Dawn: "Were my pores that big when I was–?"Xander: "No. No no no no. Not at all."
Synopsis:
As expected, the giant Tibetan goddesses wreak havoc on Twilight's army. Xander and Dawn are still in charge; they tell everyone to beware of the rampaging goddesses and not to leave their home base undefended as the rout continues. Oz talks with the wounded Bayarmaa, who is worried about the goddesses. She says that the goddesses don't recognize the ones who feed them.
Buffy takes a jeep into the fray. She notices that the goddesses aren't being all that careful about their allies; it's pretty much destructo-rama, they're killing everyone, and the slayers and Wiccans still don't have their powers. Buffy grabs an injured Riley off the battlefield and takes him back to the Temple. As he lies there, wounded, everyone asks if Riley is a prisoner. Buffy reveals that no, Riley has always been on their side and will be able to tell them what Twilight has planned. If Riley recovers.
Back to Twilight, Amy and Warren. Twilight knows immediately that Riley was working for Buffy, but it isn't clear if he always knew or just realized it. In an obvious contrast between Twilight (evil) and Buffy (good), Twilight is fine with the goddesses killing all of his people, because mortals die, anyway. Buffy, on the other hand, instructs her slayers to retrieve their wounded from the battlefield as well as Twilight's wounded. She knows they can't win. She knows they can't get their powers back. They'll stay in the Temple, protect the wounded, and be as quiet as possible.
Buffy leads the slayers out onto the battlefield, where she is picked up by a big blue goddess, closely examined, and dropped to the ground. Five hours later, she awakens in the snow (conveniently not frozen to death). Twilight's soldiers have taken slayers captive; she sees their camp below. Buffy stands up and realizes that she is flying.
Review:
I liked part I; I thought it had promise. The rest of "Retreat," not so much. This didn't end the way I expected. In fact, it didn't end; nothing was resolved, and if it hadn't said "the end" on the last page, I would have thought part six was a'coming. The slayers are still persecuted, and now they have no powers. Willow is still headed for a horrible end in the future. Why go through all of that misdirection with Riley if he doesn't have any critical information on Twilight? And please tell me they're not about to rekindle the Buffy/Riley romance. Please. Please!
(At least I can't complain about everyone too conveniently getting their powers back at the end of the story, since they didn't.)
How come Buffy is flying? She must have gotten some sort of power from the goddess. Actually, flying could be fun. Although some of the best jokes in these comics have been about Buffy helpless in the air, come to think of it.
Are we ever going to find out who Twilight is? At this point, I almost don't care. We did learn in the episode (okay, it was hinted) that Twilight isn't mortal. He flies, and of course, the lettering for his dialogue implies that he's not human. I just realized that this means Buffy and Twilight can both fly. Does that mean we're going to get a huge aerial battle?
Bits and pieces:
-- Warren whined that they should have let him continue trying to subvert Andrew. That wouldn't have worked, anyway; I have confidence that Andrew is firmly on the Slayer side now.
-- Warren was still constantly arguing with Amy. Couldn't they at least have ended that plotline? I'd feel better if Warren and Amy got theirs, already.
Quotes:
Warren: "You're the least supportive girlfriend ever!"
Amy: "I'm your skin!"
Warren: "Oh, you always have to go there!"
Riley: "She knows she'll lose?"
Oz: "She knows."
Riley: "Amazing woman."
Oz: "They all are."
I heard somewhere that there are only ten more issues in season eight. I think I can do ten more issues. I think.
Billie
P.S. After finishing this review, I saw an article that spoils Twilight's identity. I don't usually post anything spoiler-related, but I looked; I couldn't help it. Here's the link. You have been warned; don't go there if you don't want to know. Feel free to post a comment about how you feel about it -- but be oblique and don't say who it is! I don't want someone blaming me for spoilers!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24354
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.
About the spoiler- that makes absolutely no sense. I can't see a way for them to justify it in the overarching story. I guess we'll have to see...
ReplyDeleteThe comics just aren't doing it for me. I miss my actors! I feel like this entire storyline would be so much more believable if we could actually see it playing out.
The spoiler is just awful. Thank you for posting so now I know not to read this comic anymore. As Kate said, it makes zero sense.
ReplyDeleteThat spoiler (which is everywhere now) is just stupid and nonsensical... Way to ruin the series.
ReplyDeleteI dont normally comment on any posts or articles but for some reason I felt I needed to let off some steam. For someone who has not read any of the comics either Angel or Buffy, but a a fan of the buffy and angel-verse on TV how can this possibly make sense? I came across the spoiler on another website and found myself deeply irritated. Of course I trust Joss, and if he's had this is mind since the beginning of season 8 then he must have a pretty good explanation but unless there is some sort of amazing twist or tale to be told there is no way that this can do anything be sort of spoil everything that was laid down on TV!
ReplyDeleteDark Horse has taken responsibility and has apologized for the spoiler getting out. And it's confirmed that it's true.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.darkhorse.com/Zones/Buffy/551
This is terrible news, especially now that they've confirmed that it's not a hoax.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to choose to pretend the comics don't exist. [Closes eyes, grimaces like Hiro] Done! I feel much better now.