Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer season 8 #1 ::
by William the Bloody
When last we left Buffy and the Scooby gang at the end of the television series season 7...
The Hellmouth of Sunnydale was on the verge of opening and letting loose all kinds of bad stuff upon the world. In order to even the odds, witch craft mistress Willow untapped the latent abilities to all of the "potential slayers" the world over, thus giving Buffy and her friends a small fighting force to be reckoned with. Vampire with a soul Spike donned a mystical amulet which channeled an energy of purity through him, killing all of the evil creatures in the immediate vicinity and basically imploding the Hellmouth, which in turn made Sunnydale a giant hole in the ground. Not everyone made it out alive, but those who did face the question: what do we do now? Buffy smiles.
That was in 2003. It is now 2007, and the comic book allows for these years to have passed. In these four years, Buffy and her friends have been accumulating as many of the new slayers as will join them in the never ending fight against evil. There is no more official Watcher's Council, so the crew have set up their own means of organization, mainly based out of Scotland. The slayers they've managed to recruit have all been divided up into squads all over Europe and the world. The book opens up with Buffy and her squad storming in on a demon ritual. The monsters appeared to have several human victims on hand, but after vanquishing their foes, closer inspection of the bodies uncover symbols etched into their chests, most likely self inflicted. It also looks as though the humans wanted to be there with the demons. What does that symbol mean and what sort of secrets will it uncover?
The Good: Pssssst. Hey. C'mere. Closer..... IT'S JOSS WHEDON writing his own characters! What's not to immediately start drooling over? I ask you? Joss brings up an interesting point about the slayers fighting evil world wide in their squads: some government types might get the wrong idea and think they themselves are up to evil stuff. Makes you go Hmmmmm doesn't it? Xander is well done (which makes William a happy panda) and he is given huge comic book geek points. The way the story is written is definitely similar to Whedon's style on Astonishing X-men, but it really has a TV show feel to it that fits well with a comic based on a TV show. The art is pretty darn good. It's not amazing rock star good, but Georges Jeanty and Andy Owens managed to make the returning regulars look enough like the actors who played them so even at a glance you can tell who's who without reading any dialogue or captions.
The Bad: There is sort of an air of "mystery" being put around who the two people are the government types managed to pull out of the Sunnydale crater. One was revealed as the cliffhanger ending of the issue but the other has not been mentioned, but I have to say that I have a really strong feeling of who it is and if I'm right it was so deadly obvious that Joss ought to be ashamed. Dawn only appeared for one double page spread, but she still managed to annoy the bejeebus outta me. Also, no hot Willow action. Aww.
When I was done, I wasn't ecstatic, but I wasn't disappointed either. It made me curious enough that as a Buffy fan, I must read more. Definitely for fans of the old show and Joss Whedon's writing, possibly for general comic book consumption as well. Has potential.
B+
