Buffy issue 9 summary, analysis and spoilery speculations

[moscow_watcher]

Summary:

Brian K Vaughan uses any opportunity to delve into Faith's past and into her head. This issue starts - again! - with a flashback, this time dedicated to Faith's relationship with Mayor. Obviously he wants to draw a parallel to Gigi's relationship with Roden who now orders her to kill Faith. But Gigi, who has already swung her axe, conveniently hits Faith with its helve. She is mad at Faith at lying to her about her name, her goals, but most of all, about her nationality: "You're not even English?"

Is it written as a joke? I'm at loss here.

Gigi's rage is so devastating that she conveniently plunges her axe into a stone statue. Um, mister Vaughan... have you ever had an axe in your hands? I'm a woman, but even I occasionally hack twigs and branches for campfires. And I know that a metallic blade can't go into a stone.

OK, I accept it as a "suspension of disbelief" moment. Statue looks prettier. And it beautifully constrasts with the dynamics of the fight.

Meanwhile, Willow, following Buffy's order, phones Giles who is still trying to penetrate the mystical barrier around Gigi's estate. Buffy, furious, tells Giles that Faith tried to kill her. Giles has no time to explain - he has to save Faith, so he cuts Buffy short and asks her to put Willow on the line. Buffy feels betrayed.

Meanwhile, Faith-Gigi fight goes on, Gigi conveniently flies through the air and runs herself on her own axe. And, before she dies, she conveniently absolves Faith when the latter says she never meant to kill her - "Yeah. But it's like the song goes..."

Roden immediately tries to recruit Faith to kill Buffy, but, naturally, she rejects his offer and hits him with a Twilight's guidebook he offers her. Furious, Roden tries to kill Faith with a stone fist he conjures up from the earth, but cavalry in the person of Giles arrives in time and saves her. The battle between Roden and Giles is short and ridiculous: while Roden is conveniently standing there and posturing, Faith throws Roden's Twilight's guidebook to Giles, he immediately finds the necessary spell, puts the "mystic field" inside his opponent and Roden's head bursts.

Cut to the next morning. Back in Giles' apartment, Faith declares that she has decided not to quit. She has got her Big Moral Lesson and she wants "to play social worker to the slayers. Maybe I could help walk a few bad girls back from the brink". They decide to work together.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the jungle, a military helicopter lands on a tiny stone plateau. A woman in a military uniform with a Twilight sign on her palm requests the audience. A creature whose boots we saw back in issue 1 descends from above.

According to the woman, whose name is Lt. Molter, "their man on the inside" has reported that Buffy Summers was still alive. Flying Boots, who looks like Terminator in an iron mask, tells her that actually, Gigi and Roden were his targets. He plans to manipulate his enemies "into waging this ugly war, a tactic crucial for bringing the age of magic to a close".

"Night falls soon enough", he promises.

Analysis:

The second arc, as well as the first one, works OK as long as the reader doesn't overthink and overanalyse it. Analysis is a tricky thing here: a reviewer may easily turn into a whiner who complains about the lack of Shakespearean depth in a Shreck movie.

Well...

Brian K Vaughan loves Faith and this story is clearly her show. She's the star and everything else exists to showcase her ability to fight, quip and demonstrate the generosity of her spirit. I read comments from people who disliked her on the show but started to like her after this comic, and it's understandable: Faith really shines here.

But, unfortunately, Faith's greatness comes at the expence of everything else. Other characters's dialogs are either bland or sound like badfic snippets, like "Buffy's narrow ass lives to fight another day".

Vaughan's attempts to spice up Buffy's dialogues end up in some weird choices - "Faith and her droogs", for example. Buffy doesn't strike me as a girl who reads Burgess or watches Kubrick. (Well, she could hear that word from Spike - after all, his chip was a Clockwork Orange rip-off) :)

OTOH, Faith's culturological references sound spot-on ("Conan the librarian" - hee!) while Giles' "maybe I could be the Steed to your Peel" works mainly as an opening to Faith's priceless reply "I hope it's not as gross as it sounds". Have I mentioned that Vaughan loves Faith? I hope Joss will give him the spinoff rights.

Jeanty demonstrates some improvement - his Mayor looks great and Giles has several good panels. Faith is drawn better than in the previous issues, but Jeanty's alternate cover is incredibly ugly! Still there are some inspiring visual decisions in the issue, like Faith-Gigi fight taking place at sunset, with the blood-red sky as a backdrop.

About the story. *le sigh*

The story works great as long as you don't search something deep and significant in it. It's good entertainment, well-paced and provided with a requisite Valuable Moral Lesson. But it's a story of convenient situations, easy choices and artificial conflicts.

I already pointed out at multiple convenient situations in the summary. The ultimale convenience is Vaughan's decision to make Gigi's death accidental. He saves Faith from a hard choice - either kill Gigi or let her go knowing that she may strike again. Obviously, writer is too attached to the character to put her in a no-win situation.

Maybe my problem is measuring up comics by TV show standards. Onscreen Faith (as well as all the other characters) had been constantly put in no-win situations and had to make hard and unpleasant choices. Compared to them this watered down resolution is a shameful cop-out that highlights the very nature of comic-vs-TVshow dichotomy.

There are two types of conflicts between characters in fiction - real and artificial. Real ones are based on characters' different worldviews. Artificial ones are based on misunderstandings. This is the latter kind of conflict, when good guys are angry at each other because of unlucky circumstances. Giles doesn't want to cooperate with Buffy or anybody else in the castle either because he suspects there is a mole there or because he's overprotective. So he chooses Faith. Buffy finds out about his undercover operation in the worst possible situation and snaps at him, demanding the explanation. He can't waste time on explanations when Faith's life is in danger, so he snaps at Buffy, etc.

The problem with artificial conflicts is that they produce artificial resolutions. In the person of Gigi Faith killed her own metaphorical dark side and obsession with Buffy. What has changed? Instead of killing baby vampires she will be mentoring girls who kill baby vampires? I'd rather see her actively fighting.

Spoilery speculations.

1. So, there is a spy in Buffy's inner circle. If I were trying to figure him out using logic and common sense, my prime candidate would be Giles, because during his battle with Roden he acted as a person who knows the Twilight guidebook by heart. But logic and common sense are hardly applicable to BtVS (using logic and common sense I can easily prove that the real Doctor in As You Were is Riley). I'm pretty sure that Core Four are immune. Dear Xander fans, don't sweat and relax - this is a story of convenient situations, easy choices and artificial conflicts. The spy is either inadvertent (for example, New!Initiative managed to hide a bug in Xander's eyepatch) or an extra nobody cares about. Or he hasn't been introduced yet. (Just like the kiss of true love from a character who wasn't there in the room?) :)

2. Is Flying Boots the Big Bad of the season? Joss says he is. Anyway, by now the hierarchy of seasonal villains is already quite complicated to add another one. First we saw Amy and Warren; then we discovered New!Initiative; then we met Roden; now it looks like they are just pawns in Flying Boots's game. His official goal - to get rid of the magic - sounds as a trick to lull military's vigilance. After all, he's able to levitate! Could he be somebody we know? Easily. Military subplot and the promise of Riley return make Adam the best candidate.

3. Curiously, the detail that tortures me the most is the red demon on Faith's t-shirt on the last panels. It looks like the last-minute addition because it's obvious that it wasn't drawed but was copy-pasted from somewhere. The picture of demon doesn't follow the folds of the fabric of the t-shirt. I wonder if it was added to make the panels more vivid or the red demon is a foreshadowing of something sinister happening to Faith?

Bottom line: Interesting albeit not completely successful attempt to bring a bit of Avengers cool to Charlie's Angels universe.

Comments

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

She's aware of what is going on with Giles and she knows why Giles went to Faith. She's tremendously upset about that fact.

I'm not sure I follow you.

Do you mean that Buffy is upset because Giles doesn't see her as a killer? (Sorry if I misunderstood you. It's 1 a.m. in Moscow and I'm already sleepy.)

Because my impression is that Buffy was mostly angry because it was Faith whom Giles has invited to help him. Buffy is so angry that she even can't bring herself to say her name - she talks about "HER!"

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

Do you mean that Buffy is upset because Giles doesn't see her as a killer?

No, more that Buffy is upset that there are obvious shenanigans going on that she *knows* she wouldn't approve of. That she knows there are things that Giles would consider doing that he would go to Faith first instead of Buffy.

I think Giles and Buffy are on course for a major blow out where she's going to wonder if it's up to her to stop him.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

That she knows there are things that Giles would consider doing that he would go to Faith first instead of Buffy.

Hmmm. Interesting idea - about Buffy thinking that Giles mostly uses her as a window dressing, like Andrew's recruiting video. Quite possible. But it's hard to judge because we don't know who's the boss.

I think Giles and Buffy are on course for a major blow out where she's going to wonder if it's up to her to stop him.

That could be interesting. And truly heartbreaking.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea - about Buffy thinking that Giles mostly uses her as a window dressing, like Andrew's recruiting video. Quite possible. But it's hard to judge because we don't know who's the boss.

Not really where I was going with it. More that Giles has quite a bit of the Operative in him and Buffy is more of an idealistic (and yet not quite cynical, yet) Mal.

Giles believes that in order to protect a good society, awful things must be done (the ends justify the means) but that those actions must be hidden from society in order to maintain appearances and Buffy is more of a "your actions define your society" type. It's a huge theme in the US today, what with the Bush administration performing all sorts of heinous actions to "protect" the free world.

Since the Spike incident Buffy's blinders have been off WRT Giles but she hasn't quite accepted the fact the sooner or later someone's going to have to put a stop to the "waterboarding". What I saw in her face, when ir ctumpled, was the realization that she's may have to act sooner rather than later.

[moscow-watcher.livejournal.com]

Interesting how differently we see the scene. I reread the panels and still see Buffy's reaction being mostly about Faith. I've got the impression that by the time Willow returns her to the castle, Buffy already believes that Faith is telling the truth and Giles has launched a dangerous undercover operation and has chosen Faith as his field agent. And it's his choice that infuriates her the most. - "Her!"

I don't see anything in her behavior that suggests that she thinks about confronting Giles and stopping him.

But I may be wrong. I have hard time adjusting to comics format.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I think jealousy of Faith is also a strong part of her upset, but IMO the devastation on her face could only be put there by the beginning realization of *why* he would choose Faith over her.

Then again, I could be reading too much into it, but I honestly *don't* think that the problem between Giles and Buffy is simply a Yoko Factor type misunderstanding.