Buffy season 10 no 23

[shapinglight]

Rather anti-climactic spoilers behind cut



Well, I don't know what else I was expecting except anticlimax but anyway...

Okay, there are some interesting things in the book. Buffy caving in to D'Hoffryn's suggestion that they use the Vampyr book to up the power levels of the members of the magic council so as to help them in their fight against the Three Stooges, for instance, and Buffy's doubts about having done it. This will undoubtedly come back to bite them all very soon. Not to mention it increases exponentially the chances that D'Hoffryn is the ultimate Big Bad and is behind the appearance of Ghost!Anya.

Also, the rather fraught state of the Buffy/Willow relationship is new (or is a new iteration of it), and has the potential to be interesting. Plus, there're more Spike/Buffy problems, this time from Buffy's POV rather than Spike's, as she and Spike give themselves a day off from fighting but when they try to decide what to do realise that the things Buffy wants to do (go for an Italian meal, go for a run) are things that either don't much interest Spike or that he just plain can't do. Then, while out on her run, Buffy sees a couple pushing their baby in a pram, and an elderly couple walking along holding hands. She doesn't say anything in those panels but both things are of course Highly Significant.

The only review of the issue I've so far read, takes the view that the writing is on the wall for Spuffy, and it may well end with them parting by mutual agreement and deciding they're better off just as friends.

I don't terribly like this scenario, but I prefer it to them splitting up due to faults in their characters that Gage has pretty much invented.

There are some funny scenes, including one where Buffy, Spike and the Magic Council manifest into Buffy's living room and scare the bejeezus out of Dawn's study buddies. Also a weird scene where Mini!Giles gets an invitation to go to Fairyland and duly goes (I suspect he won't be back for a few issues. I also suspect that the invitation may not be as innocent as it seems. Whatever D'Hoffryn and co want to do will be easier with Mini!Giles out of the way).

But what I guess is the main story of the issue- the Sculptor trying to get Andrew to betray Buffy in exchange for giving Cyber!Jonathan a new body - is, as I said, anticlimactic. Not because Andrew doesn't do it (though I know we all expected him to), but because it kind of ends in another group hug (well, there's no actual hugging, but it feels a bit like one). Also, the demise of the Sculptor is so easy it just makes you wonder why Buffy and co found it so hard to get rid of him before (though of course it also adds weight to the D'Hoffryn theory - and will do so even more if the following two issues feature the gang catching up with, and disposing of, the Mistress and the Soul Eater).

But the issue's not horrible or anything, and IMO no one is made to look stupid or unreasonable, or like their POV has no merit (well, maybe Mini!Giles). What is going on?

It may be just me, but I kind of like Megan Levens' art. I like Rebecca Isaacs' work a lot, but I'm quite happy for Levens as fill-in.

Comments

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Ah, see, I have no problem seeing him do that if Buffy wants to go out to dinner. He sat across the table from her in the Bronze eating an onion, and maybe one other time(?). He eats enough people food to nibble his way through a dinner out with his lady. I just felt his little speech was heavy and unneeded exposition, and incorrect besides.