Customer Reviews

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vol. 3: Uninvited Guests

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The first issue in this trade is "White Christmas" -- the previous trade (Remaining Sunlight) collected issues 1-3 that had a Halloween issue and a Thanksgiving issue to the logical next step is a Christmas issue in this trade collecting issues 4-7 of the ongoing series. :) Buffy gets a job at the mall at an ice cream stand but as usual luck would have it that the owner of the stand is a crazy guy who doesn't like franchise work so he summons an elemental ice demon. Angel makes an appearance in this issue. The characters don't really look like they should, but it gets the story across. Then we have "Happy New Year" where Willow is in a bad mood about Buffy brining Oz the escapee werewolf home using force. Lastly is "New Kid on the Block" Parts one and two where the new girl, who is not what she seems, plans a slumber party. Chaos, of course, ensues. In the intro pages of the trade there are some adorable sketches of a cartoony buffy, giles, etc. which was my favorite aspect of this trade. Not the best plot but it has its good moments of dialogue.

I ordered this title by mistake. I usually don't like the art in the Buffy comic so I've been avoiding the paperback compilations. Last night I decided I might as well read it. "White Christmas" I rather liked because it showed poor Buffy dealing with an unpleasant financial consequence of the slaying business. Buffy and Giles' conversation on fashion made me chuckle. I had a part-time job with McDonald's when I was in college, so I understand Buffy's feelings about her uniform and goofy hat. The reason behind Mr. Richter's dedication to the freezer was, if you'll pardon the pun, chilling. The fight scenes weren't bad and the last panel was cute. "Happy New Year" was my least favorite among the three stories in this book. It had some good lines (loved Cordelia with the crossbow), but it was spoiled by a glaring error and a shallow end. I realize that Andi Watson is British, but more careful research would have turned up the fact that witches weren't burned in this country. (Besides, according to Russell Hope Robbins is correct in his ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY [if memory serves me correctly], accused witches were normally strangled and their bodies were burned. Only those brave enough to proclaim their innocence on the way to the stake were burned alive.) "New Kid on the Block" was pretty good. Although it turned out to be a good thing that Xander crashed the slumber party, shame on him for doing it. It was an interesting trap. Some of the dialog was funny, and I enjoyed the creative excuse for the damages. If you collect the comic and missed some issues, (or you don't have them because you came late to the series) you'll definitely want this book. Otherwise, it's a "nice to have", not a "must have."

RANDOM COMMENTS: I'm glad I caught the "...PEARE" on Angel's volume when he was reading those romantic words aloud to Buffy because I was thinking it might be from Donne. [I majored in history, not English, OK?] If you're curious, Angel is reading from Act II, Scene II of "Romeo and Juliet." The lines in the first two panels are Juliet's. They're Romeo's in the last two. I'm not going to call this book a "graphic novel". I've been a fan long enough that I remember when that phrase was chosen in the hopes of getting away from the kiddie image then conjured up by the term "comic book." What I don't remember is if the people who chose that term realized that it already existed. It's a polite way to say a novel contains explicit sex scenes. "Univited Guests" is neither a novel nor does it have sex scenes.

This trade paperback includes the stories from issues 4 through 7 of the BTVS comic series. This firmly cements the tradition of reissuing the comic stories under paperback cover with better quality paper, sometimes including an extra tale or art feature added in. This may seem mercenary, but it is a way for people who do not have access to the comics to keep up with another source of Buffy stories.

On the whole, the comic tales are well written and illustrated, and these are no exception. They do focus more on feminine pulchritude though, in the stylized fashion typical of comic illustration. The artwork in this issue is all done by Hector Gomez and Sandu Florea. While the work is good, the characters are a bit too stylized compared to the actual actors. I prefer Cliff Richards and Joe Pimentel, or Joe Bennett and Rick Ketcham

White Christmas - When Buffy finds herself without the resources to buy a new dress for the Christmas dance she overrides Giles misgivings and gets a job at the Popsicle Parlor. Little did she know that the owner has found an entirely new way to chill out.

Happy New Year - Giles is more than perturbed when he discovers that the latest costumer for the school library is a hellhound bent on evening out an old score. Buffy steps in and nearly loses Willow.

New Kid on the Block - Buffy has a new friend - Cynthia. They hatch the idea for an all out slumber party that turns severely spooky when the pizza delivery tried to eat the party.

As always the trade paperbacks are all art and action, but they retain the basic human values of the show. The lack of superhero pomposity is one of the endearing things about the entire Buffy tradition. So order a pizza and settle in for a fun evening's reading.

I'm a big BtVS fan and have listen to and read many of Joss's interviews. Joss is extremely detailed oriented, but unfortunately, Andi Watson is NOT.

Example, in this comic book, the first story, "White Christmas" there is a graphic of the shopping mall, however, the mall has a sign "Sunnyvale" on it. It's supposed to be "Sunnydale". Furthermore, there's some dialogue a few frames down that references "Sunnyvale" and not "Sunnydale".

It is also apparent that Andi Watson has not watched BtVS much. If she did, she would have known that the dialog for Oz is completely out of character. In addition, we see Buffy relpying to Giles: "Darn tootn'"--sorry Andi, this is a Willowism, not a Buffyism.

Oh! After reading Andi's introduction, we now know she did not watch BtVS, because at the time of her writing this, BtVS was not airing in the U.K. How can ANYBODY allow anyone to write about something they know nothing about?

I think some severe slayage is in order--someone should be beheaded for not catching these mistakes and inconsistancies before running the printing press.

Darn tootn'.

I must say this is the worst Buffy comic I have read. BTW, my favorite Buffy graphic novel so far is Haunted, written by a REAL Buffy writer -- Jane Espenson.

Darn tootn'.

I found this book to be one of my least favorite. It was a little too "giggly" if you will. It tend to jump around quiet often from page to page. I had a hard time following the flow of the story as the author tried to explain each different "attack".

White Christmas: After the horrible writing that Andi Watson offered us in The Remaining Sunlight, she could either improve or churn out more of the out-of-character drivel that made up her first Buffy endeavor. Well, this is better. It's not immensely better, and those who expect it to be up to par with the canonical series will be sorely disappointed... but it isn't, for the most part, horrid. The plot revolves around a silly little ice monster, but the overall writing (pacing, dialogue, character) is better than I expected from Watson.

Happy New Year: Bad. Not as bad as anything from The Remaining Sunlight, but certainly not good at all. Willow acts grossly out-of-character all for the sake of a "Willow is angry at Buffy" melodrama that is pointless enough to be resolved in one single panel on the second-to-last page. It's interesting, because the idea behind this story is strong, but Watson teeters off and wastes page space on the forced melodrama instead of focusing on the "monster of the week" that could expand the mythology a bit. So this is pretty much the opposite of "White Christmas," which had a bad plot but good writing.

New Kid on the Block: Subtlety is not Anti Watson's strongest quality. Through lines like "Supper will soon be served," the `surprise villain' is revealed way before the intended reveal. The long fight scene in the first part of `New Kid on the Block' is incredibly bad. Every time a character throws a punch, they make a sound like "Grrrrlllf" or "Chhhhkkk" instead of just letting the action of `sound effects' speak for themselves. Also, clichéd battle cries like "Nooooo! Behind yoooooooou!" are just that; clichéd. What could have been an okay plot (except for Xander's totally out-of-character subplot) deteriorates into a horrible fight at the climax backed up with bad dialogue, that is resolved with a Hellmouth-ex-machina that brings new meaning to "taking the easy way out." I hope this is the last we see from Andi Watson.

The art is by Hector Gomez, who has improved since his horrible work in The Dust Waltz. His style is quite awkward, but at least now I know who I'm looking at. With his earlier work, none of the characters even resembled their television counterparts in the least. Willow looks exactly like Cordelia and Xander and Angel both looked like guys from 90210. At least now, the art is a little bit better. But--as I mentioned in my review for The Remaining Sunlight--it is insane that vampires are continually portrayed as having green skin in these comics. It directly contradicts what was established in the show. It's really, really weird.

2/10

I liked this graphic novel. No matter what form: books, videos, tv, or comics buffy is always entertaining. If you love comics you'll love these. Lots of fun.

this is a great comic book, i collect buffy comics and this one is one of the best, it gives the best descriptions of the "uninvited guests" and its amazing how buffy can fight anything.