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Posted by Don MacPherson on July 25th, 2007
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #s 1-4
“The Long Way Home” Parts One through Four
Writer: Joss Whedon
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Comicraft
Cover artist: Jo Chen
Editor: Scott Allie
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $2.99 US per issue
From what I can gather, the announcement a few months back that Joss Whedon was going to continue the TV saga of a certain vampire slayer in the comic-book medium was met with glee on the part of the show’s diehard fans, but I assumed that the appeal of the new title would be limited to that crowd alone. Of course, I realized I shouldn’t assume anything about a particular comic book. The new series has performed well for Dark Horse, of course, and Whedon has written a few non-Buffy comics that I enjoyed in the past. With that in mind, I delved into the first four issues of the Buffy “Season Eight” series. While there are a lot of references to Buffy’s TV continuity, I was surprised to find that the plot is fairly easy to follow. Whedon has taken a much more ambitious approach to the vampire-slayer mythology, and the dialogue, unencumbered by U.S. television’s Standards and Practices people, is snappy and entertaining. Nevertheless, the subplots and revelations of this series are clearly intended for fans, not for new readers. As a guy who was never able to sit through more than half an hour of the now-cancelled show, the significance of cliffhangers and some character-driven subplots were lost on me. While diverting, these comics made me feel like an outsider looking in through the window of a club for select members.
Since the destruction of Buffy Summers’s hometown of Sunnydale, Calif., the vampire slayer has relocated to Scotland. From a castle stronghold, she and Xander have established a slayer army of almost two thousand young women to contend with demonic threats arising all over the world. There’s just one problem: the U.S. military views her organization as a threat to international security, on par with a terrorist organization made up of the fiercest warriors the world has ever seen. In the bottom of the crater that once was Sunnydale, the military discovers two of Buffy’s old enemies, with the power and plans necessary to bring her and her allies to an end.
Georges Jeanty offers up what is probably the most well-defined, crisp artwork of his career in comics thus far, and in the process, his art looks stronger than it ever has before. Perhaps the credit lies with pairing him with inker Andy Owens, I don’t know, but there’s no arguing with the results. He handles the action in the story adeptly; he choreographs the fight scenes adeptly. He also manages to capture the characters’ youth with seeming ease. They all look like young adults. Jeanty seems to strive for a limited sense of likeness when it comes to the characters and their TV counterparts, but they’re not dead ringers or anything. Jo Chen’s covers for the series offers much stronger likenesses of the actors. Where the art goes a little awry is with the depiction of a select number of characters who look far too much alike here. Fortunately, other cues in the art and in the script help to distinguish them, but Dawn, Amy and Willow all boast similar hair colors, body types and hair length, making for fleeting moments of confusion.
From what I know of the Buffy TV show, this notion of an army of vampire slayers based in Europe is a significant shift in direction for the property, and Whedon’s to be commended for not only making such a dramatic change to his heroine’s status quo but for providing enough information so that those uninitiated in all things Buffy are able to follow the story. The immensity of the vampire-slayer organization is balanced nicely by the playful dialogue, and the U.S. military’s opposition to a new (though unconventional) world power is an easy idea for the reader to accept.
While I was able to follow the larger plotline, I was struck over and over by the same thought: “I’m missing something here.” When the returning Buffy villains are revealed, I failed to pick up on the significance. Buffy and Dawn’s strained relationship may humanize the unusual characters, but I had no idea from what the rift between them stemmed. Willow’s reference to a dead lover was lost on me as well. And the pattern kept repeating. I don’t mind being out of the loop for a few moments, but I kept waiting for Whedon to include some exposition in his script. There just wasn’t enough there. I can understand why he’d want to avoid interrupting the flow of the plot and dialogue, but the absence of information is glaring. To be fair, I am not representative of the targeted Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight reader. This is designed with the faithful in mind, not me and my review should be considered in that context. Nevertheless, I think Whedon missed an opportunity to win over new Buffy fans. 6/10
July 25th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I’m more of a BtVS fan than you, I guess, having seen most of the last four season episodes once each, but even so I had trouble with some references to things from the Angel series (the Deep Space Nine of the Buffyverse). In these cases, Wikipedia is your friend. While it can’t be counted on to report on trivial matters like history, geography and science with any evenness, Wikipedia is perfect for keeping up with the details of Buffy, Doctor Who, Star Trek and the rest. You know – the important stuff.
July 25th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Eric wrote:
Wikipedia is perfect for keeping up with the details of Buffy, Doctor Who, Star Trek and the rest. You know – the important stuff.
Pop-culture entertainment requiring homework? I don’t think so.
July 25th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Art’s by Georges Jeanty, not Cliff Richards.
-J
July 25th, 2007 at 12:43 am
John wrote:
Art’s by Georges Jeanty, not Cliff Richards.
Gah! I don’t know where my head was. I’ve corrected the mistakes. I was actually thinking of Jeanty, but somehow brainfarted and substituted the wrong name inside my head.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:06 am
I wish I read this review before I kicked down the skrillo for the first three issues. Man, it was for in-the-know fans only (like Don said) and I couldn’t get into it because I didn’t know anything either. I’ll let them collect dust.
I only watched a few re-runs of the show and I wasn’t impressed. Veronica Mars is better or shall I say, was better. RIP Veronica Mars. Oh yeah, there is hope. V. Mars might follow the same footsteps and continue in the comic format.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I was a kind of casual fan of the show until around season 5 or 6, when I really started getting into it. I now have all the DVDs and also got hooked on Angel, as well.
(By the way, Eric TF, that’s a great comparison with DS9. In many ways, I felt Angel/DS9 was a better, more mature and more well thought-out show than its counterpart. To say nothing of sometimes being greatly unappreciated in comparison.)
I’ve been interested in the series, but I’m going to wait until a few of the trades are out for the series. I have the distinct feeling that it will read better in a collected version. Maybe there will be the backstory, like character bios, in the TPBs that non-fans like Don would find handy.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I supposed this puts me in the minority, but I have been hating Georges Jeanty’s artwork. His action scenes have no dynamic flow and are hard to follow. Between the continuity-heavy plot and the art, I’ve been less than impressed with this new “season” of Buffy …
August 4th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
New readers forget that this comic series is “Season Eight” of a tv show. If this season eight story was being aired on tv instead of being printed in comic form, & a viewer dove in with little or no previous Buffy knowledge, they would often times be confused & most times feel as though they were missing the good bits. I can imagine it’s a difficult spot to be in, as a writer, to balance the stories & dialog between satisfying fans & satiating new readers, but I’m not sure that clarifying every frame that may refer to something from previous seasons is the answer. There’s simply not space in a single issue to flesh stories out like that. If a new reader wants the inside scoop on all those good bits, watch the show, it’s one terrific ride.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:21 am
Heather wrote:
New readers forget that this comic series is “Season Eight” of a tv show. If this season eight story was being aired on tv instead of being printed in comic form, & a viewer dove in with little or no previous Buffy knowledge, they would often times be confused & most times feel as though they were missing the good bits.
I don’t entirely agree. Is there a single hour-long drama/action show on TV these days that doesn’t begin with the words “Previously on…” and a vignette of relevant scenes from prior episodes?
August 6th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Sure, but the instances cited in this post, such as when Willow refers to her dead lover & a new reader not knowing who that is, or the tension between Dawn & Buffy, those things wouldn’t be covered in a “Previously on…” because it’s information that is accumulative over the course of the series & it’s those things that may leave new readers feeling like they’re reading a members-only comic book. “Previously on…” clips generally only cover the plot points in recent episodes that will then tie in to the episode you’re about to view, small tid-bits like the ones mentioned aren’t important to the plot or story arch, they’re simply just pieces of dialog or interaction common to the character(s).
August 6th, 2007 at 1:15 am
But I do agree that all comic books should have a recap page in the beginning of the issue, I know some do already but it should really become standard. Like “The Exterminators”, I get completely lost in that story with every new issue, I find myself flipping through previous issues to remember certain characters or plot developments. That book is all over the place.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I’m a big fan of the first three seasons of the show. I don’t think the Buffy themes translate well post-high school.