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Buffy Season 8 #33 review

by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty: Twilight is finally unmasked. Surprise… the covers for #34 don’t lie… it’s him. There’s a hint or two of a major mythology expansion coming in the next issue. You will either hate, or love it. ‘Nuff said.

Buffy Season 8 #32 review

by Georges Jeanty

The nitty-gritty: The subtitle says it best: “Buffy  has F#©$ing Superpowers”. Really. While Buffy and Xander try to determine the extent of her newfound abilities, Willow embarks on a mission to find their missing comrades, and instead, unearths some unsettling truths about the origin on Buffy’s new powers. It’s good…

Art: Oh, this is good. Like real good. Like “bloody-hell-is-this-amount-of-good-sustainable-to-the-end?!” good. Jeanty manages to draw every single panel with so much life and vigor that it’s hard to not feel as though the characters are really animated. Jeanty draws some of his best Willow panels yet; the sequences where she finds the dead/dying Slayers all over the world show us his grasp of Willow’s facial expressions as she goes from queasy to horrified at the brutal global massacre of Slayers.  The storyteller in Jeanty is full-steam here, effectively conveying the action and setting of each sequence with a nimble repertoire of wideshots and close-ups where appropriate. My only real gripe with the art are the couple of panels with stick figure-ish characters, as well as that one depiction of Faith lying on the ground. While I’ll usually defend Jeanty against accusations of “infantilization” of the female characters, she actually does look like a small child there..

Jenny, from Dr. Who

On top of the pop-culture references made in the script, Jeanty manages to squeeze in a couple of his own. Buffy’s outfit is an homage to Jenny, from Dr. Who, while the variant cover image heavily references the cover to Action Comics #1.

Action Comics #1 cover

Writing: 2010 is looking up for Season 8! We got a strong start with the Joss-penned “Turbulence” last month, and Brad Meltzer’s opening chapter is quite fantastically written. This was an issue that did exposition the right way. It grabbed you by whatever bits you available and took you for a ride.  Meltzer covered the gamut of emotional responses, from the light-hearted pop-culture-saturated opening sequences to the drama of Willow’s horrifying discoveries. Xander testing the usual stable of superhero powers on Buffy was funny, as were the responses from Dawn and Amy, when they finally figured out what Xander and Buffy were doing. Even better yet were the meta-humor moments. The first being Willow's "It doesn't mean that every month -- on every Wednesday -- it has to be the end of the world". It calls back Buffy's "Must be Tuesday" comment about Dawn being kidnapped in "OMWF". The second self-referential bit is pretty much Buffy denying the appeal of her own existence in response to Xander's description of Kitty Pryde.

In a break from the drawn out plot progression that Season 8 has been notorious for, this issue actually addresses the emergence of Buffy’s newfound powers very quickly. We learn the origin of Buffy’s new abilities from Willow, after her horrifying tour of the global massacre of Slayers. As it turns out, Twilight has mobs of marauding murderers killing Slayers all over the world (a shout-out to Kuala Lumpur, my hometown! WOOT!), and Buffy is the receptacle of all the power from dead Slayers, including the ones who died in battle in Tibet. This is a poignant twist on a couple of levels. It’s a direct contrast to all the superhero jokes earlier, as Buffy realizes that her growing powers are no laughing matter as they come at a hefty price. What remains to be seen is if this was something that had been happening for a while now, but in gradual amounts, and the sudden decimation of the Slayer population just gave her a very big boost, or if something else triggered this new development. Meltzer handles all this exposition deftly, switching effectively between Buffy’s exploration of her new powers with Willow’s discovery of the dark truth behind those powers.

That said, there are a couple of minor quibbles in terms of the writing. For one, the “fraptions” are quite unnecessary. They don’t seem to quite fit, especially since they originate from Andrew, who’s pretty much lying knocked out for more of the issue anyway. While it’s a cute superhero reference, it really doesn’t add anything here at all, and it just seems like too much being attempted all at once.  For another, the confusion spell mentioned in “Turbulence” just seems to make things a lot more confusing for the reader. Apparently, a confusion spell was cast during the war, so that no one would notice that a few important characters had been taken hostage. However, the captives seem to have memories of being at the new camp, the one which Willow “magicked” them to. And Satsu and Willow seem to remember them being present post-war. At this point, it sounds like Faith, Giles, and Andrew could have been kidnapped post-war, without the need of the confusion spell.  The spell doesn’t hurt, but it really doesn’t help either, so it just seems kinda unnecessary at the moment. The other thing that bugged me was why it was ever considered that Buffy’s new powers were some kind of karmic reward for defeating the three goddesses. Buffy defeated the goddesses with the help of her new powers. Reward typically comes AFTER the deed. Final gripe (I swear!), Faith was… kinda off. If there was a character that just came off as kinda strange, it would be Faith, with her ‘roid rage and all.

Thoughts: So… “The Monkey’s Paw”. Kinda macabre little story by W.W. Jacobs. It’s basically a cautionary tale about being careful for what you wish for as you may just get it, albeit in a manner that was neither expected, nor desired. You can read the whole story HERE (it’s really short), or read the Wiki page HERE. Basically, a family is kinda destroyed because of an imprudent wish. The monkey’s paw grants three wishes to three people. It has passed through the first two owners to the current owners. The father wishes for 200 pounds. The very next day, the son is killed in a work-related accident, and as compensation, the family is given 200 pounds. After the funeral, the mother of the deceased boy decides that she will get her husband to wish her son back to life. He does, but regrets doing so as he knows that his son was pretty much shredded in the accident, and being dead for days now, would be quite a sight to behold. Just as his wife opens the door, the man makes his final wish, and wishes his son back to death. Interestingly, if you click on the List of adaptations of The Monkey’s Paw, the BtVS episode where Dawn tries to resurrect Joyce is listed (5x17: "Forever"). Therefore, it’s fitting that it’s Dawn who’s the voice of reason here. She understands that nothing ever comes for free, and that “you don’t get the good without getting the curse”. That proves to be true here, as Buffy’s new awesome superpowers come at the cost of dead Slayers strewn all over the world. And she’s still getting stronger. As Willow notes: “You’re getting faster.” More troubling yet, the apparent moral of the “The Monkey’s Paw” lies in the factsheet that accompanies the merchandise, that it was enchanted by a holy man, who “wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow". This sounds very reminiscent of Angel’s words to Buffy in her “dream” in #20: “You can’t change a person’s past. And just by telling them, you’ll change their future into who knows what.” Was #20 foreshadowing of sorts? Perhaps.

What remains to be seen is if Twilight knows that Buffy is getting stronger with every dead Slayer, and if it’s part of his master plan. If he knows that Buffy is getting stronger with every Slayer he kills, then why does he want her so juiced up? And if he doesn’t, will this be his downfall?  And what the hell is his master plan? I guess we’ll find out next month in “Twilight Part Two: The Master Plan”. Speaking of master plans, where the heck do the three outcasts stand in this grand scheme. Are they on the level, or is this a lure to get Buffy into some deathtrap of sorts? I mean, Warren did build that ridiculous “death trap” machine thingamajig.

Overall: Great issue. Just nigh on perfect, barring the minor quibbles. However, it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about an arc, and this one got off to a good start. Now, if Brad really delivers on the next 3 issues, and Joss really brings it for his finale, Season 8 will be saved from mediocrity.

Buffy Season 8 #31 review

by Georges Jeanty

The nitty gritty: The war is currently at a standstill. The goddesses are still rampaging their way through Tibet, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake. Meanwhile, Buffy has new superpowers that she’s hiding from the crew. Where do we go from here? SWOOSH! WHAK! WHOOP!

Art: First thing to note, it’s pretty damn neat. Second thing to note, this would technically be a rush job of sorts, since Joss’ script was actually late in coming in, and Jeanty had to go from working on the “Twilight” arc to doing this. It may not be his best work to date, but it’s pretty solid throughout. Jeanty is clearly in his element here, drawing an intimate issue after the large-scale scope of the previous couple of issues. He absolutely nails the conversation between Buffy and Xander. Panel after panel of the two talking is conveyed with great attention to their facial expressions and body language. Everything is tenderly wrought, and plays out beautifully. The tenderness and nuance seen here is second only to their moment in #28 (which, IMO, was Jeanty’s best work of 2009).

On another note, I’m absolutely adoring Buffy’s sleeveless military-inspired vest. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Buffy in a cute outfit, so this just feels “right”. Also… probably good to note that he’s put Dawn back in outfits with numbers on them.

Writing: This is Joss. It’s so Joss. It’s so good to have him back at the helm again, for the second time in a couple of months. Whereas the writing in “Retreat” oft times felt a little off, Joss returns the series to grace by nailing every line. From the banter about the “Andrews Sisters” to the aforementioned sensitive dialogue between Xander and Buffy, everything just feels so effortlessly (deceiving, I know) Buffy. The conversation is written with wonderful sensitivity, even when Buffy is ribbing Xander about being a “disgusting paedophile” or a “cradle robber”. The meat of the discussion shows us how much Xander has matured over the years, shown by the way he deals with Buffy’s confession of her feelings for him. It would have been easy for this scene to go all melodrama on the reader, but Joss reigns it in just enough that we’re treated to another tenderly-written (tender is the word I intend to abuse for the sole purpose of writing this review) scene between Xander and Buffy. Xander is assertive without being condescending, despite the fact that he points out that Buffy “went – through gay – to [him]”.  Buffy on the other hand doesn’t come off as “the worst person in the universe”, despite her assertion that she is.(Highlight to read spoiler)Being Joss, he even manages to throw in a little Twilight foreshadowing (and Twilight reference) at the beginning of the conversation, having Xander mention that he was always Team Riley because he was her only “boyfriend who wasn’t a psychotic demon”.

As this is also a bridging issue between “Retreat” and the upcoming “Twilight”, Joss does deal with a few loose ends. Early on in the issue, Willow regains her powers from what she claims is the “fallout from some cataclysmic mystical event” that “hasn’t happened yet”. This isn’t the first time that Willow has demonstrated a sense of nonlinear time. The first instance of this was in “Anywhere But Here”, and it was implicit in her explanation about how the temporal anomaly worked in “ToYL”. More importantly, Willow’s magic returns to her in an explosion of yellow-green crackling energy. It would appear that the possible source of Willow’s returned magic is her death in the distant future, since her death was marked by similar crackling energy. If that is so, then it’s only fitting that Joss wrote this issue himself, as his last foray into the numbered issues of the season was in “ToYL”, in which he set up what I currently think are the game-changing events. For him to start paying off the seeds he had sown is rather poetic.

This of course has major implications for the Buffyverse. Willow somehow survives the magical purge, and becomes something not quite human. Her youthful visage some 200+ years into the future would suggest immortality. The cataclysmic explosion caused by her death would also indicate that although FDW didn’t have much magic per se, her entire self was magical. But is Willow merely a victim of fate here? I would argue that she isn’t. Willow has never been the fatalistic one, and if she had a mantra, it would be Sarah Connor’s “No future but what we make”. Against all odds, she brought her best friend back from the dead. Despite knowing what she knows about the laws governing death, she demanded that the gods return Tara to her. And in the Willow one-shot, she notes that her path is “where none’s beaten”. So no, Willow is not a victim of fate. She chooses her own path and her destiny. Willow is also highly intelligent. At the end of “ToYL”, Buffy says the following: “I’m cute and blonde and popular but I’m not stupid, Will. You dragged me here and then told me exactly how to get out. Everything, every lie, to get us here.” Why the deliberate positioning? Did Willow find a way to cheat fate again? If her death really is the game-changer, then the cataclysmic event allows present-Willow to regain her powers. Where this takes us is still anybody’s guess. Does Willow regaining her magic in the present help avert, or bring about the future with the magical purge? If it averts Fray’s future, does that mean that that particular future is now an alternate timeline?

Switching gears again, it’s important to note that Willow, even when fully powered is unable to handle the three goddesses, and suffers multiple punts from them. In his usual irreverent mood, Joss dispatches with the three goddesses in the simplest way possible: brute strength. Buffy deals with them the way Joss has often dealt with pesky plot devices: jam them into a hole of sorts. Willow believes that burying the goddesses will restore the Slayers’ powers. That remains to be seen. Buffy’s mysterious new powers, on the other hand… I can’t wait to finally understand what’s up with that. Willow doesn’t believe that it’s from the same event that empowered her.

An interesting tidbit: Buffy’s coming out as a Slayer was generally taken to be a metaphor for coming out of the closet. Joss revisits that here, when Buffy says: “It involves something I don’t really understand. That, honestly, freaks me out, and I was hoping not to mention”. Kennedy’s response is “You’re a dyke”. Can’t blame a girl for being on the nose.

On the Twilight front, he currently has an undisclosed number of Slayers, as well as Faith, Giles, and Andrew captive. A confusion spell is keeping anyone from missing them, but it’s a short term tactic to buy time. It seems that Twilight has something he wants Buffy to see, “if she is able to see at all”.  I’m just thankful that all the cryptic language will come to an end soon, and we’ll finally be able to see Season 8 in its entirety and make sense of it all.

Overall: This was quite an issue. Deceptively simple and linear, but with some things to mull over. More will become evident soon.

Willow one-shot: “Goddesses and Monsters” Second Opinion

by Jo Chen

“The journey begins and already I’m out of my depth.”

The first layer is derivative. It’s where posers reside. It’s a front that Willow herself has used, hiding the shy geek underneath the powerful witch façade. Except the façade is real now. She is a witch, a powerful mo’ of a witch who lacks the wisdom to understand her power and herself.

“The second level is you, but it’s still surface. Being a fierce mo’ has nothing to do with your power. This is you relating to the outside world.” This surface is Willow’s sexuality. Willow puts a lot of energy into telling people, “Hello! Gay now.” She relates to the world as a lesbian, as a woman who is attracted to women.

But the journey is about “going deeper than that”, past the surface definitions of identity to the heart of the individual. To Willow. To a place where fear of dying (“Suffocate, suffocate, suffocate”) can lead to death. If you die in a dream, do you die in real life? If you die in your mind, in your spirit, is that not real death?

The narrative dives back to explain why Willow is on this journey of self-discovery. Willow tells Kennedy it’s tradition, that she needs to understand her power. In this dynamic of awkward pet names, Kennedy reveals her insecurities in Willow leaving. First by denouncing Willow’s need for knowledge which in effect is denouncing a part of Willow who is a seeker of knowledge. Then by teasingly threatening to cheat on Willow if she leaves. Then tossing on a little emotional guilt by explaining how it’ll be a trial for her to “not-getting-any-at-allgamy” while Willow is gone. Finally, Kennedy expresses her true fear: “Just don’t forget about me.”

These are games Kennedy's playing because she can tell Willow is not completely there for her. Kennedy has expressed sexual jealousy in the past against Buffy for her close relationship with Willow. Because while Buffy and Willow's relationship is contentious, there's no denying that they're incredibly close and important to each other and they have a history that no one can touch, not even Kennedy. Kennedy is one hundred percent not supportive of Willow’s journey to discover herself and to gain knowledge of her power. Their relationship isn’t one of a meeting of minds, but more of physical chemistry – if Willow isn’t in Kennedy’s presence, how can Kennedy hope to influence Willow?

Kennedy is more of a surface character while Willow is deep. Kennedy cannot reach the deeper levels of Willow because Ken is a reactive, simplistic thinker and feeler. She simply doesn't have those depths of philosophical, spiritual, sexual and intellectual questioning. In many ways, it's great for Kennedy that she knows who she is and is happy that way. But Willow is someone always searching for answers while Kennedy doesn't care to ask the questions. They’re not a good fit and the cracks are showing.

Returning to Willow’s journey, Aluwyn Saga Vasuki orders Willow to “forget about [Kennedy]… [Willow has] to live from within to truly work the wound.” The Black Knight stands in their path, resulting in an argument between Aluwyn and the Knight over the corruption and chaos Willow will be susceptible to if Vasuki is her “right guide.” Meanwhile, Willow remains full of questions about her identity– “You do [know who I am]? Do I?” “And I would be who now?” and finally “And I know me from…?” She’s lived a derivative existence for so long, stuck underneath layers of layers that she doesn’t know her true self. In the resulting “fight to the death”, Willow is caught “in a loop” of song lyrics because she hasn’t “let go of the surface” of herself and her reality. Only when she taps into her pain, “don’t go breaking my heart,” is she able to channel her magic and disarm the Black Knight without killing him. She makes her own rules – she doesn’t fight to the death, yet she still wins. She transmutes the challenge because she’s “not a killer.”

Finally, when confronted with a boat with painted hearts on it and a vast ocean of nothingness, Willow realizes this isn’t her journey, but a trick of detours to delay her, distracting clichés of “the black knight and the sea voyage” – derivations of a walkabout journey of self-discovering (speaking of living the cliché - note how Kennedy and Willow were living in San Francisco in the earlier scene - cliché much?. These are the type of mythical journeys Willow understands from the surface culture, but her true journey lies beyond these common tropes. This realization brings forth the true Goddesses, the Elementals, who order Aluwyn the ouruboros back to her “mad realm” so that Willow may retain “her reason” and avoid such trickery.

“There are many guides on the path to wisdom, but [Willow has] one in mind.” The image of Tara is revealed, dressed in similar garb to what she wore in Once More With Feeling, standing in front of a warm sunset and looking peaceful. The image brings a tear to Willow’s eye and forces a harsh realization. As she wipes away the image of Tara, denying the offer of her former lover as her guide, she realizes her own truths have been revealed to her in surface. First, she told Kennedy she wanted to understand her power. And this is true. But underneath that, she wants to know her fate, if she’s destined to be good or evil as she feels the pull of both. But underneath that layer, deep inside, she just wanted Tara. “She was [Willow’s] light. She was [Willow’s] order. She was [Willow’s] journey. Completed.” But now Tara is at peace and Willow must find peace in letting her go because she’s finally “heal[ed] the wound.” Tara will not return, but Willow must go forward with her journey. She must still choose a guide because “the journey may not be spatial or temporal. But that doesn’t mean it’s not treacherous.”

So Willow chooses a guide. She chooses Aluwyn. Why? “They say you’re no good. That you run in circles, the snake that eats its tail. I’ve got a bit of a rep myself.” Willow chooses Aluwyn because she sees herself in Aluwyn. She chooses a guide like herself to go “within” on her “path…where none’s beaten…” Willow chooses the warped mirror of herself, Aluwyn, to guide her into the inner workings of her magic “for truth, [she] choose[s] the trickster” who she knows because Aluwyn is like her. Her lies, her deceit, her mask.

Tara was her light and order but Willow has completed that journey; now Willow chooses Aluwyn for her journey within herself, into the twisty roads of within with a warped mirror of herself as a guide. Willow challenges herself to find truth amidst the trickery inside her because she now realizes that within, she’s been lying to herself about what she’s wanted all along. But this realization is key – being aware of the lie means you can ferret out the truth. And that is Willow’s journey now – to find truth within, a complex truth that goes beyond the light and order represented by Tara.

Willow's dark side was already growing when she was with Tara, but it was truly birthed in the grief over Tara's death. That darkness still resides in Willow, creating a duality of good and evil, a duality better represented by Aluwyn as her guide. A guide who is the extreme image of what Willow can become if she gives into Chaos and forgets Order (Tara), yet only by facing the chaos head-on and familiarizing herself with the face of Chaos can she achieve a balance, by knowing the face of Chaos she can avoid doing what Chaos does. If Aluwyn lies, then truth is the opposite of Aluwyn. If Tara is Willow's light and order, and Aluwyn represents Willow's Chaos, then Kennedy represents Willow's surface that she must "forget". Tara was the journey of light and order that Willow has completed, now Willow will intertwine herself with Chaos which is fitting because Aluwyn points out that Chaos and Order are already "intertwined like lovers" - like the cover of Willow and Aluwyn depicts. This symbolism of "intertwined like lovers" on the cover is meant to showcase Willow's relationship with Order (Tara) and Chaos (Aluwyn). Willow is the Order to Aluwyn's chaos, Willow has become Tara in a way by already journeying through her light and order. So Tara and Order are always with Willow now. Tara and Aluwyn then become representatives of the inner dual nature that makes Willow both Goddess and Monster, dualities that Willow is absorbing into herself like the ouroboros snake that consumes itself.

~Emmie

Willow one-shot: “Goddesses and Monsters”

by Jo Chen

The nitty-gritty of it: It’s a quick foray that details some of what happened during Willow’s magical walkabout, pre-S8. More specifically, it details the choices made that led Willow into the scaly embrace of one Saga Vasuki, more familiarly known as Aluwyn.

Art: Karl Moline continues with his quirky linework. Which of course means that physical likenesses are somewhat of an afterthought here. That’s not to say that he never succeeds in getting the faces right (the main panel of Tara is a pretty good likeness and some of the close-up panels of Willow are ridiculously good). Willow generally looks caricature-ish, but he does nail her essence. The same can be said about Moline’s Kennedy, who does bear some resemblance to Iyari Limon, but it’s her mannerisms that he nails. Moline’s strength lies in his ability to convey a dynamic scene, and he excels at it here. There are no stagnant panels, from the faux-Harry Potter-esue opening right until the little back and forth between Willow and Aluwyn. That’s the good. The bad. Well, Moline is notoriously uneven with even the main characters. Willow goes from looking like a Peanuts character to a Betty Boop caricature of Summer Glau in the space of one panel. And that closing panel of Willow was just strangely not Moline-ish at all. Moline’s style is also a lot less subtle than what I’d generally prefer, with his expressions generally appearing rather exaggerated, instead of nuanced.

Writing: It’s been too long since Joss had a turn at his own creation. And it’s a welcome return. Once again, Joss infuses a tale about a character’s hubris with whimsy, drama, and tragedy. This isn’t a guided tour of Willow’s walkabout insofar as it details the choices, desires, and emotions of Willow, leading to her literal entanglement with Aluwyn. In short, the journey is not spatial per se, but rather, “within”. On the surface, it may seem that the issue just simply raises more questions than it actually answers. However, it answers the most important question of all: Why did Willow get entangled with Aluwyn? The answer is of course simple: She does it because she’s Willow. She will walk the path less traveled and chart her own path. Her pride and intellect are her best traits, but in the trope of all tragic heroes, they’re also her tragic flaw.

In a poignant moment, Willow dashes the hopes of Tillow shippers by finally saying a goodbye of sorts. She admits the truth; that she had lied about her actual motivations for the walkabout. It wasn’t just about understanding her power, or learning her fate. Underneath it all, she “wanted” and “hoped” for Tara. But seeing Tara, Willow realizes that Tara “was [her] journey”, but that part was completed. She now has to move forward, and that new journey involves Kennedy. Perhaps it’s also telling that the number of Elementals gets pared down as Willow comes closer to her truth. When Willow first meets them, at least twelve are visible: evanescence (gas), fate (mysterious, with the book), agelessness (the tree), beauty (the double-faced floral), the wild (the furry lady), logic (math), passion (fire), mutability (water), justice (blind-folded with the scales), destruction (the Kali-esque goddess figure), perception (the Picasso-esque one), and energy (the lightning bolt). In the end, only three feature prominently. The wild, logic, and water (incidentally the most mutable element; it’s found in all three phases, solid, liquid, and gas) are probably the most descriptive of Willow as it speaks of her raw potential, the control she exercises over her power, as well as the fury that she can unleash.

More subtly, the mutability of water (its ability to cycle between phases) is a nod towards the ouroboros, the serpent that consumes itself. This is what Willow refers to Aluwyn as at one point (“That you run in circles, the snake that eats its tail”). What is interesting is that the ouroboros is a symbol of cyclicality, self-renewal, unity, and in a way, immortality. The duality of existence that Aluwyn refers to – how “order” and “chaos” are “intertwined like lovers. As if the universes don’t depend on both.” – reflects the unity represented by the ouroboros. The subject of Willow’s immortality is front and center in this tale, mentioned at least twice in the text (“’Cause you’re a goddess” and “See about re: goddess”) and once in the solicitation for the issue. It’s perhaps no coincidence then, that mortality/immortality was brought up in an issue in which the concept of the ouroboros is brought up several times, both explicitly and implicitly. The solicitation itself brings up the number of times that Willow has reinvented herself, changing, maturing, and renewing herself. Through Aluwyn, Willow seeks to grow again, to learn about her power, perhaps learn more. Immortality is about persistence, and in nature, things that persist are often things that adapt well to their surroundings. Thus, mutability allows one to survive the test of time.

Aluwyn's comment about how "chaos" and "order" are intertwined is also an oblique reference to the title of this one-shot. There is no order unless there is chaos, and so there can be no gods (or goddesses) without monsters. However, there are no clear lines dividing the monsters from goddesses here. As is the case for many deities, goddesses can have monstrous facets. The protector of one is the demon destroyer of another. Willow seems to recognize this false dichotomy when she says: "And for truth, I choose the trickster."

In a way, the writing of this issue is satirical, in that Willow’s want to get to the core of the matter (the “story”, specifically) is foiled by the “loop”. The adult-contemporary pop iPod rotation, the old tropes, the games. It’s all to get her to tread the expected path (fan expectation). Instead, Willow (and Joss) does the opposite, by renouncing the false premises, and braves the path “where none’s beaten”.

Overall: A (the writing definitely pushed the grade up)

~Xi

Buffy Season 8 #30 Review

by Georges Jeanty

Finally, the much anticipated #30. Overall, brilliantly conceived, but not so well executed. It’s still much improved from the somewhat dismal #29, though. Still in the middle of the war raging on in the Tibetan countryside, Buffy and Co. realize that the wrathful goddesses that they summoned earlier are very good at being wrathful and very destructive. Problem is, they’re on no one’s side, stomping, destroying, and killing indiscriminately.

Art: As in with most of “Retreat”, Jeanty’s blocking isn’t as good as it used to be. It may be attributed partly to the fact that he doesn’t enjoy drawing the war stuff. In general, though, the message is conveyed pretty clearly. Where there seems to be a problem with the art now lies predominantly with Madsen. Like in #29, her mud/dirt details just seem to be slapped on, with no real texture or grit. The same can be said about her camo work, which is pretty bad. But the biggest crime here lies in the Satsu/Kennedy confusion, simply because their outfits keep getting swapped.

First Kennedy is wearing the orange shirt. Presumably the same shirt she was wearing in #29. Then you see a girl wearing green pants and another wearing pink pants helping flip over the overturned jeep. The one in pink is presumably Kennedy, since she was last seen wearing pink pants. The girl in the pink hops into the jeep with Buffy and Willow. However, the driver looks very much like Satsu. Same hair, same features the way Jeanty draws Satsu from afar. Which would explain why Kennedy is with Faith, back in the temple. She’s the girl who asks, “Are we going to get our powers back?” But didn’t Kennedy hop into the jeep? Evidently not, because now the girl driving the jeep is wearing GREEN pants! But she’s wearing an orange shirt! Flashforward to Buffy’s speech, Kennedy is wearing an orange shirt, and Satsu a green one, and a chunky purple beaded necklace that’s never seen again. But Satsu is now wearing saffron yellow pants. While I understand costume changes, it’s kinda ridiculous for the characters to be changing clothes constantly, one time apparently in the jeep! If the likenesses weren’t so good, I would consider them unknown Slayers (but the quickie change in the jeep is still unforgivable… unless the girl wet herself).

That said, I really liked what Jeanty did with the scenes with the goddesses. Focusing on just their ankles as the jeep weaves its way through the battlefield is a good way to emphasize scale, as well as hide the goddesses’ privates. There’s also a sense of Jurassic Park-ness, with the jeep weaving around the giants. That said, Jeanty’s forte remains in his character work. The scene between Buffy and Riley is very well executed, as are the ones with Bay and Oz. Jeanty’s Buffy remains as expressive as ever; the shock and horror that registers on her face as she realizes that the goddesses aren’t on their side is completely believable. The resolve on her face when she addresses her army is palpable. With a month off, here’s hoping that Jeanty can truly return to form for the next arc.

Writing: Much improved from the last issue, but with some issues to iron out. Espenson is simply not well-suited to the medium. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what gives that impression, but the writing is just clunky. Thematically, however, #30 works. The “WTF?!” moment that had been heavily anticipated and discussed can be summed up as such: "Oh, my god that's brilliant! And why didn't I see that coming?” Buffy is hit by a huge amount of magic from a powerful goddess. When she wakes up, she begins to float into the sky. Buffy’s flying and it's absolutely brilliant. Because Buffy's eventual ability to fly has been foreshadowed by Whedon this entire season. First, when she flies with Willow in “Anywhere But Here” and is too afraid to open her eyes. Next with Twilight in “A Beautiful Sunset” where she grits her teeth, bearing it because she must. Then we have her jumping off of flying cars in “Time of Your Life Part II”. Then as a flopping fish in “Retreat Part I”. Let’s also not slight her courage in leaping off a skyscraper in Tokyo to save Willow from Kumiko in “Wolves at the Gate Part IV”. She'd been progressing to this point of being able to deal with this power the entire season and no one saw it coming! It was all right there, laid out in front of us - the story had been building up to this point for a long time, but it still came as a complete shock.

The latest developments will probably play a part in how Buffy will be able to face Twilight. And it's such an awesome metaphor that only in giving away power, can one truly know power. It's like that saying, if you love someone, set them free. If they return to you, then your love is true. You cannot be caged by your love or your power - through being open, you can be connected to true power. There's a thread of transitive power underneath this entire season and it’s becoming quite apparent now. That perhaps after you've been given power you shouldn’t cling too tightly to it, but that you set it free so it may choose to return to you. If it's truly yours, it will return to you. And isn't that very Tibetan-style, only in letting go of everything can you truly know yourself and fully actualize. The Buddhist prayer of "letting go, always letting go" that will lead you to enlightenment.

by Adam Hughes

Hughes' cover makes so much sense now. When Buffy was Called, Excalibur was forced into her hand. It was a burden to carry the sword or in Buffy's case, the shining stake. Another interesting parallel to note is that in many tellings, Excalibur is engraved on both sides; one side with the command “Take me up” and the other with “Cast me away”.

I've also gotta say that this new power is something I'm not sure will be unwelcome or perhaps gladly received. Buffy's been saying this arc how she's tired of standing over people. Well, now she's flying over them. It's an ever greater price to pay for great power, the disconnect between her and humanity. Flying in past was shown to leave her as a helpless pawn. Now, instead of her in another's power, she can fly on her own. And this gives Buffy something she's always wanted - freedom. That's what flying symbolizes to me. Physical strength symbolizes to me power. But flying has always seemed to strongly represent freedom. And this is what Buffy's wanted ever since her character was first introduced. 

Buffy enjoys having power, but she's always wanted freedom. Being able to fly is perhaps a way for her to have a more balanced give and take with her powers. Because while flying does involve distance, there's also the joy of this perspective and the freedom and thrill of it.

A couple of other interesting things to note. It seems that the Summers women share a common intuition. Dawn, like Buffy realizes that the goddesses aren’t on their side either and calls for a retreat. It’s also interesting to note that there is a vague revisit of “The Long Way Home Part IV” in this issue. In “TLWH IV”, Buffy orders Satsu to go for the wound, unless people got stupid. It showed Buffy’s compassion then. Even in a dire moment, she still held to her creed as a protector, not killer. This compassion is evident again, when she orders her army to help all the injured, regardless of their affiliation. However, Satsu is forced to kill a sniper who was about to shoot Buffy. Guess he was stupid for trying to mess with Satsu’s girl…

Also, Riley is finally vindicated, or at least appears so in the revelation that he’s been working for Buffy all long. His motives for doing so remain unknown, as is the whereabouts of his wife. Ex-wife, perhaps? Dead wife? His giant Twilight sigil also seems to have faded, though I think that’s mostly an artist oversight.

All in all, a pretty satisfying end to a very uneven arc. But the promise of what’s to come is tantalizing.

~ Emmie and Xi

Buffy Season 8 #29 review

And so we reach the penultimate chapter of Espenson’s arc. What happens? Twilight’s goons meet the depowered Slayers in a head-on battle, complete with MANPADS, Chinese assault rifles, and pretty much not a chance in hell for Team Buffy. “Yeah, I’m starting to think there’s a reason no one’s written a suspense novel where the conflict is wolves vs. tanks” pretty much sums it up.

Art: Kinda torn on this one. There are some panels of brilliant story-telling narrative, but it doesn’t quite hit the high notes of the previous issue. Part of the problem is presenting the scope of a battlefield. The strongest panels in the midst of all the chaos are the ones that focus on the character moments. Jeanty’s ability to tell the reader what exactly is going on in Buffy’s head is the highlight of the issue. And the couple of panels of Faith preparing to go into battle, when read with the context of the Buffy/Faith conversation in the previous issue really made me feel for Faith.

Things to pick out:
1. Andrew’s Union Jack jacket makes a comeback.
2. The Wiccan girl with the Mickey Mouse ear-hair is back. If you’ve no idea who I’m talking about, she’s in #1 in the first panel we see of Xander standing in the Scotland command center. She’s one of the two girls generating a glowing ball between them. She’s also seen in “ToYL”, in the panel where Rowena commands the Slayers to obliterate the snake-demon army.
3. The return of Buffy’s pigtails, albeit temporary.

Writing: After last month’s solid issue, Espenson’s script was quite disappointing this time around. The story moved along fine, and there was a fine mix of drama, action, and laughs, but the gripes are in the details. There are several instances of rather awkward dialogue transitions. For one, the transition between Oz asking Bay to hand him the baby, and Willow exclaiming “No! Don’t protect the baby!” is odd. Perhaps the art doesn’t quite translate the scene, but it doesn’t look like Oz is asking for the baby to protect him from Willow at all. The other instance is during the discussion about “noise” vs. something real. It’s a rather big leap to go from discussing RADAR to “Hey—the two of us – we never had magic.” I get what was being expressed, but it just seemed like a random outburst to me.

And again with the bloody inconsistency with the spelling of “magic/magick”! Yes, some have stated that “magics” is probably not acceptable, thus “magicks”, but why use “magickal” then when “magical” is wholly correct? Especially when the blurb on the inside cover uses “magical”. Editorial fail again?

Another thing is just the random waste of certain characters. Faith and Kennedy feature quite prominently in several scenes, and yet their lines are mostly throwaway ones that could’ve been given to just about any character. Faith, particularly, feels wasted, kinda like she was towards the end of S7, except even more so. The only scene in which she felt remotely consequential was in the scene where she prepares to go to battle. The Monroe sidestory just seems like a random addition now. I was hoping for something more substantial than just having werewolves help out in the battle. Speaking of editorial fails, why the hell in Monroe alive? Bay specifically mentions her regret for attacking him in #27 because it may have made him a martyr. Implying that she killed him. As in ripped out his throat. Monroe was shown lying on the ground with a ripped out throat, while his werewolf buddies skedaddled and left him behind. And yet he’s alive and well? And Andrew’s little special assignment… well that was an utter waste of yak hair since it didn’t come into play at all!

Final thoughts: Interesting that it’s implied that it is Buffy, not Willow, who unleashes the wrathful goddesses. In light of the solicitations for #31, her decision here will come back into play. However, to give credit where it’s due, it is Buffy who once again thinks outside the box for what seems to be a solution. It also seems that Buffy is now done “retreating” and is now going “full-throttle forward”.
Sidebar: Remati is the other name for Palden Lhamo, so whoever pointed that out over at Whedonesque was right. Funny thing is, only Remati (of the three goddesses mentioned) is usually considered wrathful. Vajrayogini is usually associated with “methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth (by transforming them into paths to enlightenment), and for transforming all mundane daily experiences into higher spiritual paths” (Wikipedia). Ekajati’s “ascribed powers are removing the fear of enemies, spreading joy and removing personal hindrances on the path to enlightenment. Ekajati is the protector of secret mantras and "as the mother of the mothers of all the Buddhas," represents ultimate unity” (Wikipedia). Now… Jeanty mentioned that Espenson had done a bunch of research on these goddesses, so I hope he’s not overselling her efforts here, and that her choice in goddesses will come into play soon, presumably in #31. Aside from Remati, the other goddesses play a role in assisting in the achieving of enlightenment, and Ekajati is supposed to represent the ultimate unity. Perhaps they can show Buffy the way to achieving a more holistic unity of Slayer and person…

~Xi

Buffy Season 8 #28 review

Cover by Jo Chen

Part 3 of Espenson’s “Retreat” arc… and I think we’ve finally struck gold. All-around gold, but there will be plenty of praise for the key players. What do we have here? Basically the calm before the storm. With the exposition that was #27 out of the way, we’re now able to get down to the single element that makes the Buffyverse so compelling: i.e. the human aspect.

Art: Jeanty provides us with some of his strongest pencils since “A Beautiful Sunset”. There is a sense of motion throughout, and his likenesses are pretty consistently strong. This being an Andrew-centric issue (most of the issue unfolds from Andrew’s perspective behind a video camera), Jeanty is particularly good at Andrew. But his characters don’t just look good, they “act” like the characters would on screen. The tenderness in the scene where Xander is examining Buffy’s hand is palpable, and Buffy’s face when she says, “You think? I can feel more now” expresses just the perfect mixture of trepidation and insecurity. What follows is a wonderful blend of child-like content, punctuated with longing. The moment just plays on perfectly, and because of the detail to little character ticks, it all feels alive and yanks at your heartstrings. What’s even niftier is how upon rereading the comic, seemingly inconsequential things add more to the scene. Amy the cat, can be seen hovering in many of the panels, but my personal favorite (see if you can detect my bias) is when the cat scares away the little puppy in the Willow/Oz scene. Cats are evil… it’s official now!

An obvious difference between the last issue and this one is how the clever pairing up of characters has significantly reduced the strain of having multiple characters clutter up a scene. As a result, there are a lot less wideshots, and many more close-ups, which is fitting, since the focus here is on trust and connection between the characters.

Madsen should be commended again for her atmospheric colors. In moments of openness and honesty, we get her usual bright, saturated palette. Scenes that contain distrust are oftentimes, for the lack of a better word, shady. This is most obviously seen in the Andrew/Giles scenes. It is also perhaps symbolic that when Willow is about to leave Oz in the room, she’s exiting a space of brightness, and about to step into the dark. Oz’s renewal of her faith keeps her in the happy place.

Pop culture note: Aside from Andrew’s Bobba Fett hoodie, a couple other Dark Horse franchises make guest appearances. In the panel where Andrew is rummaging through his stuff to find the video cam, Hellboy and an Alien figure can clearly be seen. Also, Sesame Street’s Count is clearly seen on Buffy’s t-shirt during her bonding session with Faith.

The art is nuanced, quirky and delightful with an incredible attention to detail that only raises the standard of strong characterization (Faith’s disappearing tattoo notwithstanding. Maybe she’s just following Angel’s example on the path to redemption. Step one – stop killing people. Step two – remove tats).

Writing: Jane Espenson delivers a ridiculously dense and multi-layered script that actually translates beautifully, unlike her previous work in “Harmonic Divergence”. In what is proving to be a game-changing arc, Espenson successfully expounds on what was meant by letting the power through you into the earth, as well as establish some key character moments.

Slayers aren't repressing their powers, but letting the energy flow through them and back into the Earth. The “poison” is bottled up in supernatural human beings, like the Slayers and Willow. It's not repressing power, but letting go of power. But the question remains: what is the source of this power and is it inherent to a person? Is letting go of power perhaps letting go a bit of their identity? This is what Willow fears, but Oz reassures her that she's still Willow Rosenberg without the magic, assuring her that she “can be done”, that she too can have a life, something which Willow resents him for having.

This desire to let go ignores the fact that the world is in danger of being destroyed every May (if not several times a year). The power that Willow sought and now struggles to let go of was something she chose. She chose to arm herself with this power in order to help Buffy fight the demons and save the world. Just as the power consumed her once before during her dark arc, here too we see the negative consequences of her choice to fight alongside Buffy – she feels she cannot have a family or a normal life.

Power, by its nature, is not evil. Having power doesn’t define you; how you use your power defines who you are. You are what you do, but your power is the tool you use. It’s a puzzling and panicked logic that leads to the Slayers feeling "weak,” having let go of their power, and leaving themselves vulnerable to Twilight coming with all kinds of pointy and explosive weapons.

It is perhaps telling that the most vocal “malcontents” are our three lesbians: the witch who granted the Slayers their power, and the two Slayers who have most ardently embraced their power. Perhaps hiding who you really are and turning the other way may not be the best solution. Kennedy sums this up best: “It’s bull$#@&.” Is this just merely a moment of weakness? Faith makes it seem so: “It got to me. What we had to do. What I had to do. I’m not strong enough to have to be that strong.”
.
Where will this lesson lead? Will it be another Helpless where the Slayers are without their powers and instead rely on their wits to defeat their enemy? Perhaps in realizing that they don't need their powers to survive, they'll realize that the power isn't who they are, but what they use to become who they choose to be. Just as a person would go to medical school to become a doctor, arming themselves with this knowledge, so too will a warrior arm themselves with weapons to fight.

This issue also puts into perspective the criticism that #26 felt too rushed and jam-packed. Deliberately so. Here we have the very literal slow-down effect. The world slips away and the characters are finally interacting on a deeper level. Connection. The frantic pace of #26 retreats into the flashbacks and exposition of #27 and the promise of a solution. We see this potential realization of a life without magic and what it brings - deeper connection, something Buffy’s been desperate to feel for a long time (“Connection. Why can’t I feel it?” – “A Beautiful Sunset”).

This deeper connection doesn't come consequence-free. Feeling more, besides the ability to feel happy, means you're more vulnerable to pain, both emotional and physical. Buffy gets this one-two punch at the close of the issue, first witnessing Xander and Dawn's romantic liplock just as she was seeking out that deeper connection with him, then leading to Twilight's army discovering their location. The battle is imminent. Will their defenses be enough without magic and Slayer powers? Doubtful. Which means more emotional and physical pain is coming. And that’s where a Slayer lives and breathes.

What’s next? Warriors, by their nature, don’t retreat for good. They retreat in order to rally for the next battle to come. The Slayers may have laid down their power and with it their most powerful weapons, but not for long.

It’s interesting to have the issue about rooting out the truth told by Andrew, the one whose looser grip on reality has been called into question in the past. Now it’s Andrew who is questioning everyone’s loyalty and consequently becoming a less likely suspect – reestablishing and betraying trust. This happens repeatedly through the issue. First, with Buffy and Faith bonding over the need to rest and be normal segueing to the intimate scene between Xander and Dawn who talk around what they’re really trying to say. Flirting with the topic and each other, much? Then Xander and Buffy connect and share the secret of what happened to Willow in the future – their trust in each other having never been stronger or more intimate. This revealed secret leads to Andrew questioning Giles, then Giles questioning Willow. This loss of trust in Willow is restored with serene faith from Oz when he hands over his son, Kelden, into Willow’s hands. More trust in Willow follows with Buffy’s confession of killing her in the future and Willow’s immediate trust in herself that everything will be okay and she’ll work harder at the “no-magic thing.”

The Scooby Core is strong in this moment, Xander’s trust in Buffy leading to Buffy’s trust in Willow and Willow’s bolstered trust in herself thanks to Oz reverberating back down the line. Buffy seeks to complete this circle, going to Xander to tell him how her conversation with Willow went as he’d made her promise and here comes the final betrayal of trust – Buffy walks in to find Xander and Dawn together, kissing. Her best friend, one of the “people that [she] loves[s]” and might have started thinking about in a more intimate way, and her sister, who represents all the normal that Buffy wants in her own life. Buffy’s expression, shock and hurt and “feel[ing] more”, fades back into her stoic general’s persona. The cycle of trust is stymied, but not yet broken.

~Emmie and Xi