Season 8, Issue #1 (Spoilers)

POSTED BY: Groosalugg
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 21:32
VIEWED: 5754
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GROOSALUGG

Saturday, March 17, 2007 3:33 AM

Anyone else get theirs yet? Mine arrived today . Some of my initial thoughts on it:

- Three years away from the show and the characters obviously hasn't dulled them at all in Joss's mind. Only Buffy, Xander, and Dawn (among the established characters) appear in this one, but their dialogue (and Buffy's narration) was so spot-on that Sarah's, Nick's, and Michelle's voices play in your head without even needing to try to 'summon them up' (having read a few of the novels, I can testify that hearing the actors' voices can sometimes be pretty hard to do, depending on the skill of the author).

- I'm not sure I buy the idea of Xander as head of command central, keeping tabs on, and directing, teams of slayers as they take on hot-spots around the world. Maybe--MAYBE--if he still had his army training it would be a little more plausible, but wasn't it fairly-well established that that had pretty much worn off by S4? This new role for him kinda smacks of "Well, how else were we going to get him into this series?" But he's GOTTA be there. Even Giles could be considered expendable, but you just can't have BtVS without the core three: Buffy, Willow, and Xander.

- So, why didn't Amy clear out of Sunnydale when the rest of the town abandoned ship at the end of S7? (Speaking of which, I still haven't figured out why all the rest of those folks DID leave, but that's another issue.) And who's her 'boyfriend' in the other cell?

- On a similar note, wonder who's legs those were floating over the castle at the end of the opening scene?

- Not a huge fan of Jeanty&Stewart's artwork--too cartoony for my taste. Would've much preferred a style more like Jo Chen's covers, something more 'real'. Tho I guess it doesn't help that after not reading comics (other than the 3-part "Serenity" series) for over 15 years, I'm now suddenly reading TWO titles each month, and the other one just happens to be the new Dark Tower series from Marvel. You put ANY artwork up against what Lee&Isanove are doing there, it's like sending a kid with a kazoo out to follow up *insert your favorite ass-kicking-est rock band here*.

- Oh, and I know the first couple of pages have been available online for awhile now, so maybe this has been noticed before, but in the opening, castle-assault scene, Buffy has the Serenity logo on her t-shirt. Unfortunately, the way Stewart colored it makes it a little less obvious than it otherwise could have been...

BEJEWELED

Saturday, March 17, 2007 6:48 AM

I picked up the variant cover. It has Buffy in the Serenity tank. The symbol is much more clear than in the story panels.

I love Xander's role so far. What else can he do? He was never the best researcher and he has no special talents. I think coordinating is an excellent way of keeping him involved.

I want to know who or what subject two is.

===
More amazing than the time Michael Jackson came over to your house to use the bathroom.

EMBERS

Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:25 PM

I thought it made perfect sense that Xander is working as a coordinator:
the construction company he worked for pretty much doesn't exist any more (although I hope people made it out alive)...
Xander has proved in construction that he can oversea other, coordinate their efforts, and get things done....
plus he has years of experience learning about demons even though he was never a great researcher (now he gets to just monitor the researchers)

I loved Buffy's casual conversation w/Xander as she ate her sandwich...it shows what a comfortable strong relationship they still have.

I'm very interested in the floating feet....

And I was THRILLED at Amy's appearance (clearly she was still trying to make trouble and got caught in the giant sink hole that was Sunnydale)
and I am very curious about 'subject 2' who she kept alive w/magic!

I'm loving everything about this, the artwork looks great to me (the animated Buffy cartoon for TV always really looked horrible to me, this is so much more charming IMO)

I'm going to love getting these comics and getting to watch the story unfold.

GROOSALUGG

Sunday, March 18, 2007 3:50 AM

I've read it twice now, and flipped thru it a couple more times, and there's one line in there that I just can't figure out.

In the opening fight scene (which I now realize is a church, not a castle), Buffy kicks open the doors to the main room where those big ol' demons are hanging out, with the two dead bodies on the floor in front of them. She has a line of inner monologue: "Their first victims; gotta get 'em past it", (or something to that effect). Maybe I'm just having an couple of days, but I just don't know what the heck she's referring to. Anyone?

JADEHAND

Sunday, March 18, 2007 4:42 AM

I thought maybe the slayers with her were still green. First time they've seen victims, help them get over it, and help them focus on the fight...
Great Issue. Dropped me right back into that world. Perfect dialog.

"I will stare from the window
At the shapes in the rain." -Beyond You - Afraid of Sunlight -Marillion
visit WWW.Marillion.com for a better way of life.

ANONYMOUS1

Sunday, March 18, 2007 11:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Groosalugg:
So, why didn't Amy clear out of Sunnydale when the rest of the town abandoned ship at the end of S7? (Speaking of which, I still haven't figured out why all the rest of those folks DID leave, but that's another issue.) And who's her 'boyfriend' in the other cell?

- On a similar note, wonder who's legs those were floating over the castle at the end of the opening scene?

Maybe she was too busy keeping her "boyfriend" alive. This would make sense if the "boyfriend" was Caleb and she was trying to drain all that extra power out of him. Wouldn't make sense if the "boyfriend" was a lot longer dead person, like the guy Willow flayed to death. Unless the spell only worked in Sunnydale and she was trying to modify it so she and her "boyfriend" could leave.

"I'm gonna help you kill her." Do you suppose the her Amy meant was Willow instead of Buffy?

Floating guy. How about Dracula?

Also pretty funny that it was a fake Buffy "in Rome, partying very publicly -- and supposedly dating some guy called 'The Immortal'". And it was Andrew's idea.

In the TV show Angel, Angel and Spike were in Rome and saw a blond woman dancing and both were all hurt that Buffy was dating someone else. Andrew was right it was funny and even funnier now that we know it wasn't even Buffy!!!

GROOSALUGG

Monday, March 19, 2007 2:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jadehand:
I thought maybe the slayers with her were still green. First time they've seen victims, help them get over it, and help them focus on the fight...

That was one of my two guesses. The other being the 'they' she was talking about were the demons, and she wanted to literally 'get them past' the bodies as part of the ambush she was setting up (Harpoons, baby!!). Wish there'd been a little more context to figure it out by, but your version makes the most sense, so I'll go with that.

GROOSALUGG

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 6:36 PM

This just occurred to me after thinking about the events of issue #1 for a few days: I wonder if we might finally get some resolution to one of the main unfinished plots of AtS S5 (spoilers below).

Select to view spoiler:

The ninja cyborgs, and Wesley's robot father, from "Lineage" (I'm sure this was something they purposefully left open-ended so they could come back to it later, but never got the chance). Seeing all the resources Buffy's Slayer Central has now, could they have been behind it? I'm sure Buffy herself wouldn't have been part of a plan to turn Angel into a helpless slave with no will of his own, but I don't have much trouble picturing Giles (and maybe Xander and/or Andrew) putting something like that together without letting her know about it.

Giles would probably be the most likely person (other than Wesley) to have enough info on Roger Wyndam-Pryce to make a believable-enough phony that could fool even his own son, and the idea of potentially-the-baddest-ass-vampire-'alive' now running Evil, Inc., is something you'd believe would cause Giles&co. some sleepless nights.

From the episode, we know that the cyborgs were hitting and neutralizing other evil hot spots around the world (demon cabal in Jakarta, etc.), so they're either good guys, or bad guys who don't like the competition. When Andrew shows up in LA four episodes later, he needs W&H's help tracking Dana, indicating that Buffy and the slayers don't have many, if any at all, resources of their own set up in LA yet. Getting control of Angel, and thru him, W&H, would've given them a real nice foothold in a real key location.

Anyway, just a thought

.

JWHEDONADDICT

Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:29 AM

So, I just thought of something that I'm wondering whether it'll be addressed...Lindsey went down into the pit that was Sunnydale in order to retrieve the amulet and bring Spike back to life. Did he run into Amy?

JWHEDONADDICT

Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:40 AM

I think Xander's role is perfect. Considering his job used to be 'providing much-needed sarcasm', his new role in Buffy's team is pretty great. Plus, he's her Vaughn (only ALIAS fans will get this)!!!

I keep going over the Amy's 'boyfriend' thing. I just can't figure it out. Is it someone who died or was severely injured almost to the point of death? Previously, or in the destruction of the Hellmouth? Will we find out in Joss's arc, or someone else's?

Select to view spoiler:

The cyborg thing--I always assumed it was Lindsey who was responsible for that. I guess it would be more interesting if it was really someone in Buffy's camp. Although, I can't see anyone being that cruel to Wes just to access Angel's will.

Select to view spoiler:

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