The Living and Dying End
I thought about creating a filter for this, but... whatevs. If I get too much grief from it, I'll just flock it.
If you like the Buffy Season 8 comic, you won't find joy here.
I browsed the issue in the comic store. Which means I read it without buying. Snorted and shook my head when I was finished, and put it back.
My impression? If it hadn't been the last issue of a 4-year arc, it would only have been uneventful. I was annoyed by the decision to move Buffy (and Xander and Dawn) to San Francisco, because it always irks to see poorly rendered real-world geography, and even moreso where I happen to live. (Frex: the locale for the conversation between Buffy and Willow takes place on a hilltop-by-a-bridge that seems to combine elements of the Embarcadero, Dolores Park, Fort Mason, and the Marin Headlands, without being quite accurate to any of them.) But hey! San Francisco means you can make jokes about gay men, and maybe give Buffy a reason not to indulge in any romances while she patrols this particular 'hood, eh? Whatevs.
I did strike me, however, that this would've made a better first issue of that 4-year arc, with the rest of the story revealed in Memento-esque flashback. That way, we'd might've been prepared to cut Buffy some slack while she behaved in an OOC way, because we'd have already known the ending. Smallville used to make great use of this technique in its early years, playing the friendship Clark and Lex as a tragedy-yet-to-happen. Pathos! Of course, that's before the show lost me by overplaying the Clark/Lana relationship and maintaining a worshipful attiude toward Clark even when he behaved like a total tool. Because, y'know, he's gonna grow up to be Superman.
But that's, of course, armchair quarterbacking, and also doing it that way would've required the plot to have been nailed down solid ahead of time, which doesn't seem to be Whedon's working method.
I would've left it at that until I saw shapinglight's post and the letter.
First, a confession: I don't always read the letter's page in comics. Especially not the Buffy comics - a recent re-read of some issues I'd collected before this whole Season 8 debacle started up remined me that yes, Scott Allie has always had that same predeliction for printing inflammatory mail, and frankly, I don't need that much stomach acid with my leisure time reading. So I hadn't read Whedon's personal message to fans when I read the comic in store.
Now I have.
And I gotta tell you, people, that aw,-shucks Klass Klown act Whedon pulls whenever he comes under criticism makes me see red, red, red! Because it always comes down to the same message, the same one that's probably worked for him since high school: Look at me, I'm funny! I'm cute! You're not really mad at me, are you? Why are you taking all this so seriously?
Do you have Serious Questions, gentle reader? You will never receive sincere answers. In fact, your concerns will always be made light of. Any anger will be, in a jokey sort of way, demeaned and dismissed as no fun.
And you know what? That's exactly the same as what we've given in issue 40.
'Cause Buffy tried her best. She did! She made mistakes, sure, but she meant well. Everyone who truly cares about her knows that, and they forgive her. For, you know, whatever! Whatever was wrong. The only people who don't forgive her are hateful villains who try to stab her in the heart! But she'll just have to muddle on, with the support of those who really truly love her in a world that's filled with evil, humorless villains.
There you go. Issue 40 is our roadmap, the readers. It shows us the way. Buffy blames herself more than we ever could, don't you know that? Don't you feel sorry for her? Don't you want to give her (or Joss) another chance?
And our poster child, dear readers, ironically, is Spike. Who can critique her with amusing snark, but can be also reminded that he was never really invited to do so, and if he doesn't like that, can just get in his ship with his yes-man insect crew and go.
But you and I and everyone knows that he's love's bitch. He'll be back.
Will you?
If you like the Buffy Season 8 comic, you won't find joy here.
I browsed the issue in the comic store. Which means I read it without buying. Snorted and shook my head when I was finished, and put it back.
My impression? If it hadn't been the last issue of a 4-year arc, it would only have been uneventful. I was annoyed by the decision to move Buffy (and Xander and Dawn) to San Francisco, because it always irks to see poorly rendered real-world geography, and even moreso where I happen to live. (Frex: the locale for the conversation between Buffy and Willow takes place on a hilltop-by-a-bridge that seems to combine elements of the Embarcadero, Dolores Park, Fort Mason, and the Marin Headlands, without being quite accurate to any of them.) But hey! San Francisco means you can make jokes about gay men, and maybe give Buffy a reason not to indulge in any romances while she patrols this particular 'hood, eh? Whatevs.
I did strike me, however, that this would've made a better first issue of that 4-year arc, with the rest of the story revealed in Memento-esque flashback. That way, we'd might've been prepared to cut Buffy some slack while she behaved in an OOC way, because we'd have already known the ending. Smallville used to make great use of this technique in its early years, playing the friendship Clark and Lex as a tragedy-yet-to-happen. Pathos! Of course, that's before the show lost me by overplaying the Clark/Lana relationship and maintaining a worshipful attiude toward Clark even when he behaved like a total tool. Because, y'know, he's gonna grow up to be Superman.
But that's, of course, armchair quarterbacking, and also doing it that way would've required the plot to have been nailed down solid ahead of time, which doesn't seem to be Whedon's working method.
I would've left it at that until I saw shapinglight's post and the letter.
First, a confession: I don't always read the letter's page in comics. Especially not the Buffy comics - a recent re-read of some issues I'd collected before this whole Season 8 debacle started up remined me that yes, Scott Allie has always had that same predeliction for printing inflammatory mail, and frankly, I don't need that much stomach acid with my leisure time reading. So I hadn't read Whedon's personal message to fans when I read the comic in store.
Now I have.
And I gotta tell you, people, that aw,-shucks Klass Klown act Whedon pulls whenever he comes under criticism makes me see red, red, red! Because it always comes down to the same message, the same one that's probably worked for him since high school: Look at me, I'm funny! I'm cute! You're not really mad at me, are you? Why are you taking all this so seriously?
Do you have Serious Questions, gentle reader? You will never receive sincere answers. In fact, your concerns will always be made light of. Any anger will be, in a jokey sort of way, demeaned and dismissed as no fun.
And you know what? That's exactly the same as what we've given in issue 40.
'Cause Buffy tried her best. She did! She made mistakes, sure, but she meant well. Everyone who truly cares about her knows that, and they forgive her. For, you know, whatever! Whatever was wrong. The only people who don't forgive her are hateful villains who try to stab her in the heart! But she'll just have to muddle on, with the support of those who really truly love her in a world that's filled with evil, humorless villains.
There you go. Issue 40 is our roadmap, the readers. It shows us the way. Buffy blames herself more than we ever could, don't you know that? Don't you feel sorry for her? Don't you want to give her (or Joss) another chance?
And our poster child, dear readers, ironically, is Spike. Who can critique her with amusing snark, but can be also reminded that he was never really invited to do so, and if he doesn't like that, can just get in his ship with his yes-man insect crew and go.
But you and I and everyone knows that he's love's bitch. He'll be back.
Will you?