Comic Reviews: Buffy and Angel

Quite the relaxing day. Got my pop culture addictions, a massage, hung out with Wales (who tolerates my pop culture addictions but woefully does not share them - if she or anyone else I know did, I wouldn't come online), had a glass of white torronges wine via Argentina, and an Aero chocolat bar. Life is good.

Regarding the pop culture addictions....

Angel After The Fall: First Night, Issue 6.

Unsurprisingly good. Actually better than I dreamed it would be. In my post on pop culture, I had discussion with embers_log about short stories. She stated that what she enjoyed most about them was the economy of language - the precision, while novelists have a tendency to drone on and on. (Okay, those weren't her exact words, I'm paraphrasing, it's my journal - I can do that.) At any rate, as a writer, particularly one who does a lot of "business" writing - I appreciate the economy of language. Business people read too many emails - they want it clear and concise and to the point, cut the crap. (Not that you can tell by reading this journal, but what the hell, I've got to let loose somewhere occassionally.) Lynch is a master at economy of language. ( for potential spoilers - since my definition is different than some )

In Spike's tale - he tells us three things in a short period of time: How Spike handled the battle in the alley, what he intended to do once things went to hell and the battle was over,( spoiler )

and why he changed his mind regarding his intentions. His choices? Completely in character. The author did not change the character to benefit the plot or make a joke at the character's expense or be politically correct or for shock value. That's good writing.

I'm trying to keep this more or less spoiler free, so am not going into depth as to what happened. You can read stormwreath or shapinglight for that stuff.
This is just a general albeit somewhat subjective review, impossible to be anything but that.

The art? Not as good at Urru's but those who don't like Urru's (weird people, but they exist and many on my flist, believe it or not)[ETA: this was meant as a tongue in cheek joke - I personally think my own pop culture addictions are the height of WEIRD. I'm weird.], art may well enjoy these artists and may be psyched to learn Urru has jumped to the spin-off: Spike -After the Fall, so there will be a new artist doing Angel. Apparently this type of work is more time consuming for artists than writers, since Lynch is still doing both. Makes sense, Urru has to draw ten to twelve panels, many without dialogue, while Lynch has to provide the equivalent of two pages of dialogue. Comics is not really a writer's medium, it's an artists medium, which begs the question why are the writer's the rock stars here?

I did like the different styles, though. And I loved John Byrn's innovative comic strip take on Lorne's story. It fit Lorne perfectly. The style of the artwork and the dialogue fit each character - it's a hard thing to do without jarring the reader in the process. I know, I've tried it.

If you are a Connor fan - you should pick this comic. ( spoilers )

Overall rating? A + (Better than the last issue - which may be partly because I find Angel a tad boring as a character at the moment.)

Buffy S8, Issue 13 - Wolves at the Gate.

(As an aside, I had an interesting conversation with mother over the phone the other night. (It has to be over the phone, she lives more than a two days drive or an hour and a half plane flight away). It was a brief conversation. She was stating that in her book club, people were complaining about how puritanical Americans were about sex. My mother retorted - no, if anything they are obsessed with sex. It permeates everything. Newspapers. TV news. TV shows. Films. Books. Even Dancing with The Stars - they crack sex jokes. In this day and age, it is impossible to date someone without them assuming that you should have sex if the date goes well. Or at least that's what books, tv shows, and everything else tells us. Also, if you aren't having sex, are celibate, happen to be a "virgin" by choice - you are made fun and people think something is wrong with you. They also think something is wrong with you if you have had multiple lovers - although in today's world that is often considered bragging rights. I miss the old days when it was less prevalent. When you didn't see everything, when people didn't assume you had sexual intercourse after knowing someone 48 hours or two or three weeks, if that, as long as they were hot. One of the things I loved most about the Kim Harrison novel I just completed - was there was not one sex scene. Not one. The novelist was able to write a compelling story about a strong and sympathetic heroine, without talking about sex constantly. Shocking. )

I state this because Whedon and all's preoccupation with lame sex jokes is beginning to grate on my nerves. Methinks the man has been watching too many reruns of Sex and the City. Or someone has. Sure the show always had it as well, but for some reason it didn't grate as much, they seemed more subtle somehow, more tongue in check, more witty, and less in bad taste and the expense of the characters. Was that the female influence? Possibly.

( there be spoilers in these here parts )

My biggest problem with the arc so far is that these characters aren't evolving. They aren't moving forward. And I'm not learning anything new or different about them. I feel frustrated by the storyline. It feels at times like reading someone online's lame fanfic about the ongoing sexual and other misadventures of their favorite characters.

Not all the issues are like this by the way, if you are wondering why I keep bothering.
Some are quite good. I rather enjoyed the one in which Willow and Buffy visited the other dimension. The Faith arc had its moments. I also liked The Chain. These past few issues however annoy me the same way that Girl in Question annoyed a lot of Angel viewers. They are written by the same writer, so this should not surprise me, except I enjoyed Girl in Question a heck of a lot more - because it did provide some insight in the characters and was a clever take on Roderscrantz and Guilderstern - that old Tom Stoppard play.

I was unable to avoid spoilers in this review. Sorry about that. Not that I revealed all that much, unless of course you've been hiding under a rock and did not know about Satsu and Buffy.
(By the way - the Palely Festival discussion of that almost made that issue worth it. Marsters/Gellar and Brendon's banter was a hoot.)

The art is improving by the way. Or it's growing on me. Can't tell which. I liked it better than the writing.

Overall rating? B-

Interesting. I preferred Buffy the tv series over Angel, but I much prefer the Angel comics over Buffy. They are in my opinion 80% better overall not to mention much more satsifying. Maybe there's something to be said for being forced to tell your story in 12 issues as opposed to 44? 44 issues is giving the writers far too much time to drone on and on - reminiscent of a daytime serial - you get flashes of brilliance, but you have to wade through oodles of crap to get there.

Also picked up the latest Dresden novel by Jim Butcher - 20% at Barnes and Noble. Wales watched me buy these items in bewilderment. She doesn't understand why I spend money on such things. Nor do a lot of people apparently. I read a touching letter in the Angel After The Fall issue - from a solider stationed in Iraq, complete with photos. He was stating how these comics and the DVD's of the series had kept him going in Iraq and provided relief from stress.
He also stated that he had given up comics, sold his collection, when he got married. It was either his comics or the girl. But she made an exception for Buffy. I've been trying to wrap my mind around this. Why do women tell their boyfriends to give up their comics collections?
I mean it's not like he's telling her to stop buying shoes or jewelry. Actually shoes have a purpose. Jewelry? Not so much. I'd rather waste money on books or comics - you got a story that you can reread. Jewelry gets tarnished, is easily lost, and gets caught on things.

I'm a strange woman, I know.