Written By Joss Whedon and Andrew Chambliss
Illustrated By Georges JeantyBuffy continues her nightly patrols while trying to cobble together a sensible life… Willow’s adopted a new look, while Dawn and Xander celebrate the comforts of a magicless world. The fun and games come to a halt when mysteriously marked bodies start appearing. As Buffy starts to investigate she captures the attention of San Francisco police detectives who have taken notice of the unnaturally gifted Slayer…
You know the feeling, right? Another day, another vampire slay, am I right fellas? Am I right?! Well, Buffy is back again this month with a new episode/issue for your enjoyment.
Does the book reach season three highs or season four lows? Check the jump!
I am a fan of the Buffy franchise. In fact, I’m a rather big fan as. To that end, I was very vocal about how much the previous season meandered and lost the feel of the show. I realize I’ve mentioned this before, but the point is that I’ve said, repeatedly, that I hope Season Nine goes back to the episodic feel of the TV show while still being a comic book. Thankfully, it really seems like the creators took this to heart and brought back that very feeling I was hoping for.
Let’s be real for a moment while we’re at it: it’s a tough project to capture the feel of an hour-long television show (or even a half hour) and distill it into a comic reading experience. There need to be at least three acts and the story has to feel whole, complete with subplots and character work. Character work has been the part of Buffy that is the MOST important, too; Buffy is a brooding character, as are half of her supporting cast (aside from Dawn and MAYBE Xander). It stands as noteworthy, then, that this issue not only succeeds with the character work, but it feels like an episode of a TV show.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, though. Did you know there are TWO TV writers who are writing for this book? It’s true! Furthermore, they both have experience with the supernatural, and vampires in particular. Sure, you have Joss Whedon, who was a gimme, but the other writer happens to have written for such shows as Dollhouse and (gasp!) The Vampire Diaries. Now, the surprising thing to anyone who might be reading this, but despite appearances that show isn’t half-bad, and a huge part of that might be Chambliss; he knows vampires and it shows. Whedon is probably busy with Avengers, so it’s great to see someone else who knows how a TV show works take the reins.
One of my favorite parts of this new status quo (aside from the fact Whedon relocated Buffy to my neighborhood) is the idea that the demons affected by Buffy’s destruction of The Egg last “season” will be a recurring sub-plot. Sure, the first demon we encountered is played for laughs (although a demon coming to collect your student loans might be one of the most frightening things to a broke college dropout like Buffy), but in the future I’d wager this will come back to bite Buffy in the ass. Even if the Demon Bill Collector hadn’t shown up, Willow constantly reminding Buffy that she essentially ruined the world for everyone in the world who isn’t a slayer named Buffy is certainly foreshadowing.
Here’s where I worry, though: will Chambliss write the whole series? If last “season” is any indication, no, he probably won’t. When he stops, how will the quality transfer from writer to writer? Angel & Faith was lucky enough to get a top-notch writer with credits from Marvel and even Law & Order in Christos Gage, but last season, when other top-tier writers like Brad Meltzer took over, it was less than successful. Usually Meltzer is a great writer, but it just did not work out well. Instead, the consistency came from the art department, with some fantastic (if slightly cartoony) visuals from Georges Jeanty.
However, while I would by no means call Jeanty’s art terrible or even mediocre, it’s not constructed as well as it usually is. Some of the faces aren’t drawn as tightly as I’m used to from Jeanty, and while it’s still better than half the books I read, it’s not as good as it could be. Maybe I just have high expectations, and on the plus side, for the most part the main characters still look like the actors who portrayed them. One of my favorite characters to look at (other than Buffy, anyway) is Xander, because Jeanty uses him to draw his funniest faces and reactions, and if you watched Buffy, you know that’s pretty important to the show (as well as frequent).
This book is starting strong, and continues the creative resurgence of the first issue. The book is filled with twists and turns that I won’t discuss here (for the sake of spoilers), but they won’t disappoint. If you’re a fan of the show, I really recommend picking it up. And if you’re not, what’s wrong with you?
Final Verdict: 7.5 — Buy
