![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Drusilla After the Fall - Comic Review and a bit on Harry Potter
Apparently, I'm the only one who couldn't access Lj at all from Friday night until about 10 pm today? Okay, admittedly I wasn't on it from 1:30pm to roughly 8:30pm. Went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Just came back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which was as enjoyable, possibly even more enjoyable than the book. I laughed a lot during both, not during the dark parts of course. My sense of humor may be dark but it is not that dark. I remembered the book well enough to follow the film without any difficulty whatsoever, but not well enough to notice how the film veered away from it. I was, in other words, blissfully oblivious of some of the complaints others online had regarding it. This re-affirms my belief that these films work better if you have not reread or read the novels recently.
Also enjoyed the trailers. 2012 looks like a lot of fun. Sherlock Holmes made me laugh quite a bit. Sure it looks hokey as all get out, but also a lot of fun. Was told that it has gotten abysmal reviews, but Robert Downey Jr is one of those actors that I will watch read the telephone book. I'll probably rent it and not wast time or money seeing it in the theater.
Picked up comics on Friday - enjoyed the Buffy and the Drusilla one. Juliet Landau, Brian Lynch, and Frank Urru have combined forces to create a two issue Drusilla After the Fall comic in the Angel series. Sure it is called Angel, but Angel doesn't appear in it. All Drusilla. And the art is quite lovely. The writing, spot on, and it may be the best comic I've read in a while. Lynch, hate to say this, is still putting the Buffy writers to shame - possibly because he was a fan of the tv series and like most fans, has an encyclopedic/anal retentive memory regarding it? While the original writers of the tv series, seem to have forgotten quite a bit. Landau also had a hand in the story, she not only came up with the idea, she also co-wrote the script and provided Urru with ideas regarding how it should be drawn - so we are literally seeing Dru and Dru's world through the actress who portrayed her, eyes. This provides a bit of support to my view that you can't technically count the comics as canon - since you lack the actor's pov. The actors like it or not, do bring something to the enterprise.
The art in the Dru comic in my opinion is a lot better than the art in the Buffy comics. The people are easier to tell apart for one thing, and their facial reactions are more defined. Also there's a depth and perspective to Urru's paintings that is lacking in Jeanty's. Urru is more of a realistic painter, his pictures feel more filmlike or three dimensional. As an artist, I find myself admiring his work, while Jeanty's feels at times amateurish to me. It's a subjective view - I know and based on my own background in painting and art, which granted is not extensive but...is there all the same. The color scheme is alos quite brilliant, all grays, except for a spot of color here and there - Dru's blue outfit and the blue dress she takes from the woman she kills, and Dru's demon eyes and blue eyes. We are clearly in Dru's pov.
Dru herself is portrayed as both eerily sane and eerily crazy. She is a force to be reckoned with and not easily put down. I particularly love this bit of dialogue in regards to Dru, during a rather interesting cat and mouse game that she is playing with the psychiatrist who believes he is the one in control:
Dru: "Moons after my second Daddy set me on fire, I saw in my head that my Grandmum/daughter killed herself and I haven't seen my son/lover since he chose that cheerleader, but that could have been the chip in his brain."
LOL! She does not call Buffy a slayer but rather a cheerleader. Which I find interesting - because that was what Buffy would have been if she had not been the slayer. She had been a cheerleader and homecoming queen prior to her calling. Dru is also putting Buffy down. Dismissing her.
A fan asked Whedon once if it was possible that Drusilla was a potential slayer and that was why she had the dreams. Whedon paused for a moment and said, not only was that an interesting idea, but yes, it was more than possible. I have a feeling he may play with it at some point, if Lynch/Landau don't do it first.
Also Dru interestingly enough blames Spike's desire for Buffy on the chip.
Earlier they state: "She believes she is a vampire, that she has lived for 150 years, that she had a passionate love affair spanning almost the duration...she's extreemly violent anything can set her off, very unpredictable. She is over sexualized...seems confused about the line between sex and violence."
The last line hits me. It fits vampires. And it echoes Buffy's line to Holden Webster - what is it with you vampires, always the same, with the sex and the death and the violence. Sex and violence.
Spike states in Lover's Walk - that's what I'll do, I'll get Dru, chain her up, torture her, be the man she loves. And it is what he tries to do with Buffy in CRUSH and to a degree in Season 6. Because for a vampire...that is sex - it comes hand and hand with violence. The line between the two is blurred. There is not line between sex and violence for vampires. That is the whole metaphor actually - the vampire gets off on the biting - it does the same thing that a sexual act would. In Fool for Love - Buffy looks at Spike after he describes biting and killing the Chinese Slayer - with revulsion and states: "You got off on it?"
He shrugs and throws back at her: "And you don't?" He's talking about sexual thrill. Faith says the same thing - "after a good slay, I get horny." And after she fights the vamps, she grabs Xander, and fucks him, their sex scene is admittedly a violent one.
Dru's killings feel almost graceful, sexual in character. She rubs her tummy, sways as if high. Satisfied. Then dances down the hall. Skipping like a school-girl. She is and has always been Angelus/Angel's creation. Carved by him. She is his dark daughter, as much if not more his as Connor is. When I think about Angel, I see Drusilla. How can't you? The result of sexual violence. She was chaste, innocent, when he raped, drove her insane, then turned her into a vampire. Twisting her dreams into nightmares. In a way what he did to Dru is worse than anything any of the other big bads did. Creepier. The knowledge that it was what he'd planned to do to Buffy after he lost his soul, creepier still. It's like Angel when he created Dru - he carved her into a doll that he could play with and would cater to his whim.
An eternal child-woman. It's ironic that he was the master puppeteer with her, and to a degree with Spike and others such as Penn as well, when as Angel he is at times the ultimate puppet - in the hands of the Powers and WRH and fate.
The Dru comic is in the end about power...it always comes back to power. Even Angelus' acts regarding Dru were about power. Dru has power in the comic. And so do those who have taken custody of her. They are fighting, Dru and these people over her. Trying to gain control. Dru wins. She breaks their control and dances out of their custody, leaving their dead and bleeding corspes in her wake. Bristling with power.
She starts out as having none, wrapped in a straight-jacket, drugged, and trapped in a padded cell. But as the story moves forward, she gets more and more power - they give it to her, first moving her out of the padded cell, then letting her take a shower, and each time she takes advantage, yet they do nothing, can do nothing. And the woman whom she'd overheard referring to her as a colossal waste of time, someone who should be put down, Dru takes down with barely an effort, donning her nice blue dress. Stating with a demon glare - "you are a colossal waste of time".
Dru is no puppet here, no doll to play with - although they want to, she breaks free, creating chaos in her wake.
Dancing.
Welcome back Lynch and Urru, you were missed. And a great big welcome to Landau, who is as deft a writer as she is an actress. In her photos, she reminds me a great deal of her mother, Barbara Bain of Misson Impossible and Space 1999, along with Martin Landau who was in both series.
Just came back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which was as enjoyable, possibly even more enjoyable than the book. I laughed a lot during both, not during the dark parts of course. My sense of humor may be dark but it is not that dark. I remembered the book well enough to follow the film without any difficulty whatsoever, but not well enough to notice how the film veered away from it. I was, in other words, blissfully oblivious of some of the complaints others online had regarding it. This re-affirms my belief that these films work better if you have not reread or read the novels recently.
Also enjoyed the trailers. 2012 looks like a lot of fun. Sherlock Holmes made me laugh quite a bit. Sure it looks hokey as all get out, but also a lot of fun. Was told that it has gotten abysmal reviews, but Robert Downey Jr is one of those actors that I will watch read the telephone book. I'll probably rent it and not wast time or money seeing it in the theater.
Picked up comics on Friday - enjoyed the Buffy and the Drusilla one. Juliet Landau, Brian Lynch, and Frank Urru have combined forces to create a two issue Drusilla After the Fall comic in the Angel series. Sure it is called Angel, but Angel doesn't appear in it. All Drusilla. And the art is quite lovely. The writing, spot on, and it may be the best comic I've read in a while. Lynch, hate to say this, is still putting the Buffy writers to shame - possibly because he was a fan of the tv series and like most fans, has an encyclopedic/anal retentive memory regarding it? While the original writers of the tv series, seem to have forgotten quite a bit. Landau also had a hand in the story, she not only came up with the idea, she also co-wrote the script and provided Urru with ideas regarding how it should be drawn - so we are literally seeing Dru and Dru's world through the actress who portrayed her, eyes. This provides a bit of support to my view that you can't technically count the comics as canon - since you lack the actor's pov. The actors like it or not, do bring something to the enterprise.
The art in the Dru comic in my opinion is a lot better than the art in the Buffy comics. The people are easier to tell apart for one thing, and their facial reactions are more defined. Also there's a depth and perspective to Urru's paintings that is lacking in Jeanty's. Urru is more of a realistic painter, his pictures feel more filmlike or three dimensional. As an artist, I find myself admiring his work, while Jeanty's feels at times amateurish to me. It's a subjective view - I know and based on my own background in painting and art, which granted is not extensive but...is there all the same. The color scheme is alos quite brilliant, all grays, except for a spot of color here and there - Dru's blue outfit and the blue dress she takes from the woman she kills, and Dru's demon eyes and blue eyes. We are clearly in Dru's pov.
Dru herself is portrayed as both eerily sane and eerily crazy. She is a force to be reckoned with and not easily put down. I particularly love this bit of dialogue in regards to Dru, during a rather interesting cat and mouse game that she is playing with the psychiatrist who believes he is the one in control:
Dru: "Moons after my second Daddy set me on fire, I saw in my head that my Grandmum/daughter killed herself and I haven't seen my son/lover since he chose that cheerleader, but that could have been the chip in his brain."
LOL! She does not call Buffy a slayer but rather a cheerleader. Which I find interesting - because that was what Buffy would have been if she had not been the slayer. She had been a cheerleader and homecoming queen prior to her calling. Dru is also putting Buffy down. Dismissing her.
A fan asked Whedon once if it was possible that Drusilla was a potential slayer and that was why she had the dreams. Whedon paused for a moment and said, not only was that an interesting idea, but yes, it was more than possible. I have a feeling he may play with it at some point, if Lynch/Landau don't do it first.
Also Dru interestingly enough blames Spike's desire for Buffy on the chip.
Earlier they state: "She believes she is a vampire, that she has lived for 150 years, that she had a passionate love affair spanning almost the duration...she's extreemly violent anything can set her off, very unpredictable. She is over sexualized...seems confused about the line between sex and violence."
The last line hits me. It fits vampires. And it echoes Buffy's line to Holden Webster - what is it with you vampires, always the same, with the sex and the death and the violence. Sex and violence.
Spike states in Lover's Walk - that's what I'll do, I'll get Dru, chain her up, torture her, be the man she loves. And it is what he tries to do with Buffy in CRUSH and to a degree in Season 6. Because for a vampire...that is sex - it comes hand and hand with violence. The line between the two is blurred. There is not line between sex and violence for vampires. That is the whole metaphor actually - the vampire gets off on the biting - it does the same thing that a sexual act would. In Fool for Love - Buffy looks at Spike after he describes biting and killing the Chinese Slayer - with revulsion and states: "You got off on it?"
He shrugs and throws back at her: "And you don't?" He's talking about sexual thrill. Faith says the same thing - "after a good slay, I get horny." And after she fights the vamps, she grabs Xander, and fucks him, their sex scene is admittedly a violent one.
Dru's killings feel almost graceful, sexual in character. She rubs her tummy, sways as if high. Satisfied. Then dances down the hall. Skipping like a school-girl. She is and has always been Angelus/Angel's creation. Carved by him. She is his dark daughter, as much if not more his as Connor is. When I think about Angel, I see Drusilla. How can't you? The result of sexual violence. She was chaste, innocent, when he raped, drove her insane, then turned her into a vampire. Twisting her dreams into nightmares. In a way what he did to Dru is worse than anything any of the other big bads did. Creepier. The knowledge that it was what he'd planned to do to Buffy after he lost his soul, creepier still. It's like Angel when he created Dru - he carved her into a doll that he could play with and would cater to his whim.
An eternal child-woman. It's ironic that he was the master puppeteer with her, and to a degree with Spike and others such as Penn as well, when as Angel he is at times the ultimate puppet - in the hands of the Powers and WRH and fate.
The Dru comic is in the end about power...it always comes back to power. Even Angelus' acts regarding Dru were about power. Dru has power in the comic. And so do those who have taken custody of her. They are fighting, Dru and these people over her. Trying to gain control. Dru wins. She breaks their control and dances out of their custody, leaving their dead and bleeding corspes in her wake. Bristling with power.
She starts out as having none, wrapped in a straight-jacket, drugged, and trapped in a padded cell. But as the story moves forward, she gets more and more power - they give it to her, first moving her out of the padded cell, then letting her take a shower, and each time she takes advantage, yet they do nothing, can do nothing. And the woman whom she'd overheard referring to her as a colossal waste of time, someone who should be put down, Dru takes down with barely an effort, donning her nice blue dress. Stating with a demon glare - "you are a colossal waste of time".
Dru is no puppet here, no doll to play with - although they want to, she breaks free, creating chaos in her wake.
Dancing.
Welcome back Lynch and Urru, you were missed. And a great big welcome to Landau, who is as deft a writer as she is an actress. In her photos, she reminds me a great deal of her mother, Barbara Bain of Misson Impossible and Space 1999, along with Martin Landau who was in both series.
no subject
I wasn't in love with it either, though I adored the last issue for its Spangelness. I also felt that, though IDW kept insisting the story was canon, because Joss had endorsed it, Joss had actually told Lynch he was welcome to play with the characters as long as he brought them back to pretty much NFA square one at the end, in case Joss needed them himself at some point, and I think that hampered the story too. YMMV of course. I would really rather the whole canon argument was kept well clear of the comics anyway, whether Buffy or Angel.
no subject
I agree with you about the comics and canon - I'd also rather the writers did not keep saying they were canon to the tv show. (seems to stupid to me for a lot of reasons).
The whole canon thing regarding the comics, gives me a headache. And I think Whedon may have painted himself into a box regarding it - because IDW believes Angel After the Fall is canon. They state as much in their interviews. Granted bringing them back to ground zero opens things up for Whedon, but they still have the memories of what happened during it. Whedon is limited in what he can do with Spike and Angel in Buffy. He can't for example make them Twilight and still be on friendly terms with IDW and still have Angel After the Fall be canon. Sorry Joss, you can't have your cake and eat it too. IDW paid him for co-plotting Angel:After the Fall - he didn't do it for free. Also he's had to be really careful how he introduces those characters - again because of IDW.
I'm guessing part of the reason Angel and Spike have disappeared from the IDW comics recently is that IDW is sort of opening them up to Whedon's use and trying to stay concurrent, without doing an actual cross-over event. That and the fact that they are busy with other characters.
I also think Angel:Aftermath may be quietly forgotten.
From everything I've read - Kelly Armstrong's arc was not liked and they lost revenues. Also it is telling that the next comics in the series are entitled: Angel:After the Fall Epilogue, then Dru:After the Fall.
I think the only thread they are picking up from Armstrong's arc may be in regards to Connor. I didn't read them so wouldn't know. Really couldn't stand the writing. I'm picky when it comes to this verse. LOL!
no subject
I think I have to try and be more picky too. I've bought pretty much everything IDW have produced so far, from the very beginning, but really a lot of it is pretty terrible.
Have to admit, I'm not sure I believe the reason why Spike has virtually disappeared from the Angel comics is anything to do with any crossover. Scott Allie is always pretty adamant that such a think won't happen - when he's not griping about giving Angel and the other AtS characters away, that is.
no subject
And to be honest, I think it has more to do with business/real world issues - such as Lynch's availability and marketing and other things.
But, I do find it interesting that both characters have left the comics for a bit, considering Whedon has stated in more than one interview - that he is waiting on IDW to use the boys, to not disrupt IDW's tales, but he won't wait forever - we need to see our boys.
(That's close to a direct quote.)
That does not mean a cross-over. What it may mean is using them in such a way that it does not conflict with the story in IDW. (ie, the readers of IDW who are also reading Buffy don't start thinking okay..this makes no sense, obviously these stories don't exist in the same universe and if Buffy is canon, why am I bothering with the IDW ones. OR vice versa. I'm not saying everyone thinks that way. I don't. Some of us don't see the comics as canon regardless of who says they are. But there are fans who do see it that way.)
That's why I know there's no way Whedon is going to make Spike or Angel a central character in his Buffy story. They'll have a cameo much like OZ does. But more pivotal. But they aren't going to recurring like Riley or Amy or Warren or Twilight or Faith. And that's again because of IDW.
As an aside, I really prefer Chris Ryall to Scott Allie. Allie is incredibly whiny.
Oh, I've picked up some really bad Dark Horse and IDW Angel/Buffy comics myself. The Spike vs. Dracula tales were...well, disappointing. While I like Peter David for the X-men comics, he doesn't quite work in the Angelverse. His Spike feels a bit off somehow.
no subject
(That's close to a direct quote.)
Yes, I've seen that one. However, after the recent DH web comic, I'm fairly convinced Joss has already done all he means to do with Spike and Angel in the Buffy comic, which is to use them as a way of showing what's going on with Buffy's emotional life, because outside her dreamscape, nothing else is available to him.
As an aside, I really prefer Chris Ryall to Scott Allie. Allie is incredibly whiny.
Oh dear me, yes! Chris Ryall hasn't once risen to the bait when Allie has said something derogatory about IDW. Definitely the better man.
The Spike vs. Dracula tales were...well, disappointing. While I like Peter David for the X-men comics, he doesn't quite work in the Angelverse. His Spike feels a bit off somehow.
I suspect this is because like so many men, David prefers evil Spike or comic relief BtVS season 4/AtS season 5 Spike to serious Spike of BtVS seasons 5-7 (and parts of AtS season 5). I quite enjoyed the parts of that series set in the past, in spite of some glaring historical errors, and I loved the way the series was framed as being told by Spike during the course of a routine correspondence with Darla (because unlike many people, I don't believe the two hated each other and like to think Spike and Dru kept in touch with Darla over the years). I hated the last issue however, which seemed to serve no purpose except to make Souled Spike look like an idiot.
no subject
Agreed. I think the attempt to keep the audience guessing is actually hurting the story. Because if Twilight shows up as Xander or Giles - they haven't built it at all. Sure I could fanwank a few clues here and there. But honestly? It feels off. Also, it's getting hard to care.
It feels at times that Whedon will do whatever is necessary to serve the plot or theme, regardless of whether this is organic to the character or comes from them. So it is getting difficult to trust the storyteller. And that's not a good thing when you are paying to continue to read the story. Sooner or later?
You'll give up. Yes, there are issues that are rather brilliant in there but...
However, after the recent DH web comic, I'm fairly convinced Joss has already done all he means to do with Spike and Angel in the Buffy comic, which is to use them as a way of showing what's going on with Buffy's emotional life, because outside her dreamscape, nothing else is available to him.
That's my guess, although Allie and Whedon keep denying it. I don't think he'll give me what I want - which is closure of the B/S relationship - because I think he may well believe he already did that. And in a way he did. He may be right, doing more would be unnecessary at this point.
Agree with you on Spike vs. Dracula, the flashbacks with Darla, I rather liked. The last issue I found sort of silly and out of character.