BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT #12"Wolves At The Gate 1"
Writer: Drew Goddard
Penciler: Georges Jeanty
Inker: Andy Owens
Colorist: Michelle Madsen
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft's Jimmy
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Editor: Scott Allie
March 5th was Frustrating Comics Day, leaving me uninspired to write the reviews until now. This one has maybe the most talked about fourth page of any comic ever published. You know, the one that reveals that Buffy has had a one-night stand with Satsu, the slayer who confessed to her love of Buffy last issue. My immediate reaction to this was one of shock, the page screaming "look how high above the shark I am!" Buffy has never been a lesbian, never had lesbian tendencies, and this new development just pushes the comic further away from being the Buffy I love. The main cast feels splintered and the new characters are all one-note. Making Buffy act out of character is just insult to injury. Upon another read and having a couple more weeks to digest the turn of events, I can see where this fits in with her character. This is the woman who had sex with Spike, someone she loathed, in the Bronze while watching her friends dance. This is the woman who immediately fell for Parker and slept with him on the first date. Buffy is a young woman with sexual desires and it's not unusual for her to do whatever she can to satiate them. When faced with an attractive individual that admits to loving her, it's not that surprising that Buffy would jump on it (hmm). Thankfully Goddard has the entire cast of the book find out about the tryst in one of the funniest sequences in a comic from recent memory. This gets the secrecy problem that plagues even the best of series out of the way, sparing the audience a year's worth of stories about Satsu and Buffy almost getting caught. I'm actually glad to see Dracula back. His episode was never one of my favorites because it always seemed, well, fan fictiony and it never played a big part in the Buffy mythos. I think this arc will, if it's done well, make that episode even better.
MY SCORE: 8.3/10
CABLE v.2 #1"War Baby 1"
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Will Panzo
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Pretty underwhelming, I have to say. As far as plot, this issue doesn't really have one. Cable arrives in New Jersey in the future, takes out some troublemakers, and then gets shot by Bishop at a diner. The mood is great, the artwork is really different and sets the tone well, I just wish something would have happened to make me want to buy the second issue. It seems like Marvel is making ongoing series now knowing that, in today's market, it's rare that an issue makes it past issue 12. I don't know how else to explain the current crop of comics being released with such light premises that you have to wonder how long they can really run. This, X-Force and the renamed X-Men: Legacy all seem like books that will have run out of story and momentum in a year when their simple premises stop generating ideas. Maybe that's why nothing happens in this issue. I'm not a fan of Bishop's portrayal at all. I can understand his turn to the dark side, which was done pretty believably. I do not believe that he needed to get a monstrous robot arm and glowing red eyes. It's like they're trying to make Bishop out to be 1940s Red Skull, some huge caricature of a villain. Really, just ditch the ridiculously huge arm and red eyes and Bishop would be a lot more believable. I'm interested in knowing more about the mutant baby but, art aside, nothing about this premise or setup really fascinates me. There was plenty of space in this issue to discuss more of Cable's plan, why he's in the future, what he thinks of Bishop, what he thinks of the baby, just, you know, more. As it is we have a very one-dimensional portrayal of Cable and the mustache-twirling Bishop, neither of which I'm that interested in.
MY SCORE: 7.2/10
UNCANNY X-MEN #496"X-Men: Divided 2"
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Mike Choi
Color Art: Sonia Oback
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Will Panzo
Editor: Nick Lowe
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Click here to read the review at Comixfan.
X-FORCE v.3 #2"Angels & Demons 2 of 6"
Writers: Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Production: Paul Acerios
Assistant Editor: Aubrey Sitterson
Editor: John Barber
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
I think the last thing the comic world needed was the mindless gore, guts and guns of the early 90s to meet the hyper dramatic modern realism style of today's comics. That's what X-Force is. It's a brainless cavalcade of blood dressed up with melodrama to seem intelligent. Isn't it cool how X-23 totally blew up the Purifiers' headquarters and all the key players happened to survive??!!! Isn't it so cool that Warpath is all like "how can you have all this blood on your hands?" and X-23 is all like "whatever you're a pussy I'm a bad ass!"??!!!! Whoah!!! But really, the combination of ruthless violence with strong characterization is painful to read. I don't want to see Warpath's will get broken. I don't want to read about Wolfsbane becoming overrun by vengeance. I don't even know X-23 that well, but I don't like seeing her turned into a complete killing machine. The premise of the series becomes even more ridiculous in this issue when Angel drops by (no clue when all of this fits in with what's going on in Uncanny). If Cyclops is trying to keep X-Force a secret, why is he having meetings at Angel's place? How stupid does he think Angel is? He flies down, sees everyone in their black/sneaky/obviously x-uniforms and isn't supposed to make the connection, especially considering how X-Force was used openly during "Messiah Complex"? The art is also hit or miss. Crain's depiction of Rahne in captivity is strikingly creepy, but he also managed to give Warpath huge breasts and an hourglass figure three pages prior to that one. Crain's not consistent, but his work is definitely at home in this title. His work with Magus on the last page was wonderful. On the topic of Magus, much like The Kitty Pryde Fiasco, this is another huge continuity blunder. Bastion says that Magus was left at the bottom of the ocean by the X-Men when, in fact, he was last fought almost 20 years ago on another planet. So...is this an untold tale that we're about to see? Unlike Cable, X-Force has covered a lot of ground in the first two issues and proven that it does have a reason to exist. Actually, the premise of a black-ops X-Team is one that could go for a good long while, I just don't think I can read it for very long without getting thoroughly depressed.
MY SCORE: 7.4/10
1 comment:
I agree about Buffy. My initial reaction was, "nuh uh!" And then I realized that she has those spirals of loneliness and the need for connection and, as a slayer, it seems her way to connect with someone (whom, I'm guessing the subtext goes, can't entirely understand her and her place in the world) is through sex. I guess I'm not entirely shocked she'd go there with a woman and I think it really follows that it'd have to be another Slayer.
Of course, we are spared the ongoing Satsu/Buffy getting caught comedy gold, but I think it opens the door for an intriguing path in the relationship between Buffy and Willow now.
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