Buffy, Spike and Dresden Comic Reviews...Guess which ones I liked?

[shadowkat]

Picked up this week's comics, or this months, the only one not in yet, is Angel:After the Fall.

The three were: Buffy, Spike:After the Fall, and Dresden: Welcome to the Jungle. Quick impressions? Love, love, love the Spike comic, enjoying the Dresden one, am ambivalent about Buffy - which I found difficult to follow in places and somewhat jarring.

Am beginning to wonder if I've lost my taste for Whedon's writing? (Don't kill me for saying that, Whedon fans.) Also starting to wonder if I've picked up some of his bad writing habits.
Comparing Lynch to Whedon makes me realize that I prefer Lynch's style - it's smoother and tighter. Not to mention more amusing. I actually like all of Lynch's characters and am afraid of what may happen to them - I fear for them, even the supporting or subsidiary characters. I wish I could say the same for Whedon's.


Buffy: Time of Your Life

This story is beginning to remind me of some bizarre Alternate Universe fanfics I've read.
Particularly the one's using time travel. Time travel is a difficult thing to play with in fiction - it can, if you are not careful, blow up in your face and unravel the story. I'm not saying it will happen here, but I can see some places in which it may stretch the reader's suspension of disbelief to Stephanie Meyer extremes. Or in other words, I would not be at all suprised if the villian Twilight turned out to be Willow, Giles, Xander, Riley, Spike, Angel, or Andrew. I've become convinced that Whedon is capable of turning any of those characters inside out regardless of continuity or motivation. Which means my trust in Whedon as a story teller is starting to wane.

In a recent online interview Scott Allie recently asserted that they had permission to use any character they wanted from Angel or Buffy. Not sure I completely believe him since that does contradict something Whedon said in another interview a while back. But, assuming he's right, my question is okay then, why haven't you? Why are you wasting our time with Dracula, Warren, and Amy? Where's the heavy hitters? Darla? Drusilla? Angel? Spike? Anya? Cordy? Wes? Tara? OZ? or how about Jonathan? Characters your fans actually care about? (Okay most of your fans, I know there are a few who love Dracula, Warren and Amy.) What are you waiting for? The end of Angel After the Fall? That's my guess, even though Allie refuses to acknowledge it since he's a prick and annoying prick at that. Much prefer IDW's editor.

The story is basically Buffy jumps to the future, a demon jumps back a la Get it Done, the episode in which she jumped into a past and a demon jumped out. Except this round, Willow is an idiot and thinks Buffy transmogrified at first. Takes her a little while to figure out it is a temporal shift. Hmmm, Willow, I think the fact that you were struggling to contain a temporal shift when it happened might have been a clue. Not to mention the striking similarity to the last time it happened. Who wants to guess that when Willow attempts to bring Buffy back, she turns into DarkWillow and goes mad?

In the future she runs into Fray, who talks like a hip version of the annoying Wolverine sidekick in the X-men whose name alludes me at the moment. She wore glasses and yellow.
Fray's dialogue is as hard for Buffy to understand as it is for everyone else. Actually, Fray makes Buffy seem rather articulate in comparison. I'm beginning to understand why I had difficulties getting into Fray. By the way, I think Whedon has been trying since S7 to somehow wedge his Buffy characters and their history into the Fray universe and they aren't fitting. Fray and Buffy do not fit. They feel like alternate versions of each other. I honestly can't how Buffy's actions can logically lead to Fray, without that is undermining all the female empowerment that Whedon spouted in the series. This issue certainly appears to undermine it - when the madwoman tells Harth that vampires get strength from one another, while slayers do not, that they lose it. In Fray's world - men rule and somewhat horribly.
Fray looks like BladeRunner meets Fifth Dimension (the Bruce Willis futuristic film). With flying cars. Odd thing about sci-fi - everyone thinks we are going to have flying cars. Why?
What could possibly make one think that? Outside of the fact that they are cool?

Harth is Fray's twin brother, who has her memories of the slayers, and was turned into a lurk - driving him a bit mad. I'm not sure if the memories of the slayers drove him mad or being turned into a vampire (lurk) did.

Funniest line? Buffy's self-deprecating and somewhat egotistical comment about how she should have treated the English language better.

Willow is apparently the pseudo-villian of the piece, not surprising when you think about it - what did you really think the Snake woman was a good goddess? When have snakes ever been good in the Buffyverse? Curious if Warren, Amy and Twilight are also worshipping the snake goddess - since green fire snake people attacked Xander and the slayer compound in Scotland. Snakes that had the same flames as Willow's snake goddess. When Willow tells Kennedy it is all her fault, it's a gross understatement. Apparently Willow learned nothing from her last flirtation with evil goddesses willing to grant her ultimate power.

Then again, it is possible that this is but a mislead and Willow's really mad, not evil. That whatever happened in the past - drove her insane?

Don't know, and don't really care that much. Am finding it oddly amusing and fun to read though. I'm no longer invested emotionally in what happens to these guys, so it's not really bugging me all that much.

I think that the best way to read these comics is much the same way you might go to see Mamma Mia, check your brain at the door. Just enjoy the ride. Because if you think too much about them....your brain may wander off bored and somewhat confused.

The art? Jittery. Lots of things in the panels and the panels are small. I found it jarring. I'm not alone - a close friend couldn't read Fray at all for the same reasons. She said she couldn't focus on it, it gave her a headache. I'm used to comics, so I could make it through without too much trouble.

Buffy was hard to recognize at first. Note to Whedon - you might not want to play with narrative threads in comic books - particularly when the artist's rendition of the characters aren't that recognizable. Melaka (FRAY) calls Buffy sister in the first few pages, and we pick up several days after they've met or what appears to be several days, since Buffy has changed clothes and now has her own place. When she called Buffy sister, for a moment, I thought she was referring to her real sister and that this was not Buffy, took another read to realize that no, this was Buffy, and the sister was meant as slang.

Overall? It's okay. Fun. More interesting in some respects that last four issues. But unfortunately still reads a bit like a crackfanfic. Check your brain and your knowledge of the series at the door, and you'll have a great time.


Spike: After the Fall - remarkably good. I loved this. Scarey. Surprising. Not at all what I expected. The new villian is also interesting. And in some ways a perfect foil for Spike.
I'm curious who the burning man that the dragon was asking Spike to help was. Angel? Wesley?
Can't quite tell. From the dialogue it could have been either. It was also a great foil for Spike - since he'd gone through much the same thing with the amulet.

The art is also quite good, beautiful in places, horrific in others, pulled me right into the story. Brian Lynch appears to be very comfortable in this world - and peoples it with surprisingly interesting characters. Not to mention just the right amount of sardonic wit.
I adore Jerry - his human caretaker. And the surprises regarding the women villians Spike encounters - I'd thought Spider was the leader, but he took her out pretty quickly.

I have no idea where Lynch is taking me in this story and I can't wait for the next issue.
I love his Spike, I adore his Fred/Illyria, and everyone else. Even the Dragon.

This is a book that you do want your brain around for the ride. It's fun. It's witty. It has layers. And best of all, it actually evolves the characters in a manner that makes sense and does not fell forced or as if the writer is attempting to make them serve some pre-imposed theme or plot, regardless of the expense. I wish this series was longer than four issues. I'm going to miss it a great deal when it's done.


Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungel - the art is not as great as Spike, but then I don't like a lot of lines in my comic book art. The writing however is stellar. Butcher like Lynch is clearly comfortable in this medium. And the genre. Both create interesting yet flawed characters, who walk the line between hero and anti-hero with a subtle wit and charm.

Butcher, unlike Whedon and Lynch, does provide us with strong and very human female characters such as Murphy and Will. As opposed to somewhat psycho ones or superpowered ones.
In some ways, Dresden feels more literary, brainier if that's possible. This comic reads much like Butcher's books do, with wit and charm and a devotion to a magical and somewhat dark noir universe. Whenever I watch the series Supernatural - I find myself wishing Butcher had been the head writer and Dresden and Thomas the brother heroes - I think it might have been a little less offensive if that had been the case. Butcher is a rarity in that he can actually create interesting and complex female characters in a noir universe without falling into the cliche stereotypes constantly. I overlook these cliches, because I adore the genre. But they are there all the same. I give kudos to Butcher for managing to jump around them, demonstrating that his character's somewhat chauvinistic view of women is not necessarily realistic and a flaw - and he does it in a way that is far more literal and not with unsatisfying and easy to misinterpret metaphors as Whedon and Lynch often do.

Overall rating? Great read. A must if you are a Butcher fan. Next up is a graphic novel version of Storm Front. Can hardly wait.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

"Melaka (FRAY) calls Buffy sister in the first few pages, and we pick up several days after they've met or what appears to be several days, since Buffy has changed clothes and now has her own place. When she called Buffy sister, for a moment, I thought she was referring to her real sister and that this was not Buffy, took another read to realize that no, this was Buffy, and the sister was meant as slang."
Um, I think you are mistaken about this: Melaka (Fray) really does have a big sister, who is a cop in their world, and I believe she is who Melaka was talking to and referring to as her 'sister'... Unfortunately the artist is not so good at making separate looking blonds so it makes it hard to keep those two separate characters straight.
In fact I was convinced that the mad woman they were discussing was Drusilla, so when I saw Willow dressed like Drusilla I thought at first that it might just be a bad drawing, but no... really was Dark(ish) Willow!

I'm liking BtVS S8 a lot more than you are, but then I absolutely adored 'Dr. Horrible' too.

I agree w/you about Brian Lynch's Spike: After the Fall being absolutely wonderful. I got to ask (online) Brian why Angel had found it so easy to communicate w/the dragon while Spike couldn't.... and he responded that that was a good question, but then he didn't answer it! I'm hoping we'll get more information about Angel's relationship to the dragon soon.
Oh and I was thinking that that might be Lindsay's eternal torment at Wolfram&Hart, but of course I don't know.

And, like you, I'm loving the Butcher comics. I think I said before that I don't care that this artist isn't so good at drawing characters because I think he is a genius at drawing animals! All the animals at the zoo, and Mister too, were all superb. I do love Butcher's story telling, but I've never tried anything other than his Dresden series... have you?

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with embers_log-- I'm pretty certain that really is Melaka's sister. Besides, Buffy flying an aero-scooter or whatever it is after only a few days, what with her ledgendary non-driving abilities? Nuh, uh-uh.

I've been enjoying the Buffy series, and find that so far this current one is among my favorite arcs. So far, everyone is assuming that the new bad is Dark Willow, when I'm wondering exactly why it couldn't be a vampire Dark Willow?

(Normally, Scott Allie's blog comments seem to have stated that it is just plain Dark Willow, but then you rather accurately described Allie as "a prick and annoying prick at that. Much prefer IDW's editor." Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't care for the guy!

Flying cars? Of course it's because they're cool. If there weren't flying cars, how could Melaka do the even cooler hopping around from car to car in mid flight thing?

Really, really liking the two Spike:ATF issues. Like them much better than Angel:ATF, in fact. I was really on the fence about Urru's artwork, although your earlier positive comments did cause me to give them another look, and maybe re-evaluate, but for some reason I find his technique just marries perfectly to the Spike series. Strange, but there you are.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

In the original Fray comic series there was a reference to the magic having been driven out of the universe by the last Slayer called before Fray, who was implied to be Buffy. Whedon has said in an interview, I think, that this was based on what he planned at the time to be the ending of S7 and the series, but thought better of. The seeming implication of the current Buffy comics is that the Fray universe is a potential future, and that Harth and the new vamp!Willow are collaborating with Twilight in the 21st century to make sure it comes about. (And there's also a theory that seems to me quite likely that Twilight is actually Harth gone back in time.)