Sorry for the lost month, folks.  Had some comics-related woes to work out.  But what a couple of months!

 

First off, Buffy #4 brought an end to the first arc of Season Eight, although it's not as satisfying as it might be.  The arcs are setting up like episodes, and the ending of this one isn't as solid as I had hoped, given the track record of the series.

 

The good first: great art here.  The closeup on Willow's eye alone is enough to give me nightmares.  Poor Dawn, not really able to help.  And cinnamon lip gloss!  The details are good.  The death of Ethan Rayne?  Frelling fantastic.  The word that the world is stacked against them and Buffy's response?  Perfect.

 

The problems I had with this issue stemmed from the resolution of Willow and Warren's interaction.  While it was appropriately creepy, what with Warren attempting to lobotomize her and all, there wasn't a good payoff.  A little dea ex machine, and Willow's fine?  Well, great.

  But she skinned him alive and there's still no solid resolution on her for that (and I'm counting the skin-eating demon).  Since Amy and Warren got away, I can only assume we'll be seeing them down the road, but the big scary moment at the end of the last issue with him holding the scalpel?  That was the time.  Now we're just stalling.

 

Still, it's a good setup for the rest of Season Eight, so I can't object much.

 

Issue #5 was what I was expecting when I came into the comic.  We met an OC who gave her life trying to defend some fairies and giant slugs from demons, and she didn’t do it for fame or personal gain, she did it in Buffy's name.  Like the gov't guys said a few issues ago, Buffy is becoming her own cult, and that's going to have a lot of ramifications.

 

I liked the nonlinear storytelling in this issue.  Joss has done this before, in the "Out of Gas" episode of Firefly, but it's hard to pull off in television.  The comic format allows the reader to dwell on the story and go back if necessary, and that's nice.  I liked the echoes and the changes and the art on the chain of Slayers.  I liked seeing Giles (however briefly) and I laughed out loud at the "eggs in your ear" bit.  This was a great one-shot, and Joss promises at the end there will be more.  Yay!