moscow_watcher | Buffy #17 and Spike After the Fall #2 (kinda) reviews

Buffy #17

... in which Buffy and Fray recognize each other as slayers; Fray's brother' Garth, conspires with Evil!Willow to do something evil; and Xander rides Dawn.

Honestly, I couldn't figure out so many visuals in this issue it was embarrassing. The first panels open with Fray and her sister Erin ambushing vamps' flying van in the vicinity of a gigantic statue surrounded by force field reflecting bullets and firing laser beams. First, I was sure that Erin was Buffy - they look like twin sisters. Second, I didn't figure out that the gigantic old man who raises his hand like he makes a spell is actually a statue. I thought it was somebody (something) similar to "elemental creatures" who helped Willow in issue 4.

Then I read other reviews and asked questions and people explained me and when I read the issue for the third time, I was able to follow the plot. And after reading in

stormwreath's review "It took me a while to figure out that image" - I felt a little better. He's one of the cleverest people in the fandom, and it took him a while to figure it out!

And now I wonder why Joss decided to make such a strange experiment and plunge readers who aren't acquainted with Fray story into a completely different universe. Was it an intentional shock, one more declaration that this is not the show we used to watch on TV - or Joss has just miscalculated the level of disorientation?

The comparison to Chain is inevitable but superficial. In Chain we had all new characters and a pretty simple storyline told in a non-chronological order. Here we have a girl with Buffy face - who turns out to be Fray's sister; we have a girl with Drusilla's characteristics - who turns out to be Willow; and we have a complex plot full of riddles, vague hints and blatant misleads.

Talking about riddles.

-- Erin looks like Buffy's twin sister. A hack work or a set-up for a future plot twist?

-- All sources describe evil!Willow as "madwoman". A mislead (to make the audience think of Dru) or a future important plot point?

-- "Gates. The last great watcher. Sacrificed himself at the battle of Starbucks." Gates = Giles?

-- "What happens in your time will cause your time to come" (Evil!Willow). Is she another Willow, from a previous timeline? Or she's got trapped in a time-loop and is forced to repeat the same ritual ad aeternam? And how could she know what will happen if she's not a time-traveller? I remember only one instance of an event being chronicled before it happened and, curiously, that moment is closely connected to Willow and events of season 8: Willow "zips up" Warren's mouth and skins him on the last minute of Villains, but the depiction of her tortures appear on Lloyd's wall at least 10 minutes earlier (29-th minute of the episode).

OTOH, maybe "your time" just means "vampire kingdom on Earth". And, since we know from spoilers, that in the next arc "Buffy's world goes public" and "vampires become common knowledge", maybe evil!Willow's actions are destined to trigger these events by doing something to Buffy before she sends her back. Or maybe she sends her into the animated universe of issue 20.

But I'm nurturing a theory that Willow (from a previous timeline) somehow found out in advance about Giles' untimely death and developed a complex plan to prevent it. Don't ask me how. Joss' stories are always full of gigantic plot holes and so far the only way to predict the plot developments was to look at it from the emotional standpoint. And emotionally I can't see Willow turning to dark side permanently. First of all - been there, done that, bored now. Second, it just don't feel right. But maybe this new season has new rules regarding the characters.

Last, but not least: these two days I'm reading a discussion about season 8 and if it feels like season 1. A year ago when I read the first issues I used to think that season 8 feels like season 1. Now I think it feels like season 1... of another show. Kinda Alias-cum-Dr.Who-cum-good old BtVS.

I hope that people who dismiss critical approach to season 8 as "whining and bitching" won't get me wrong. Yes, it does feel as a reboot to me. Yes, maybe it's the only way BtVS could survive in another medium. And I like reading it, but the passion is gone. I'm a Spike fan and maybe his absence is one of the reasons of my tepid attitude to season 8.

So, Spike: After the Fall, issue 2

... in which our boy meets the dragon, gets touched by a mysterious glowing man in a cocoon and fights an evil pixie who sucks life force out of her victims.

I enjoyed it. It's a transitional issue of a transitional arc, but dialogs are stellar and Spike's voice is spot-on.

"Sorry, Puff". Does it mean that dragon's actual name is Puff? And the person who named him was Spike? If that's the case, no wonder Angel was so embarrassed to tell dragon's name to Connor!

Spike's strategizing about slaying the dragon is hysterical ("Plug up nostrils. Tries to blow smoke. Head explodes. Effective and entertaining") as is Spike's "Penthouse letter" in the middle of his fight with furious Amazons.

Evil pixie is fun and her minion who is preoccupied with regulating everything, including humor, are priceless.

As usual, Urru excels at drawing movements, especially fights. Pity we don't get a big damn panel of Spike riding the dragon. I hope this is not their last encounter. Spike riding Puff - that would be quite a sight! :)

But, instead we get another scene with hysterically funny sexual subtext: when Spike meets Spider, she bristles up with eight spider legs and he, in response, aims his knife at her. Talk about the battle of sexes.

The only panel that got me confused was the one with a glowing man in a cocoon. My first thought was that it was a fiery portal to hell. Then, after reading other peoples' reviews, I realized that I was wrong and the glowing entity is a man, probably Angel, slowly convalescing after the battle. Upon second reading I appreciated fully the powerful metaphor of Angel's moral suffering after he inadvertently sent LA to hell. Later in the issue Spike endures similar moral torture when evil pixie harms people he protects.

We leave our boy battered, bloodied, chained and desperate. We already know that he "stepped up" and evil pixie's minions "began following" him (Angel: AtF, issue 4). Still, even if the outcome is already known, it's interesting to find out how Spike managed to become their leader. He has always been good with women and to women. Even when he was unsouled. Funnily, characters' attitude to Spike reflects fandom's attitude. They either love to torture him or revel in nurturing and loving him. Looks like the next issue will be thrilling.

Interestingly, at one point evil pixie repeats Buffy's phrase in Potential: "You're all gonna die". In the next issue we'll see if she adopted other Buffyisms. ;-)

Buffy #17 and Spike After the Fall #2 (kinda) reviews

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