Buffy season 8 no 23
Mar. 5th, 2009 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightSo, went down the comic shop yet again. There were some well-dodgy types hanging about outside, but when I mentioned this to Comic Shop Boy, he just got this big grin on his face and said he was just waiting for them to start something. Then he indicated the enormous stick hanging on the back of the shop door and went on to say he had a claw hammer under the till, but he reckons he's more likely to get away with it in court if he uses the stick.
Erm, yes.
Spoilers for the comic within
Things I liked
The cover is great, of course
The best thing about this issue is that Buffy seemed more like Buffy. At least, I think this is a good thing. It's not so good if the reason why she hasn't seemed very Buffy-like in almost every issue up to now is that all the other writers (including Joss) just haven't written her very well. Dunno. She seemed a lot less cut off from everyone and the decisions she took were more tempered with reason/compassion and a lot less designed to make everyone hate the Slayers even more.
All things being equal, encountering Simone up close and personal should be a valuable lesson to Buffy, I think, but only time will see if she's learned it.
I like that Buffy and Andrew seem to be travelling by public transport like ordinary people, instead of using Willow Air or the Slayers' very own private jet or whatever. After last issue, I almost expected them to get to Italy via submarine. Mind you, I expect Simone's 'Slayer Island' will be important to the plot at some point, so now the Slayers have an island too along with all the castles.
I also like that the new 'control room' is a gimcrack affair with cables all over the place. That's more like it.
Spike finally gets a namecheck, which is good, I suppose. I just wish it hadn't been from Andrew
Which brings me on neatly to what I didn't like
Andrew. I'm sorry. I just don't like him. I don't care if he is Head Cheerleader for Team Spike. That doesn't make me like him any better.
Having said which, it's fine that Buffy refused to hand him over to Simone and thinks of him as part of her 'family.' Every family has members that the other members wish would bugger off and never be seen again. Not that I think the readers are supposed to think that Buffy thinks that about Andrew. But I do.
Couldn't help thinking that Buffy wasn't so quick to not walk away from her people when Spike was burning to death in the Hellmouth. And no, I don't think we're supposed to think that she's thinking about that when she refuses to abandon Andrew.
I have no opinion either way as to whether we're supposed to think that Buffy knows Spike is alive or not. I'm also a bit puzzled as to why this issue feels so much like filler when the Simone plot is probably quite important. However, it does. Truthfully, I was bored.
I also still don't feel we've been shown the seriousness of the situation with regard to the human population turning against the Slayers. Yes, Buffy and the others keep saying things are bad, but apart from the Harmony issue (no 21) and Harmony's brief cameo in no 22, there's no sense of it. And the way Buffy, Simone and pretty much everyone keeps saying that humans all think vampires are the good guys now is rather getting on my nerves. Not everyone likes reality TV and lots of people loathe Paris Hilton. I don't think they'd much care for a vampire version of her either or be impressed by Harmony ripping someone's throat out on live TV, even if that person had tried to kill her.
Finally, so Andrew is some kind of cutting edge geneticist now, is he, who can revive extinct species? When did that happen?
I know this review isn't very good but I found it really hard to think of anything interesting to say about this issue. It seemed so thin. In fact, they all do. I should probably have stuff to say about Buffy waving a real, actual gun around, which is probably supposed to indicate either a) she's all grown up now or b) things are getting serious, but I honestly can't think of anything more than that.
7 out of 10. Probably, I should give it more, but like I said, the issue was thin pickings IMO, plus I'm getting impatient now. Can we please get on with the Twilight story!
Erm, yes.
Spoilers for the comic within
Things I liked
The cover is great, of course
The best thing about this issue is that Buffy seemed more like Buffy. At least, I think this is a good thing. It's not so good if the reason why she hasn't seemed very Buffy-like in almost every issue up to now is that all the other writers (including Joss) just haven't written her very well. Dunno. She seemed a lot less cut off from everyone and the decisions she took were more tempered with reason/compassion and a lot less designed to make everyone hate the Slayers even more.
All things being equal, encountering Simone up close and personal should be a valuable lesson to Buffy, I think, but only time will see if she's learned it.
I like that Buffy and Andrew seem to be travelling by public transport like ordinary people, instead of using Willow Air or the Slayers' very own private jet or whatever. After last issue, I almost expected them to get to Italy via submarine. Mind you, I expect Simone's 'Slayer Island' will be important to the plot at some point, so now the Slayers have an island too along with all the castles.
I also like that the new 'control room' is a gimcrack affair with cables all over the place. That's more like it.
Spike finally gets a namecheck, which is good, I suppose. I just wish it hadn't been from Andrew
Which brings me on neatly to what I didn't like
Andrew. I'm sorry. I just don't like him. I don't care if he is Head Cheerleader for Team Spike. That doesn't make me like him any better.
Having said which, it's fine that Buffy refused to hand him over to Simone and thinks of him as part of her 'family.' Every family has members that the other members wish would bugger off and never be seen again. Not that I think the readers are supposed to think that Buffy thinks that about Andrew. But I do.
Couldn't help thinking that Buffy wasn't so quick to not walk away from her people when Spike was burning to death in the Hellmouth. And no, I don't think we're supposed to think that she's thinking about that when she refuses to abandon Andrew.
I have no opinion either way as to whether we're supposed to think that Buffy knows Spike is alive or not. I'm also a bit puzzled as to why this issue feels so much like filler when the Simone plot is probably quite important. However, it does. Truthfully, I was bored.
I also still don't feel we've been shown the seriousness of the situation with regard to the human population turning against the Slayers. Yes, Buffy and the others keep saying things are bad, but apart from the Harmony issue (no 21) and Harmony's brief cameo in no 22, there's no sense of it. And the way Buffy, Simone and pretty much everyone keeps saying that humans all think vampires are the good guys now is rather getting on my nerves. Not everyone likes reality TV and lots of people loathe Paris Hilton. I don't think they'd much care for a vampire version of her either or be impressed by Harmony ripping someone's throat out on live TV, even if that person had tried to kill her.
Finally, so Andrew is some kind of cutting edge geneticist now, is he, who can revive extinct species? When did that happen?
I know this review isn't very good but I found it really hard to think of anything interesting to say about this issue. It seemed so thin. In fact, they all do. I should probably have stuff to say about Buffy waving a real, actual gun around, which is probably supposed to indicate either a) she's all grown up now or b) things are getting serious, but I honestly can't think of anything more than that.
7 out of 10. Probably, I should give it more, but like I said, the issue was thin pickings IMO, plus I'm getting impatient now. Can we please get on with the Twilight story!