Vote For BUFFY Panel of Week 10 2008

Week 9 was a slow voting poll, with a winner barely scraping through, Incredible Herc's Hot Damn Evil half-brother Ares with a 30%

This week, there's hardly a fair competition for POTW with the shocker opening of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #12 from Dark Horse Comics. Although I did have the urge to pit it against the ending of Logan #1, I decided to simply honor Buffy#12 with a tribute poll.

Don't read below this point if you still want to avoid SPOILERS from the startler of this issue!

As for our question: What was your favourite reaction to #12?



A.



B.



C.

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February '08 H-O-T Grade

1. AMERICAN VIRGIN #23 (Vertigo)

2. WOLVERINE #62 (Marvel)

3. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #119 (Marvel)

4. UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #6 (Dark Horse)

5. CROSSING MIDNIGHT #16 (Vertigo)

6. GRAVEL #1 (Avatar)

7. X-MEN LEGACY #208 (Marvel)

8. FANTASTIC FOUR #554 (Marvel)

9. LOCKE & KEY #1 (IDW)

10. IMMORTAL IRON FIST ORSON RANDALL GREEN MIST DEATH (Marvel)

Lots of new entries this month, paired with some sad goodbyes. American Virgin and Umbrella Academy are wrapping up their runs (along with near top 10 misses Cable&Deadpool#50, and Gail Simone's last All-New Atom with #20). X-Men: Legacy is Mike Carey's new start on the ongoing title, and Fantastic Four #554 sees the debut of new creative team Millar with Hitch. Gravel was a usual impressive Warren Ellis debut, but none of these could overcome the sheer fun of Bendis' Ultimate treatment of Spidey& His Amazing Friends.
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Buffy Season 8 #11

BUFFY SEASON 8 #11

Writer: Joss Whedon

Artist: Georges Jeanty w/ Andy Owens


Dark Horse Comics


I actually went out and did research this month for this review. Yup, scholarly, that’s me.

For those of you just joining us, the much-adored Buffy TV franchise is continuing in comics form by original creator Joss Whedon as a show runner and himself with other veteran Buffy TV writers and friends on script duty. Oh, and it’s damn good! Buffy, Xander and Willow are living in a Scottish castle training the Slayers Army (yes, we’re using the A-word now), while facing a new enemy: the human army who are viewing Buffy Inc. as a WMD, and are seemingly in cahoots with a magic apocalypse-type evil who has remained in the shadows – till this issue!

And his name? Twilight.


Here comes the research part of the review. And by research I of course mean copy-pasting from Wikipedia:

Twilight is the time before sunrise, or after sunset, when sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the Earth is between light and dark.

And the adjective is crepuscular: neat!


Although the issue is devoted to Twilight’s formal introduction, I can’t say I was blown away or particularly intrigued. The name hints at a connection between night and day, vampire and human. The costume is a combination of tacky dark 90s comic-book villain (trench-coat, body armour, full face mask with a generic design and no eyeholes) with a militaristic black/tan colour-scheme that simply doesn’t work on the comic page. Whedon teases about revealing the man under the mask (in a real page-turner / cop-out that makes fun use of the comic page layout in lieu of actual ad breaks), strongly hinting that it may be someone we’re already familiar with. Let the speculation begin!


The story in the issue plays out in three scenes:

[SPOILERS] Buffy and Xander review the tapes from a new renegade cell of Slayers stealing army ammunitions and discuss running issues while the Slayerettes are having a keg party on Dawn (hmm, Dawn - Twilight... and isn’t the next issue about Werewolves by Night, in the Land of the Rising Sun? ‘Hmmm...’).

Buffy sets out on a fun whack-a-vamp run with Season 8 standout Satsu, as an excuse for some girl-to-girl talk about girl-on-girl issues; it’s nice to see Buffy having moved on from her creeped-out reaction at the time of Willow’s coming out, to her more mature handling of Satsu’s schoolgirl-crush.

While the vamps make for easy pickings and fun action, Twilight decides to crash the party and leave his greeting card by way of Boot-on-Face (Errant though: iIs it simple artistic license that ‘Twilight’ attacks at twilight?). Buffy gets a good whipping on two fronts as the Big Bad manages to not only get her hot and bloody, but also strike a blow to her moral superiority and motivation. Jeanty once again handles the battle choreography with great flair as Whedon continues to revel in the ‘bottomless special effects budget’ that the comics medium provides him with.


[OK YOU CAN LOOK AGAIN NOW, YOU SPOILER-PHOBES!]

Several fans of the TV series have become alienated by the choice to move the official continuity to the comic medium; although the book still does great numbers outselling almost all other comics, it doesn’t even grasp at its utmost potential considering the heights of Buffy’s popularity even so many years after the last season. The show’s fans were used to the three-act structure as it’s applied to TV episodes: with a clear three-act structure, character arcs within each episode as well as through the season. The show’s viewers came in expecting the TV episodes in comic format, while Whedon has been experimenting with adapting the form of the classic Buffy episode recipe to fit the comics format.


The first storylines of four issues were more similar to the amount of content, plot and characterisation found in the average episode, maybe as an easy step-in for the readers new to comics. Shifting gears, the last two issues have been self-contained stories, something you don’t actually see in today’s comics, and a fresh step for Joss himself who is used to decompressed storytelling. The plot structure is still here, and one could see the meat and bones of this story making it into a whole TV episode if it was filled out with different sub-plots. Even without the clearer character arcs and story themes that come with looser economy of space, the story is still tightly knit and entertaining, providing both high action, comic relief, the usual Buffy lines (I still get a little SMG voice in my head when I read the Buffyisms in the word balloons) and meaningful characterisation.


This is the real Season 8; it has its own theme and feeling with Buffy trying to fit in a whole new interesting role and setting in life.

Grade: 7/10


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January '08 H-O-T Grade

Each month, the H-O-T Grade is my absolutely subjective view at what you absolutely can't miss reading:


1. Y THE LAST MAN #60 (Vertigo)

2. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #118 (Marvel)

3. ASTONISHING X-MEN #24 (Marvel)

4. THE SPIRIT #12 (DCU)

5. THE TWELVE #1 (Marvel)

6. THE ORDER #7 (Marvel)

7. UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #5 (Dark Horse)

8. CROSSING MIDNIGHT #15 (Vertigo)

9. TEEN TITANS THE LOST ANNUAL (DCU)

10. PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #0 (IDW)

Bendis' Ultimate Spidey is the big surprise this month, starting off the tribute to the Amazing Friends line-up with a light-hearted high-school reunion sort of crossover with every Ultimate title! It still wasn't stellar enough to overthrow the long-awaited conclusion to Y the Last Man, while Whedon's dependably excellent Astonish X-Men closes up the Top Three.

The Order, Crossing Midnight and Umbrella Academy are regular contenders every month, while other faves Wonder-Woman and X-Men were pushed out of the ten by a narrow margin. We'll be talking more about the new arrivals The Twelve and Project Super-powers soon.
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December '07 H-O-T Grade

At the close of every month, LYSAD will be putting out the absolute and final word on what was H-O-T in comics.


1. ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY VOL 18 HC (Drawn & Quarterly)

2. SHIRTLIFTER #2 (Drawn, Out Press)

3. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #9 (Dark Horse)

4. UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #4 (Dark Horse)

5. WONDER WOMAN #15 (DCU)

6. X-MEN #206 (Marvel)

7. CROSSING MIDNIGHT #14 (Vertigo)

8. IMMORTAL IRON FIST #11 (Marvel)

9. THE ORDER #5-6 (Marvel)

10. WORMWOOD ONE SHOT (Avatar)
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Holiday Roundtable: Creators' Best of 2007

Which stories and titles stand out as your favourite from 2007?

Jason Aaron: THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST, DMZ, CRIMINAL, CASANOVA, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, FEAR AGENT, SENTENCES: THE LIFE OF M.F. GRIMM, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: THE BLACK DOSSIER.



Cecil Castellucci: I loved ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. DMZ. Y THE LAST MAN. ASTONISHING X-MEN. THE ARRIVAL. ROBOT DREAMS. CURSES.






Cliff Chiang: SCALPED, DMZ, GREEN LANTERN, any of the SHOWCASE editions





Paul Cornell: This year I particularly liked: The AVENGERSs titles; CAPTAIN AMERICA; Gail Simone's ATOM (and all her work); Morrison and Dini's BATMAN books; 52; DAN DARE.




Nate Cosby: Hrmmmmm…hang on, I gotta check what came out this year. SPIDERMAN FAMILY #7 was really good (Chris Eliopoulos' Frog Thor!). Everything Jeff Parker did (X-MEN FIRST CLASS, his issues MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS), everything Fred Van Lente did (MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN - FANTASTIC FOUR - SPIDER-MAN, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP, FANTASTIC FOUR/POWER PACK). THE SPIRIT was REALLY good. Hmmmm…oh! ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN keeps being good.





Christos Gage: I'll mention five that I really enjoy and think should be getting more attention: I think CROSSING MIDNIGHT from Vertigo is an extremely well done horror/fantasy book that should be on more peoples' radar. JONAH HEX continues to be top-notch, as it has been since it began. WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY is something every fan of Gail Simone should check out; it's up there with her best stuff, and you don't need to follow any other books to enjoy it. Ed Brubaker's CRIMINAL is bringing hard-boiled crime back to comics in a brilliant way. And Oni's RESURRECTION is off to a very promising start. There are many more, but I've only got so much space!






Nicola Scott: Gail's start on WONDER WOMAN and Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory, particularly the ZATANNA and KLARION stories lines.






Mike Carey: I got a lot of pleasure out of CIVIL WAR. If you're going to do big event comics, then you should do them like this: really huge and epic, and with a real-world significance hiding behind the super-heroics.

I was blown away - as most long-term BUFFY fans were - by Joss Whedon's triumphant continuation of the Vampire Slayer's story in season eight.

I read a weird, haunting, silly but poignant manga called THE CLARENCE PRINCIPLE that I liked a lot. And I loved the first volume of the re-released Parasyte.


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November 2007 H-O-T Grade

At the close of every month, LYSAD will be putting out the absolute and final word on what was H-O-T in comics.


1. SCOTT PILGRIM VOL 4 SCOTT PILGRIM GETS IT TOGETHER GN (Oni Press)

2. Y THE LAST MAN #59 (Vertigo)

3. ASTONISHING X-MEN #23 (Marvel)

4. GIRLS COMPLETE COLLECTION Deluxe HC (Image)

5. WONDER WOMAN #14 (DCU)

6. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #8 (Dark Horse)

7. CASANOVA #11 (Image)

8. SUPER VILLAIN TEAM UP: MODOKS 11 #5 (Marvel)

9. THE ORDER #4 (Marvel)

10. IMMORTAL IRON FIST #10 (Marvel)
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October 2007 H-O-T Grade

At the close of every month, LYSAD will be putting out the absolute and final word on what was H-O-T in comics.

1. PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP TRIAL OF COLONEL SWEETO HC (Dark Horse)

2. ESSEX COUNTY VOL 2 GHOST STORIES (Top Shelf)

3. CASANOVA #10 (Image)

4. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #7 (Dark Horse)

5. CROSSING MIDNIGHT #12 (Vertigo)

6. BLACK SUMMER #3 (Avatar)

7. UMBRELLA ACADEMY APOCALYPSE SUITE #2 (Dark Horse)

8. PARADE WITH FIREWORKS #2 (Image)

9. EMPOWERED VOL 2 TP (Dark Horse)

10. RUNAWAYS #28 (Marvel)

October saw Dark Horse seizing the game, and taking home a record 4 spots in the chart, with the excellent webstrips colection from PBF, the still-amazing Umbrella Academy, BKV's Buffy and Adam Warren's ode to T&A, Empowered.

Image, Vertigo and Top Shelf upping their game meant Marvel barely scraped in the Top 10. Gems that almost made it in the list: DCU's only saving graces: Simon Dark and Infinity Inc, Marvel's MODOK's 11 and Image's hot new premieres: The Sword and Suburban Glamour.

Plenty of new titles makingit into the chart, although it was a skip month for Astonishing X-Men, Y the Last Man and the Order. More on those next month!
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Buffy Season 8 #8

Writer: Brian K Vaughan

Artist: Georges Jeanty

Producer: Joss Whedon

Dark Horse Comics

Things heat up as our slayers take to the water in the wettest Buffy adventure in history!

The story so far: renegade Slayer and socialite Gigi has declared open season on slayers, forcing Giles' hand, who sends former slayer Delinquent Faith in undercover to hunt the huntress. Little does he know Faith will find a kindred soul in the neglected and misunderstood sociopath, forging a ... friendship? It's time to move Buffy into play.

Scene by scene:

The issue opens up with some girl-on-girl-in-bathtub action bonding, as Faith and Gigi grow closer together, and Gigi is bearing out her 'Kill Buffy' masterplan. Vaughan bears out his X-geek in this sequence, unsubtly casting Gigi as Magneto to Buffy's Xavier, in the 'slayers as Mutants' parallel (without all the ear and hatred); Buffy is seeking and training the new slayers to serve and protect the world, while Gigi wants to replace Buffy as 'Queen Slayer' and lead the girls to rule the world.

Vaughan is knitting a very complicated power play in the girls' dialogue. Faith is trying to warn Gigi about the wrong influence of older father-type figures like new baddie ginger Roden, by referring to her past dealings with Mayor Wilkins from Buffy Season 3; in the flow of the conversation though, this backfires and reminds Faith of the way Giles, another father-figure, is using her now against Gigi. Gigi thinks she's in control of the situation, pretending to be a pawn to instead control her controller, reminding Faith again of her own past (and present?) naivette.

Things take a sharp turn, when Gigi reveals the action plan: they're not taking the fight to Buffy, they're instead bringing Buffy to their location. 'Pot-sickness aside, Buffy is not a happy girl when she arrives at the mansion and meets Gigi. Cuts, kicks and smart quips ensue in a well-choreographed fight, reminiscent of the TV series.

In yet another sharp turn, Faith jumps in right before the final judgment is passed, leading to a spectacular long dive into the third act of the issue; the rematch that's been brewing for years materialises as actual girl-on-girl-in-pool action, as the frienemies finally come to blows. This time we have the benefit of Faith's viewpoint and her finally dealing with her inner demons in the resolution of the issue.


Water plays a significant role in the interactions between the girls in this story. In the start of the issue, it acts as the medium to bring gigi and Faith closer together as the bear their souls (and other bodyparts) bare to each other and come closer. In the climax of the issue water again brings Buffy and Faith together, this time as enemies, as they both again bare out their true feelings, thoughts nd grudges against each other. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts further into this through the comments feature.

Another amazing issue, as Vaughan further earns his props as a Buffy writer! Georges Jeanty raises to the occasion and the tricky action shots demanded this issue. I just wonder if SMG and Eliza feel envious of the scripts that are developed in these comics, wishing they could still act them out as their TV counterparts. I certainly would be, in their shoes.


Grade: 8/10
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Buffy Season 8 #7

Part two of 'No Future For You', the third 'episode' of Season 8, drawn by Georges Jeanty and written by BKV.

Where BKV apparently now stands for Buffy Kills Vampires! (Someone tell Brian!)

Since we last saw Buffy on TV, the world has just gone a bit more Slayer-ful, as hundreds (thousands?) of potential slayers have been leveled-up into full stabbity mode. Now Buffy and the Scooby Faculty have set up Slayer High atop a mouldy castle enrolling and training the Girl-Wonders in the ways of Stab-Fu.

But, back-track a bit (say that a few times over, fast, and see what you end up with)

Why did everyone just assume all the new slayerettes are cute and cuddly? We've seen in the past what a headache a Slayer turned bad can prove to be. When freshly-activated Slayer GiGi turns out to be a bad egg, Giles thinks of that old saying 'Takes one to know/catch one' and calls in the last known homicidal Slayer, the now-reformed Faith. The catch? Gigi's full name is Lady Geneviene Savidge, a spoiled British aristocrat with a hobby of using other slayers as game for her hunting expeditions. Faith will need to step up in society before she can stoop down to murder this new threat. If someone doesn't run off with a "The Princess' Slayer Diaries" pun soon, I'll be a very frustrated geek! (yes, that's a three-in-one pun, collect them all for the grand prize)

Jeanty is probably fake-casting Gigi after some young actress or another as she has the same almost-photoboxed quality about her like the rest of the cast. If this was the actual TV show 8th season back in the 2003-2004 season, I'd have cast a still young Fairuza Balk in the role. Other suggestions? (leave a comment! Me loves 'em). Meanwhile, Faith is a dead ringer, his Dawn has improved, but poor Willow remains trapped in chubby-face Amish hell.

Last issue impressed me with the trueness of the characters' voices; this issue has less of the chatty chatty and more of the internal monologue with a side dish of stone gargoyle kicking action, Alias-styling masquerades and flashback doozies. Step-by-step:


We open up with a look back on the decidedly wicked Slayer-on-Slayer action from episode 3x21 (Graduation Day Part One), this time told from a Faith's-eye-view. These 2 1/2 pages are deceptively laconic, much like most of BKV's work; pause a moment, take into account the events of Season 3 from Faith's POV, go back and reread and these short 'three steps' will reveal quite the treasure. (Long cheat sheet: Remember, Faith was blissfully unaware of the problems she was facing throughout season 3; in her mind she was just having fun and making friends. She was especially pleased to have found Buffy, a kindred spirit who could understand her problems; she used every opportunity available to girl-bond with B, constantly unloading her problems, hoping for B to reciprocate and share a moment. The Buffster though, had a different coping mechanism: an introvert to F's extrovert; every time F tried to get closer, B would clam up even more, reveal only a bit of her enormous Angel issues at the time, and push her away. In the end she of course pushes her a bit too far for comfort, leading to the classic 'you're about to get it back' moment. B and F (i love this first letter game, saves up space that I can then waste in meaningless parentheses) may have kissed and made better in season 7, but that's just an uneasy truce for Faith, since she still remembers Buffy's 'betrayal'.

And now, in true poetic fashion, she's called in to do the same with Gigi. After her infiltration of the gala succeeds (more Veronica Mars than Alias in her subterfuge here), she comes close to Gigi, but freezes, leading to uncomfortable balcony chatter over fags (that's cigarettes for you Queen-challenged folk) ; now Gigi thinks she has a new friend to confide in, while Faith is the one with the uneasy feelings.

Buffy doesn't make an actual present-day appearance in the issue, but we're not bereft of the obligatory cut-away 'what are those wacky Scooby kids up to' scene. Dawn is still experiencing a growth spurt and fending off the birds-and-bees talk from Willow as they muse about sex, boys and reveal the dirty mystery behind Dawn's wardrobe changes (hint: there aren't any! eww). Whedon and co take good advantage of the main benefit of comics versus TV: no budgetary FX constraints! Why not have Dawn be 30-ft tall for the entire season? Why shouldn't Willow be able to fly around every issue? And wouldn't it be cool if Faith squared off mid-air against two giant stone gargoyles? (what, did I forget to mention that in the plot summary? oops!)


Jumping mediums may just turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the Buffy franchise!

Grade: 7.5/10
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Review: Umbrella Academy #1

UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE #1 (of 6)

Written by Gerard Way
Art by Gabriel Ba
Colors by Dave Stewart
Letters by Blambot's Nate Piekos
Cover by James Jean

Dark Horse Comics


Umbrella Academy is the new crack!

Promoted solely on the fame and crazy of its writer and creator, rockstar Gerard Way, him of the Chemical Romance fame, I expected nothing more than a dose of wacky with a side order of amazing art, courtesy of CASANOVA's Brazilian power-art-house Gabriel Ba (with a funny accent mark on the a I can't replicate right now. Gabriel Ba', Gabriel Ba').

Who knew a rockstar could write our socks off?

The Umbrella Academy is nothing sort of amazing and I'll tell you all about it:

Fathered and led by wacky wealthy and world-renowned inventor Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a. the Monocle, the Umbrella Academy consists of 7 mutant children-prodigies, the surviving few of a world-wide simultaneous miracle birth phenomenon. Raised as the thinking man's super-kids, they are now reunited in their 30s to deal with their father's apparent demise.

They are: (um, minor #1 spoilers)

00.01
(Luther, the Spaceboy)

Ruthless leadership skills, dedication bordering on inhuman, excels at everything he tries, particularly aviation and markmanship. Appreciably enhanced physical strength and resilience.

Most likely to have a full body trans-species transplant, move to the moon.


00.02
(the Kraken)

An insolent brat. Ability to hold breath indefinitely proves surprisingly useful in each mission. Not bad with a knife. Predictably reckless.

Most likely to lose an eye.




00.03
(Allison, the Rumor)

Prevaricates with appalling ease. Making falsehood come true is the power.

Most likely to cry wolf.






00.04
(Klaus, The Séance)

Fretful, morbid temperament. Psychic abilities allow him to communicate with the dead, levitate. Pale death-like complexion, most fitting.

Most likely to listen to Chemical Romance.




00.05
(the Boy)

Time traveller.

Most likely to disappear for 20 years.






00.06
(Ben, the Horror)

Gruesome but fascinating. Crazy monsters under his skin. A parallel dimension of unsavory feeling.

Least likely to make it out alive.




00.07
(Vanya)

No discernible talents. Some enthusiasm for music, but mediocre skill on the violin.

Most likely to write all about it.




The manic plot of the 1st issue follows the children from the uncanny coincidence of their birth, to 10 years in their future thwarting the berserker tourist-unfriendly rampage of the Eiffel Tower and then 20 years further in the future as they rejoin in their childhood home after rumours of the Monocle's death start to spread.

Gerard Way fascinates me with his writing debut. The story is fueled on the same absurdist humour that made Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Wes Anderson such great darlings; Gabriel follows suit with pacing, photography and a cinematic rhythm that reminds me of the aforementioned's cellulose mastercrafts: Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain and the Royal Tenenbaums.

All this, tied up in a ludicrous action-adventure package the likes of which hasn't been attempted in comics since Ba's last project, CASANOVA from Image. No wonder he's the perfect artistic choice for this. It's not just the writing and the art, mind you. Kudos to Dark Horse for a true dedication to quality, joining this duo with the best of each field in the industry: the most able and Eisner-friendly colourist in Dave Stewart, the greatest indy letterer: Blambot's Nate Piekos and finally everyone's favourite cover artist, FABLES' James Jean.

Hurray! Hurray, Apocalypse!

This is the comic you always dreamed of reading.


Grade: 8.5/10


Links:

Preview of Umbrella Academy #2 from CBR

Full story from Umbrella Academy FCBD issue from Scans Daily

The Kraken solo story from Dark Horse Comics Presents on MySpace
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