Buffy season 11 no 1
Nov. 23rd, 2016 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightNot using this icon because Spike kisses Illyria in this comic or anything, but it's a nice icon and I just want to use it. ;)
Okay, the first issue of season 11...feels a lot more zeitgeist-y than Christos Gage was ever expecting it would, I suspect (for which see his comment about issue 2 on Twitter).
Spoilers behind cut
Mind you, Trump supporters will get something out of it (apart from the hump at the negative commentary on Trump's immigration pledges- Buffy describes Spike jokingly as an 'illegal immigrant' and Spike responds 'we prefer undocumented') because San Francisco gets trashed in it and I suspect lots of them hate San Francisco.
In short, Buffy and co are living the dream, as it were. Buffy and Spike are working part time for the SFPD fighting demons in the sewers (which is rather an odd definition of 'living the dream,' admittedly) and seem to be getting on great together - though when Spike says to Detective Dowling that he feels like he's grown as a person and Dowling responds that he bets Buffy feels the same way, Spike says, "From your mouth to the deity of your choice's ears, mate," and looks doubtful. Later in the book, Buffy complains to Dawn that everyone else has moved on with their lives whereas she's still doing what she's been doing since she was fifteen years old. So there are seeds of doubt/discontent in the mix right from the start.
Elsewhere, Willow is running what looks like a sort of coven start-up scheme, where she helps various magic-users find out what sort of coven they want to belong to, Mini!Giles is basically being GrownUp!Giles in a child's body, and Xander and Dawn are back together and Dawn is doing great at college.
It's all too good to be true, of course, and in short order a huge Chinese storm dragon (maybe the Trump supporters will like this bit too? Evil foreign dragons wreaking havoc?) has trashed half the city and killed lots of people, in typical comic book villain-destroys-New-York-type fashion. Buffy and co do what they can to fight it but it's too strong for them. Then they do what they can to rescue the victims, but many people have died (basically, everything at sea level has been completely trashed). In the aftermath, Buffy and Spike are talking, and he hints to her that, having seen a lot of history, he fears what is to come. Buffy asks him if he means the dragon's arrival is an act of war. Spike says it might be, but even if it isn't, the world's just changed in a big way.
Cut to the White House, where the president and vice-president (both of them middle-aged white men) are being briefed by some general. Turns out the vice-president is a hawkish Dick Cheney caricature who says the question before them isn't really what happened but what they're going to do about it.
So, yes, what started off as possibly a not very veiled commentary on 9/11 and its aftermath, takes on a much more up-to-date tone due to comments made during the election campaign about various ethnic groups, not to mention illegal immigrants. Gage is possibly going to get massively trolled for this. Or maybe BtVS is so old-hat now no one will notice?
Quality-wise, the comic is much the same as season 10. The writing's okay, if somewhat exposition-heavy and on-the-nose at times. We'll see how it goes, I guess.
Okay, the first issue of season 11...feels a lot more zeitgeist-y than Christos Gage was ever expecting it would, I suspect (for which see his comment about issue 2 on Twitter).
Spoilers behind cut
Mind you, Trump supporters will get something out of it (apart from the hump at the negative commentary on Trump's immigration pledges- Buffy describes Spike jokingly as an 'illegal immigrant' and Spike responds 'we prefer undocumented') because San Francisco gets trashed in it and I suspect lots of them hate San Francisco.
In short, Buffy and co are living the dream, as it were. Buffy and Spike are working part time for the SFPD fighting demons in the sewers (which is rather an odd definition of 'living the dream,' admittedly) and seem to be getting on great together - though when Spike says to Detective Dowling that he feels like he's grown as a person and Dowling responds that he bets Buffy feels the same way, Spike says, "From your mouth to the deity of your choice's ears, mate," and looks doubtful. Later in the book, Buffy complains to Dawn that everyone else has moved on with their lives whereas she's still doing what she's been doing since she was fifteen years old. So there are seeds of doubt/discontent in the mix right from the start.
Elsewhere, Willow is running what looks like a sort of coven start-up scheme, where she helps various magic-users find out what sort of coven they want to belong to, Mini!Giles is basically being GrownUp!Giles in a child's body, and Xander and Dawn are back together and Dawn is doing great at college.
It's all too good to be true, of course, and in short order a huge Chinese storm dragon (maybe the Trump supporters will like this bit too? Evil foreign dragons wreaking havoc?) has trashed half the city and killed lots of people, in typical comic book villain-destroys-New-York-type fashion. Buffy and co do what they can to fight it but it's too strong for them. Then they do what they can to rescue the victims, but many people have died (basically, everything at sea level has been completely trashed). In the aftermath, Buffy and Spike are talking, and he hints to her that, having seen a lot of history, he fears what is to come. Buffy asks him if he means the dragon's arrival is an act of war. Spike says it might be, but even if it isn't, the world's just changed in a big way.
Cut to the White House, where the president and vice-president (both of them middle-aged white men) are being briefed by some general. Turns out the vice-president is a hawkish Dick Cheney caricature who says the question before them isn't really what happened but what they're going to do about it.
So, yes, what started off as possibly a not very veiled commentary on 9/11 and its aftermath, takes on a much more up-to-date tone due to comments made during the election campaign about various ethnic groups, not to mention illegal immigrants. Gage is possibly going to get massively trolled for this. Or maybe BtVS is so old-hat now no one will notice?
Quality-wise, the comic is much the same as season 10. The writing's okay, if somewhat exposition-heavy and on-the-nose at times. We'll see how it goes, I guess.