madcougar

I really liked the first two books in this series, but I agree with the previous poster. Issue 3 just didn't do it for me. And the artwork is awful. It's not easy to "match" comic book art to the real world, especially a property that's been ingrained into our brain, but I thought the artwork in the first two books was pretty good. I honestly am not familiar with the artists who drew the first two books, but there was a major drop off in talent.

areacode212

Yep, I pretty much agree with everything here. It's just too far removed from what was appealing about the series to begin with. I find it entertaining on some level, and I'll keep reading it, but like I said when it was announced, I consider the show to have ended with "Chosen" and this comic series to be Joss's fanfic project.

Xander

Huh. I thought issue three was a bit disjointed, but I still liked it.

As for the army of slayers, I always thought the ones they showed at the end sort of had the potential to become potentials. Like they were too young to be activated as potentials. I don't know. Been a while since I've watched season 7.

Super X

BTW, for those wanting to know what happens to Angel after the end of season 5, Joss Whedon is considering doing an Angel Season 6 for IDW (current publishers of Angel comics), though he wouldn't be as directly involved in the writing as he is on Buffy.

Tracer Bullet

I'd rather see those talked-about TV movies, but I know that'll never happen. With BtVS I felt like it was time for the show to go and these comics are really just icing, but Angel still had life left in it and continuing the story in a comic book seems like it's getting shafted.

Josh-da-man

Newsarama has an interview with Brian K Vaughan up where he discusses his Faith arc.

Also has the covers to issues 6, 7, and 8 and the first six pages of issue six. Looks awesome!

And it appears that Dark Horse has a sneek peak at the cover for issue 9 in their wallpaper section. And it looks like Faith is naked on it...

DarkestPhoenix

I don't think that's true, considering that Joss said in his newsarama interview that he was working something in to deal with the Immortal issue in Italy from Angel Season 5, as well as the gang being spread out across the world.

John_Shil

From Wikipedia,

And that source, a Geek Monthly interview.


Unless of course, Joss has changed his plans. But the Buffy impersonator does present a chronological problem.

Josh-da-man

I don't see a continuity problem with the double.

Presuming that "Chosen" and "Home" took place in the Spring of 2003, and "Not Fade Away" (and the events leading up to it, including "The Girl in Question") took place in Spring 2004, then that would place Buffy #1 somewhere around the fall/winter of 2004, when Buffy first made mention of the double partying in Rome with the Immortal. We don't know how long the Rome double has been around, but it doesn't really present a continuity problem.

(And, to be quite honest, there were continuity problems all over the TV series.)

John_Shil

I think my mental timeline was messed up. It's been quite a while since I've seen either show in chronological order. Either way, the Angel mini-series will hopefully clear up the timeline issues.

madcougar

I'm actually more interested in the fact that she looks

John_Shil

I think she's just

Josh-da-man

Yeah... I think she's

Anubis2005X

Anybody read all of "Season 8?" I stuck through it by reading the trade paperbacks, but dear heavens, a complete disaster overall. That last volume was just horrendous on so many levels. I think I'll just forget about these and stick with my love of the show...

Josh-da-man

I've read everything so far. (Up to issue #39.)

Started off well, but turned into a mess about halfway through.

"Long Way Home" was sort of okay, but felt like we were dropped into the middle of a story already happening.

"No Future For You" was great. Really makes me wish they had done a Faith ongoing instead of Buffy.

"Wolves at the Gate" was pretty good, too. Didn't mind the bi-curious Buffy as much as some.

"Time of Your Life" should have been great, but felt kind of ho-hum. I remember how exciting it was to see the cover to #16, with Buffy and Fray battling, but this arc never lived up to its promise.

"Predators and Prey" was a disaster. The ongoing series took about eight months off to tell what were, basically, b-stories. Absolutely killed the momentum of the series up to that point.

"Retreat" - good to see Oz again, but so much of this arc was so over-the-top that it rang hollow and didn't really feel like a Buffy story with all of the military shit going on. Soldiers and werewolves and Submarines and tanks and giant Chinese goddesses in the mountains of Tibet?

"Twilight" - (spoilered this in just in case anyone hasn't yet read it)


"Last Gleaming" - (again, spoilered, and there be some doozies in here)
This was probably the best arc in quite a while, resolving most of the plot lines up to this point, glossing over a few, and leaving the survivors to pick up the pieces.

Season Eight actually reminded me a lot of season seven, where it starts out good, drags in the middle, has a "big bad" with a murky, undefined agenda, and ultimately ends in a satisfying, if unexceptional, way.

Anubis2005X

Oh, I didn't know there was another volume (Last Gleaming). For some reason I thought Twilight was the last one. I've come this far, I might as well finish the whole thing.

Josh-da-man

"Last Gleaming" is the final arc in season eight; issue 39 just came out last week and #40, the final issue, will be out next month. The TPB will be out in June.

Supermallet

I just read through all of season eight, and on the whole, I loved it. I'm not surprised Joss went so big. I mean, look at how epic he made season seven, and now he's got an unlimited budget! He can do whatever he wants! So we saw the good and the bad of that process. I'm okay with it going so big, mainly because they kept the hearts of the characters in the right place. I know several issues of season nine are out now, and I'm going to read those, especially since Joss announced he realized over the course of eight that what people wanted wasn't superpowers but rather smaller, more personal stories.

First I'm going to read Angel: After The Fall, though. And I'm going to delve into the Angel and Faith series concurrently with season nine.

Adam Tyner

I have to admit that I found season 8 mostly unreadable, but I loved, loved, loved After the Fall.

(Sorry if I already said the exact same thing earlier in this thread. )

PhantomStranger

From what I saw of Season 8 in the motion comics, the story is largely horrible.

Supermallet

Season 8 definitely went to some strange, far out places, no doubt. But I still liked the audacity of it. And, again, season 9 is meant to be far more down to earth.

Josh-da-man

A word of advice: Go into Buffy season nine with lowered expectations.

Angel and Faith is pretty great, though.

Supermallet

Starting After The Fall now. He has a dragon. That's pretty cool.

Supermallet

After The Fall was okay. Pacing felt kind of off.

Angel and Faith, however, is the best Buffyverse story I've encountered since the TV shows went off the air.