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Buffy S8 #33
Mar. 4th, 2010 11:58 pmFortunately I got to read the issue myself now. So here are my two cents on it.
Just to get it out there: Could the art be possibly more ugly? Angel looks like the wicked goblin! Argh! Whatever emotions the story wants to convey, the art ridicules them completely. Ok, but that's just the shell.
First we see the preview pages again, where Buffy angsts about collecting the dead slayer powers and being a vampire herself and Xander lifts her chin up again.
Then we cut to Twilight's HQ, where Faith attacks him with the forseeable result. He's an asshole about it. Generally, now that they are going to reveal him, he's starting to show a bit more personality and it's that of a complete jerk. This is clearly a version of Angel that has completely lost any regard for people. It makes me fear for Team Angel, because they would have never let him get this way, so they are most likely dead or disbanded.
Meanwhile Willow locates Twangel's HQ with Amy's help. Dawn as is being the voice of sanity to question if teaming up with the bad guys is such a good idea.
The HQ is three seconds in the future and Buffy takes of to got there.
Ok, now comes one of the interesting parts: Giles takes in Twangel's powers and seems to recognize them from some phrophesy (?) he must have read. Twangel has obviously read the same text, he says, every watcher must have wondered if his girl is 'the one' and Giles more than most. Finding out more about that particular prophesy was also the reason why Giles tripped around europe.
I figure next issue is going to release a new bit of mythology, probably about the superspecul slayer that will end magic forever, or bring back the demons or bear the new messiah or whatever. Hm, not happy with this. Buffy is the sole chosen one again. The interesting bit about the slayer spell was that she was no longer the only one, that she could share responsibility now, that the fight against the demons is no longer a lost cause. So this is basically giving everyone a level up but changing nothing about the status quo. Meh.
Twangel blames Giles for not telling Buffy, but it seems that until she got the powers it was only a theory on his part and one that's probably so ugly that he didn't want to tell her unless he was really sure. So no traitor Giles. Good thing.
Andrew dresses up as a mix of Batman, the punisher, Luke Skywalker, captain america and iron man and starts another pointless attack on Twangel. I approve of puttig all the boring comic book references on one page and then being over with it.
Buffy attacks, she pushes Twangel out of the building and snarks to him about calling himself Twilight like the SM books, which Buffy "lived" first. Ugh. Really she has that low an opinion of herself and her lovelife? Come on it wasn't that bad. Anyway, when she states her vampire was cooler, Twangel pulls of the mask and Buffy is shocked and goes throught the stages of denial that are to be expected.
If the art is anything at all to go by, Angel looks very insane and evil without the mask. She suspects Angelus, but he tells her he's not.
She says: "Stop talking, you're best asset always was that you weren't a talker" I kinda like that line. It's very Buffy.
She doesn't hesitate a second to try to stake him but it doesn't work. As Angel is floating around maskless in broad daylight it's hard to tell if even is a vampire anymore.
Buffy accuses him of being responsible for lots of her dead slayers and he responds that he actually did damage controll, because the nations would have tried to take her down, before she could become too powerfull. I hope we're really not meant to buy that and this is Twangel taking another stab at manipulating Buffy by ruining her moral certainty. Because we've seen Twangel kill for completely pointless reasons throughout the season. Show beats tell.
He mentions that the slayer spell upset the ballance, the same tropes he threw at her in ABS. Again more tell than show, because the ballance was horribly off to begin with. One slayer against hords of demons, doomed to die early and never with a chance to really stop them? If I try to see that within the feminist metaphore it sounds like a man complaining that the good old time, when women stayed at home, wanted no money of their own and could be beaten, are over.
He goes on and on about how their power does not come from the dead slayers and how it connects them, how it's their promised good ending, how he had to push her to get her into this state. It's all extremely creepy, patronizing and he sounds pretty much mad.
Then they start to sparkle glow. Angel goes on about how the glow connects them, how they belong together, how they were always meant for each other and could never be happy with anyone else. The whole bit reminds me of Twilight in numerous creepy ways: The patronizing lover, the fight, where one person knows the move of the other, the sparkle, the imprinting.
Buffy looks subdued and makes a last effort to resist the power with rational thinking. She says, "you don't know me, like you used too", something again that rings very true to me. But again he talks about their destined connection and finally her eyes glaze over (if the art on the last page is anything to go by) and she kisses Goblin Angel. Remember that fake preview page? It looked a lot better there.
Than there's a sonic boom and Willow states they are fucking now.
So now, what do I make out of this. Honestly not much, it all feels so wrong (and with enough glimpses of right) that it can't possibly be the whole story. So basically wait and see is the premise, same as every month.
Concerning the shipping angle: Hm, is it bad to be happy that this didn't happen to a ship I like? Bangel is compared to Twilight for good reason here , just that it is the dark twisted version that it probably should be.
Some twisted similarities to both Twilight and the initial Bangel relationship:
*) Angel has superpowers - but humans mean nothing to him anymore
*) He starts to explain the world to Buffy - but he downplays his own evil, lies and tries to controll her
*) He manages to subdue her by talking about a mystical connection between them, it takes all her sense of self away.
*) They sparkle together and Angel basically explains they're imprinted on each other.
*) Usually Angel reduces Buffy to a little admiring girl, this time he reduces her to a zombie.
This is all a feminist ideal of an equal relationship is not and I can't believe Joss has not introduced it to subvert it. Angel is evil, that's plain as day and if their love came from a mystical influence how real was it in the first place? A humanist ideal is not a being that is pinballed by destiny but one that rises above this and makes his/her own decissions. So really, I can't be worried because of all the Bangeling because it's so twisted it allmost becomes interesting.
It's to early to say much about Angel, is he under a mystical influence himself? What happend to the fang gang? Hard to tell, it's all very "shiny happy people". I'm afraid, all the develpoment he had on his own show might be trashed here and that would be a shame.
And the plot? Are they going to make another mystical baby, that will shut out magic? Will they have a magic threesome with Spike and impregnate him with a penguin? I honestly have no idea. Well at least something is moving now and the comic is picking up speed.
Just to get it out there: Could the art be possibly more ugly? Angel looks like the wicked goblin! Argh! Whatever emotions the story wants to convey, the art ridicules them completely. Ok, but that's just the shell.
First we see the preview pages again, where Buffy angsts about collecting the dead slayer powers and being a vampire herself and Xander lifts her chin up again.
Then we cut to Twilight's HQ, where Faith attacks him with the forseeable result. He's an asshole about it. Generally, now that they are going to reveal him, he's starting to show a bit more personality and it's that of a complete jerk. This is clearly a version of Angel that has completely lost any regard for people. It makes me fear for Team Angel, because they would have never let him get this way, so they are most likely dead or disbanded.
Meanwhile Willow locates Twangel's HQ with Amy's help. Dawn as is being the voice of sanity to question if teaming up with the bad guys is such a good idea.
The HQ is three seconds in the future and Buffy takes of to got there.
Ok, now comes one of the interesting parts: Giles takes in Twangel's powers and seems to recognize them from some phrophesy (?) he must have read. Twangel has obviously read the same text, he says, every watcher must have wondered if his girl is 'the one' and Giles more than most. Finding out more about that particular prophesy was also the reason why Giles tripped around europe.
I figure next issue is going to release a new bit of mythology, probably about the superspecul slayer that will end magic forever, or bring back the demons or bear the new messiah or whatever. Hm, not happy with this. Buffy is the sole chosen one again. The interesting bit about the slayer spell was that she was no longer the only one, that she could share responsibility now, that the fight against the demons is no longer a lost cause. So this is basically giving everyone a level up but changing nothing about the status quo. Meh.
Twangel blames Giles for not telling Buffy, but it seems that until she got the powers it was only a theory on his part and one that's probably so ugly that he didn't want to tell her unless he was really sure. So no traitor Giles. Good thing.
Andrew dresses up as a mix of Batman, the punisher, Luke Skywalker, captain america and iron man and starts another pointless attack on Twangel. I approve of puttig all the boring comic book references on one page and then being over with it.
Buffy attacks, she pushes Twangel out of the building and snarks to him about calling himself Twilight like the SM books, which Buffy "lived" first. Ugh. Really she has that low an opinion of herself and her lovelife? Come on it wasn't that bad. Anyway, when she states her vampire was cooler, Twangel pulls of the mask and Buffy is shocked and goes throught the stages of denial that are to be expected.
If the art is anything at all to go by, Angel looks very insane and evil without the mask. She suspects Angelus, but he tells her he's not.
She says: "Stop talking, you're best asset always was that you weren't a talker" I kinda like that line. It's very Buffy.
She doesn't hesitate a second to try to stake him but it doesn't work. As Angel is floating around maskless in broad daylight it's hard to tell if even is a vampire anymore.
Buffy accuses him of being responsible for lots of her dead slayers and he responds that he actually did damage controll, because the nations would have tried to take her down, before she could become too powerfull. I hope we're really not meant to buy that and this is Twangel taking another stab at manipulating Buffy by ruining her moral certainty. Because we've seen Twangel kill for completely pointless reasons throughout the season. Show beats tell.
He mentions that the slayer spell upset the ballance, the same tropes he threw at her in ABS. Again more tell than show, because the ballance was horribly off to begin with. One slayer against hords of demons, doomed to die early and never with a chance to really stop them? If I try to see that within the feminist metaphore it sounds like a man complaining that the good old time, when women stayed at home, wanted no money of their own and could be beaten, are over.
He goes on and on about how their power does not come from the dead slayers and how it connects them, how it's their promised good ending, how he had to push her to get her into this state. It's all extremely creepy, patronizing and he sounds pretty much mad.
Then they start to sparkle glow. Angel goes on about how the glow connects them, how they belong together, how they were always meant for each other and could never be happy with anyone else. The whole bit reminds me of Twilight in numerous creepy ways: The patronizing lover, the fight, where one person knows the move of the other, the sparkle, the imprinting.
Buffy looks subdued and makes a last effort to resist the power with rational thinking. She says, "you don't know me, like you used too", something again that rings very true to me. But again he talks about their destined connection and finally her eyes glaze over (if the art on the last page is anything to go by) and she kisses Goblin Angel. Remember that fake preview page? It looked a lot better there.
Than there's a sonic boom and Willow states they are fucking now.
So now, what do I make out of this. Honestly not much, it all feels so wrong (and with enough glimpses of right) that it can't possibly be the whole story. So basically wait and see is the premise, same as every month.
Concerning the shipping angle: Hm, is it bad to be happy that this didn't happen to a ship I like? Bangel is compared to Twilight for good reason here , just that it is the dark twisted version that it probably should be.
Some twisted similarities to both Twilight and the initial Bangel relationship:
*) Angel has superpowers - but humans mean nothing to him anymore
*) He starts to explain the world to Buffy - but he downplays his own evil, lies and tries to controll her
*) He manages to subdue her by talking about a mystical connection between them, it takes all her sense of self away.
*) They sparkle together and Angel basically explains they're imprinted on each other.
*) Usually Angel reduces Buffy to a little admiring girl, this time he reduces her to a zombie.
This is all a feminist ideal of an equal relationship is not and I can't believe Joss has not introduced it to subvert it. Angel is evil, that's plain as day and if their love came from a mystical influence how real was it in the first place? A humanist ideal is not a being that is pinballed by destiny but one that rises above this and makes his/her own decissions. So really, I can't be worried because of all the Bangeling because it's so twisted it allmost becomes interesting.
It's to early to say much about Angel, is he under a mystical influence himself? What happend to the fang gang? Hard to tell, it's all very "shiny happy people". I'm afraid, all the develpoment he had on his own show might be trashed here and that would be a shame.
And the plot? Are they going to make another mystical baby, that will shut out magic? Will they have a magic threesome with Spike and impregnate him with a penguin? I honestly have no idea. Well at least something is moving now and the comic is picking up speed.
