Customer Reviews

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #21

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

 

 

I wish I could say I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed all of the promotional tie-ins Dark Horse did for it, but I didn't. There are a few gaping flaws in the issue, and though the problems are less apparent later in the book, the overall effect of the comic is damaged. Espenson's story just doesn't flow very well. But that confuses me. The placement of the internal thought captions doesn't really make sense to me, nor do the actual words sound like Harmony. This is most evident in the opening pages, when Harmony tries to get into a club. Her first internal thought is in a panel where she isn't even visible (maybe they should have at least had her looking over her shoulder), and says the following: "Ooh. Someone famous! I've got urine running down my leg!" The next few captions read like this: "Here's the thing about fame. It's good to touch. I'm gonna touch some fame." To me, that sounds nothing like Harmony Kendall. Which is so, so strange, because all of the dialogue that Harmony actually says out loud and some of the internal thoughts later in the issue are so her. However, she uses the word "zeitgeist" twice. Do we really think Harmony knows what zeitgeist means?

The issue definitely picks up when Harmony pitches her show to MTV. Focus, however, is then shifted away from the lovable bloodsucker to a young Latina slayer, Soledad, who wants out of her gang, Las Chucuillas. When she's free of that gang, however, she naturally resists Buffy's urge for her to join another "family" of sisters, leading to the girl waging her own solo war against vampires. This is an awesome bit, because it sets up the conflict in the issue (Harmony/Latina slayer) and also speaks for what's going on with Buffy, about how she can't really connect with any of the slayers that she's empowered.

Andrew gets a lot of screen time here, as does... wait for it... Clem, which is one of the high points of this issue. Most of the problems--which are pretty big--are all focused on the first seven pages, so the rest of the issue is pretty much smooth sailing. I did enjoy it for the most part, but to say I'm also let down is an understatement. The issue had enormous potential and should have been among the best of the series so far, but strange storytelling choices in the beginning took away major points. What saves this book from being as bad as The Chain or last month's abysmal After These Messages is the attention to detail. There is always something else going on in panels, such as the scene where Buffy calls the Latina slayer... in the background, you can see a horse charge at Dawn (still a centaur) while Xander tries to hold it back.

6/10

This was really disappointing. After Jeph Loeb's delightful issue 20, I was hoping that Jane Espenson's comic would be as good or perhaps even better. After all, I thought that Drew Goddard, another newcomer to comics, actually did a better job on his BUFFY arc than did comics legend Brian K. Vaughan (whose own arc was actually quite good). Besides, Espenson is one of my favorite TV writers, having turned out scripts for a host of my favorite episodes of BUFFY, ANGEL, FIREFLY, THE GILMORE GIRLS, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Like Drew Goddard, she excels at juxtaposing the sharpest humor with the direst tragedy.

HARM'S WAY starts promisingly enough, with the wonderfully silly idea that Harmony Kendall, former Cordette turned vampire as of the end of BUFFY 3, had her own reality show. Harmony provided many of the funniest moments on BUFFY and ANGEL, like the wonderful slap-fight between her and Xander and the delightful misunderstanding between her and Cordelia when Harmony was barely able to resist taking a bite of her, when Cordelia thought she was sexually attracted to her.

Unfortunately, after the nice idea of Harm having her own show, there was nothing else. We barely got to know the slayer who was accidentally killed by Harmony and so her death barely resonated. The entire story was simply too slight to be interesting.

Because this is a standalone issue, I truly would recommend that those who have been reading BUFFY 8 to skip this one. I don't know who is to blame for the issue. Maybe Jane Espenson did the best she could with the job she was given. She has written great stuff for television in the past and she will again in the future. She is now a member of the writing staff of DOLLHOUSE and there are upcoming BATTLESTAR GALACTICA episodes that she wrote that will appear. Also, she wrote the screenplay for what may be the last BATTLESTAR GALACTICA project ever, the TV movie THE PLAN, that will appear this fall. And if she writes for the comics again, there is every hope that it will be better than this. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this issue was simply not a success.

In Harms Way was probably the worst episode of Angel from its last season

Harmony just isn't an interesting enough character to devote a story to

Its nice to see Clem again, but I can't imagine this one being read over and over again like, really, the whole series (the Fray/Buffy crossover had an amazing climax, with Buffy having to kill her best friend - albeit in the future)

So maybe the series needs a breather after that (number 20, following hard upon, was a sweet nothing of a tale - delightful and fun)

This isn't so hot. You won't be missing too much by giving this issue a pass. Theres no plot advancement (like Twilight's plans, hardly any Buffy, Willow, Xand)

MORE FRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!