Amph Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel book/comic book discussion

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"Visitors" by Laura Gilman and Josepha Sherman.

The story takes place during season three and finds many things happening at once. Angel warns Buffy of a new threat in Sunnydale, before retreating into the shadows. She and the Scooby Gang discover that the threat is a korred, a demon that plays its song and gets people to dance to their deaths. Kinda like Sweet in "Once More With Feeling", minus the fire. However, other problems crop up. A Watcher named Gerald Panner is keeping tabs on Giles, trying to determine if he is doing a good job as Buffy's Watcher. Ethan Rayne is back in town causing mischeif. And several student teachers are occupying the library, which makes it difficult to hold meetings in there. Not to mention that each student teacher is giving Buffy a major wiggins, especially when one seems to know more than she should about the supernatural.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in this one. While the setting moves closer to how season three actually went, it's not enough to make this an enjoyable read. Namely the plot involving the student teachers which was resolved in an anti-climatic way for me. The korred is fine, but not a true big bad. Especially coming off the Gatekeeper story arc. I think you can skip this one.

Next review is "Immortal".

 

JOSS WHEDON TALKS SEASON 8 BUFFY

In speaking with Entertainment Weekly?s (and occasional comic writer) Jeff Jensen, Joss Whedon revealed more details on the March-debuting return of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to comics.

As revealed previously, the new series, to be published by Dark Horse and illustrated by Georges Jeanty (with covers by Jo Chen), will pick up after season seven of the television series, making the new series a canonical Season 8. Dark Horse Buffy editor Scott Allie announced at San Diego that Whedon, at that time, had roughly 20 issues mapped out.

?I don't know exactly why it or how it happened,? Whedon told Jensen. ?I just thought, 'Oh, I could do that! It would be fun!' It happens to me every now and then, and causes me to commit to things I really don't have time for.''

In talking about the new series, Whedon confirmed that the project?s roots go back to a plan to continue Buffy on film. ''I had been thinking about doing some TV movies based on Buffy characters, but we could never get anything resembling financing together that was realistic, so it fell by the wayside,? Whedon said. ?But that whole failed endeavor made me start thinking about what would happen next, and what the stories and mythology would be. I realized there was a lot to say, and it could make for a really fun comic book.''

Whedon will write the first four issues of the new series, and will then pull back to oversee other writers on the project, modeling it after television production. While the bulk of the writers coming on the series had not been named, it has been revelaed elsewhere that Jeph Loeb has signed on for an arc.

Other hints from Whedon about the new series:

- The thousands of girls who were empowered by Buffy at the end of Season 7 ? still empowered. But that doesn?t mean there?re no more problems: ?She may have closed the Hellmouth under Sunnydale and defeated The First. But evil? Still rampant!''

- The comic will deal with Buffy?s time aboard, as she was revealed to have been in Italy during Angel.

- Ideas that Whedon once held for a possible television spinoff unofficially entitled ?Slayer School? will make it into the new series, especially now that there are thousands of new slayers the world over.

- The Scooby Gang will be back?but slowly, as time has passed and the audience will, according to Whedon, have to re-learn who these people are at this later point in their respective lives. Whedon said he wants to give everyone the entrance they deserve. ?Over the course of my four-issue arc, you'll get a sense of where most of our major supporting characters are now.?

- Angel and Spike will be used, but sparingly, due to IDW holding the comic rights to the characters. Additionally, the new series will not resolve what happened at the cliffhanger ending of Angel.

 

Arrrgh, I don't at this time have the moneies for comics, though would love to see a season 8. Just getting through the books.

Moster Island was pretty good, definitely felt like an episode. Now I'm reading The Book Of Fours which is an interesting read. Lots of talk about the Ghost Roads which I haven't read yet, must find it.

 

I'll be doing "The Book Of Fours" soon. But the gist of it is be aware, you might not like it.

 

Does anyone know if the spotlights that IDW have released will be collected in a single TPB?

 

I read The Book of Fours and Monster Island. Neither were very good; none of the Buffy books I've read are.

What was the cliffhanger ending of Angel? I never got to see the last season.

Also, any word on if Buffy and Angel are going to get together ever? I know they weren't at the end of Angel, but if there's a new comic series, I can hope

 

Now I quite enjoyed Monster Island and The Book of Fours. Just finished up with Ghoul Trouble ann [b[Unnatural Selection[/b[ and liked them as well.

Granted, I'm just having so much fun being in Buffy's world again I'm most forgiving.

 

In the final episode of Angel, the Fang Gang that's left (Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illryia) have succeeded in destroying the Senior Partners Earth bound representitives, the Circle Of The Black Thorn. Unfortunately, this angered them and they launched an army of demons to kill them. Trapped behind the Hyperion, Gunn is dying and they're outnumbered. Angel says that he wants to slay the dragon and that it's time to go to work. It ends with Angel blocking a sword attack from a demon.

As I posted from Whedon earlier, Buffy will not be with either vampire with a soul, since they're under the IDW banner.

 

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"Immortal" by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder.

Set in season three, following "Lover's Walk" and "Ammends", this story begins in the Sunnydale cemetary. Buffy, Xander and Giles are trying to dust vampires when they are attacked by another vampire who is very brazen. She's not afraid of Buffy and promises that this isn't the end. We are introduced to Veronique, a vampire who long ago struck a deal with the Triumvirate, a trio of demons that want to be reborn on Earth much like Jasmine, to gain immortality. This consists of siring a new vampire and then transfering her essence into the body of the newly sired vampire, so that she wakes up in control. No matter how many times you stake her, she will return so long as she has a new body to inhabit that was sired by her or one of her paramours. She was defeated once, long ago by a Slayer who managed to trap her on a deserted island. But now she's back and ready to use the Hellmouth to finish what she's started. And Buffy's got problems as Joyce has visited her doctor, who thinks she might be ill. This throws Buffy off her game.

This story is a good one, IMO. It builds off of the Gatekeeper Trilogy as we see Lucy Hanover. Everyone is in character here. This is the first hardcover novel and it is the only one in the series to have an audio book, read by Charisma Carpenter. It is interesting that Golden and Holder unknowingly forshadowed Joyce's actual illness, before it happened in the show. A nice little set up, if you ask me. As before, Faith is not in this. Nor is the Mayor or Trick.

 

Don't mean to throw an elf in the pond and all, but how does one read a Buffy book knowing she'll always make it alive?

 

How does one watch a prequel or read a book prequel? You don't worry if someone does or doesn't make it. You look to the other aspects. If the story entertains you. If they come up with a story that doesn't affect the established continuity all that much. If they explore things that are not touched upon in the latter day stories or in this case, the actual continuity of the story. You know that they'll survive virtually unschated, though you can put Angel and Spike through all kinds of pain and they'll heal in time for the next episode of the series.

I mean, aside from when Buffy actually died in season five and nearly died in season seven, it was a given that she'd live through anything tossed at her. So long as the show's ratings held up and Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't quit. The only time there was a surprise death, was in "Prophecy Girl" and that didn't last long.

 

Where's the drama, suspense, the edge of tension? England's queen, Erikson will kill even the most popular and untouchable characters, any time, no warning. They're worlds apart, true, but is that what Buffy book only are: generic, fast food, not designed for substance?

 

These books are companion pieces to the show. They're not meant to carry on like the Star Wars books. They're there to entertain with stories that can stand on their own, in the greater context of the series. So, in a way, it is not "designed for substance".

There is no edge of tension with the Buffy and Angel characters, because the stories are set during the series. And you cannot kill a main character, who is alive on the show. Not to mention that Joss Whedon has no involvement in the books, where such decisions could take place. The only edge of tension will come in Whedon's own comic stories such as "Fray" and the upcoming Buffy series. And that's because they're both set after the series, which frees up continuity. And because he approves over what happens.

 

I, like darth-sinister, consider them to be supplimental material to the shows. The non-canon status is probably part of the reason- only a handful of comics are considered canon when the rest of the comics, all the books, and the games are not canon. The shows themselves have quite a few character deaths. Angel season five for example killed three characters that were or used to be main cast members. Only bad thing is Whedon is a major resurrectionists. It isn't limited to just Buffyverse has Whedon has resurrected characters in the Alien verse and on his run for Astonishing X-Men.

 

Fox was the one who wanted Ripley back and it was Marvel that wanted Colossus back. Though, he jokenly said that he'd bring back Gert when he takes over "Runaways".

 

Yeah, Alien Resurrection kinda made Rippley's bath a mere soak in the water. Probbaly just followed the movie cue, that nothing is really dead. Hey, it's sci fi, right?

 

Fox wanted Ripley and Whedon was faced with two choices. Doing a dream like in the show "Dallas", where the third film was just Ripley in her cryotube dreaming the whole thing. The other was cloning her, using the EEV scans and DNA from Fury 161. He felt that the dream was a copout and that a clone would present an interesting perspective.

 

Preview pages of the new Buffy comic. From TV Guide.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Back: The Complete Joss Whedon Q&A
by Ileane Rudolph

Buffy: Season 8
Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan alert ? the Scooby Gang lives! If you've been waiting since 2003 for the answer to little sister Dawn's series-ending question ("What are we gonna do now?"), it's finally on its way. Creator Joss Whedon is preparing Buffy: Season 8, but this time around the adventures are in comic-book form, arriving in March 2007 from Dark Horse Comics. We talked to Whedon about Buffy, today's TV and his many other projects.
TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to do an entire eighth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a comic-book series?
Joss Whedon: Well, I'm not that bright. I keep thinking that I have all this free time that I don't have. It started going in my brain ? "Wouldn't it be fun if... " and, "You could... " while the other voice was saying, "It's death. I'm out of control. I'm already writing." So I basically said, "We could do something and for once we could make it canon. We could make it officially what happened after the end of the show." Let Buffy not only address certain themes that slipped between the cracks of the show, but also really be a comic book. Take the template of the show, but not so religiously that they're all standing in the Magic Box, talking, for 10 pages.

TVGuide.com: Did you have a concept for the eighth season already mapped out in your head after the sort of sudden cancellation of the series? Or did it come about after the nixing of the much talked-about spin-off movies?
Whedon: The show was not canceled suddenly ? I knew that the show would not go past seven years, that I could not go past seven years. I had originally intended to go only five, but once it was clear that we were going to do more than five, both Sarah [Michelle Gellar] and I, and all the other actors, knew that seven was it. But the idea of doing movies about some of the ancillary characters got me really excited, because I love those actors and I love that world. That kind of fell through, but when I started working on the comic... I sketched out this sort of broad arc that would connect everything. Now it will probably only appear on the comic-book pages, but it will be really well drawn. George Jeanty (The American Way) is the artist.

TVGuide.com: How many issues will there be? And how many are you writing?
Whedon: The season should run between 20 and 30 issues, I'm guessing. It has, like the [TV] seasons did, an overriding story with an ending point. I'll be writing the beginning, the first four, the last four, and I'll definitely be doing some others. I have a bunch of other writers ? comic-book heavies and former writers from the show ? who are going to write the other issues. I'll be overseeing the whole thing, and they've all got my giant mission statement about what the giant arc is about.

TVGuide.com: What is the giant arc about?
Whedon: I'm not going to tell you that. But I can tell you that it's about the ramifications of everything that happened in Season 7. At the end of the show, Buffy made every girl who might be a potential vampire slayer into a fully realized slayer with all the remembered history and powers, so she's made a big change in the way the world works. The comic will be dealing with that when we pick up the story several months later.

TVGuide.com: So there's an army of slayers... going up against whom? Who or what are the main bad guys?
Whedon: There are, not surprisingly, monsters, because that's what they generally fight, but what we found out early on in the show is that the scariest thing in the world is other people. But at the same time, it is a comic book and it has to step up in terms of kind of being epic.

TVGuide.com: What's the main thing you can do with a comic that you couldn't do on a network TV show?
Whedon: Well, the thing we couldn't do on my network TV show ? you can do a lot on a show these days, if you have money ? is really go anywhere, and let the visuals complement th

 

Don't mean to throw an elf in the pond and all, but how does one read a Buffy book knowing she'll always make it alive?


To me it's no different than re-reading a book or re-watching a movie. While I'm involved, it's the journey that I'm focused on, not the outcome. Plus, it's the characters I want to see mor of anyway. Main reason I love fanfic the way I do.

Thanks for the intreview Sinister. Great to hear what's going on.

 

I got the second and third Wicked Willow books from the library (for some reason they didn't have the first). I've finished the second one, and it isn't half bad. Just started the third, but I heard the ending is a major copout.

 

That's due to the editors wanting the ending to go a different way than what Yvonne Navarro wanted to go.

 

It seems Brian K. Vaughan will be doing a 4-issue stint on Season 8 as well.

 

Not surprising. Since both work at Marvel and have interacted.

 

We're doing a couple here.

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"The Origin" by Christopher Golden, Dan Breneton & Joe Bennett. Based on the screenplay by Joss Whedon. As we all know, Joss Whedon had made Buffy for a feature film. And we all know that Whedon was not happy about how it turned out. He expressed dismay on more than one occassion. In 1999, Dark Horse agreed to let Golden and Breneton tell their version of the origin. Whedon did read it and while he took issue with a few things inside, he did enjoy and sees it as canonical. Here now is the story.

In 1996, Buffy Summers finds herself confronted by Merrick Jamieson-Smythe of the Watchers Council. She learns of her destiny as the Slayer. Reluctantly, she accepts her destiny to fight the vampires and other forces of darkness. When the self proclaimed Vampire King Lothos shows up, Buffy finds herself face-to-fang face with a man who has killed more Slayers than Angelus and Spike. With Merrick dead, Buffy must pair up with a guy named Pike to save everyone at the school dance.

Golden and company made many changes to fit with the series timeline.

-Vampires are now like they are in the series. Though, in the early Dark Horse comics they tended to turn into fully demonic looking vampire bat creatures. Kinda like in "From Dusk Til Dawn" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula".

-Buffy, Merrick and Buffy's parents all look like the actors who portrayed them in the series. Everyone else, however, do not look like the actors from the film. Hank and Joyce are mentioned by name. Buffy is a freshman rather than a senior.

-Buffy's first meeting with Merrick is a recreation of the flashback from "Becoming: Part One". There is no cameo by Angel watching her.

-Merrick's discussions about the role of the Slayer and her Watcher were altered to fit those found in the show. References to the Council, demons, witches and other creatures that the Slayer must eliminate.

-Merrick's death is as it was originally written by Whedon. He commits suicide to prevent being sired by Lothos, rather than being stabbed with a stake.

-During the final battle, Buffy burns the school gym down to get the rest of the vampires.

-The original ending Whedon had wrote is used here. After the dance, we flash forward to some time after graduation for the senior class. We see the survivors relate the story to those who were not there that night. And comments are made about Buffy's parents offering to send her to Hawaii. Unlike the original screenplay, Buffy turns it down. It's also mentioned that they know of her parents divorce. We see why Buffy turned it down as she and Pike headed to Las Vegas to track a nest of vampires. The final part features Buffy telling the story to Willow and Xander. This was added to tie the whole thing together. Buffy is asked what happens and she promises to tell them later.

That story was covered in the subsequent stories, shown below.

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Unfortunately, I have not read them so I cannot review them. But I did read the book below.

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"Sins Of The Father" by Christopher Golden. Set after "Gingerbread", the story starts with Buffy, Willow and Xander on patrol together. They are attacked by vampires and just as it looks like Buffy is about to lose, she is rescued by the last person she ever thought to see; Pike. We learn that Pike and Buffy went to Vegas to take out a nest of vampires and wound up running afoul of a demon. This battle resulted in Pike deciding that he had enough of this life and left Buffy to return to L.A.. Now, however, he's in Sunnydale looking for help. Weeks earlier, Pike had discovered that some of his friends were conjuring up a rock demon. Only the demon turned on them. Pi

 

News from Scott Allie, vie newsarama:

"Of course, one of our biggest events of the year is the new launch of Buffy in March, overseen by Joss Whedon, who's writing the first, middle, and last arc. The second series, after Joss's initial four, is going to feature Faith, and it'll be written by Brian K. Vaughan. We're real jazzed about that. Brian's the most exciting your writer on the scene for me -- Ex Machina's my favorite book right now, which led us to using Tony [Harris] on covers for Conan for a while. So having Brian follow Joss really cuts the pain of not having Joss write the whole thing himself. After that, Jeph Loeb will be on the book, and some writers from the show -- so we're getting the best possible people to run this series. Working with Joss opens doors."