Various comics-related stuff
Jun. 12th, 2009 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI went down the comic shop yesterday for the first time in a month, only to find that both Comic Shop Bloke and Boy were away. Clueless Comic Shop Temp (an ageing Goth (male) with a ponytail), told me that Comic Shop Bloke had gone to a stag do and Comic Shop Boy to the Download Festival (he stewards). Clueless Comic Shop Temp also totally failed to put away a copy of The Sword no 17 for me, and it was all sold out. Not surprisingly, I was less than pleased. Oh well, there's always re-orders.
Did come home with that Tales of the Vampires thing and the last part of Angel: Blood & Trenches.
More behind cut, with spoilers
Blood & Trenches was the best of the Buffyverse/Angelverse titles I picked up (The Authority was of course the best of all the things I picked up, but I doubt anyone's interested in that), but the end fell a little flat for me when Byrne's plotting got careless and then he couldn't resist throwing Hitler into the mix. Mind you, I sort of knew that was coming the moment Angel met the German soldiers in no 2. At any rate, I'm glad he didn't make Colonel Wyndam-Pryce the villain. The colonel and his sadly deceased batman were in fact by far the best realised characters in the series. Angel himself came across as rather stilted to me, probably due to the overly archaic way Byrne wrote his dialogue. I suppose you could argue that Angel had probably been hiding under a rock since 19-whenever it was he went to America and had failed to keep up with the times, but even so, Angelus never spoke like that in any of the flashbacks in the show. The plot hole, btw, was Kakistos letting Angel escape because he believed he'd drowned. Somehow or other, I don't think so.
Anyway, it was enjoyable, and the art was consistently good all the way through, even though Byrne did have trouble with Angel's likeness (and admitted as much on his own forum).
I did read Angel: Aftermath (or whatever it's called) no 21, but as usual, my brain has decided it's better off not remembering it, so I have nothing to say except that I hope when Brian Lynch returns in no 23, it begins with Angel waking up from this weird dream he had.
As for the Tales of the Vampires story - I hadn't been going to bother with it, but since I had to buy it for other people, I thought I might as well read it. It was actually better than I was expecting, though still not that great, and I hated the art. The story was okay as a one-off, but it leaves me still feeling pretty dissatisfied where the set-up of this whole 'everyone loves vampires and hates slayers' business is concerned. If we care to take this comic at all seriously - and let's say for the sake of argument, that I do just for this post - this vampires!yay! thing is one of the most major upheavals ever to happen in the Buffyverse, and yet it's been set up so badly. The story gives the impression that the gradual semi-acceptance of vampires into society has been going on for a while, except that then the Alex character explicitly links it back to the Harmony TV show incident again. And if anyone cares to argue that this doesn't mean it hasn't been going on for a while, again I say we need more proof than this one-off story that a lot of people may have decided not to bother with. Up until no 21, there wasn't the slightest hint of this being the case, and it could have been easily done too. Maybe in whichever issue it was that Buffy and Satsu went slaying in Fantasy Scotland, they could have had some outraged person yelling abuse at them for killing the vampires in the graveyard and shrugged it off as being a lone nutter? Or maybe the Japanese vampires could have had lots of adoring human groupies and the Slayers could have put that down to thrall? I don't know. I just know it could have been easily done without giving the game away too much - just a hint here and there that Something Weird Is Going On (and the business with General Voll doesn't count, as we've known the military has a big downer on supernatural things since season 4 of the show).
The story also left me once again with the unpleasant sense that Joss is trying to lull his readership into thinking one thing and will then pull the rug out from under us and point the finger and laugh, and I don't much care for being set up. We'll see. Plus, there were undertones to the story that I found very troubling, especially in light of various news stories this week on both sides of the Atlantic. Hmm. On the whole, I rather wish I hadn't bothered.
The cover was lovely, though.
5 out of 10.
Did come home with that Tales of the Vampires thing and the last part of Angel: Blood & Trenches.
More behind cut, with spoilers
Blood & Trenches was the best of the Buffyverse/Angelverse titles I picked up (The Authority was of course the best of all the things I picked up, but I doubt anyone's interested in that), but the end fell a little flat for me when Byrne's plotting got careless and then he couldn't resist throwing Hitler into the mix. Mind you, I sort of knew that was coming the moment Angel met the German soldiers in no 2. At any rate, I'm glad he didn't make Colonel Wyndam-Pryce the villain. The colonel and his sadly deceased batman were in fact by far the best realised characters in the series. Angel himself came across as rather stilted to me, probably due to the overly archaic way Byrne wrote his dialogue. I suppose you could argue that Angel had probably been hiding under a rock since 19-whenever it was he went to America and had failed to keep up with the times, but even so, Angelus never spoke like that in any of the flashbacks in the show. The plot hole, btw, was Kakistos letting Angel escape because he believed he'd drowned. Somehow or other, I don't think so.
Anyway, it was enjoyable, and the art was consistently good all the way through, even though Byrne did have trouble with Angel's likeness (and admitted as much on his own forum).
I did read Angel: Aftermath (or whatever it's called) no 21, but as usual, my brain has decided it's better off not remembering it, so I have nothing to say except that I hope when Brian Lynch returns in no 23, it begins with Angel waking up from this weird dream he had.
As for the Tales of the Vampires story - I hadn't been going to bother with it, but since I had to buy it for other people, I thought I might as well read it. It was actually better than I was expecting, though still not that great, and I hated the art. The story was okay as a one-off, but it leaves me still feeling pretty dissatisfied where the set-up of this whole 'everyone loves vampires and hates slayers' business is concerned. If we care to take this comic at all seriously - and let's say for the sake of argument, that I do just for this post - this vampires!yay! thing is one of the most major upheavals ever to happen in the Buffyverse, and yet it's been set up so badly. The story gives the impression that the gradual semi-acceptance of vampires into society has been going on for a while, except that then the Alex character explicitly links it back to the Harmony TV show incident again. And if anyone cares to argue that this doesn't mean it hasn't been going on for a while, again I say we need more proof than this one-off story that a lot of people may have decided not to bother with. Up until no 21, there wasn't the slightest hint of this being the case, and it could have been easily done too. Maybe in whichever issue it was that Buffy and Satsu went slaying in Fantasy Scotland, they could have had some outraged person yelling abuse at them for killing the vampires in the graveyard and shrugged it off as being a lone nutter? Or maybe the Japanese vampires could have had lots of adoring human groupies and the Slayers could have put that down to thrall? I don't know. I just know it could have been easily done without giving the game away too much - just a hint here and there that Something Weird Is Going On (and the business with General Voll doesn't count, as we've known the military has a big downer on supernatural things since season 4 of the show).
The story also left me once again with the unpleasant sense that Joss is trying to lull his readership into thinking one thing and will then pull the rug out from under us and point the finger and laugh, and I don't much care for being set up. We'll see. Plus, there were undertones to the story that I found very troubling, especially in light of various news stories this week on both sides of the Atlantic. Hmm. On the whole, I rather wish I hadn't bothered.
The cover was lovely, though.
5 out of 10.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-06-12 10:53 pm (UTC)I share the same wish. Oh sweet, impossible hope!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-13 02:17 am (UTC)Haven't got Blood And Trenches yet, so I'll not read that part. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-13 04:49 pm (UTC)Ok, no idea about the comics or the story, but a vampire thought another vampire had drowned?
If we care to take this comic at all seriously - and let's say for the sake of argument, that I do just for this post - this vampires!yay! thing is one of the most major upheavals ever to happen in the Buffyverse, and yet it's been set up so badly.
Yes, this whole twist is...my subscription ended just after the start of this arc so I'm going to be ignorant of developments, but I totally agree that it is the biggest change in the verse, more than Buffy no longer being the only girl all the world. And that's because part of the reason for Buffy's isolation was that her work was unknown by people around her because the supernatural was so unacknowledged by most people. As the series went on this selective blindness seemed more and more unbelievable,
especially as we consider Angel's world in L.A. So in that sense I'm glad that there's been this major turnaround where things everyone knew finally get said.
At the same time, I can't help thinking that this twist is somehow a commentary on fandom. It reminds me of the line JM keeps harping on, that Spike was very disruptive to Joss' original vision. And, of course he was, because he was an extremely popular character in many eyes became the principal POV rather than Buffy, even while still unsouled. And it's Jane who is writing, or who at least kicked off this arc, yes? I mean, I love "Superstar" for many reasons, but there's never been any question to me that it's an episode about fans. And it seems to me the fact that there's a huge contingent of fans who love the vampires and don't care about Buffy or the Scoobies can't have escaped notice anymore than all the Klingon enthusiasts in Trek did. So I have to wonder how much that might be informing the storyline.
The story also left me once again with the unpleasant sense that Joss is trying to lull his readership into thinking one thing and will then pull the rug out from under us and point the finger and laugh, and I don't much care for being set up.
This wouldn't surprise me. I mean, right now vampire love stories are big business -- not just Twilight, True Blood, and the upcoming Vampire Diaries (which even from what little I know seems a ripoff/remake of Twilight and Moonlight), but the surge in supernatural romance novels as well. So I can't help thinking that Joss is going to use this storyline to somehow comment on this current trend, particularly since many people point to Buffy as being a turning point in its popularity.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-15 10:34 am (UTC)Apparently. Over on the IDW board, when I said I thought this was a mistake, someone said he thought it was done deliberately to show that the other vampires didn't know what Angel was capable of now he had a soul. I'm not convinced, though. They've seen him drink blood. Surely they'd realise his basic vampire physiology hadn't changed? It was just silly.
At the same time, I can't help thinking that this twist is somehow a commentary on fandom
Yes, I have that feeling too and I really, really don't like it. I don't need Joss to come along and wag his finger at me or dictate to me what I should like and not like. And ironically in my case, I never did like vampire stories or vampire characters until I watched season 2 of BtVS.