guy, he always complimentary on everybody. If he's so harsh on DH in an official interview (!), it means their row was truly epic. Could the editors have a personal vendetta against Spike due to the kerkuffle with the actor who played him?

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To sum it up, the first 4 issues of BtVS s8 indicate that it's a solid commercial project. It's sad to think about the missed opportunities - but I'm trying to look forward to cheesy fun. The first arc looks like magnificent storyboards for Michael Bay's next movie and I don't mind good entertainment.

And, last but not least, I recommend to read great reviews by