Buffy season 11 no 4
Feb. 15th, 2017 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightRead this today, and despite the fact that Georges Jeanty, of whom I am not much of a fan, is guest penciller on it, I enjoyed it very much.
Spoilers behind cut.
Can't say I'm still that much of a fan, to be honest. Jeanty's Buffy looks super-weird in every panel on the first page, though she does improve somewhat after that, but at least his Spike has improved a little.sueworld2003 used to say that Jeanty drew Spike looking like Albert Steptoe and I think she's not far wrong. The Spike in this issue looks better, IMO.
Anyway, the entire issue is set in the supernatural creatures internment camp and centres around the daily struggle to survive there. This is made worse for Spike by the fact that the blood allowance for vampires in the camp isn't enough to keep him going, and he's not allowed on thechain gangs work crews that get to leave the camp (under armed Slayer guard), thus getting contact with local people willing to sell them their blood, because the crew bosses (also vampires, I assume, or demons, but whichever, none of them like Spike) won't take him.
Spike is, therefore, half-starved all the time, and the issue opens with Buffy trying to make him drink some of her blood. He doesn't want to - asks what happens if he can't stop himself - but in the end does, and of course can't stop himself. Buffy has to push him off (which should, surely, cause her horrible injury, but whatever), and it turns out that it's not the first time. Willow says she knew what Buffy had been doing the minute she saw the scarf around her neck. Both Willow and Spike (and Buffy herself, of course) know it's not a good idea because it makes Buffy weak. This is why, when she wades in to help a small demon being robbed of its food allowance by other demons, it takes her a good long time to beat them and they accuse her of losing her touch.
Buffy admits to Willow that she's been relying on her reputation to deter demons from attacking her, but later in the issue she gets into a big fight with the same demon gang, and is almost - only almost - on the ropes before Spike turns up to help her. Spike by this time is so hungry that he tears one of her opponents throats open and has to be prised off his victim (his very dead victim) by Buffy. Hmm, I think I've written a scene very like that in a fanfic once. Also, it's never been established, has it, that demon blood is actual sustenance for vampires? Oh well, never mind.
Back in their trailer, Buffy tells Spike he was out of control and he has to tell her when he's starving. Spike asks, "Why? So I can drain more of your blood? Make you weak so you can't fight those tossers? Let them kill you?" The situation seems unsustainable and Spike admits he's been thinking of trying to break out, even though they both know that would be suicide.
In the end, Buffy decides there's only one thing to be done. She approaches Jordan and the Slayers running the camp and agrees to become a 'trustee' -ie. law enforcement on the inside of the fence - in exchange for a better blood supply for Spike. Jordan agrees.
So Buffy has now painted an even bigger target on her own back, and will probably lose any potential allies among the demon population, which is already divided into the strong and the weak, the downright evil and the mostly harmless, and the completely innocent, the former group picking on the latter two.
Divide and conquer, of course.
Other things of note: Willow is spending her time trying to teach the other Wiccans how to defend themselves (fire spells are the best deterrent), and on the outside, when Buffy phones Dawn, Dawn tells her that things are sort of back to 'normal' but that everyone's on edge and people are openly expressing how happy they are 'their kind' aren't around any more. Xander has got into a couple of fights about it. Also, there's no word on how long the internment is going to last. The 'feds' tell their lawyer the internment's temporary and they'll be out within a year but are otherwise very vague about it.
I thought it was all pretty well done really, though it was more slice of life than advance the plot.
Spoilers behind cut.
Can't say I'm still that much of a fan, to be honest. Jeanty's Buffy looks super-weird in every panel on the first page, though she does improve somewhat after that, but at least his Spike has improved a little.
sueworld2003 used to say that Jeanty drew Spike looking like Albert Steptoe and I think she's not far wrong. The Spike in this issue looks better, IMO.Anyway, the entire issue is set in the supernatural creatures internment camp and centres around the daily struggle to survive there. This is made worse for Spike by the fact that the blood allowance for vampires in the camp isn't enough to keep him going, and he's not allowed on the
Spike is, therefore, half-starved all the time, and the issue opens with Buffy trying to make him drink some of her blood. He doesn't want to - asks what happens if he can't stop himself - but in the end does, and of course can't stop himself. Buffy has to push him off (which should, surely, cause her horrible injury, but whatever), and it turns out that it's not the first time. Willow says she knew what Buffy had been doing the minute she saw the scarf around her neck. Both Willow and Spike (and Buffy herself, of course) know it's not a good idea because it makes Buffy weak. This is why, when she wades in to help a small demon being robbed of its food allowance by other demons, it takes her a good long time to beat them and they accuse her of losing her touch.
Buffy admits to Willow that she's been relying on her reputation to deter demons from attacking her, but later in the issue she gets into a big fight with the same demon gang, and is almost - only almost - on the ropes before Spike turns up to help her. Spike by this time is so hungry that he tears one of her opponents throats open and has to be prised off his victim (his very dead victim) by Buffy. Hmm, I think I've written a scene very like that in a fanfic once. Also, it's never been established, has it, that demon blood is actual sustenance for vampires? Oh well, never mind.
Back in their trailer, Buffy tells Spike he was out of control and he has to tell her when he's starving. Spike asks, "Why? So I can drain more of your blood? Make you weak so you can't fight those tossers? Let them kill you?" The situation seems unsustainable and Spike admits he's been thinking of trying to break out, even though they both know that would be suicide.
In the end, Buffy decides there's only one thing to be done. She approaches Jordan and the Slayers running the camp and agrees to become a 'trustee' -ie. law enforcement on the inside of the fence - in exchange for a better blood supply for Spike. Jordan agrees.
So Buffy has now painted an even bigger target on her own back, and will probably lose any potential allies among the demon population, which is already divided into the strong and the weak, the downright evil and the mostly harmless, and the completely innocent, the former group picking on the latter two.
Divide and conquer, of course.
Other things of note: Willow is spending her time trying to teach the other Wiccans how to defend themselves (fire spells are the best deterrent), and on the outside, when Buffy phones Dawn, Dawn tells her that things are sort of back to 'normal' but that everyone's on edge and people are openly expressing how happy they are 'their kind' aren't around any more. Xander has got into a couple of fights about it. Also, there's no word on how long the internment is going to last. The 'feds' tell their lawyer the internment's temporary and they'll be out within a year but are otherwise very vague about it.
I thought it was all pretty well done really, though it was more slice of life than advance the plot.