The Scooby Gang return to the roost as season beings it's big finale...
What's it about?
Spike and Buffy are finally reunited and lucky him – he's discovered the source of all her problems, and it's not Angel. Now Buffy must revisit the place where love was indiscriminate, the Scoobies were formed, and the Hellmouth was closed for good.
Review
I understand that this is a bit of a funny place to jump in to reviewing a comic book series considering it ends in three months but I've been both a fan and a critic of 'Buffy' from the movie through the TV show and in to the comics so it felt like a good place to start with my comic reviews.
Season 8 has been an interesting ride, a lot of old ghosts have come back to haunt us over the course of this series and it has been truly epic at times but I am also inclined to say that it has also verged on the truly absurd: giant robot Dawn anybody?
The basic premise of season 8 was brilliant; take the TV show and spin it in a direction that is entirely impossible to recreate on screen. Brekaking our much loved characters apart and bringing them back together in ways that only Joss Whedon can invent all whilst bringing us back to the place we know as home: Sunnydale.
The metaphors and subtext which made the TV show the pop culture phenomenon that it was still exist but here the message of triumph and hope amongst the adversity of young adult life have become watered down by the intense fantasy imagery.
This feels a litte like 'Buffy' if it were written by/for the trio from season 6. Giant god like creatures, super powers, armies and vampire MTV reality shows... some of it has just felt a little uncomfortable to read which would be far less disappointing if it hadn't originated from the mind that gave birth to the franchise.
That being said as we are entering the final run if this series the story line is redeeming itself in a big way, the return of Spike and The Master has brought about the crescendo effect which made the end of each season of the TV show so exciting.
It is always obvious when Joss is behind the script due to the sudden abundance of witty dialogue mixed in with a couple of strong notional moments and this issues is by no means short of any of it. The vocal parting between Buffy and Spike is a highlight of this issue.
My biggest gripe with recent episodes has been the amount of sex which has been injected in to the series, particular criticism being aimed at the sex issue, as I never felt this was what Buffy was about. It might be an aspect of life but Buffy's distraction with it in recent issues is proving a distraction as a reader.
Unwavering acclaim has to be heaped upon the team behind both the cover art and the inside art in this series, the quality of artwork and coloring on show has been outstanding and special praise goes to cover artist Jo Chen for evoking very strong memories of season 1 with this issue.
Overall
Story 3.0
Character 3.0
Artwork 4.0
Script 3.5
Overall 3.5
No comments:
Post a Comment