I hate to say it, but I think Issue 7 is where Season 9 jumps the shark. Issue 6 tempted us with a potentially juicy plotline with plenty of character development. But in this issue, Buffy and Spike kvetch about their relationship for the billionth time, giant bugs fly around in spaceships, and the issue ends on a truly facepalm-worthy note.

At the end of issue 6, Buffy decided to have an abortion after discovering that she had become pregnant. Rather than follow up on that dramatic decision right away, Issue 7 opens with a pointless scene involving Buffy’s inane roommates (apparently, their names are ‘Tumble’ and ‘Anaheed,’ but I prefer to think of them as ‘Hipster Chick’ and ‘Guy Who Looks Like Stephen Stills from Scott Pilgrim’).

Earlier, they freaked out when they learned that they were living with the Slayer and decided to vote her out of the apartment a la Survivor. But lo and behold, both of them ended up voting in Buffy’s favor when push came to shove. They go to tell Buffy about her reprieve, only to find her stuff in boxes.

It turns out that Buffy has found some new digs. She is now living on an alien spaceship belonging to Spike, her on-again/off-again vampire sex toy. Not only does Spike have a spaceship, but it is crewed by a bunch of giant talking bugs. After some more pregnancy angst (which seems like more of a plot device than genuine emotion), Buffy segues neatly into relationship angst with Spike.

Buffy whines about her desire for a normal life, Spike complains that Buffy is using him, and I roll my eyes because we have all heard this conversation a billion times before. Seriously, these two are stuck in some sort of emotional Groundhog Day where they are doomed to have the same arguments over and over — and over again. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes all of Buffy’s relationships.

Since this is, after all, an issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there has to be a battle. Sure enough, Detective Dowling soon comes under attack by a bunch of zompires. Like all law enforcement officials in the Buffyverse, he is incompetent and unable to defend himself, so he radios Spike for help. Spike naturally obliges (he is, after all, the new Sensitive Spike™, complete with soul), though he makes Buffy stay behind because of her ‘condition.’ Buffy watches the battle from aboard the spaceship until she remembers that she is the title character and jumps into the fray.

Naturally, she kicks butt, and afterward she and Spike end up having a romantic scene amidst the carnage, and we get to see them natter on about their relationship some more. *Sigh* Just as it is revealed that they both want normal lives, Plot Contrivance rears its ugly head, and a random zompire jumps up and rips Buffy’s arm off. Instead of screaming frantically before passing out due to blood loss, Buffy just stands there looking confused. No, it is not because of her hardy Slayer constitution. Apparently, Buffy is a robot!

This issue felt like a gigantic letdown. Having Buffy grapple with an unexpected pregnancy could have interjected a strong human element to the comic. Instead, we are subjected to a mélange of tired tropes. Spike’s spaceship and its bug crew seem like they were lifted from the pages of a bad sci-fi comic, and Buffy-like robots were done to death on the TV show. To series newcomers, the ending might have been a shock, but series veterans are liable to roll their eyes at yet another Buffybot.

In one of the last panels, ‘Buffy’ says that “I think this means I’m not pregnant,” which suggests that writer Andrew Chambliss could be using the Buffybot as a way to extricate himself from the Buffy-is-pregnant plotline. I suppose it could have been worse: she could have woken up and realized it was all just a dream. Still, it will be a shame if such an intriguing plotline is cut short so abruptly.

The article Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9, Issue 7 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Throughout her young life, Buffy has faced all sorts of challenges. Not only has she saved the world innumerable times, fought a smorgasbord of vicious hellspawn, and experienced the drama of romancing the undead, but she has also come back from the dead on two separate occasions. This is a woman who has literally been there, done that. But now the Powers That Be have decided to throw a new challenge at her: a baby.

At the end of the last issue, we saw a shocked Buffy contemplating a positive result on a home pregnancy test. In this issue, Buffy struggles to come to terms with the fact that she is going to have a baby. An unplanned pregnancy would be frightening enough for any woman, but for Buffy, it is even more catastrophic. Being a Slayer pretty much precludes her from having a normal life, even in this crazy post-Seed world.

Buffy ends up turning to Robin Wood, who fans may remember as the principal of Sunnydale High during the final season of the TV show. His mother Nikki was a Slayer too, and she also found herself unwed and pregnant. She wrestled with the question of whether or not to have her baby.

Robin tells Buffy how stressful it was having a Slayer for a mother. Each night he would lie in bed, waiting to see if his mother would actually make it home alive. Nikki’s Watcher offered her the chance to put down her stake and give up slaying, but in the end she could not resist her calling. That proved to be her undoing, and she was eventually killed by Spike.

Robin’s tale naturally makes Buffy doubt the wisdom of having a baby, but he insists that she can do it. He points out that she has already been through so much more, and that she has a close-knit bunch of friends who will help her out. Buffy, however, does not share his optimism, and the issue ends with her deciding to have an abortion.

Spike has some scenes of his own in this issue, and we are reminded once again that he still has feelings for Buffy. It looks like he may have finally screwed up the courage to tell her how he feels, but his announcement is preempted by her decision to have an abortion. Which is really too bad, considering it might have ended one of the series’ more annoying subplots. I have never been a fan of Spike, and his incessant angst over his relationship with Buffy got old a long time ago.

I was starting to have my doubts about Season 9, but this new storyline has me interested again. It could have very easily become a Very Special Episode, but scriptwriter Andrew Chambliss handles the material sensitively without resorting to melodrama or histrionics. The new focus on real-life issues reminds me of vintage Buffy, and it will be interesting to see how the writers handle Buffy’s pregnancy.

Personally, I would love to see her actually have the baby. It would take the series in an interesting new direction, and it would certainly be a lot more interesting than if she just decides to have an abortion. It would be nice if Buffy finally got to be a full-fledged adult, and motherhood might just do the trick.

The article Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9, Issue 6 Review appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Dark Horse Comics has released Issue 4 of their ongoing continuation of the cult TV show, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. When we last left our heroine, she had been betrayed by her erstwhile ally, Severin. The issue begins with a flashback showing Severin working his mojo on a vampire in a bid to gain information about his girlfriend, Alessandra. He seems to be able to steal magic from vampires, but in doing so, he kills the underlying human.

A mysterious stranger told Severin that he needed to destroy Buffy. As he lunges to attack her and steal her power, he taunts her in typical Buffy-villain fashion. As they grapple, both the San Francisco Police Department and her former vampire love interest, Spike, converge on her. The former plan to arrest her, while the latter is trying desperately to save her.

This issue turned out to be a bit of a letdown, actually. The writers seemed to be treading water throughout much of the text, and the fight between Buffy and Severin was not terribly dramatic. A bunch of panels showing Severin gripping Buffy while mysterious green energy dances around them does not make for a very compelling fight. It almost felt like the fight scenes were being used as filler in between the scenes that were happening elsewhere in the city.

I do not want to give away too many spoilers, but the end of the issue wraps up the ‘Buffy as fugitive’ plot arc in a way that just felt rushed. It seemed to end because the writers needed it to end, rather than ending in a natural fashion.

The dialogue also seemed to suffer in this issue. There were a number of instances where writer Andrew Chambliss seemed to be trying too hard to capture Joss Whedon’s famed Buffyspeak (worst line of the issue: “I’ve just got to keep with the fighty until you use up all your snap, crackle, and pop.”) With Whedon, it seemed natural; with Chambliss, it tends to feel contrived.

In my review of Issue 3, I noted that the characters sometimes did not resemble the actors who played them on TV. That problem is even more pronounced in Issue 4. Willow has a brief walk-on part towards the end, but you would be hard-pressed to tell that she was once played by Alyson Hannigan. Buffy’s resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar is also at an  all-time low in this issue, and she still tends to look like she is twelve years old.

OVERALL GRADE: B-

The article Comic Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 – Issue 4 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.