shadowkat | So the cranky Buffy issue 35

[As an aside: The real world? Going a bit wonky. Europe appears to be plunging into a recession which in turn caused the stock market to plumet. We can thank what is happening in Greece, and according to Momster an insane Citibank trader who got a bit carried away on the floor. Also, there's an interesting and potentially historic election going on in the UK - they have three parties, Labor, Liberal Democrates, and Conservatives battling it out. According to Momster the problem is that the Conservatives and Labour seem a bit too much alike, so they are veering towards the Liberal Democrates - who according to Wikipedia and the Official Site - are a party for unity, change, and social liberalism. They sound cool - but I'm cynical when it comes to politics. So.. really curious to see what my flist thinks about it and which way they vote - about 10% of my flist lives in the UK. Oh and Work is kicking me at the moment. Thank you very much.)

The Buffy Comic - Issue 35, otherwise known as The Power of Love.

Short answer: Maybe it's just me, but I'm beginning to think that comic books are just not Joss Whedon's best medium. He just is not cut out to be a comic book writer or novelist. He works best with film and television, working with live actors, producers, editors, etc...people who will tell him, you know, that plot bunny? Is there for a reason. It just does not work dude. Also, actors will often reinterpret a line in such a way that it well is saved. Read the shooting script then watch an episode, note all the changes in dialogue - some subtle, some obvious? The church scene in Beneath You started out one way, then was filmed, they watched it on film, and rewrote and reshot the whole thing from scratch because it did not work. Worked fine on paper or so they thought. Either that, or tv shows really should not be translated into comic books - well some tv shows at any rate. I wonder how Whedon would feel if Ronald Moore did to BSG what he's doing to Buffy? Hmm, anyone else want to lock Whedon in a room with the BSG finale for 24 hours straight? (And I sort of liked it, but I'm guessing he didn't.)

Comics aren't an easy medium. The people who do it the best - tend to write and draw their own comics, or they write the entire arc with a couple of well chosen artists. And a very good editor.

Also, after reading both the IDW comics and the Dark Horse comics - I've come to the conclusion that Angel is apparently a really hard character to write. Who knew?

1. Power of Love? Wait, isn't that a song by Huey Lewis? Damn, it is. And one of those tunes that sort of hovers in your head for days, with only one lyric? No, that's Physical, I can't honestly remember much of the Power of Love. Sort of forgettable. Not that I'm great at remembering songs to begin with. Funny, I don't really see many expressions of love in this comic book. Well unless you count Buffy riding in to rescue her friends and family. I think that may be counted as an expression of love for them - who I honestly believe are the people that Buffy truly loves and cannot live without. The people who know her and understand her, and have been with her through thick and thin. The Buffy/Angel story actually reminds me more of the myth of Narcissis - you know that story about the guy who fell so in love with his own reflection in the water, that he drowned in his attempt to embrace it?

Although, I actually think that title is meant to be snarky or sly. In case you haven't figured it out - they weren't referring to the Buffy/Angel or Twuffy bit as love, they are referring to Buffy's feelings for her friends as the power of love. Twuffy love did not bring about the apocalypse - rather Twuffy sex brought it about. Not quite the same thing. Sort of similar to how Spuffy sex brought down a building, but certainly wasn't love. She was satisfied after that too. So much so, she went back for more. And she jumped Spike's bones in Smashed for more or less the same reasons she jumps Twangel's - she's lonely and in pain, and he offers her heaven and peace. That's not love. That's lust. No, it's her deep and abiding as well as ultimately selfless love for her friends and family that snaps her out of Twilight's heavenly glow. That's always been the theme of the series...that love of family and friends trumps everything. Buffy loves Xander, she lusts after Angel. There's a difference. Buffy's true love has always been her best friends, Xander, Giles, Dawn and Willow. She's died for them more than once. Angel's true love - was Cordelia, Wes, Fred, Gunn and Connor. Although Angel never sacrificed himself for them, rather they sacrificed themselves for him. At any rate, Angel and Buffy aren't in love, they never were. That is underlined in this comic. And made fun of.

Sigh. This isn't new. The writer's have been making that point since Season 2...of the series. It's getting old. Honestly, you either got or you didn't by now. If you didn't figure it out by S4, you never were going to. Whedon likes to tread the same ground over and over and over again.
Almost as if he thinks that by drilling it into his audience's heads they'll get it.

2. The best thing about the issue? The cover. Both covers. Cool covers. I bought the thing for the cover and well a letter by one of the folks on my flist.

The first cover by George Jeanty is a homage to the classic X-men comic - where Scott Summers leaves the X-men after Jean Grey, the love of his life, sacrifices herself out of love to save the world. The Scott Summers/Jean Grey story is actually better done than the Buffy/Angel one and far more complex. I actually buy that Scott and Jean loved one another, I don't for one minute buy that Angel and Buffy feel anything more than the intensity of adolescent infatuation aka puppy love, which isn't love although it certainly feels like it - because you know, great sex, and all those endorphins. I think I'm going to break out into song! They obviously don't know each other well enough for it to be more than that - and that's a fault of the writing. At any rate in the Phoenix story - it is Jean's love for her friends and Scott, that causes her to save them and sacrifice herself. That sacrifice attracts the Phoenix force who takes on her shape and places her at the bottom of the sea to heal. The hellfire club has a master manipulator of mind control and illusion - who plays with Phoenix's dark side - when she's separated from Scott and believes him to be dead, she is lured out of grief to the dark side and falls in with the evil hellfire club. By the time she's been reunited with Scott - it's too late, and while his love for her and her love for him breaks their hold on her, it is not enough to quell her need for power. What does finally stop her - is Jean Grey, the personality of Jean Grey, human capacity to love others, besides Scott, and care about their needs over her own. She kills herself to save them. Her love for Scott - is what almost dooms her, her need to have him safe no matter what the cost, but her love for people outside of Scott - is what saves her. At any rate - the cover Jeanty draws is a homage to the one where we have Jean's funeral and Scott exits the X-men.

The second cover, which is by Joan Chen, I prefer and bought instead. It's more interesting. Because this cover is about what is inside Buffy's head. She has all her friends, and Angel, and he's at the center, hot, and idealized, and she's trying to make sense of it all.

3. Apparently Angel is a really difficult character to write, bordering on the impossible. Who knew?

Both IDW and DH's writers are failing miserably. Although to be fair, Whedon did admit at the Cultural Humanist Q&A that he did not understand the Angel character. He more or less proves it here. Shame. Angel is actually one of the most complex and interesting characters they've created. But no one can write him. They either write him as a puppet who does whatever the powers tell him too, a creep, or a cliche noir hero with a heart of gold. Which leads me to believe the only people who understood Angel were: Jeff Bell, David Fury, David Greenwalt, Tim Minear, Craft and Fain, and Stephen Deknight. None of which are involved in any way shape or form with the comic representations. I give Lynch kudos for being the only comic book writer outside of Peter David to come close to a half-way palatable representation. Actually all things considered? Lynch may be the only comic book writer who has written a somewhat interesting, palatable continuation of the verse, which doesn't completely unravel the characters in order to further his own agenda. Which I suppose is saying something, isn't it?

At any rate - if you are in any way shape or form a fan of the character of Angel or ship that character? You aren't going to like the Buffy comics. Trust me. If you are a Bangle fan - you might like them, I have no clue why and please don't explain it to me, because really don't want to know...but you might. But Angel fans? Well, let me put this way, if you thought Cordelia's arc and the whole Jasmine storyline in Angel S3-Angel S4 was bad? (which I didn't mind all that much). This one sort of makes Cordy's arc seem logical, engrossing, and well-plotted by comparison. (I actually like Angel as a character and found him to be rather fascinating - an anti-hero who desperately wanted to rise above his flaws and become a hero.
In my head, he's still in that alley fighting the dragon, like he did at the end of Not Fade Away, and I've decided dies there, heroically. That's a much better ending than the current one.)

On the plus side? At least we now know what the shanshu prophecy was all about. Had a feeling that wasn't all roses and lollipops...well not unless you are lucky enough to ascend to your own universe.

Is it in character for Angel to do this? Eh. Yes and no. Angel's always been a bit of a puppet to the powers that be or whatever higher being happens to find him and pull his strings. He's like a big floppy puppy dog eager to please whatever master takes ownership. While this is true to an extent, in Angel the Series, as well as the Buffy TV Show, Angel did fight back. He was more complex than that. The comic book writers have sort of reduced Angel to well an allegory, or a card-board cut-out.

Not that IDW is necessarily doing a better job. But at least Angel is a bit more rounded. Lynch gives Angel three dimensions to Meltzer's one. The comic book medium for some reason has flattened certain characters, specifically ones that the writers aren't invested in or understand. I thought only fanfic writers were guilty of this particular problem, guess I was wrong.

4. As for Buffy? I don't know what to think. I admittedly adore the character more than the majority of my flist appears to. There are a few Buffy shippers on my list, but a scant few.
The character resonated for me. She was tough, yet feminine. Quippy with one liners, yet not always perfectly articulate. Street smart. Struggled with school. And took charge of her life.
She was a heroine that was not a mother, not a wife, not the supportive girl friend. She ran the show. Name for me one, just one, fantasy or sci-fi tv show or film that currently portrays the travails of a similar character. A lead female character who kicks ass, is not the support, or the co-lead, and has powers? A female heroine who wears pants not short skirts, and a pig tail, who is as strong as any guy, possibly stronger. I can't think of any. Not one. The closest I can come up with is Mary Shannon on In Plain Sight, and that's not a sci-fantasy show.

I fell in love with the character of Buffy. Finally a character who saved the guy, girl, or world. Who did not need to be saved. Is she a feminist icon? OF COURSE SHE IS! Flawed true. But aren't we all? She is to me at any rate. I really don't care if she isn't to anyone else. Some things, are well, ours to own. Not the world's to dictate. Just as Betty Crocker, Wonder Woman, and whomever else you decide is. And she always will be. I honestly don't understand how you could say otherwise. But perhaps we define it differently? To each their own.

She is portrayed slightly better here, but only slightly. Her sexcapade with Angel while not out of character, is at this point of time...odd. I thought she'd outgrown that part of her life. That story was finished. I think the reason we revisited had less to do with character and far more to do with theme and metaphor - which turns the story into an allegory, where the characters are but puppets to express the writer's personal and somewhat juvenile philosophical leanings. Anyone with a philosophy degree and there are quite a few on my flist, would poke holes in this.

5. As for the philosophy and mythology they are attempting to relate? Methinks Alan Moore did it better with Promothea, which I suppose is saying something, since I did not like Promothea. Yes, I know I've rec'd it to others - but only because I thought they'd like it. We don't like the same things. Also, the mythology of the Buffyverse was the thing I was the least interested in. I found it derivative of other stories I'd read, and sort of silly. And that was in the tv series. Here? It's even sillier. Buffy represents the whole line of slayers and this is shown by her change in outfits, not entirely sure about Angel - if he was supposed to represent the entire line of vampires fighting slayers - why isn't he wearing Spike's outfit from the 1970s?

At any rate the theme and mythos of this tale are leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. It's not that I don't see it. I do. I wish I didn't.

6. Where are the Buffy comics heading? I am willing to bet that the story is leading to Buffy sacrificing herself to close off all the demons in another dimension - thereby bringing about the Frayverse. Whedon is basically sacrificing his Buffyverse characters to bring about Fray. Which doesn't work for me. The events of Fray just don't lead sequentially from Buffy in a logical manner. It feels contrived and gerry-rigged. Had similar issues with S7 - when I realized he was trying to do the same thing. Plus, I like Buffy a lot better than Fray. So, it's a bit like chopping up a beautiful raw diamond - to get a small somewhat cracked yet shiny bauble that you can barely see. (Sigh, I sort of wish Fray had never been written or that it was written as an alternate time line. Whedon does fine when he's writing comics that are not based on another medium.)

7. Spike's final but strangely unsurprising appearance. I find myself strangely ambivalent.
And somewhat cynical in regards to how they'll write the character and/or resolve the SPuffy relationship - at this point, I strongly doubt they will. For some bizarre reason they seem to think they need to revisit Angel and Xander ad naseum.

God, it's late. And I have to get up at 6. Ugh.

Off to bed.

Current Mood: cranky

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ubi4soft.livejournal.com

About the "Power of Love" title. Meltzer did a Q&A session over twitter (he got off easy in his own words)
full transcript here http://buffyforums.net/forums/showpost.php?p=471026&postcount=1

To sum it up So out of his immense love for Buffy, Angel's plan was to push Buffy with him in that Twilight heaven so they could be happy together, but when Buffy refused to stay there and wanted to go and help her friends, due to "Power of Love", Angel gave up on his plan and went happy hand in hand to fight that evil.

And it looks dumber than I thought.

From:

shipperx.livejournal.com

Good to know a three year long evil plot is resolved by "Oh, okey-dokey then. My bad."

from a curious soul

So the cranky Buffy issue 35 - review

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