Customer Reviews

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse))

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Season 8 keeps getting more and more disconnected from itself, as the storyline moves from the lamentable Buffy meets Fray arc, into the rise of Harmony in "Predators and Prey," and now this, possibly the most depressing storyline since Buffy first went to college. I thought the Scottish slayer castle was dire, but having Buffy and the slayers hit the Himalayas for a crash course in Tibetan Buddhism, under the tutelage of Seth Green, reaches a new high of just plain weird. The slayers must give up their magick powers in order to avoid the all-seeing gaze of Amy, Warren and Twilight. But the gambit never seems to work, despite the mole Buffy has placed within the ranks of the Twilight gang. I never understood what they had done wrong, but the story just sweeps on without regard to logic, sense or even taste.

And what happened to Jeanty? I know Faith was in the story, but after comic #1, he has completely lost his knack for drawing her. Every couple of panels I stopped, wondering, who was *that* girl, maybe she was Faith. But I could never be sure. I think Jane E. was also fumbling a little bit at the level of script, so that there really wasn't much for Faith to do anyway. Maybe Faith should have gone Buddhist, taught Oz how not to be a werewolf, married him, and had his adorable baby in a sack, because Oz's wife got most of the big storyline here. Constantly hissing and whispering to Oz, "I do not like it, Ozito, those white girls from your past will bring a tsunami of trouble down on our heads and baby." Worst thing of all, she's right every time.

Retreat, the sixth collected volume of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, finds Buffy and her crew of scoobies and Slayers on the run, as the mysterious Twilight begins to set sights on them all for what may be a final killing blow. Seeking sanctuary with Oz, who has since found peace and happiness, it soon becomes clear that the worst is indeed yet to come. One thing that I've noticed since Buffy Season Eight came to fruition is that Joss and his revolving team of writers take advantage of the Buffy-verse being comic book based, with enough wild antics and action to satisfy comic readers of any and every age, regardless of being a Buffy fan or not. However, while veteran series writer Jane Espenson manages to inject enough crackling energy into this storyarc, by the time it reaches its conclusion it feels like it's just too much, and comes close to feeling like it isn't Buffy at all. Not to mention the fact that Georges Jeanty's artwork appears to be waning a bit in terms of how much his renderings of the show's cast reflect their real life counterparts. Still though, Retreat offers up enough goodies for Buffy addicts to dig, and with that in mind, here's hoping that Season Eight keeps going on strong.

As a very big fan of Buffy and Whedon's series, I think that this series is getting worse by every issue that comes out. Number five was ok, and a bit funny because of Harm, but this number is just dull and very boring... it's losing the spirit of the original series of Buffy. The idea of Twilight against Buffy army was very interesting when at the first issues, but this issue is just too bad.... I hope it gets better on the next one.

This series started off ok but this volume is an absolute mess. A Buffy-Xander-Dawn love triangle - WTH?!! That's a load of rubbish that I don't want to read. Willow still complaining about not being able to control her magic. Come up with something original. Slayers using guns. Faith & Giles turned into minor characters after some development in previous issues and Andrew being more annoying than ever. The return of Oz is a bit hamfisted & cheesey. The appearance of ancient goddesses is awful stuff. This book was one big mess from start to finish. Absolute rubbish and very close to making me leave the Buffy books.

It's just a totally implausible plotline, and there's no recovering from that problem.

We have an army of Slayers, led by Buffy, besieged for twenty-five issues in many different ways.

Their solution? Run away, hide in Tibet, and abandon all their superpowers.

This is simply not a story that can be made to work.

It also flatly defies the whole point of Buffy as a feminist icon who's willing to whatever it takes to face her troubles and beat them down.

Consider the transformation:

Season four Buffy: "Wish me monsters!"

Season eight Buffy: "Give me a quiet life. I yearn to meditate and sweep floors and make soup."

I will say this: Jane Espenson is a much better writer, in terms of individual lines or scenes, than Brad Meltzer -- the writer who succeeds her.

Meltzer is sufficiently problematic that I didn't even bother to *buy* any of his issues (and won't).

No... Wikipedia summaries will do just fine until Whedon comes back to the comic at the end of the season and... maybe... salvages it somehow, although I have my doubts about that, too, based on his most recent performance (Dollhouse season two -- dreadful).

Yes, we all wanted to know what happened to Buffy and to all the new slayers. As far as graphic novels go it's ok. But why is it when guys start drawing girls we end up more top heavy than natural? And buffed like a WWE Superstar? I find the story line to be more weak than anything, no real cliffhanger to keep an interest. The only upside is questions do get answered, although not as expected... good luck readers. Glad I bought mostly used editions, don't feel so bad, now.

Comic was received in exceptional condition and arrived in almost no time! Quality assurance right here. When season nine is up I'll be back for more!

The slayers are being attacked across the world. Buffy and Willow have to take a disguise to get to the island and Giles and Faith are in hiding from demons. And Twilight and his group are going all out and the slayers barely escape to Nepal...and Oz. Oz, his wife, and their young son are going to teach the slayers how to hide their magics. But Twilight has found them again...and demons are back to destroy.

The volume ends with an issue of Buffy floating in the air saying "what the hell?" and that's how I feel about the issue. The last volume was a mismash of stories, but it ended with Dawn coming back to being a human person again, but here? We just jump into a story where everyone is hiding and something is attacking them. It's like we jumped over an issue somewhere, but we didn't...it just jumps into the middle of things. And while the story is more captivating than previous ones it still feels a bit forced, like the direction they wanted to go was stalled so they go "oh lets ad Oz into the mix!" So he appears. I've been disappointed with the way the series is progressing...but I still hold out hope.

The artwork though continues to suffer. It's becoming harder and harder in some issues to pick out which charters are which and what they're doing. For example, at one point Willow looks like a life size rag doll with a mouth. And at the beginning of the issue Willow and Kennedy are in bed, covered by sheets, and a black box is just hanging over them. It's supposed to be a fan blade I think, but its just one of the many weird decisions that the artists makes in the issue. We don't need to see it and it doesn't add anything except to make you wonder.

I'll read the series to the end because I want to know what happens, but this series just continues to falter and disappoint.

Retreat, the 6th volume in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, returns the series to what it always should have been. The last book, Predators and Prey, mainly consisted of side stories that did nothing to further the overall story line. The writers seem to have gotten that completely out of their systems now as Retreat is all plot progression all the time. And it's perfect.

Many old favorites return in Retreat. Andrew, Faith and Giles remain prominent in the story. Warren and Amy get back into the story. Even Riley and Oz play their parts, although while I recognized Riley well before it was confirmed to be him, I had a lot of trouble seeing Oz as the character drawn here. I needed it to be spelled out that he was in fact Oz and even then I had trouble accepting it. He just looked off.

Funny looking Oz aside, Retreat is the very best of season 8 thus far. I found my self shocked at things that I should have seen coming. As a long time fan of the series, I have certain ideas in my head of things I'd love to see make it into the series and things I hope never, ever happen. One of those never, ever things happens in Retreat and it's kind of mind blowing. It's right, but it's wrong. It's sadly disappointing, but kind of fantastic too. It's one of those decisions in a series that kind of haunts you, much like the original TV show often did with its totally obvious but somehow still completely unexpected plot twists. I sort of hate myself for loving it, but wow.

In a effort to avoid being magically tracked by the slayers many enemies, the group gives up all of their magic - including their slayer powers. This is obviously a bad idea, and plays out much like you'd expect. The outcome of this battle is much less important that what it seems to hint about the future - a change in Buffy herself. And from the looks of it, a pretty impressive one.

Retreat is nothing short of amazing. It sets the series back on track and heading towards the big final showdown of the season. I desperately miss the TV show, but the season 8 graphic novels are filling the void well. Maybe a little too well, as I find myself even more excited about each new volume than I ever did over the show itself. If I had my way, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novels would continue indefinitely.

Having found volume five a bit silly, I was happy to see the story get back on track in volume six. Finally we get some more plot development without a lot of on the side nonsense. I like the progress made in the story and I feel involved and back into it again.

I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley.