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Buffy Season Eight: The Long Way Home, Part 1

Buffy: "I miss my home. I miss my mom. I miss the gang. And churros. And sex. Great muppety Odin, I miss that sex."

Synopsis:

Buffy and three other Slayers jump from a helicopter and assault a castle, where Buffy slays a huge, lizard-like demon using a cross. She and the other Slayers discover a strange symbol on the chest of a male victim -- a symbol that looks like the sun half down past the horizon with a diamond-like star in the sky above it. The victims may not have been victims, though, because they had a (now broken) force field around the castle keeping them in with the demons. Someone's black shoes float above the castle; someone is watching from above.

There is a brief scene showing Xander as Buffy's Watcher back at Command Central, bitching to himself that the hours were better when he was a carpenter. Although he certainly seems to be coping well with his new duties, as well as his feminine minions.

Cut to a helicopter above Sunnydale (this issue was big on the helicopters) where a guy named General Voll is overseeing the excavation of what's left of Sunnydale. After some ranting, in which we discover that Voll sees the Slayers as terrorists and Buffy as Osama, his guys find something. Or someone. We don't get to see what it is.

Back in Command Central, which appears to be in Scotland, Xander badgers Buffy into visiting Dawn, who is about fifty times her normal size and not happy about it. It seems to have happened because Dawn dated a "thricewise" named Kenny and possibly slept with him, even though she was (of course) warned not to. Willow isn't available to fix the situation. Buffy and Dawn argue. Like that's a surprise.

Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, General Voll is talking about his new allies who will help bring down Buffy: Subject One and her boyfriend, who was just found under Sunnydale. Subject One is revealed to be Amy... covered with band-aids, holding a glowing globe, and obsessed with cheese.

Review:

I've never written a comic book review. This is my first. I'm sure I'm only one of many fans who are desperate for a Buffy fix.

And this was a fix, in a sense. We found out what's going on with all those Slayers (and even how many there are); what happened to Xander (and that's he's still pretty much Xander); that Dawn is still really annoying; and that Amy is still irrationally angry about spending three years as a rat, even though she cast the original spell herself, and that spending time trapped under Sunnydale has not improved her temper.

Most telling was that, true to form, Buffy has again distanced herself from those around her. Her Slayers call her "Ma'am" and treat her like a scary top sergeant. She doesn't have a boyfriend. Her relationship with Dawn is terrible. Willow isn't around, Giles is somewhere else, and Xander, while still retaining his snarky attitude, is busy playing with Slayer Command Central.

This issue set up several story lines. Could be intriguing. And it could be that I'm just truly desperate for new Buffy.

Bits and pieces:

-- There are at least 1,800 Slayers in the world counted so far. 500 are working with Buffy, in ten different squads. That makes fifty per squad, right?

-- It wasn't Buffy in the Angel episode, "The Girl in Question." Buffy was told she was a target, so she did a Padme and there are two fake Buffys out there. One is underground, literally, and the other is dating the Immortal because Andrew thought it would be funny.

-- Dawn is supposed to be at Berkeley, but she's not because she's very big. Huge Dawn reminded me of the scene in Alice in Wonderland where she eats or drinks something and ends up huge.

-- Buffy was working with three other Slayers: Leah, Rowena, and Satsu. I think. It was hard to tell.

Quotes:

Buffy: "The thing about changing the world... once you do it, the world's all different.

Xander: "Andrew's still working southern Italy. Tell him to pick his ten best, hop over."
Renee: "Roger that."
Xander: "Tell him ten best. Not ten best dressed. We don't want another Orvieto."
Renee: "Yes, Mister Harris."
Xander: "Xander. Renee. I told you, it's Xander. Or Sergeant Fury."
Renee: "Wasn't Nick Fury a colonel when he ran S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Xander: "I like him better in the howling commando days, but your nerd points are accumulating impressively."

General Voll: (hovering in a helicopter over Sunnydale) "They got power. They got resources. And they got a hard-line ideology that does not jibe with American interests. Worst of all, they got a leader. Charismatic, uncompromising, and completely destructive. I mean, for the love of God, look what she did to her hometown."

Dawn: "I could swat you like a flea."
Buffy: "Your butt looks big in those giant pants."

It was cool, yes. But it was too short, and unsatisfying at the same time. No rating yet because I don't know what to give it,

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I just posted a bunch of comments on some of the issues. I know there is a good chance that Billie and others don't even read this any more, as it has been a number of years, but I just wanted to say that these reviews were quite good, and I had largely the same reactions. I liked the way the series started but hated how it ended (Twilight and Last Gleaming), and was almost sorry I started reading it in the first place. But as a loyal Buffy fan (and a long time comic book reader), I will probably end up reading Season 9 anyway.

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  2. I really wanted to like this, how could more Buffy be a bad thing?

    I'm not a fan of graphic novels (comics) cause you cant capture the witty and speedy banter of of show like Buffy or Farscape in a speech bubble. But when i saw they made them into a cartoon format on DVD I decided to persevere.

    But I struggled, the voice actors sounded nothing like the live series one and Dawn (my least fav character ever) was a giant it didnt feel like Buffy. I don't think I made it past episode 3.

    Will read the recaps to see what I missed, I prefer it when cancelled series are continued as actual novels, as you can imagine the sound of the real characters voices as you read and the feel doesnt change as much.

    ReplyDelete

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