Comics

Faith’s arc now finished, Buffy creator Joss Whedon returns to Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 for a this one-shot tale of relationships and consequences of choices long past.  Here’s the review for “Anywhere but Here.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #10
Custom Rating

“We could have move on.  Raised Dawnie, moved somewhere nice…but I chose.  I chose to put Tara in a bullet’s path.  I choose you over her.  I can’t do that again…to the woman I love.”

After the Faith arc from Brian K. Vaughn (read more about that here) the season shifts back to our main heroine and the relationships which are at the heart of the Buffyverse.

Joss Whedon returns as well to pen this stand-alone issue which, although it contains action, horror and adventure, its true purpose is to get back to the characters and relationships of Buffy and Willow, and to a lesser extent Xander and Dawn.

Starting out with a humorous dream sequence, the tale jumps into Willow and Buffy’s trip to talk with a demon known as the Sephrilian who can tell them about the future and help them understand the unbalance and coming Twilight.  But be careful what you wish for, especially in the Buffyverse.

What is revealed is a simple truth and stabbing at old wounds.  The death of Tara and Willow’s response bring back issues of trust, friendship, and love as Willow admits to Kennedy and Buffy the worst mistake she ever made, and her reluctance to do anything like it again.

The B story of the issue finally reveals the events which caused Dawn’s growth spurt, although, as with the main tale, the real interest here isn’t the revelation but the reconnection between the two characters who have had some nice moments together including one of my favorites of the entire series involving Xander’s speech to her at the end of “Potential”.

Although the story doesn’t do much to move the season’s main arc along, it does give us a better understanding of the characters and the state of their relationships since the Scoobies left Sunnydale.  The melancholy ending, though foreseeable, fits well with the format of the show and Willow’s discussion here is an important event in the lives of these characters which we finally get to see here on the comic page.  She has come to terms with the choices she’s made (much like Buffy at the beginning of Season Five‘s finale “The Gift”) and realizes the limits of how far she is willing to go in the future.  We’ll see how if her decision holds up, and if Kennedy (nice to finally see her) survives the season.  Anyone want to take odds?

As part of our Year in Review, here is G4’s resident comic geek Blair Bulter (and daughter of our KCFCC pal Bob Butler) with the latest dose of “Fresh Ink Online” giving us her take on the best graphic novels of the 2007 which includes Silver Surfer: Requiem, The Escapists, and The Killer, Vol. 1.  Check out the Full Diagnosis to watch the entire episode.

Blair Butler’s Fresh Ink
N/A

 

Whether you’ve never picked up a Grendel comic, or you’ve stashed away countless issues of Matt Wagner’s creation, this series is for you.  Wagner returns to his creation for the first time in ten years to give us a never-told tale of the first Grendel, Hunter Rose.  Take a peek inside the Full Diagnosis as we review the first two issues of the eight-issue mini-series Grendel: Behold the Devil.

Grendel: Behold the Devil #1 & 2
Custom Rating

What’s interesting about this first issue, aside from the fact it’s the first Grendel issue Matt Wagner has penned himself in a decade, are the alternative perspectives and looks back mixed in with the linear never-before-told tale of Hunter Rose.

We begin with an excerpt from “Devil by the Deed” which in one page introduces both the character of Hunter Rose, the accomplished novelist, and his alter-ego Grendel, a costumed assassin and crime boss.  These carefully chosen words contrast sharply with the next six bloody pages which follow showing us the outcome of Grendel’s latest killing spree.  From here we move through the perspectives of Grendel/Hunter Rose, Detective Lucas Ottoman and Detective Elizabeth Sparks as the story continues on many separate points.

This first issue easily sets up the world and is a good primer for those unfamiliar with the characters.  And although filled with blood there’s no killing here, as the reader arrives seconds too late and is only allowed to glimpse the aftermath of Hunter Rose’s work.

By the end of the issue we also see Rose’s growing paranoia and learn that something yet unseen is waiting for Grendel in the shadows, and is hunting the hunter.

 

 

The second issue gives us more blood, more sex, and, in the issue’s final frame, the first shot of who is hunting Hunter Rose, the creature who is destined to end Grendel’s life – Argent the Wolf.

Wagner’s b&w art (with splashes of red) is classic and brilliant.  There’s a grace to the character that Wagner brings to the surface (and seriously, how totally freakin’ awesome is it to see a comic character that doesn’t look his steroid enlarged pecks are about to burst through his spandex top?).  It’s great to see him writing and drawing this character again.

Once again the story includes perspectives and insights from other sources including interviews, excerpts from “Devil by the Deed” and more.  We also see the effect of the uneasiness and feeling of being watched slowly begin to crack the emotionless exterior of Grendel.  And by the time Argent shows up we’re more than ready to plunk down another $3.50 for the next issue.

After two issues I’m hooked.  New and old fans of Grendel should pick up this series and enjoy a great storyteller slowly unfold a new exciting tale featuring his prized creation.