Buffy season nine discussion thread

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Turtletrekker, Mar 9, 2011.

  1. timothy

    timothy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    so when can we expect the first collection graphic come out for buffy and angel & faith?
     
  2. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I already stated that I believe earlier in the thread. Or look it up yourself.
     
  3. Gothowitz

    Gothowitz Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Just idle thoughts here but... wasn't the fairy introduced with one of the decoys who died in the same issue? Or did I read that synopsis wrong?

    Also, wasn't there more than one decoy? How many were revealed in the Season 8 comics? Are all accounted for?

    So, not the slayer. Maybe the story so far has been about a decoy and nobody has realized it yet?

    I don't know. Don't really care either. Not really following the comics too much. They just seem loopy.
     
  4. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Some of the arcs are perhaps a little more overt than if they were television scripts...but not loopy. Season Eight was "loopy" mostly because Joss could get away with telling big stories. I dunno. I've been enjoying them.
     
  5. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    There were two decoys. One went underground and met the fairy and fought the demons who were eating her people, and died, in "The Chain" (issue 8.05). The other was never seen, she was the one in Rome, partying and dating the Immortal, to hide the real Buffy's tracks. We don't know what happened to her, but obviously her role would've become unnecessary once the real Buffy was publicly fighting the US troops in Tibet and having apocalyptic spacesex.

    And no, this Buffy is the real Buffy. The fairy wrongly assumed that her Buffy was the real one, and that this Buffy was an impostor, but she realized her mistake.

    However, the First Slayer also said "You are not the Slayer".
     
  6. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Preview for Buffy Season Nine #6.

    http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=11192

    The next Angel and Faith comes out next week. Do we know if we're getting any major guest writers for either series like we did for season eight yet? I only ask because I don't recall any announcements of this type.
     
  7. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    No, they haven't mentioned any. They haven't mentioned anyone writing Angel & Faith except Gage, and we know that season 8 will be written by Chambliss, Joss, Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg.
     
  8. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That is what I thought. It would be nice to get Brad Meltzer back again IMO. He wrote the hell out of the Twilight arc last season.
     
  9. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Really? I think he was the worst writer last season. His crazy evolution-which-is-actually-intelligent-design made no sense (and we know he was the one to suggest them, Whedon's guilt is that he signed up for some of his ideas) and the exposition dump in #34 in-between-sex was just unbelievably bad writing. That issue is so awful that it's only good if you read it as a comedy, in as 'so bad it's good' way. They better keep him away from the Buffyverse comics, and they probably will since they announced before season 9 that they're going back to more grounded and intimate storytelling, instead the over-the-top insanity that season 8 became... and Meltzer is synonymous with the most OTT insane stuff in S8. Twilight works as an arc when you see in a satirical light, but judging by Meltzer's interviews at the time, he took it all deadly seriously and the hilarity was unintentional.

    The guest writer I'd like to see back is Brian K. Vaughn, he wrote a great arc and he's a big Faith fan and writes her really well. Not that Gage doesn't write her well, but Vaughn was still better, I'd like to see him return for Angel & Faith. All the other best issues of season 8 were written by Whedon.

    Best issues/arcs of season 8 according to me:
    1. #40 Last Gleaming part 5 - Coda (Whedon/Jeanty)
    2. Always Darkest e-comic (Whedon/Chen)
    3. #5 The Chain (Whedon/Moline)
    4. #6-9 No Future For You (Vaughn/Jeanty)
    5. #10 Anywhere But Here (Whedon/Richards)
    6. #11 A Beautiful Sunset (Whedon/Jeanty)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2012
  10. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ I would agree, looking back at that arc now it was just a mess. Twilight's base having a replica of the TOS Enterprise bridge, a some big machine from a X-Men/Teen Titan crossover (or whatever it was)... what the fuck was all that about? Seriously
     
  11. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Vaughn would be great. I happen to be a fan of Meltzer's comic work, I thought he was the perfect writer for the Twilight arc other than Joss himself.
     
  12. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Just read Angel and Faith and thought it was great. The more we keep going into Giles' past the more I become more disappointed that we never got a "Ripper" series. From the glimpses we've seen and the narrative formulated by his Watcher diaries, it seems like it would have been one freaking awesome series! I liked the shout out to Douglas Adams, and the Batman reference from Faith. Dru!!!! Faith's father as well. Looks like we're starting to get into the series' first major arc.
     
  13. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    It's only now reading the "Angel & Faith" comic that I realize how little characterization and history Giles actually had before now.
     
  14. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I've said it before in the thread and I'll repeat...it's time for a "Ripper" ongoing from Dark Horse. I don't know if Angel and Faith is meant to be a test bed for it...but it's got my appetite going that's for sure.
     
  15. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  16. timothy

    timothy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    it all most looks like buffy/ringer crossover cover. lol
     
  17. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  18. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    So, any thoughts on issue 6?

    Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised by Joss having the cajones to go there, after so many in the fandom were assuming he won't even mention it and that this is just an expedient way to get to the canon version of baby!fic.
     
  19. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Wow. What an ending. It will be very interesting to see where they go with this. This was a great issue...I loved the Niki stuff and meeting her watcher, they seemed to have a really close relationship, like Giles and Buffy did. This season seems to be turning into the Spike and Buffy show as well. I enjoyed the conversation with the Detective. I really wish the art was more consistent...when we first see Detective (I have forgotten his name) I thought at first he was Angel. Dawn does not look like Michelle either, something I have been critical of since season eight.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2012
  20. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I thought the art was the best so far this season as far as Buffy's book goes (Rebekah Issacs' art in Angel & Faith has been amazing from the start), Jeanty's best since #40. I'm often critical of his art because he tends to make Buffy look like she's 13 and his characters sometimes look to cartoonish and childlike, but his strength is in conveying emotion. I had no problems with his art in this issue, people looked adult enough and the emotions were really well drawn. He isn't the greatest with character likenesses, but few artists really get them all right. Robin Wood was the best likeness so far.

    A page from the upcoming #7 (just art, no dialogue yet) has been posted on Allie's Twitter account: http://zamolxis.tumblr.com/post/17312608150/i-spotted-on-twitter-scotts-new-icon-and-asked
    It looks really beautiful.

    Jeanty will be taking a break for the issues 8-10 and Cliff Richards will step in. Richards is a really good artist, he drew 8.10 and he used to be the main artist for the old Dark Horse comics released at the time when the show was still on.

    This was the first issue without Xander or Willow. I presume that Willow will get her own mini-series and only return later in the season. Xander's storyline will probably kick in later, the story right now is focused on Buffy, Spike, detective Dowling and
    Andrew
    .

    It was good to see Buffy confiding in Dawn, many people thought she and Xander were too distant from Buffy in the first arc. Dawn may be trying to keep away from the Slayer stuff, but she's there for Buffy for the personal stuff.

    (I have to say that one line I really hated in this issue was Dawn's "Alcohol made me end up a giant, centaur and a doll". No, Dawn, alcohol didn't do that. Kenny did. :vulcan:)

    The Nikki flashbacks were interesting to see, she's a very interesting character, but I wasn't too happy that Robin still seems to sort of resent his mother. That stuff how she wasn't "strong" enough to leave slaying? Strong? It's rather selfish from him, she was the only Slayer out there, there weren't thousands of Slayers as there are now, and if she's not doing her job, people are dying, but somehow he makes it seem like Slaying was some sort of pastime that she just couldn't give up. I don't know what the issue was trying to tell me with this, but if it was meant to make me think "bad Nikki" or to justify Spike's LMPTM crap that Nikki "didn't love him enough to quit", sorry, no. The idea that Crawley could have successfully replaced Nikki as the Slayer makes no sense. If Watchers were at good at slaying as Slayers, why don't they all take up slaying, instead of making teenage girls give up their lives for slaying? If a Watcher can be so good at it and not get killed, why do Slayers so often die young? Something's not making sense there.

    Good characterization for Buffy and Spike in the issue, though the "a new character makes Spike talk about his feelings for Buffy" device is getting old. (I guess we can now add Dowling to the list of Spuffy shippers that already consists of Andrew and Koh. :rommie: ) I loved the Buffy/Spike scene at the pool. Did he process the fact that she told him she was thinking of asking him to "run away with" her when she was still thinking of having the child. It's funny that she went straight into talking about abortion, apparently not remembering that he doesn't even know she's pregnant yet. I can imagine her planning the conversation in her head several times and telling him she's pregnant and asking him to raise the baby with her, and then changing her opinion along the way and preparing a speech about abortion.

    I like that Buffy realized that it's not about being a mother and a Slayer and that she's not blaming her calling on her problems, she realizes that it's the Buffy part that's the problem now, not the Slayer, and that she has to sort herself out before being able to have a child. So glad they are treating it realistically and not promoting the "baby will bring her joy and she'll suddenly find purpose in life and everything will be fine" trope or the idea that she has to have a child despite being in the kind of circumstances she is, minimum wage, perhaps about to become homeless, a mess emotionally, and not even knowing who got her pregnant or how.