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shapinglightCan't be bothered to do two separate reviews.
I was quite looking forward to both titles, and the AtS one didn't disappoint. The Buffy one does, but not so much in itself, but for reasons out of Jane E's control. A pity.
More behind cut, with spoilers of course.
Buffy
Things I liked
First and foremost, that something is finally happening, rather than all the pointless meandering that's characterised the previous arc of one-offs. Lots happens, in fact. Buffy and co get driven out of yet another Fantasy Scottish castle (the third by my reckoning) by a bunch of generic and badly drawn demons in kilts, meet up with Faith and Giles, Andrew and a few Slayers from Italy, and escape to Tibet by submarine. Heh! We learn, rather out of the blue, that Willow is possibly abusing magic again and going dark (I'll explain why I think it's a bit out of the blue in the bits I didn't like), Buffy and Giles are reconciled (though we never learn what they'd fallen out about in the first place), and we learn that Buffy is seriously doubting her choices, from the Slayer spell onwards. Not that we didn't know that already, and not that one could blame her. In fact, in view of the fact that a whole bunch of girls get brain-fried and burnt to death in this issue, if she didn't feel that way she'd have to be made out of stone. Not surprisingly, in view of all this and Willow's apparent recidivism, she begins to think that Twilight might be right and they would all be better off without magic. Hence the trip to Tibet, because, for some reason that escapes me, Buffy seems to think Oz will be able to help her.
In other words, Jane E manages to pack a hell of a lot into one issue, keep hold of all the plot strands, make every word count, plus she manages to be funny. There are some great lines of dialogue, particularly in the scene between Buffy and Giles and the scene where everyone is gathered outside Buffy's bedroom and agree that it would be a good idea to knock before going in.
There's actually a reason for Skinless Dead-as-a-Dodo Warren to be around. That is, if you think there's any reason for Andrew to be around.
The cover is, of course, beautiful. Also, Xander and Dawn seem to be joined at the hip, which is sort of cute, if not unexpected.
Things I Didn't Like
The art. I think it was more than usually horrible in this issue, and it detracted from the impact of the story quite a lot.
It's still impossible to care about any of the faceless, interchangeable baby Slayers, who remain - with the exception of Satsu - indistinguishable. I've seen people getting excited over spotting Leah or Rowena, but I can't think why. Neither of them is more than a name. Who could possibly care about them?
As I said, not Jane E's fault. And it's also not her fault that since her last issue, which kick-started the whole Everyone Loves Vampires and Hates Slayers thing, the series has been guilty of one of the worst faults to be found in drama. In other words, there's been a whole lot of tell but precious little show. As I said in my review of the Tales of the Vampires story, this 'outing' of vampires is a major, major development in the 'verse and yet after Jane's last issue we've only heard about it, not seen it. As a consequence, the danger the Slayers face from the vampire loving general public (while, presumably, the vampires are sniggering behind their hands at how gullible the humans are, and Twilight is sniggering behind his at how gullible they all are) just doesn't seem real. Of the previous arc, since Jane's issue, only the Buffy/Andrew adventure has seemed to have any relevance to this enormously important storyline, and the dreadful Giles/Faith issue actually detracted from it, seeing as humans and vampires were behaving in the normal way in that (ie. vampires trying to eat people and people running away screaming). Since a lot of Buffy's decision making process in this issue is tied in to this storyline - even her thoughts about Willow, since Willow's magic is what is attracting the demons - this is a major, major fault. So major, in fact, that it can't help but detract from the whole series.
Then there's the sudden reappearance of Dark Willow - who is so unsubtle that she openly admits to skinning demons, as if oblivious to the impact this will have on her listeners. Yeah, that line struck me as a bit sledgehammer-like. One could argue that there's been set-up for her return, with the dodgy (presumably) Saga Vasuki business and Evil Future Willow. However, this is the first hint we've had that the magic is having this effect on her. Previously, it had seemed quite benign, not to mention bloody convenient if you didn't want to pay an airfare. In fact, the problem is not so much Willow herself but the revelation that the magical side of Buffy's operation could be down to dodgy magic, and I think I would have liked a bit more set up for that, personally.
Then there's Giles. At the end of the Faith arc, it was clear (or seemed clear) that at some point in the past Giles and Buffy had had some sort of major disagreement, and that Giles being in league with Faith, which Buffy saw as a betrayal, was kind of the last straw. No explanation of that in this issue at all. I suspect it'll just be swept under the carpet, along with a lot of stuff that happened pre-the comics series and which Joss apparently thinks doesn't need explanation either. I'm left, once again, with the feeling that important things -things that matter and would help explain a lot - are being pushed to one side and forgotten about (Buffy the bank robber comes to mind) and we'll never learn any more about them. I hope I'm wrong because that, to me, would be very shoddy storytelling.
Finally, I really don't get why Buffy thinks Oz can help her. He didn't learn to stop being a werewolf, after all, he just learned to control the transformation. But maybe Buffy hasn't gone to Tibet to find Oz himself but Oz's guru. Or something.
8 out of 10, because none of these things are Jane E's fault, but you have to take some points off for the horrible, horrible art.
Also, would just like to point out, that questioning what Buffy is doing and thinking she might have made some wrong choices, does not automatically make one a running dog of the patriarchy. After all, this is a drama, not a feminist tract.
I haven't much to say about Angel: After the Fall, epilogue, which heralds the welcome return of Brian Lynch and Franco Urru to IDW - not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I did. Franco's art was as dynamic as always (he draws a beautiful Gunn) and the story was quirky and fun, with great dialogue and some laugh-out-loud funny moments, plus some touching scenes between Illyria and Gunn. I loved the return to Mosaic too. The Mosaic characters and setting are great, and I still think that Spike: Asylum is the best AtS book that IDW have done.
I give it 9 out of 10 - and I don't care if it's just a simple story, without layers and layers of meaning (a lot of it unintended by the writer, and a great deal of it fan-created). It was just good. That is all.
I was quite looking forward to both titles, and the AtS one didn't disappoint. The Buffy one does, but not so much in itself, but for reasons out of Jane E's control. A pity.
More behind cut, with spoilers of course.
Buffy
Things I liked
First and foremost, that something is finally happening, rather than all the pointless meandering that's characterised the previous arc of one-offs. Lots happens, in fact. Buffy and co get driven out of yet another Fantasy Scottish castle (the third by my reckoning) by a bunch of generic and badly drawn demons in kilts, meet up with Faith and Giles, Andrew and a few Slayers from Italy, and escape to Tibet by submarine. Heh! We learn, rather out of the blue, that Willow is possibly abusing magic again and going dark (I'll explain why I think it's a bit out of the blue in the bits I didn't like), Buffy and Giles are reconciled (though we never learn what they'd fallen out about in the first place), and we learn that Buffy is seriously doubting her choices, from the Slayer spell onwards. Not that we didn't know that already, and not that one could blame her. In fact, in view of the fact that a whole bunch of girls get brain-fried and burnt to death in this issue, if she didn't feel that way she'd have to be made out of stone. Not surprisingly, in view of all this and Willow's apparent recidivism, she begins to think that Twilight might be right and they would all be better off without magic. Hence the trip to Tibet, because, for some reason that escapes me, Buffy seems to think Oz will be able to help her.
In other words, Jane E manages to pack a hell of a lot into one issue, keep hold of all the plot strands, make every word count, plus she manages to be funny. There are some great lines of dialogue, particularly in the scene between Buffy and Giles and the scene where everyone is gathered outside Buffy's bedroom and agree that it would be a good idea to knock before going in.
There's actually a reason for Skinless Dead-as-a-Dodo Warren to be around. That is, if you think there's any reason for Andrew to be around.
The cover is, of course, beautiful. Also, Xander and Dawn seem to be joined at the hip, which is sort of cute, if not unexpected.
Things I Didn't Like
The art. I think it was more than usually horrible in this issue, and it detracted from the impact of the story quite a lot.
It's still impossible to care about any of the faceless, interchangeable baby Slayers, who remain - with the exception of Satsu - indistinguishable. I've seen people getting excited over spotting Leah or Rowena, but I can't think why. Neither of them is more than a name. Who could possibly care about them?
As I said, not Jane E's fault. And it's also not her fault that since her last issue, which kick-started the whole Everyone Loves Vampires and Hates Slayers thing, the series has been guilty of one of the worst faults to be found in drama. In other words, there's been a whole lot of tell but precious little show. As I said in my review of the Tales of the Vampires story, this 'outing' of vampires is a major, major development in the 'verse and yet after Jane's last issue we've only heard about it, not seen it. As a consequence, the danger the Slayers face from the vampire loving general public (while, presumably, the vampires are sniggering behind their hands at how gullible the humans are, and Twilight is sniggering behind his at how gullible they all are) just doesn't seem real. Of the previous arc, since Jane's issue, only the Buffy/Andrew adventure has seemed to have any relevance to this enormously important storyline, and the dreadful Giles/Faith issue actually detracted from it, seeing as humans and vampires were behaving in the normal way in that (ie. vampires trying to eat people and people running away screaming). Since a lot of Buffy's decision making process in this issue is tied in to this storyline - even her thoughts about Willow, since Willow's magic is what is attracting the demons - this is a major, major fault. So major, in fact, that it can't help but detract from the whole series.
Then there's the sudden reappearance of Dark Willow - who is so unsubtle that she openly admits to skinning demons, as if oblivious to the impact this will have on her listeners. Yeah, that line struck me as a bit sledgehammer-like. One could argue that there's been set-up for her return, with the dodgy (presumably) Saga Vasuki business and Evil Future Willow. However, this is the first hint we've had that the magic is having this effect on her. Previously, it had seemed quite benign, not to mention bloody convenient if you didn't want to pay an airfare. In fact, the problem is not so much Willow herself but the revelation that the magical side of Buffy's operation could be down to dodgy magic, and I think I would have liked a bit more set up for that, personally.
Then there's Giles. At the end of the Faith arc, it was clear (or seemed clear) that at some point in the past Giles and Buffy had had some sort of major disagreement, and that Giles being in league with Faith, which Buffy saw as a betrayal, was kind of the last straw. No explanation of that in this issue at all. I suspect it'll just be swept under the carpet, along with a lot of stuff that happened pre-the comics series and which Joss apparently thinks doesn't need explanation either. I'm left, once again, with the feeling that important things -things that matter and would help explain a lot - are being pushed to one side and forgotten about (Buffy the bank robber comes to mind) and we'll never learn any more about them. I hope I'm wrong because that, to me, would be very shoddy storytelling.
Finally, I really don't get why Buffy thinks Oz can help her. He didn't learn to stop being a werewolf, after all, he just learned to control the transformation. But maybe Buffy hasn't gone to Tibet to find Oz himself but Oz's guru. Or something.
8 out of 10, because none of these things are Jane E's fault, but you have to take some points off for the horrible, horrible art.
Also, would just like to point out, that questioning what Buffy is doing and thinking she might have made some wrong choices, does not automatically make one a running dog of the patriarchy. After all, this is a drama, not a feminist tract.
I haven't much to say about Angel: After the Fall, epilogue, which heralds the welcome return of Brian Lynch and Franco Urru to IDW - not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I did. Franco's art was as dynamic as always (he draws a beautiful Gunn) and the story was quirky and fun, with great dialogue and some laugh-out-loud funny moments, plus some touching scenes between Illyria and Gunn. I loved the return to Mosaic too. The Mosaic characters and setting are great, and I still think that Spike: Asylum is the best AtS book that IDW have done.
I give it 9 out of 10 - and I don't care if it's just a simple story, without layers and layers of meaning (a lot of it unintended by the writer, and a great deal of it fan-created). It was just good. That is all.