Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #33
The first of two expected Big Reveals have happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: the identity of Twilight, the mysterious force organizing Buffy's enemies and assaulting the Scoobies wherever they go. I had my suspicions of who Twilight might be for months now and can't quite decide how I feel about who it turned out to be.
SPOILER WARNING: Hit the jump for frank discussion of details you might not want to know!
OK, everybody who wants out is out, right?
I'm still not going to say the name of the person who turned out to be Twilight, for the sake of people who read via RSS, but I do want a chance to react. See, the thing is, I was right about the identity of Twilight and frankly that disappoints me; I identified them not through context or narrative but by going down the list of major known actors in the Buffyverse and eliminating anyone from whom we'd already heard. It was a process of elimination, not deduction, and that's not how stories like this should work.
Also, frankly, I am tired of this character. When will something in this show/book/etc. not be about them? I am totally hot for the actor who plays that character, sure - and actually more so now that he grew into his man face - but for the love of all the little fairies can the story just move on for once? I am ready for something new. The tremendous strength and joy of reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight has been the ways in which it expanded the story and its implications and took things to new locations and explored new relationships. That crossover with Fray? Only some of the best storytelling in comics last year. Give me more innovation, not some narrative Ouroboros endlessly consuming itself. Buffy's has always been a story about growing up (often too soon) and yet issue #33 fails to reflect that growing up includes letting go of the past.
Sigh.
I am also aware, honestly, that a part of my reaction is that I like that character or at least have always wanted to like that character and I don't want to accept that they are in any way responsible for the things that have been done to Buffy thus far in this comic. There have been real tragedies and losses, real pain and suffering, real deaths, and the revelation that this is all to "focus" Buffy and her forces landed on the page with an audible thud. I'm sorry, but it doesn't just fail to explain things, it doesn't make sense. What is this, the world's hardest philosophy class? Mr. Miyagi meets Dick Cheney? It seems woefully out of character and I expect that it's going to be undone - an imposter, etc. - or the book is going to have a hell of an expository load to carry over the rest of this arc.
Of course, we're still at least two issues from the end of the "Twilight" story, so maybe next issue will be one long explanation that reveals all, including some other Big Bad that makes more sense. I certainly hope so. I'm going to be reading it, that's for damned sure.
Now, the good stuff: the art is gorgeous in this book, as it has consistently been from the beginning. Worth reading just to see how well they capture the faces and identities and character of the characters in the art. The environments are all lush and alive, too, in a way a lot of comics fail at or forget to even try.
Also, the pep talk at the beginning? Classic Buffy, a perfect portrayal of the consistency of the relationships of the characters involved, an assessment I realize is at least partly at odds with my complaints above. Still, it's the little touches and textures like that which make this comic still unquestionably an iteration of this much-loved property instead of an abuse. Loved that scene, for all my haterade above, and I still find the means by which the villains hid their hideout to be so clever that I get a kick out of it every time it's mentioned.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to issue #34. This is still a very good comic, and my complaints often originate from the higher standard to which I hold it.
Klarion
Posted to Review on 11 March 2010
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Grr, and here I was hoping that you'd spill who it was, too. I have my suspicions, but your info here kinda skewed that to the point that I am back at square 1.
:p
I know, I don't mean to be a tease, but I don't want to produce Google Reader spoilers, y'know?
Send me an email at kryptoniteklarion@(a certain well known Google Mail domain) and I'll tell you if you want to know.
Klarion,
I have to agree with you. A lot of people have been getting tired of this book and dropping it. I've been trying to hold on, but this last issue kinda pushes me over the edge...almost. I'm gonna finish the last two issues of the series though. Hopefully they'll pull it out.
By the way, refresh me, has Spike shown up yet? Are you reading Angel at all? I haven't read any of those issues. Not sure if all or none of those guys are dead or living. Or if any events in Buffy are reflected there. I haven't taken them into account in regards to the Buffy book.
-Kwan
Kwan: I haven't been reading the Angel comic book, in part because I never regularly watched the TV show and so I assume I would lack a lot of necessary context.
I've read that some quantity of fans of the TV show have not liked the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic book because they feel like the comic is too over-the-top, to which I say, well, it's a comic book, and besides, she died and came melodramatically back like seventeen times in the TV show; was that somehow not over the top? It wasn't exactly a shining example of subtlety. I tend to think of the comic as the show with an unlimited budget, but I am also willing to be really forgiving to get more Buffy in general.
I have no intention of stopping reading, because overall I have been really impressed with the series, especially artistically - and Mecha-Dawn was pretty freaking inspired - but this issue's big reveal came off as insipid and silly, from where I'm sitting. I'm hoping for something along the lines of Season Six: a real Big Bad waiting in the wings who can really freak us out.
--K
K: I've been rewatching the Angel series in syndication and it's funny how many times Angel gets a tragic phone call or message that Buffy is dead and has to run back to Sunnydale or mope around. She pretty much dies every season doesn't she? LOL!
I think the comic series is exactly what you say. The television show with no visual or financial boundaries. But I think that may be why the comic series isn't as strong as the television show. In many instances having those limits forces and pushes the creativity and development of the television show. It makes them have to create more substantial and imaginative elements and characters for the show. It pushes them beyond their normal threshold in a good way. The comic takes that amazing foundation that the limitations created and isn't continuing to push it in the ways they probably could.
Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a satisfying meal. But the quality of the cooking and ingredients could be upped a little bit.
-Kwan
I also guessed the big bad long ago. Not through process of elimination but through deduction based on various clues. Things sad here and there, the constant throwback to that it was someone we'd know from the show, and really... the outfit... lol
I love season eight, I'd buy them alone for the stunning covers, and I feel that until more recently it felt a lot like the show. The first twenty or so issues, before Harmony outed vampires and slayers(which still makes me die laughing), really felt like Buffy and like the show and books I'd loved for so long. But more recently with the big battle and the super powers it feels too much like a comic.... Don't get me wrong I like comics but Buffy lived in a Supernatural world not a Super Hero mutant world. It just feels off. Sure it's cool to see Buffy fly and throw trains but... come on... I like Buffy because she is so human, she has flaws and real life troubles and can die(despite being revived twice XD), but an indestructible Buffy makes her character feel cold. True she is still emotional but it seems like part of her humanity has been removed.
I still love the story but since the return of Oz, and a bit before, it just doesn't feel like Buffy is supposed to feel. And I likewise thought the focusing Buffy excuse was sorta... bull. However the the conversations of Xander, Willow, and Dawn tying into the fight/argument between Buffy and Twilight that made me die laughing. lol I'm hoping it will head back to more dramatic betrayal story arch that it was setting up. I want to know who betrays her and why they do. I have some guesses but who knows. Also I would like to see a bit more developments with new characters. We've gotten to know Satsu but not very many of the other slayers...well none of the others that haven't died already. lol Anyways I've rambled and I shall stop, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue and still annoyed that it takes a month for me to get the next issue instead of a week to see the next episode. XD