Written by Andrew Chambliss
Illustrated by Georgest JeantyStill seeking normalcy in the midst of zompire-stricken San Francisco, Buffy contemplates a life-changing decision the likes of which few Slayers have ever faced. Meanwhile Spike rushes to the aid of Detective Dowling, who’s in over his head with his recent investigation into the undead bloodsuckers plaguing the city.
- Buffy settles down with . . . Spike?!
- A cliffhanger certain to shock fans!
- Executive produced by Joss Whedon!
Is it just me, or does the Phil Noto Buffy on this month’s cover look a bit like Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation? No matter, this is another installment of Buffyversity, focusing on Buffy #7. Boy do we have an issue to talk about.
Check past the cut for more. Just like last time, there’s a heavy spoiler warning!
My head hurts. When I say that, I mean my head hurts from comics. My head hurts from reading this comic, to be precise. Last month, I went on about how important the issue and how she needs to go through with the abortion for it to still be that important. It was a big moment in comics, and I admired Whedon and Chambliss for broaching such a complicated subject that is never really touched upon. It’s a shame they didn’t do that. We’ll get to that later, though.
This month’s issue started out really strong. It opens with Buffy’s roommates discussing whether or not she should stay in the apartment with them. This is a reasonable scene to have, all things considered. If there are zompires all over the place, it’s best to have a slayer sleeping in the next room with a stake under her pillow, right? It’s certainly reasonable to me.
Considering the rest of the book; that was the cold open. The rest of this book feeds off of it, but barely addresses what happened here aside from a comment from Buffy talking about how she doesn’t deserve a normal life, much to the chagrin of Spike, who has always been her retreat from all things normal. It’s clear that Spike wants more from Buffy than she’s willing to give, and it kills him. It’s almost tragic, if it weren’t for the fact he was such a dick before he got his soul (and a little bit afterwards too)
If there’s one that that this book excels at, it’s how they pepper in locales from around San Francisco, from the familiar skyline to a scene at Coit Tower (it looks like a fire hose, seriously); there’s a deep respect for the setting. It’s no longer Sunnydale, like I mentioned before. It works, even when there are extended fight scenes at San Francisco landmarks.
But let’s backtrack just a tiny bit. Buffy, who decided to leave her apartment, was moving in with Spike in his Flying Roach Motel, in a retreat from the real world again. It’s a thing she does. Let’s just go with it. When the world gets too real, she retreats into the supernatural, and when the world gets too surreal, she tries to live a normal life, to no avail, mostly.
This fight was really important to the story, but the outcome of this story left me with a bad taste in my mouth. We were bound to see a resolution to the abortion storyline, but the “cliffhanger” teased in the solicit is, wait for it…
Wait for it…
This pregnant Buffy is actually a pregnant Buffybot.
That’s right. There’s no baby, save the possibility of a Tricia Helfer Cylon popping out in nine months. The poignancy and importance of the previous issue was lost, in favor of a silly, far too out there twist that is nonsensical at best, and infuriating at worst.
That being said, I don’t think this the fault of Chambliss, who pens scripts from Joss Whedon’s plots. If anyone came up with RoboBuffy’s pregnancy, it was the creator, which is the most disappointing part of the process. Other than “the shocking cliffhanger,” the book read really well, and was a quick, fun read. You can’t really blame a book about slaying vampires for, well, spending the latter half of the entire issues fighting a nest of zompires. That is until Buffybot’s arm is ripped off and we learn the truth. What a disappoint end to a promising story.
But what is interesting about this revelation is the idea that Buffy is probably out there without any powers at all. When she destroyed The Seed, perhaps she lost her abilities along with the rest of the Slayers (aside from Faith it seems). Perhaps when we catch up with Willow: BBFF (that’s Buffy’s BFF), we’ll see her run into a powerless Buffy searching for a way to fix The Seed. It could happen.
Tune in next time for commentary on Angel and Faith #8!
Thoughts on the new issue? Let me know!
