Buffy season nine discussion thread

[Turtletrekker]

I really am still buying out of loyalty to the brand. I keep buying, but have a growing stack of Buffy (and A&F and Willow) comics to read. I know I will marathon read them eventually, and probably even enjoy them, but can't get into them individually.

I'm going to stick out the season, but right now, continuing into S10 is iffy for me.

[Admiral_Young]

Finished reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer #18 and...I have to say that this entire season has been incredibly erratic and it's suffered because of it. I know we've made this point before but it's still seems unfocused, even though there have been obvious seedings throughout the season. Last season might have been over the top and ridiculous at times, but at least it was consistent from start to finish. This has felt badly paced. It reminds me of Grant Morrison's current Action Comics run to be honest. Unlike that though, I've not felt compelled to drop that, like I have this. Angel and Faith has gotten back on track, but Buffy still feels...off to me.

That being said let's get to the book. Dawn appears to be dying of unknown causes...and the only temporary solution right now is for Andrew to do a brain transplant into a Dawn-bot? I don't like the way this particular plot is going right now. I have a bad feeling about it lol. The "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" homage was fun! Unfortunately that's about the only fun we have in this book. I'm not really invested in this Siphon arc at all. I feel like I'm on the verge of dropping this again...

[Ethros]

^ I haven't read #18 yet, but with that above and the previous Buffy decoy/Buffy's mind in a robot, is this just turning into Dollhouse now?

[Admiral_Young]

Angel and Faith #19: This was one hell of an issue. All the "Ripper" stuff in this book is making me wish that we got the series even more, because most of what the book is using is only a tease of what the greater plans for the series would have been. The only thing I didn't like in this issue was the way Gage wrote Spike. A little off for me, even though there were a couple of great moments with him and Faith. So now we're basically back to square one again and things have gotten potentially worse thanks to Angel's hair brained scheme. As I expected, he's put himself at risk and the others now potentially releasing Angelus again. I think also Spike hit it on the nail with the Buffy line. Angel keeps insisting that it is to do with taking responsibility for his actions with Giles, but really if he wanted to do that he would man up, apologize to Buffy and hope she gave forgive him. Instead he refuses to do this and has undertaken a foolhardy and dangerous plot to resurrect Giles that has not quite worked out at all.

Interesting to see where this continues to go. The art was stunning in this issue.

[Admiral_Young]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #19 : Just when I'm about to drop this book, they do something to make me keep it. Major plot progression for once in this book, as we finally are told what is happening to Dawn. Because Dawn is the Key and was made as a magical construct, and Buffy destroyed the Seed last season to save the world, the magic basically was leaving her. Same thing with Dev stole Ilyria's power, she realizes that she should be dead given that Fred died to host her in the first place, but she's still around. So not only is magic gone from the world, or severely depleted, but something is wrong with it as well. Buffy and Xander have yet another fight (that seems to be the only thing that they do in this book). I really want to drop this book (like some of you guys must've done already) but like I mentioned they keep doing stuff to at least make me interested. Maybe this has something to do with Chambliss's writing...the guest writers last season and Joss's presence I think helped break things up...something has been off about this season.

[Ethros]

I still need to catch up with the Angel & Buffy #19's, and I didn't even bother with the Willow series.
Still there's not really much point of you dropping either series when there's only 6 issues left now.

[Admiral_Young]

That's a fair point too. I keep forgetting when the season is going to end (I do recall they put a cap on the issues this time around). I've had plenty of chances to drop both books before and haven't so I'm in for the long haul.

[Admiral_Young]

Angel and Faith #20 was fantastic. Spike and Faith's quips back and forth were great, and Rebecca Issacs art was awesome as usual. Things seem to be reset a lot on this book, and what I mean is that Angel and Faith will be thrust into some kind of dire situation, there will be a lot of yapping about the Giles resurrection plot, and then they'll get out of that situation and we will continue on with it. Angel has STILL yet to realize that this probably isn't a good idea, even with everyone at one point or another that it isn't...and now he's managed to get Faith on his side, because they're so close. I still have a bad feeling this isn't going to turn out very well. Still those points aside, I enjoyed this issue a lot. Issacs will be doing the art for the remaining ten issues as well which is good news.

[Admiral_Young]

The Buffy Season Nine Wonder Con panel... the final arc of Angel and Faith is called "The Core" and the season nine finale will feature the reunion of the Scoobies.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=44684

[Admiral_Young]

No other responses for a while so I guess I am gutting it alone now, but I figured that would probably be the case the way this season has progressed.

Just finished issue 20...and wow. This issue was probably my favourite issue in a while. Willow returns from her mini-series and possessing partial magic, and a refurbished Scythe. Xander continues to spiral down lost and feeling useless as we flashback to last season's finale and learn that he snapped and nearly attempted to kill Angel. Chambliss has teased that this season finale's all about reuniting the Scoobies we saw the start of that. We've seen Dark Willow of course...could this be Dark Xander? Or perhaps Xander double agenting here or something? Nevertheless things have started to get very interesting, and the Karl Moline art was great in this issue (except for Andrew who for some reason keeps looking different every time I see him and looks nothing like Tom Lenk).

[Ethros]

I have caught up now (skipped the Willow series still, I'll wait for the TPB) and missed Angel #19, but just got #20 of both Angel and Buffy.

Mmm, the flashback to the S8 finale as you say was good, but the issue seemed to end before I noticed it had even started somewhat. Plus Scott Allie kept going on about in the letters every issue for aaaages about how we'd eventually learn what was up with Xander... I dunno, I guess I was just expecting more than "he's pissed off."


I don't know what happened in the Willow series, but I see the Scythe is back together and now red, so it fits in continuity with the scythe from the Fray series (also red, unlike the TV show one which wasn't all red)

[DevilEyes]

I'm still reading season 9, I just didn't feel a strong urge to come here to post, since it's been very lackluster the whole season. The latest Buffy issue, however, was the best one since... well, a very long time in any case. Perhaps the best since 9.01. Finally the season's plot seems to be shaping up... it only took them 4/5 of the season to get there! It's good to see them addressing the Twilight fiasco instead of tiptoeing around it and focusing on the smashing of the Seed instead. (Severin's lines about it felt almost like a 4th wall, the comic finally addressing what the fans have been saying.) I continue to be unimpressed with the bland way Buffy has been written by Chambliss, but at least Xander was written rather well.

Regarding Angel & Faith, I hope Gage never writes Spike again, because he writes him really badly. It's like he struggles with writing him, so he writes him as a caricature, exaggerating his smoking, drinking, British slang and shagging. I hated the way they used Harmony and reversed the little, but significant development her dynamic with Spike had in AtS season 5 (i.e. when Spike realized he had been an ass to her and stopped using her).

The Spike title was nicely written and drawn, much better than Spike on A&F was, but it seems to have been ultimately pointless, since the Spike we saw on A&F doesn't seem to have gotten any character development and has only regressed. The Willow title had more to do with the plot of the season, and had some developments for Willow, but I didn't like the pointless resurrection of yet another character from the show

that Willow killed.

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I mentioned Gage's difficulty with writing Spike. Given the fact that he's not watched the show before, he probably only has a rudimentary knowledge of the character either given to him by Joss or Chambliss or someone tossed in an episode and that's what he got out of it. It was pretty bad, while somehow he's managed to capture Angel and Faith's characterizations bang on. It was weird.

[Admiral_Young]

Finished reading Angel and Faith #21...didn't really think much of this issue...Gage really can't write Spike but that's no longer a problem since Spike left to go help Buffy with the Dawn issue, interesting that already Angel and Faith don't remember who Dawn is, and obviously something has gone wrong with the spell to resurrect Giles (as I knew it would) guess we'll find out next issue what!

[DevilEyes]

I thought he wrote Spike OK in this issue. Although maybe the fact he wasn't there for very long helped.

Any bets what's going to happen with Giles now? Obviously, it's not going to be successful, but what kind of disaster will happen?