Buffy Comics Season 11 - Review
May. 3rd, 2018 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[Again, read for the first time. Caveat? I don't tend to re-read things. I remember what I read fairly well, particularly if it is a graphic novel -- because I have a visual memory that is rather accurate.]
Review of Buffy Comics Season 11
Good news is there aren't that many issues. Only two volumes as opposed to five or seven. So my pocketbook thanks Dark Horse for this. I'm guessing comic sales were waning? Apparently, since the Spike/Willow series they'd announced never came to fruitation. Shame. I'd have read that. Those are my two favorite characters in the series. But whatever.
You'd think having only two volumes would have made for a tighter plot. But no. Or a better plot? Again no. This plot sort of suffers from the same problems as Dollhouse, Season 7 Buffy, Firefly, Season 9 Buffy, and Season 8 Buffy.
In a nutshell? It's Buffy meets the X-men's Genosha/Days of Future Past storylines. Except the X-men did a much better job with these themes and plot arcs than the Buffy writers did.
For those unfamiliar with the X-men...basically the plot of the Buffy S11 arc is this: a magical tsunmani brought about by a summoned Dragon, demolishes half of San Francisco, killing millions. The VP, who looks like a Dick Cheny wannabee, says they need to do something about it -- and funds a special task force which puts all supernatural and magical creatures into safe zones, herded there by a group of slayers and government drones. Once there, the government develops a device that drains their magic. These poor supernatural creatures -- basically Spike, Willow, Buffy, and soulless vampires, wiccans, ogres, monsters, werewolves, etc, are disenfranchised and treated horribly in internment camps. While the government comes up with a way to normalize them. In reality the government is draining their power and giving it to the evil press secretary who is techmage, and running the show, along with her corporate benefactorers.
The whole time I'm arguing with the stupid writers.
1. What happened to developing the rules of magic? Why not come up with a rule about this?
2. How is after all this time, the government is suddenly able to do this? Also why can only a group of ten slayers be able to do it? I mean we are talking about vampires who can turn into bees and mist and fly?
3. What happened to the magic council, and the portals? Couldn't they just open one in DC and destroy the military?
4. While I get the desire to comment on the current political situation regarding immigrants on both sides of the pond -- I'm finding it bit dicey to equate soulless vampires,demons, monsters, etc with illegal immigrants. Or super-powered beings at all. This was to a degree an issue I always had with the X-men. We're not talking about people who are imprisoning folks who do not possess power or have equal power, we're talking about imprisoning or trying to figure out what to do with people who has an insane amount of power -- literally enough to decimate an entire population in some cases or change reality, or kill you with their bare hands, barely putting up a sweat. So this idea does not quite work. OTOH -- I could deal better with the X-men, because we had all these super-powered beings working for the government legitimately, and the X-men were born that way and created by government mistakes. So whole different ball game. Not to mention the fact that canonically at the very beginning of the X-men -- they established the rules regarding the prejudice and questioned it. In Buffy and Angel -- they set up the rules that the bad guys are the vampires and the monsters and the demons -- that if you don't have a soul, you are evil. So, what, now...it's determined that maybe not so clear cut and yeah, it's okay if a vampire bites a human to survive? OR uses needed blood bags??
Note to writers regarding world-building and rules, it's important to stay somewhat consistent. I got confused, was I supposed to see Vicki and her gang as redeemable? Or not? Also Jordan and the slayers, Buffy shared her power with are portrayed as evil and nasty. Really? They did this with Simone as well, and I found it irritating. Can't a slayer outside of Buffy and Faith, and possibly Satsu, be portrayed as a hero??
Sorry, writers, Sam Finn is still a one-dimensional irritant. Every time she pops up, I want Buffy to kick her. Riley isn't much more endurable. Both are smug, both are condescending and patronizing. Both are horrifically offensive cliches of the military. Less is more. I liked their use in S10, where they barely appear.
The comics and the series was always at its weakest when it referenced or involved government or military. The writers clearly don't know anything about it (the Marvel comics writers are a lot better in this regard), and tend to fall into annoying cliches. It's at its best when it focuses on character relationships, and emotional arcs, and goes smaller in scale. The best seasons were the more intimate and less ambitious ones, the worst are the plotty -- big picture seasons.
Joss Whedon and his writers suck at big picture, big plot arcs. But are rather good at close intimate relationship emotional character arcs. I've noticed that pattern in the comics and all of Whedon's ventures. Social/Political commentary -- they are better at --- when it is down-scaled, character specific and subtle.
Season 11 was not subtle and somewhat didactic. As a result, I was irritated through a good portion of it.
What worked?
Spuffy works. The Spike and Buffy relationship works rather well, and they show how both characters have grown through it. How they both make sacrifices for each other, and the world around them. It's so well done, that I found it to be rather validating.
Note: If you hated Spike (saw him as irredeemable etc for whatever reason) or hated Spuffy, and/or are a diehard Bangle or Angel shipper (I feel sorry for you, talk about following the wrong horse or ship -- I did try to tell these shippers that they were backing the wrong horse and it was never ever going to happen and the story they wanted was not in the writer's heads...but alas to no avail, some people just suck at story-thread analysis..) -- these comics are NOT for you. Go read Angel & Faith or just not at all. Life is too short.
Dawn/Xander worked -- the little we see of it. I missed Xander in this season. (If you dislike Xander, you may have loved this season.)
Willow works a great deal -- and she gets the most focus. Particularly in regards to how she views power. This was a Willow centric season. What I realized while reading it is the writers really have no idea what to do with the Willow character. They haven't for quite some time. It was my problem with S7, actually. After Willow came back from the dark place, the writers struggled. They seem to have more of an idea of what to do with Andrew.
Andrew was blessedly absent from this season. Which was wonderful.
Faith also works as a supporting character, for the very little we see of her. I wish they'd have Angel and Faith show up together instead of separately. I'm rather shipping Faith and Angel, and have for some time now. I ship Angel/Faith, Angel/Spike (platonic for the most part), Buffy/Spike, Xander/Spike (platonic), Xander/Dawn is growing on me....I liked them in S10, S8...not so much. Willow? They have yet to find anyone for Willow that I like. Tara and Oz were the best pairings for Willow. Sort of wouldn't mind Willow/Faith.
Anyhow, overall...about three stars, saved by the Spuffy bits, Willow bits, and Faith bits, but barely.
So, I'm done with the comics for now. And have to find something else. Thinking of reading Fun Home which a co-worker highly rec'd. And the Resurrection of Phoenix. Downloaded both from comicxology. One I bought some time ago -- Fun Home. Also downloaded first volume of Saga, which I'm on the fence about because not a huge fan of Warren Ellis/Grant Morrison.
Tried to read another contemporary romance novel Managed and got annoyed. So..that's not happening.
Review of Buffy Comics Season 11
Good news is there aren't that many issues. Only two volumes as opposed to five or seven. So my pocketbook thanks Dark Horse for this. I'm guessing comic sales were waning? Apparently, since the Spike/Willow series they'd announced never came to fruitation. Shame. I'd have read that. Those are my two favorite characters in the series. But whatever.
You'd think having only two volumes would have made for a tighter plot. But no. Or a better plot? Again no. This plot sort of suffers from the same problems as Dollhouse, Season 7 Buffy, Firefly, Season 9 Buffy, and Season 8 Buffy.
In a nutshell? It's Buffy meets the X-men's Genosha/Days of Future Past storylines. Except the X-men did a much better job with these themes and plot arcs than the Buffy writers did.
For those unfamiliar with the X-men...basically the plot of the Buffy S11 arc is this: a magical tsunmani brought about by a summoned Dragon, demolishes half of San Francisco, killing millions. The VP, who looks like a Dick Cheny wannabee, says they need to do something about it -- and funds a special task force which puts all supernatural and magical creatures into safe zones, herded there by a group of slayers and government drones. Once there, the government develops a device that drains their magic. These poor supernatural creatures -- basically Spike, Willow, Buffy, and soulless vampires, wiccans, ogres, monsters, werewolves, etc, are disenfranchised and treated horribly in internment camps. While the government comes up with a way to normalize them. In reality the government is draining their power and giving it to the evil press secretary who is techmage, and running the show, along with her corporate benefactorers.
The whole time I'm arguing with the stupid writers.
1. What happened to developing the rules of magic? Why not come up with a rule about this?
2. How is after all this time, the government is suddenly able to do this? Also why can only a group of ten slayers be able to do it? I mean we are talking about vampires who can turn into bees and mist and fly?
3. What happened to the magic council, and the portals? Couldn't they just open one in DC and destroy the military?
4. While I get the desire to comment on the current political situation regarding immigrants on both sides of the pond -- I'm finding it bit dicey to equate soulless vampires,demons, monsters, etc with illegal immigrants. Or super-powered beings at all. This was to a degree an issue I always had with the X-men. We're not talking about people who are imprisoning folks who do not possess power or have equal power, we're talking about imprisoning or trying to figure out what to do with people who has an insane amount of power -- literally enough to decimate an entire population in some cases or change reality, or kill you with their bare hands, barely putting up a sweat. So this idea does not quite work. OTOH -- I could deal better with the X-men, because we had all these super-powered beings working for the government legitimately, and the X-men were born that way and created by government mistakes. So whole different ball game. Not to mention the fact that canonically at the very beginning of the X-men -- they established the rules regarding the prejudice and questioned it. In Buffy and Angel -- they set up the rules that the bad guys are the vampires and the monsters and the demons -- that if you don't have a soul, you are evil. So, what, now...it's determined that maybe not so clear cut and yeah, it's okay if a vampire bites a human to survive? OR uses needed blood bags??
Note to writers regarding world-building and rules, it's important to stay somewhat consistent. I got confused, was I supposed to see Vicki and her gang as redeemable? Or not? Also Jordan and the slayers, Buffy shared her power with are portrayed as evil and nasty. Really? They did this with Simone as well, and I found it irritating. Can't a slayer outside of Buffy and Faith, and possibly Satsu, be portrayed as a hero??
Sorry, writers, Sam Finn is still a one-dimensional irritant. Every time she pops up, I want Buffy to kick her. Riley isn't much more endurable. Both are smug, both are condescending and patronizing. Both are horrifically offensive cliches of the military. Less is more. I liked their use in S10, where they barely appear.
The comics and the series was always at its weakest when it referenced or involved government or military. The writers clearly don't know anything about it (the Marvel comics writers are a lot better in this regard), and tend to fall into annoying cliches. It's at its best when it focuses on character relationships, and emotional arcs, and goes smaller in scale. The best seasons were the more intimate and less ambitious ones, the worst are the plotty -- big picture seasons.
Joss Whedon and his writers suck at big picture, big plot arcs. But are rather good at close intimate relationship emotional character arcs. I've noticed that pattern in the comics and all of Whedon's ventures. Social/Political commentary -- they are better at --- when it is down-scaled, character specific and subtle.
Season 11 was not subtle and somewhat didactic. As a result, I was irritated through a good portion of it.
What worked?
Spuffy works. The Spike and Buffy relationship works rather well, and they show how both characters have grown through it. How they both make sacrifices for each other, and the world around them. It's so well done, that I found it to be rather validating.
Note: If you hated Spike (saw him as irredeemable etc for whatever reason) or hated Spuffy, and/or are a diehard Bangle or Angel shipper (I feel sorry for you, talk about following the wrong horse or ship -- I did try to tell these shippers that they were backing the wrong horse and it was never ever going to happen and the story they wanted was not in the writer's heads...but alas to no avail, some people just suck at story-thread analysis..) -- these comics are NOT for you. Go read Angel & Faith or just not at all. Life is too short.
Dawn/Xander worked -- the little we see of it. I missed Xander in this season. (If you dislike Xander, you may have loved this season.)
Willow works a great deal -- and she gets the most focus. Particularly in regards to how she views power. This was a Willow centric season. What I realized while reading it is the writers really have no idea what to do with the Willow character. They haven't for quite some time. It was my problem with S7, actually. After Willow came back from the dark place, the writers struggled. They seem to have more of an idea of what to do with Andrew.
Andrew was blessedly absent from this season. Which was wonderful.
Faith also works as a supporting character, for the very little we see of her. I wish they'd have Angel and Faith show up together instead of separately. I'm rather shipping Faith and Angel, and have for some time now. I ship Angel/Faith, Angel/Spike (platonic for the most part), Buffy/Spike, Xander/Spike (platonic), Xander/Dawn is growing on me....I liked them in S10, S8...not so much. Willow? They have yet to find anyone for Willow that I like. Tara and Oz were the best pairings for Willow. Sort of wouldn't mind Willow/Faith.
Anyhow, overall...about three stars, saved by the Spuffy bits, Willow bits, and Faith bits, but barely.
So, I'm done with the comics for now. And have to find something else. Thinking of reading Fun Home which a co-worker highly rec'd. And the Resurrection of Phoenix. Downloaded both from comicxology. One I bought some time ago -- Fun Home. Also downloaded first volume of Saga, which I'm on the fence about because not a huge fan of Warren Ellis/Grant Morrison.
Tried to read another contemporary romance novel Managed and got annoyed. So..that's not happening.