Buffy season 10 no 21

[shapinglight]

Review behind cut.

Unlike the previous issue, this one did not improve on re-reading.



In actual fact, it got worse. The main reason for this is season 8, which makes my icon very appropriate. The whole season 8 Twilight fiasco really did throw Buffy and Angel as characters under a bus, didn't it? Angel more so, of course, but latterly Buffy, if only because, in their desperate attempts to whitewash Angel and get him off the hook for all the appalling things that he did in season 8, the writers of these books keep putting words in Buffy's mouth to absolve him.

In this issue, they manage to make her come across as a massive hypocrite, not to mention completely useless, when she's confronted by Satsu (with whom she explored her bi-curiosity, if you remember, back in season 8?), who is apparently working with the US Army to combat various demon incursions, caused by the Restless Door portal, which Buffy and her friends failed to take off the three stooges the Mistress, Soul Glutton and Sculptor in the Angel-comes-visiting arc (this is where the uselessness comes in).

The hypocrisy bit applies when Buffy gets all self-righteous at Satsu for working with the army -"The 'declared Slayers an enemy of the state and went to war against us and killed lots of our friends' army." When Satsu says that the people responsible for that policy are either dead or in jail, Buffy gets angry and asks, "What about all the ones who enthusiastically followed their orders?" Satsu then responds by saying that everything Buffy says about the army applies to Angel too, and she hears that Buffy forgave him. "And don't give me that 'he was possessed' line." Buffy responds that he was possessed, and that he's 'kind of gullible when it comes to destiny.'

Are we actually supposed to think this is a good excuse? I don't know. All I know is, even Angel himself hasn't claimed that he was possessed all the time. Yet here Buffy is waving away all his culpability and blaming it on the army (who might never have become involved at all if Twi-Angel hadn't invited them to).

This whole conversation just makes Buffy look so bad. It really does - and her demanding whether Satsu has forgotten 'they killed our sisters. Friends who died in our arms' really doesn't make it any better, given that in season 8 Buffy herself forgot them in an instant when Twi-Angel asked her if she wanted to be happy.

See what I mean about season 8 throwing Buffy and Angel under a bus? There really aren't any words Gage can put in her mouth (or in Angel's) to make that steaming pile of dung any less stinky.

(And just in case anyone feels inclined to compare Buffy forgiving Twi-Angel to Buffy forgiving Spike for the attempted rape, I'd just like to reiterate that the attempted rape only hurt Buffy (and Spike, but his pain ultimately isn't important). If she chooses to forgive him, that's her business and also affects no one but her and Spike. Twi-Angel's actions caused the deaths of hundreds (maybe thousands) of people, including Buffy's 'sisters.' I just end up thinking, no wonder the other Slayers now want nothing to do with her).

Poor Buffy!(and poor Angel!) What the hell was Whedon thinking?

Anyway, the main part of the issue consists of Buffy and Spike, at Satsu's urging, trying to get both vampire camps (Old School, led by Harmony, New Vamp, led by Vicki) to help the US Army fight the demon incursions (which, in an eerie-and not Gage's fault since he wrote this issue ages ago-echo of current world events, have apparently already killed three hundred people in Rome) as a matter of self-interest.

The vampires insist on whether they agree to help or not being decided by Buffy and Spike taking part in trial by combat. While Buffy is fighting her opponent, Harmony tries to undermine their relationship by telling Spike he can't handle a woman like Buffy, that he's built her up into an impossible ideal of womanhood and he's bound to find the reality doesn't live up to his expectations and ruin it all for himself by doing things to push her away so Buffy will be the one to dump him, the way Drusilla did, so he can then act the martyr. Then, while Spike is fighting his opponent, Vicki tries to psych out Buffy, telling her that she's bound to kick Spike to the kerb before long because she's the sort of girl who wants what she can't have. And isn't she a little old to still be into 'tortured bad boys' etc, etc?

After Buffy and Spike leave, Harmony and Vicki congratulate each other and decide they make pretty good partners. And it looks like they may be right, as neither Buffy nor Spike mention to the other what they said to them, and the issue ends with Spike meeting Mrs Marsters Dylan in a bar.

To me, this whole situation seems very artificial, especially given that, as of the end of the previous issue, Buffy and Spike seemed perfectly capable of talking to each other about very painful subjects. Not to to mention I still think Spike's tendency to 'push the woman he loves away,' as stated first by Angel, now by Harmony, is much exaggerated (or possibly non-existent), given that Spike and Dru were together for 120 years.

But oh well, we all knew it wouldn't last, I suppose.

So it looks like there's trouble ahead for Spuffy, and upcoming blurbs and covers emphasise that. In fact, the only thing they have going for them is the fact that, if the villains of the piece (for some completely inexplicable as yet reason) want them to break up so much, maybe ultimately they won't.

Not a lot else to say, except to reiterate how much I dislike Mrs Marsters Dylan being parachuted into comics canon, even though Gage breathes more life into the character in one panel, where she only says three words, than James Marsters did in the entirety of his Spike comic.

Comments

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

Great review as always. You're so much more productive than I am.

I thought the whole issue was utter crap (except for Spike's comment about remembering Satsu's and Buffy's fling and "Feel free to share stories if uou'd like.")

And I actually really, really like Jasmin Marsters. I follow her on social media and she seems to be a really nice, and kind person with a sense of humor. I'm happy for James Marsters that he managed to get her on the hook. She's been nothing but good for him.

BUT she does not have any place as a stand-in character in the Buffy verse and I cannot fathom what made Cage and Whedon (if he's involved) decide that this pretty much booed-out character in the fandom should return to canon!verse and have any part in it whatsoever. Frankly it makes me feel nearly sick. I don't need real life and the Buffy verse to clash like this and it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Bad call! Bad issue. Bad, bad, bad.

[shapinglight]

Blimey, I really hope my comments about the character don't come across as bashing the real, actual Jasmine Marsters?

From all I know about her (which is not a lot, admittedly), she's really lovely and James is very lucky to be married to her.

I only refer to Dylan as Mrs Marsters all the time because JM explicitly said that the character's physical appearance was based on Jasmine's. I don't know at all if they're alike personality-wise.

Anyway, I did find it a bit icky that he stuck his wife in the comic, but I could cope with it as long as the story was tucked away in its own non-comics-canon box. Like that, it was just a nice little story. But then they had to bring Mrs Marsters Dylan into the main Buffy comic. I just find that irritating because there was just so much wrong with JM's story continuity-wise - and though they probably won't refer to his story at all in the Buffy comic, it does sorta kinda 'canonise' it, and since, as I said, that messes so badly with season 7 canon, it annoys me.

And the comics as a whole - not just the Dark Horse ones but also IDW's stuff - have yet to introduce a character solely as a love interest and make that character at all interesting. With the possible exception of Satsu, but in retrospect, that looks even more like a gimmick to create publicity than it did at the time.

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

No, I just wanted to clarify that I don't actually have anything against her (either). I just feel uncomfortable with her face showing up as a possible love interest for Spike (which is completely ooc behaviour for Spike in the first place.)

I don't like how they are letting him meet with this lady whom he's sort of dated or fancied a while back (ack) without telling his current girlfriend, Buffy about it. I don't think that's a thing Spike would do, really. And I'm not trying to sound like some of the irrational or rather childish fans of both Angel (Buffy's 4ever love) or Spuffy sometimes do, but truly if there is one thing that characterizes Spike it's his faithfulness to the women he loves. He is simply not the sort of man who cheats or who looks for other women's company if he's with the woman he is in love with. Spike is a lot of things but he's love's bitch first and foremost and right now he's with the woman he's in love with, and they haven't even been a actual couple for all that long. So what we see here is just terribly out of character for both of them right now and that's a shame.

And they were doing so well with this season. :(

[shapinglight]

I agree with this pretty much, though it's perfectly fine for Spike to have female friends. As long as Buffy knows about them, and it seems like she doesn't.

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's the not telling her that's idiotic and too immature and ooc. Not the having a female friend which is perfectly alright. :)