Buffy Comics

[shipperx]

Is it me or does the first volume of the Buffy comic sound...uh... not good?

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

It's certainly not getting good reviews.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

With a plot line like "Dawn's a giant because she lost her virginity"... it shouldn't. ::shudder::

[quinara]

I am weeping both within and without.

And good God, apart from the fact I don't get B/X at all, I wish Joss would let the group break out of its tight, forcibly contrived, S1 constraints. That's what sucked most towards the end, and that's what could suck most now.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think Joss's view of the show has calcified into Season 1 dynamics... which is why I haven't had a desire to read the comics. I really like the fanfic writers who don't mind allowing the characters to grow the hell up.

[quinara]

I kind of hope the 10 year anniversary will make him realise just how much time has passed and that maybe it was time the characters noticed too.

[swsa.livejournal.com]

I am avoiding all specifics, the better to maintain swsa!post-show canon (which, coincidentally enough, is actually AtS S5 canon...Scoobs scattered, Buffy in Rome!). But from just the vague, VAGUE, descriptions I've heard, my reaction was pretty much, "So like Lessons and Beneath You if you cut out all the emotionally resonant storylines and scenes?"

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I don't really have a parallel for it other than recognizing that each new thing I read about it makes me want to read it less and less (and I was pretty much starting from nil in the first place).

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

Have there been new reviews? I thought the comic was the second coming of Joss is God?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

moscow_watcher summarized it

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

I really can't see how the Buffyverse needed another "Sex is bad - for girls" storyline. I'm totally missing the feminism in that.

The Buffy/Xander pairing is nice to see - two of the most vicious, sexist, small-minded, anti-intellectual characters in fiction getting together should be very entertaining. Which of the pair will be able to belittle and destroy the other first?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. I admit that I had to slap my fingers and restrain myself from replying to the Xandercentric poster who was so gleeful about a B/X hookup (which, you know, Joss is always but always going to play shipper groups against one another so they really shouldn't get their hopes up) that...well, at least that keeps Buffy and Xander from belittling and generally making someone else miserable, so it's probably a good pairing. That way no one else has to put up with them.

(Though, again, Joss is always but always going to play all shipper groups against one another so they're being delusional to think that they'll be more than teased -- along with Spuffies and Bangels -- just like everyone else.)

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

The preview pages seem decent, in terms of being witty and having Buffy's voice. And the art looks like her, but not excessively so. Beyond that, I haven't sought out any reviews.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's the "Dawn becomes a giant because she lost her virginity" stuff that's causing me to cringe. It's just...uh... I so didn't need that.

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I can't say that sounds promising, but I'd have to see how it plays out. I can think of good BtVS episodes that would sound equally horrible if described in a sentence.

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

Everybody feels like a giant for a few days after losing his virginity. That's what I remember from my high school friends, anyway.

I kept it a secret myself.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. I had a group of friends who handed out gold spray painted champagne corks. Why we did that, I cannot imagine. But, there you go.

[ladycat713.livejournal.com]

That makes no sense whatsoever. If anything mystical happened because she lost her virginity,it should be something like a portal opening because she bled and maybe sucking her boyfriend into a different dimension (penis first) and her having to tell the Scoobies what happened to him and what they were doing and that her naked boyfriend has to be rescued.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Bwha! Now see that would have been interesting!

[ladycat713.livejournal.com]

And quite frankly the comments on moscow-watchers lj that said it seemed like Buffy would end up with Xander made me cringe. I can no more see her with Xander than I could with Giles, Willow or Dawn.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't really worry about it. I don't put it past Joss to tease a B/X pairing to appeal to "early BtVS fans", but Joss lost the will or ability to commit ages ago and he has been made painfully aware that people having let go of either of the vampires.

Joss may tease shippers but he'll never, ever satisfy any of them for fear of pissing off the others. Buffy will forever remain indecisive and vague on these issues. The comics may appeal to B/Xers, but they aren't going to get a conclusive pairing because Joss gives no one that kind of satisfaction. Plus, the comics are such a narrow band of the fandom that he can't afford to do anything too strikingly different from the series should he ever need to resurrect the franchise in any way.

Basically, expect the status quo to remain only with several different shipper carrots thrown about to lure in those who aren't totally jaded by this point.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Nope. It sounds like confirmation that Joss has lost it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't expect much out of Joss. I have exceedingly low expectations, but did he honestly have to go right to the "girls must be punished for having sex" trope right off the bat? What's next? More father issues? Surely even he should start to realize he's repeated this sort of material so many times that it's become a Jossian cliche.

Guess not.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

That would demand self-insight and the abilty to acknowledge that he makes mistakes. Two qualities he just doesn't have.

[hobbituk.livejournal.com]

It has no Spike. It was never going to be great. And I truly think that Joss has lost the plot where writing the Buffy people is concerned. He needs to think up some new characters, people he is actually interested in.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think at some point, his view of the characters calcified into unchanging icons... and that's never going to make for something great. I just still expected something more appealing than "Dawn is turned into a giant because she had sex." That's just... ugh.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I'm tending to view the entire comics idea as Joss waving a carrot in front of us with the promise of interesting plots, Spike and Angel cameos, etc. so we'll all rush to buy these and he can then fund his next movie. It all reminds me of the Serenity days when the call came out for fans of the Buffyverse to rush to the theatre because if Serenity did good box office then the Spike movie would be made. Serenity did reasonably well but Joss got the Wonder Woman deal and we got no Spike movie. Now I understand he wants to make The Goners so it's "Hi! fans, spend money please".
And if all the rumors swirling around hooking up Buffy & Xander are true, he's cutting his throat with a big chunk of fandom.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think that the B/X thing is primarily wishful thinking coupled with other shipper groups wanting to torment each other. Oh, I don't doubt that Joss will tease B/Xers with possibilities. . .just as he'll do with any other shipper faction. But, the truth is, Joss doesn't care about ships. He uses them as a means to an end, and he isn't going to cut free the other shipper factions either.

Given the lack of actual movement in character that Joss began to support through the end of the series(s), I don't expect a great deal to change from the status quo. I never did. I did however, think he'd come up with something just a little more enticing than "Dawn has sex and so must be punished, wackiness ensues." ::shudder::

[sockmonkeyhere.livejournal.com]

Is it me or does the first volume of the Buffy comic sound...uh... not good?

I thought it sucked dead rotting gophers through a hose.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Oh wow.

Poor horse.

[sockmonkeyhere.livejournal.com]

*giggles hysterically* A HOSE, not a horse. You must have misread it. (Now I'm thinking of Lemmywinks the hamster making his way through Mr. Slave's innards on South Park and laughing like a loon.) :D

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Blame it on the fever that I was running this morning.