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lilyginnyblackv2 · 2 years

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Thoughts on “Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer”

Note: This post is not spoiler free, though I don’t dive too much into plot details overall. Also, it is both long and image heavy. These are just my thoughts on the mini, please feel free to add and share your own! Now, on to the post!

I know that the “Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer” comic is non-canon, but I really loved this scene:

Joyce (Spirit) : “You know what real honor is? Being sought for your wisdom, using your experience to help others. Living out your final years, beloved by the family you’ve built.”

Buffy (Spirit) : “I haven’t done much of that.”

Joyce (Spirit) : “It’s not too late.”

She says this to Buffy as they look at Buffy’s physical form lying in Spike’s arms. Not only do I like this because it is Joyce showing approval of Buffy and Spike being together, but also because of how it ties back to the idea of family and more specifically, found family. It’s a theme that really starts to become prevalent in the series in the seasons after the high school years. And Spike has always been apart of that family, with him being the core of it here in this short mini.

I’ve only read the first few issues of the Boom!Buffy comics, so I don’t know if this AU here is following that storyline (though, it is obviously not following the world of the TV show and Darkhorse comics). But something that I did notice was that Dawn doesn’t seem to exist in this world.

In the TV show verse, Dawn’s existence forced Buffy into a parental role long before she was ready, with Spike being one of Dawn’s main protectors and caretakers. Now, here we are seeing something similar happening with Willow and Tara’s daughter, Thess. She is, in some ways, placed into a similar position as Dawn - her existence is one that will cause others, bad others, to come after her, and she has sealed magical power. Thess’ is innate magical power while Dawn’s comes from having been the Key, but it’s similar enough.

Often Dawn is seen as one of the major, key factors that brought Buffy and Spike together in Season 5. She’s a character who constantly connects them. But in this mini we see another possibility where they still hold a connection even without Dawn’s existence. And what a connection it is!

I love how Spike is shown acknowledging that Buffy is older now, different in that respect, but how that doesn’t change his feelings and attraction to her. It’s such an important thing too. Seeing older women being depicted as desirable (without making her character look ridiculously youthful for her age or something of the like):

Strong and capable:

And still being good enough and able enough to build a family, regardless of their age or abilities:

is so incredibly rare in fiction.

While I had some small issues here and there with this mini (mostly with Anya’s “voice” - it sounded like her at times, but other times the writing missed the mark), but everything surrounding Buffy as an individual character here, as well as the bond she is shown to have with Spike here is great.

There were great call backs to things, like Spike’s poetry:

And I really liked how Buffy herself became “the sun” for a brief moment. It’s something that ties in so well to the themes of fire with the Spuffy relationship. In Season 7, Spike basically becomes the sunrise and obliterates the enemy and whole town.

Here, Buffy doesn’t do quite the same level of damage, but she becomes the sunrise, just like he did. But here, spike gets to hold her and kiss her (I love how gentle the head kiss here is).

After all, to him, Buffy will always be a beautiful, glowing existence, whether she becomes the literal sunrise or not.

Bringing this back to the family theme that I started this post off with, I like how we see the characters that existed on the periphery of Buffy’s family (Anya, Tara - who is implied to be alive still in Issue #4, and Spike - for the TV show run) being the key characters to make up Buffy’s new family in this mini. Or, at least, that is the implication I got.

Family and the love, trust, and communication that is supposed to come with it, is something I feel Buffy really struggled with through the whole series. In the TV show and Darkhorse timeline, I feel that Buffy finally worked through all that, and got to a place of comfort and true found family in Season 10.

In this timeline, with this Buffy, I feel that she never got there. So now we are seeing her finally reaching that point. Her actively choosing to live and live as a non-Slayer, but with a family and life that will be decidedly not normal, is really beautiful too, and adds nice closure to Buffy’s constant struggle for “being normal” that we saw TV show! and Darkhorse! Buffy consistently being conflicted about.

As I’ve stated, I know that this a non-canon comic, and that it is short piece that kind of just drops us into this AU, but I like that aspect and think it packed a lot of interesting themes and ideas into just four issues. Unlike Season 12 (Darkhorse), which was also only four issues long, the series doesn’t allow itself to get bogged down by focusing on too many different characters and plotlines, and the plot itself is kept rather simple and teasing (in the “there is more that could be written here, but we are just going to leave the rest up to your imagination).

By keeping the plot self contained, it really allows for a strong focus to be placed on Buffy herself, and to get more of a deep dive into her thoughts, feelings, and mental state of mind/being. Basically, this short mini complements the series very well, even though it takes place in an AU world.

I would absolutely recommend it! Especially if you are a Spuffy fan. Angel is briefly mentioned, but not much time is spent on that relationship or character, and the reason for why that relationship ended up not working out is left unknown (I do have a personal guess, but I won’t post that here, this post is long enough as it is and I feel that would derail things a bit).

Anyway, like I said, I really enjoyed this little mini comic. It’s short, but overall well put together, with a nice look at Buffy as a character herself, and with some great messaging about growing older (especially in regards to a female character).

I’ve been a bit disconnected from the Buffy comics scene for a bit, so I don’t quite know what’s going on in regards to all that anymore. But I would totally be down for more stuff like this. The Buffyverse is one where AUs naturally exist, so having comics that explore different ones is so fascinating to me. There’s so much potential there! (Pun not intended, I mean it, lol).

Source for Images: Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer, Issues #3 and #4. Written by Casey Gilly and illustrations by Joe Jaro

#Spuffy #Buffy comics #Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer #Buffy Summers #Spike #William the Bloody #William Pratt #Buffy the Vampire Slayer #BTVS #Buffy comics spoilers #long post #image heavy post #also!#I love how the banter and teasing between Buffy and Spike feels here #it's all very natural feeling imo

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fantomcomics · 1 year

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What’s Out This Week? 3/1

Marching into March with a bevvy of b-e-a-utiful new books!

All Night & Every Day #1 One-Shot - Ray Fawkes & Andrea Frittella

It's time to party! While celebrating is the last thing grief-stricken introvert Michaela wants to do, her friends drag her out for the night and end up trapping her in a hellish curse: a party that never ends, with no way to escape...not even by dying!

Now she must navigate the labyrinth of the legendary Banquet Hideous all on her own and learn its terrible secrets before she is consumed forever!

And We Love You #1 - Fell Hound & Angela Wu

In the throes of a violent dystopian war, a young soldier perishes on the battlefield and begins to bleed out all her memories. Mixing heart wrenching emotions with stunningly gripping visuals, this is the tale of one woman's life, death, and the love which transcends both. A brand new epic from the world of the Ringo-nominated Commander Rao!

Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer Special - Casey Gilly, Joe Jaro & Ario Anandito

It's been 4 years, and Buffy, Angel, and Thess have been living in relative peace as a dysfunctionally cozy family. But nothing can last forever... Tara might not be dead, but they're losing hope for her staying among the living, and strange new vampires have been sighted.

To get to the bottom of these unfolding horrors, our gang will have to head underground... and face the horrifying true cause of the decline in vampire activity!

Deadfellows #1 - Kody Hamilton & Ramiro Borallo

Pete Miller has just gotten out of his two-year relationship, reeling from the chaos of it all without friends or family around. As he moves into his new awful, one-bedroom apartment Pete attempts to take his own life, but is stopped by a benevolent ghost. Moved by the kindness of this supernatural stranger, Pete sets out to bond with this ghost at all costs-but he quickly learns he doesn't understand the paranormal or their intentions.

Demon Slayer: One-Winged Butterfly GN - Aya Yajima & Koyoharu Gotouge

Shinobu and Kanae ask Himejima to teach them how to slay demons. After he refuses, they must complete the impossible task of moving a giant rock to convince him to introduce them to trainers. In other tales, Zenitsu tricks Inosuke into helping him dig a hot spring under Uzui's training, Mitsuri grapples with her reason for becoming a Demon Slayer, Genya discusses his family with Sumi, the Hashiras try to make Tomioka smile, and Kimetsu Academy forms a rock band-much to Shinobu's chagrin!

Hunt. Kill. Repeat. #1 - Mark London, Francesco Archidiacono, & Marc Deering

It's Kill Bill meets Clash of the Titans in Hunt. Kill. Repeat. The all-new, action packed series by Mark London (Battlecats, Knights of the Golden Sun). When the Greek gods invade Earth, society is quickly forced to comply with their new rulers. However, one god, Artemis, rejects her brethren's ideology and has found solace in the love of a mortal. When she is called to Olympus to answer for her betrayal, the gods strip away her godly powers and leave her for dead. Now, ten years later, Artemis is on a quest for revenge to confront her father, Zeus, for taking away everything she ever loved.

Phantom Road #1 - Jeff Lemire & Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Dom is a long-haul truck driver attempting to stay ahead of his tragic past. When he stops one night to assist Birdie, who has been in a massive car crash, they pull an artifact from the wreckage that throws their lives into fifth gear. Suddenly, a typical midnight run has become a frantic journey through a surreal world where Dom and Birdie find themselves the quarry of strange and impossible monsters.

Nayra & The Djinn GN - Iasmin Oma Ata

Nayra Mansour feels anything but at home in her New England boarding school. There's the constant pressure from her strict family, cruel bullying from her classmates, and exhausting friendship demands from Rami, the only other Muslim girl at school. Nayra has had enough. Just when she's considering transferring schools to escape it all, Marjan appears. As a djinn, a mythical creature in Arab folklore, Marjan uses their powers and wisdom to help Nayra navigate her overwhelming life. But Marjan's past in the djinn realm is fraught with secrets, guilt, and trouble that have a way of following them all the way to the human realm. And so they must face what they've done before Nayra is pulled into the mess they've made.

Muros Within Magic Walls: The Case Of The Cemetery Girl GN - Paolo Chikiamco & Borg Sinaban

Manila-the walled city recently freed from a dictator's iron-fisted rule-is a magical metropolis where monsters flit and feed along neon-lit streets. In this noir-tinged dystopian graphic novel, the capital exists in an alternate reality where myth and fantasy collide. A one-armed Taga-Sagot-a gatherer of information, an answerer of questions, a fount of knowledge-is charged with finding the missing "daughter" of a small-town mayor lost amidst the temptations of the open city, now a den of pleasure districts and corruption. In a city now governed by the mysterious Societies, tensions between the human and nonhuman inhabitants are about to hit a breaking point.

Why Are You Like This: An ArtByMoga Comic Collection - Meg Adams

Finally, comics that answer life's most pressing questions: Is my partner actually upset or just hangry? Whose turn is it to remember the reusable shopping bags? Is it appropriate to put up Halloween décor two months in advance? (Spoiler alert: Yes. Yes, it is.) From the joys of marrying your best friend to the bizarre musings of a twelve-pound pup to the humor and heartbreak of anxiety, Meg's all-too-relatable comics leave no stone unturned.

We’re All Just Fine HC - Ana Penyas

This heartfelt graphic biography is a tribute to the artist's grandmothers and a generation of women who quietly soldiered through over forty years of Fascist rule in Spain.

Artist Ana Penyas's grandmothers Maruja and Herminia live alone in their respective Spanish towns, largely neglected by their children and relatives, who never visit. But when Ana comes to see them, she realizes that these women, whose day-to-day existences now seem mundane, experienced firsthand an incredibly tumultuous and fascinating period of Spanish history.

In We're All Just Fine, Penyas weaves the memories of her grandmothers to craft a narrative quilt that pieces together what it was like for women to assimilate to Spain's dramatic political and cultural shifts in the late 1970s and '80s. The sudden transition from the authoritarian, repressive Franco regime to lively and liberating democracy was at once incredibly freeing but also destabilizing for women used to their traditional roles as dutiful housewives.

Through this intimate lens into her grandmothers' daily struggle - of their silence, the small acts of rebellion, and great gestures of resilience - Penyas gives voice to an entire generation of "invisible'' women whose stories have rarely been told. Combining collage and rough-hewn pencil drawings, and mixing past and present, Penyas offers a decidedly feminist tribute to the forgotten lives and legacies of her grandmothers.

We Live HC Vol 1 - Roy Miranda & Inaki Miranda

The year is 2084 and the world has changed. Wracked by calamities and crawling with monsters, the last remaining humans face a dangerous existence. And now, the Earth has been sent a message from the deepest reaches of space - a dark countdown to the extinction of all humanity. But there is hope! Five thousand children will be rescued by these mysterious message-senders. This is the journey of Hototo, one of the lucky five thousand - but only if his teenage sister, Tala, can safely deliver him to the nearest Beacon before time runs out.

Storyboarding For Visions Of Wim Wenders HC - Stephane Lemardele

In 2014, storyboard artist Stéphane Lemardelé began work with legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire) on his newest project, the emotional Every Thing Will Be Fine. The opening scenes Stéphane worked on would become some of the most renowned of the film, but it was the relationship he built with Wenders that would truly change him. Through this graphic novel memoir, Stéphane captures not only the production of this film but moments of artistic reflection from Wim himself as he ponders the trajectory of his career and evolution as an artist, and the use of film as a tool to examine our own humanity. This book is a rare peek behind the curtain for all fans of cinema, featuring actual storyboards from the production.

Red Zone #1 (of 4) - Cullen Bunn, Mike Deodato, Lee Loughridge & Razzah

Randall Crane, an unassuming American professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU, is called in by the US government for a secret international mission back to Russia, where his long-buried secrets come to light. When his support team of commandos is ambushed and killed, it's up to Randall to fight his way out of Russia using his "particular set of skills."

Wildheart: The Daring Adventures Of John Muir GN - Julie Bertagna & William Goldsmith

The exciting life story of John Muir-who sailed to America as a boy and ended up changing the world; told for the first time in a graphic novel. John Muir led an adventurous life, starting with his wild and playful boyhood in Scotland to his legendary exploits in America, where he became an inventor, a global explorer, and the first modern environmentalist; and even became friends with a president! His heart was always in the outdoors and he aimed to experience all he could. Most importantly, though, John Muir told the world about the wonders of nature. His words made a difference and inspired people in many countries to start protecting planet Earth-and they still do.

Whatcha scooping up to start the month, Fantom Fam?

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