With its first issue, Jordie Bellaire and Dan Mora’s reimagining of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” showed that it was able to recapture the feeling of the original series. With this second issue, the team begins to show its hand as to how exactly it will reimagine the elements of the original series, proving that it isn’t as beholden to the original series as the large ‘Created by Joss Whedon’ credit on the front cover would suggest it is.
Written by Jordie Bellaire
Illustrated by Dan Mora
Colored by Raul Angulo
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
The reimagining of Joss Whedon’s groundbreaking series continues as Drusilla, the self-proclaimed Mistress and her pet, Spike, make their debut with their sights set on Buffy! Meanwhile, Giles is determined to teach Buffy about her destiny, responsibility, blah blah…can someone tell him to chill? How bad can it get?
From the first issue, it was difficult to tell how exactly this series would be different from the original. Obviously, there were changes. Characters earlier than they did in the original tv show. But the general premise, and the characters, were mostly the same. Transplanted into 2019, but wholly intact. With “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” #2, we get to see a few more familiar faces, but we also get to see some of the ways that Jordie Bellaire is going to actually remix these characters.
The issue begins with a dream sequence. Buffy dreaming about hell. Over the dream sequence, there is a caption. The caption is rendered by Ed Duckeshire in the same way that Buffy’s thoughts were in the first issue. The twist, revealed by the end of the issue, is that these are not Buffy’s thoughts. This is one of those stylistic things you can’t tell from a first issue. Instead of being solely focused on Buffy, this issue lets us into the head of Xander.
There are a few problems that I have with the original version of Buffy, and Xander’s character is one of the highest on that list. “Buffy” #2 looks like its going to address some of those issues head on, taking Xander’s worst Nice Guy tendencies and examining them. Putting his pining after Buffy and his low-key misogyny on display, but not in the unthinking way of the original series. Instead, with “Buffy” #2, these character traits seem to be flaws that, going forward, Bellaire will be examining.
While complicating Xander’s character, Bellaire also has a perfect grasp of all of the characters. She captures their voices perfectly. She is able to create exactly the kind of pitter-patter, back and forth dialogue, making all of the characters sound like real, modern teenagers. A big reason why the dialogue is paced so well is the lettering. Duckeshire is able to make the dialogue flow, bouncing quickly from character to character. Even more than that, he is able to make pages that, when you just look at them might seem wordy, flow in such a way that you don’t even notice how much text is taking up the page.
So much of how well these character interactions work comes down to Dan Mora’s art. Mora’s character acting is extremely well done. The way that he portrays body language and facial expressions, especially of the teenage characters, does as much work to establish who these characters are as what they say or how they say it. Mora is able to capture the difference between the ways teenage characters carry themselves, and the adult characters. Within a few panels, you a reader can instantly understand who these characters are and how they feel about the other characters and world around them, without even reading the dialogue.
Mora also does a great job of creating a look for a licensed comic like this. All of the characters recall the actors that portrayed them on TV, but it never feels like the faces are being traced from stills of the show, which can happen far too often in licensed work. Mora’s style is a great mix of cartoony and realistic, enough that he can get away with having characters look like their TV counterparts, but never falls into the uncanny valley.
Continued below“Buffy” #2 is a fun book. This issue spends a lot of time just following Buffy and the rest of the gang around their high school, allowing the book time to breathe, letting readers get to know these characters, and not feeling obligated to plug-in a vampire fight every single issue. The vibe of the school, and the book as a whole, is set by Raul Angulo’s colors. Angulo uses a bright, poppy coloring style. The colors aren’t super rendered, which helps play into the more cartoony aspects of Mora’s line work.
Both Angulo’s colors and Mora’s lines do great work establishing that this is a comic. And while it is a comic based on a previously established property, the look of this comic and the designs of the characters are not beholden to the original. “Buffy” #2 takes full advantage of its medium, embracing that it is a comic book and series in its own right, and not just an extension of the old TV show. Not only does “Buffy” #2 embrace that it is a comic, it’s a very good comic on top of that. If you haven’t jumped on this series yet, you should. It’s a great reimagining of this property, and even more than that, a really enjoyable read.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” #2 continues to be a ton of fun, while starting to show how it will be different from the original series.