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My final paper is finished and so I have some time before the actual exams to bring you some more reviews and news. So let’s get right to it with a review of the latest Buffy and Angel issues.
Buffy’s season eight is still going strong with issue #24. This time the story focuses on Faith, who we last saw early on in the series. She is still with Giles and together they are looking for young slayers in order to train them. When they hear of a slayer sanctuary, they decide to visit an meet one of the few remaining members of the Watchers’ Council Duncan Fillworthe (allthough he seems familiar, he was never introduced to the Buffyverse before). It is said that a group of slayers are hiding out in Hanselstadt, a small town in the mountains and they are at a stalemate with the vampires. What Giles and Faith don’t know however is that nothing is as it seems and the real reason why the vampires won’t attack the town lies hidden under a wall of silence. That’s all I can say here without giving away too much. All in all the issue had the right feel. Faith was spot on, sporting a few typical one-liners, we all love so much (for example when she helps a slayer the girl cries out: “You’re her… You’re BUFFY!!!”, and Faith replies, “She’s calling me names, G.” Classic!) and the action is not too over the top. #24 was a good one, but I am starting to miss the main storyline about Twilight and his goons. The strongest point of the issue however is the way it establishes Giles and Faith as the new slayer-watcher dreamteam. Writer Jim Krueger and artist Cliff Richards also seem to be such a team, so I would love to see more of them.
Story 8, Art 8, Re-read 7, Overall Rating 8
Let’s move on to Angel #19, a series that has turned from a strong challenging comic book to a real train wreck in only 2 issues. First off all, I have to say that I can’t get used to Dave Ross’ Art. The characters don’t look like their human counterparts and the rest of it looks like it’s from an early 90s X-men comic and is overall just bad in my opinion (just look at panel 4 of the uploaded pictures. Angel looks like a dumb brute… horrible). The story of the issue is not even worth mentioning, as it only focuses of Angel and his new “ally” Desdemona, a shapeshifter who can turn into a leopard. The thing that bugs me most is however how callous Kate Lockley has been reintroduced to the continuity. Angel and her were not exactly friends when they parted ways and now she is back, immediately on his team and does the whole “my friend is a vampire and I’m fine with it” routine. I really hope that the team on Angel will soon change direction or I will probably lose interest.
Story 4, Art 3, Re-read 3, Overall Rating 3
I won’t make any excuses for the late post, saying that exams are keeping me busy should be enough. So let’s get to the review of Buffy and Angel’s latest comic books.
Once again (sigh) we get a single issue story in Buffy’s issue #23 and this time our hero slayer gets backup from Andrew, former criminal mastermind and now a watcher for the Council. This means tons of nerd- and geek-speak for the readers and the chance to see Buffy herself have moment of geek weakness. Story wise, Buffy and Angel have to fight an obscure rogue slayer (I think she is mentioned in issue #11) that has gone bad and has taken over an island in Italy as a base of operations. There is not much happening in the issue and I have to say, had it not been for the funny nerd references this issue would have been abysmal. Once again an issue of minor quality, and I’m sadly starting to lose interest in the series. Also check out this other review: click!
Story 5, Art 6, Re-read 4, Overall Rating 5
Much of the same can be said about the last issue of Angel. Since the vampire with a soul has returned L.A. from he has been struggling with his new found celebrity. This first “Aftermath” issue features a new creative team namely artist, Dave Ross and writer Kelley Armstrong and they are doing a decent job, although I think that the art sometimes suffers from Ross’ attempt to capture the former actors’ likeness which makes the characters look stale and undynamic. Concerning the reintroduction of Kate I have to say that I’m still not sure what I should think of this. She had been gone way to long and on a really bad note so that her sudden reappearance is questionable, not to comment on her immediate chumminess with our lead hero. Hopefully the series will soon be back to the initial dense storytelling and maybe Armstrong will get the tone of the story right next time.
Story 6, Art 6, Re-read 5, Overall Rating 6
“This is the end. My only friend, the end.“
Well at least it’s the end of the “After the Fall” series. Issue #17 ties up the loose ends of L.A.’s return to reality. A month has passed since Angel and his friends defied the odds and turned back time in order to save L.A. from hell on earth. So we see Angel managing with his new found celebrity, see a return (although only briefly) of Lorne and even the rivalry between Spike and Angel seems to have cooled down a bit. Of course this would not be an Angel story if we were not reminded of his apparent destiny (the one where he is supposed to bring upon the destruction of mankind) and see him deal with his guilt about what has transpired the last few weeks. Art wise nothing really changes in the series, which is at times a bit disappointing. I’m looking forward to the next few issues and hope they will provide a nice setup for a seventh season of the Angel storyline.
Looking back at season six I can honestly say, that I enjoyed the ride. At first I was a bit alienated by the extreme change the creative team made (what with throwing L.A. into hell), but the finale was worth it. The season also demonstrated, that nobody ever really disappears in Whedon’s universes as we saw a return of many “dead” characters. The only negative point I can really make (and this goes for Buffy as well) is that the dialog sometimes is too screenplay like. It is often hard to follow as the necessary facial impressions are missing to convey additional meaning. All in all it was an enjoyable read and I will definetly read the issues again, if I ever watch the show all through again (just to see how it reads in close proximity to the series).
Remember that Angel continues with the “Aftermath” series, which will be out on February 25th.
Story 7, Art 6, Re-read 6, Overall Rating 6.5
Here we are again, issue 22 has just been released and I took a quick look for you. Last month we saw a return of Buffy’s long time adversary Harmony (although she is more of a wannabe bad gal) and if you remember I was not at all pleased with the result. Issue 22 attempts to continue the main storyline, but we are still in filler territory.
Story wise, Satsu is visited in Japan by Willow’s ex Kennedy, who is supposed to evaluate Satsu’s performance as a new slayer cell leader. The Japanese slayer is still stricken by her short love affair with Buffy and Kennedy makes it abundantly clear, that she should forget about the vampire killer from Sunnydale. In other words, the writers seem to want to prevent the assumption that Buffy might have turned gay with a big neon NO! sign. Kennedy’s visit to the Asian country is however not without incident, as they are attacked by a small fury kitty doll (yes I know how it sounds), which turns out to be a part of a swarm like creature called Swell, which attempts to infest the human hosts it comes in contact with and in order to control them. The slayers are of course not overwhelmed by this threat and they manage to prevent a major outbreak. Harmony once again uses the destruction of the doll shipment to criminalize the slayer movement in the media.
So the issue has it all: Japan, a giant monster constituted of several minor cute kitty dolls (reminiscent of the Power Rangers type creatures), slayers kicking ass and the mention of lesbianism. Oh, and there’s a submarine too. Still the story was not much more satisfying than last months and I still think the latest issues took the funny premise of the show into a silly direction. Please return to the previous setting before you alienate more of the readers.
Story 6, Art 7, Re-read 5, Overall Rating 6
The second last issue of the “After the Fall” story arc is nothing short of exceptional. When Angel’s son was killed by Gunn in issue #15 it was clear that the former vampire would probably not react in a really sane way. But what Brian Lynch came up with in order to solve the “hellish” situation of L.A. really surprised me. Angel goes up against his former ally and at first it seems as if he was only out to avenge his son’s death. But it soon becomes obvious that it is an attempt to get the senior partners attention. Knowing that they cannot allow Angel to die, in order for him to fulfill their prophecy, he tries to provoke Gunn to kill him. When the vampire strikes down his former boss, the senior partners react by recreating the last reality in which Angel was unharmed, meaning the day of Armageddon. Since our heroes are prepared now, they know exactly what to do and they prevent the destruction of L.A. Everything seems fine, Gunn is still human, Connor is alive and even Illyria seems to get in touch with her human side, if it weren’t for the slight detail that everybody remembers what happened during the months of terror. Angel is no longer the hero standing in the shadows, but he has become legend.
When I started reading the sixth season of Angel, I was at first alienated by the fact they that had really thrown L.A. into hell. It was just a bit too over the top for my taste, as I had always liked the more down to earth approach of the series (compared to other fantasy shows). Still the story unfolded rather nicely and I have to say that this return to the old L.A. is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. Hopefully the last issue of “After the Fall” will be as good. After that, the title will change into “Aftermath” which will show us how the different characters are dealing with the changes made in #16 and #17. Can’t wait to see how the next issue will tie up this first storyline!
Story 10, Art 8, Re-read 8, Overall Rating 9
I have been a fan of Buffy – the Vampire Slayer, since it first came out. Over the course of the years you become attached to the characters of a show, you laugh with them and you even cry with them. Yet there was always one character on Buffy (and later even on Angel), that I was always annoyed with and that was Harmony. So when I heard that this months issue of Season Eight would feature her exclusively, I had a bad feeling to begin with.
Dark Horse brings us another one shot story, in which we follow Harmony as she outs herself to the public and becomes the world’s first Vampire TV star. When she is tackled by a Slayer during one of the shootings for her TV show, the media has a field day by declaring the Slayers as a shadowy organization with an unknown agenda and a threat to the public.
This is by far the worst issue of the series. I have to admit that until now I always liked the work of Jane Espenson, be it on Buffy or Battlestar Galactica. But this issue just doesn’t make sense, not even for a fantasy universe. Who would believe that a Vampire could kill people on regular network television? Not even MTV could pull that off. If they needed a reason to shine another light on the Slayers they could have done it by a million other ways. In my opinion this issue was just plain stupid. Hopefully the one-shot reel will soon end and we can get back to the continuing storyline.
Story 3, Art 6, Re-read 1, Overall Rating 3
Angel – After The Fall has been running for over a year now and with issues #14 and #15 the story finally seems to go past the usual “hell on earth” theme. Issue #13 gave as a sneak peak into Angel’s future, showing him as the bane of mankind. Still, he decided to keep on fighting in the hopes of disproving this nightmarish prediction. While Angel is barely clinging to life, his friends try to rekindle his life force and ultimately Wolfram & Hart step in, to heal Angel’s body, in order for him to fulfil his destiny. In the meantime Illyria regains her true form (an enormous godlike squid) and decides that it is time to end it all. To quote George: “She’s collapsing time. She’s had it with existence.”
Of course Angel and his crew won’t let this happen, but not everybody thinks that Illyria’s plan is wrong. Gunn steps between our heroes and the monsterific goddess and in the ensuing fight, one of them is killed.
That’s all I will tell you right here, as some of you might still want to read issue #15 first. All in all, the series finally reintroduces some of the tragic elements of the TV series. I guess you could say that Brian Lynch has finally not only emulated Whedon’s art of storytelling, but has found his own way, without losing any of the show’s former flair. Well done, hopefully the remaining issues of this “season” well be as strong as these two.
Story 8, Art 7, Reread 7, Overall Score 8
With all the recent work for my exams it completely slipped my mind to upload the review of the twentieth issue of Buffy’s season eight. It was kind of a filler episode, a small cool down before a new story arc, but it was fun nonetheless. Remember when they had announced Buffy – The Animated Series? No? Well then you should check out this issue. After battling the hordes of evil (just a normal day for our favorite slayer), Buffy falls into bed and has a dream in which she is send back to Sunnydale (in the golden years), back when she was still a teenager in high school.
In this dream, we get to meet the Scoobies as we loved them, Giles is still the stuffy librarian, Xander and Willow are awkward teens and Angel is the broody loner in the dark. Ah, the good old times. What makes this issue special however, and probably the reason why they did it at all, is the art. The artists recap the style of the animation show that was planned, but never realized and thus resurrect the project, if only for a short time. Jeph Loeb (dedicating the issue to his son Sam’s memory) wrote the script and proves that he is a master of assimilating Whedon’s style and humor.
Although I might have preferred a continuance of the main story I must say that I enjoyed the issue a lot and would probably have loved to see a few episodes of the show, back when it was planned to air.
Story 7, Art 8, Re-read 6, Overall Rating 7
Finally time for the review of the last Spike: After the Fall issue. When we last left our “hero” he was knee deep in trouble. The story sets back in with Connor, Angel’s son, trying to save Spike and getting a beat down by the local “big bad”. Although most of the issue is filled with the battle between said demon lord and Spike, it helps to get a deeper look at Illyria, who still battles with the memories of Fred imbedded inside of her. The issue, and the whole mini-series as such, is therefore quite useful in order to understand more about the goddess and of course it also shows us how Spike could ever become demon lord himself. And as always Brian Lynch manages to be on par with Whedon’s original vision and humor.
Story 7, Art 7, Re-read 6, Overall Rating 7
First of all let me apologize for the unusually long absence. My workload is a bit overwhelming and although I love reading about Superman, I’m not him. But that’s neither here nor there, so let me move on with this week’s review of Superman: Secret Identity.
This four issue mini-series takes not place in the usual DC universe, but rather in a reality similar to our own. The protagonist however has also been named Clark Kent by his parents and living in Kansas, his schoolmates give him a hard time about it. Clark tries to ignore them of course, but after years of harassment he grows weary of the constant reminders of his parents’ idea of a joke. When he one days goes for a short hike on his own and falls asleep in the woods, he wakes up to discover that he can fly. Freaked out and ecstatic at the same time, he explores his new powers and finds out that he also has increased strength and resilience. Although his new found powers would make his co students shut up and leave him alone, he decides to keep this secret to himself and use them to help humanity.
The four issues all deal with another period in Clark’s life. In the first he is a teenager, discovering his powers. In the next he is in his twenties, working as a writer (not a reporter) in Manhattan. His friends set him up with a woman called Lois and although both are fed up with the Clark & Lois jokes, they give it a shot and fall in love. At the same time, the military, who has been secretly observing the superhuman Samaritan, decides to become active and catches Clark in order to experiment on him. The third issue deals with an older Clark, married to Lois and occasionally working together with the military in order to keep them off his back. Finally in issue four we see Clark as an old man with children and dealing with his fading powers.
What makes this series such a special and delightful read is the way it connects to our own reality. It deals with realistic questions considering somebody gaining superhuman powers. How would this person keep his secret? What would the government do once they find out? And how can you have a family with such a huge burden on your shoulders?
The illustrations by Stuart Immonen are beautiful and touching at the same time. Kurt Busuik’s story is one of the best I have read in a long time and probably one of my favorite Superman tales ever, even though it is not a DC universe story. Highly recommended!
Story 10, Art 9, Re-read 9, Overall Score 10/10
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