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Post by Giant Michael on May 6, 2010 13:53:14 GMT -5
Now, I will try to list my beef with issue 35. The problem might lie - as I suspect now - with Brad Meltzer's inability to write drama properly. He is good enough with comedy, that's why his first 2 issues if the Twilight arc were such a great success. He is decent when it comes to plotting out the details - for example Andrew's character really shone in this arc. But he is helpless when it comes to Big Picture, as his big story gets mostly lost among the trees of the 'windows dressings'. I'd actually disagree, I think this has been one of the best-executed arcs of the entire run. Each issue had had a distinct flavour, running a gamut of emotions but still keeping the light, peppy humour of the show. Think back to January, and remember what's been covered here - Buffy having 'super powers', why she had them, who Twilight is, Twilight's grand plan - I'd go so far as to say it's more than we've seen before. Is this great comic book writing? If it isn't, it's because the plot itself - the overall, over-arching plot - doesn't translate all that well to comics. We should be getting answers and new questions every month, not the psuedo-mystical gubbins camoflauged as 'intruige' - great big 'Long Live the Queen' demon, I'm looking at you - that has, frankly, made this story bloody difficult to read sometimes. This arc - and 'Retreat', actually - has skipped along at just the right pace, for me; a month is a long time to remember what happened in the last Buffy when you've got stuff to do, and I feel like Meltzer's the first arc-writer to really take that into account with his run. I've been hard on season eight in the past - it's still flawed, as a comic and as a continuation of the show - and if there is a season nine, I hope the cast list and plot are reduced to give both room to breathe. But season eight, for me, has gotten a hell of a lot better recently: since 'Retreat', I'd say, but this arc has been brilliant. I want to see how it ends. Loved Buffy in Nikki Wood's coat. Intruiged by Spike's, erm, spaceship.
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Post by Giant Michael on May 5, 2010 10:52:50 GMT -5
Kind of excited by this, because what Riley's been up to and what happened to Sam has been one of the threads I've been most interested in this series.
Can't say enough about Moline's artwork, either. He draws good Buffy.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on May 5, 2010 10:49:59 GMT -5
I seriously hate the comics medium, but I like Buffy enough to get over it. It'd be a shame if you were basing this on Buffy alone, because - for me, at least - that's been the problem all along: these are brilliant characters, usually well-written, and the plot itself probably would have worked on a television show, where you're getting answers every week... but these are not good comics. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jul 28, 2009 7:10:14 GMT -5
Um, guys. A wizard did it.
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Post by Giant Michael on Jul 5, 2009 7:08:51 GMT -5
I don't know whether this is a reaction to Predators and Prey (some decent stories, but a really bad move in terms of trying to tell a story which was already sagging under the weight of its own plot; at it's best Buffy skips along at a rate of knots, and for the past six months it's been... casually meandering) more than the issue itself, but this one is amongst my favourites so far. All the gang back together - talking to each other, or at each other, or in the vicinity of each other, about things that are not all Hoodoo McGuffin - and... funny. I've missed funny Buffy.
Magic Jane.
Will be interesting to see how Oz comes across, on page. He has a really odd quality - sort of quiet and taciturn and sarcastic, but optimistic rather than brooding - that I wouldn't know where to start with. 'Huh' was as good a place as any, though! Looking forward to seeing how he's changed, too. And Willow... oh, God, Willow.
Already, I could eat this arc with a spoon, it's so delicious.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jul 5, 2009 6:51:40 GMT -5
God, Jo Chen is good.
Interesting that Tara showed up. I can't believe more people aren't all over the fact that Georges mentioned 'Tara is probably the hardest [likeness to draw]' way back in the first Q&A Slayalive did with him.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 17, 2009 8:23:42 GMT -5
Those were normal? At least she had some fashion sense in S7. Did you see her outfit in 'Selfless'? Red hair, red shirt, red tights and some of the nastiest sizing I've ever seen. Frumpilicious. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 17, 2009 8:17:34 GMT -5
At this point, I'm more interested in seeing some development of the relationships between the Scoobies. Feels like it's been a while since they sat down and talked - or not-talked - to each other for reasons other than exposition.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 11, 2009 15:00:37 GMT -5
Really like the idea of Twilight as a manipulator. I can see a reveal somewhere along the line that pegs a lot of the more ridiculous elements of the series - Dawn's transformation, Mecca-Dawn, even things from the show itself - as his doing.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 10, 2009 11:36:15 GMT -5
I agree that most media presentations of gay characters is stereotypical, and that's probably the reason why I can't bring myself to watch Ugly Betty. Off topic, but you might want to give it a chance. The show paints with broad strokes and, by it's nature, a lot of the characters come out looking and sounding like cartoons. It's easy to write them off as stereotypes - and to see stereotypes and cry 'stereotypes!', forgetting that this is a show about the fashion industry and that those stereotypes very definitely exist - but particularly with a character like Marc, there's a lot of depth there, a lot of character work which goes some way to explaining why he is the way he is, and a lot of tropes and cliches subverted and played with. That, and Hilda is fierce. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 10, 2009 11:17:40 GMT -5
Boring legal question ahoy! There are a couple of cameos in 'Harmonic Divergence' - how did they come about? When you use a celebrities image in such an overt way, do you have to have their permission?
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 10, 2009 11:13:28 GMT -5
Some decent ideas, poorly executed: felt like a rush job to me, to be honest. That said, I was always wary of the idea - I didn't really think there was a need to 'parody' celebrity culture, when celebrity culture is a parody of itself, and I've always thought that the Buffyverse was more about existing on the outside, the underworld, going under the radar - so I went into it feeling... sceptical, at best.
I love Jane as a writer, though, and can't want until the Oz arc. A couple of issues to build on ideas should certainly help.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 10, 2009 6:55:49 GMT -5
I love Jo Chen's covers - I think this is my favourite so far, though. The likeness is brilliant. Is that the library in the background, too? Eeh...
I like Jeanty's cover, too, though. Nice to see Giles back in action. It's been a while.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 7, 2009 21:01:01 GMT -5
Not to say I'd want it to go that way, but if Buffy and Angel did end up together it'd have to be the end. The End. The very End. And probably a tragic end, all told. Their relationship was always epic, I don't think we could cut to them five, ten years down the line, with their fat grandchildren. It'd have to be a big fat blaze of glory.
Actually, if the hand we see coming out of the portal in Fray is Buffy's hand, and it's Buffy who sends all of the demons and McNasties to hell, part of me thinks Angel will go in with her, or before her.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Jan 7, 2009 20:50:39 GMT -5
I really hope the Thricewise-cover idea means we're going to get some backstory at last - I like what they've done with Dawn, but how long has it been now? In real time, I mean? I want one of the story threads to be tied up soon, and this one seems the most likely. It's starting to get old, too...
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Dec 19, 2008 20:12:20 GMT -5
Living doll? Also, no way! But I thought someone should have said it by now. Looking forward to some Xander and Dawn-time. I think 'Anywhere But Here' has been my favourite issue so far: all the daft giant demons in the world can't compete with the Scoobies, shooting the chat and growing as characters. And I love Dawn! She gets a bad rep, but she's awesome in season seven, and it's been a shame that her whole arc this series has been built around whacky reveals. Not fun. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on May 14, 2008 9:25:28 GMT -5
I hope Dracula plays a role in the next issue. So far, he's doing very little to effect the plot, other than uncomfortbale racist jokes and furthering whatever fanboy crush Goddard has on him and Xander.
Not impressed by this issue.
MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on May 2, 2008 7:31:44 GMT -5
I felt like Wood rushed things with Faith, regardless of how flirty she would be with him. I mean, did he know ANYTHING about her other than the fact she was hot? There was zero chemistry between them (both as actors and as chracters). Didn't Faith equally rush things with Wood? Wasn't that... kind of... the point? I like him, I think he brought a really interesting energy to the Buffyverse in season seven, but I think he was one of a dozen characters that got kind of fudged into the season arc that never really got their chance to shine. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Apr 9, 2008 6:29:21 GMT -5
Sometimes it has to be a general consensus of fans. Fanon! It's a real thing. Well it depends, did you watch Buffy for the writing or the acting. If it was more for the writing, then Season 8 is obviously going to be more official for you. Since this is Joss and his team writing it. It's Buffy scripts with comic book pictures. But... it's not. It's a completely different medium, that tells stories in a completely different way. And, to be honest with you, what we've seen haven't been very good stories. They're not all that true to the show, character development has been sacrificed in favour of hilarious/epic sweeping gestures, and in a lot of instances some of the writing doesn't really translate. And the Buffyverse take on Scotland? Jesus. Christ. The cannon issue,to me anyway,isn't an issue.Joss says it's cannon[for now] so it's cannon. Which is, if people would only read the damn article without flying off the handle because someone 'panned' the comics, the point; they're canon, for now, but if Joss has admitted to overwriting the whole thing if he did another series or a film... where does that leave them? For my money, I think it was something Joss said without really thinking about how it would make the fans - who have invested in the comics - feel; I think he'd work around them, although I'm very doubtful that we'll ever see the Buffy cast back together. The First got to it somehow? Yeah. I hear he bought himself a stylin' pimp hat. MB x
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Post by Giant Michael on Feb 16, 2008 14:17:39 GMT -5
I really like the cover for issue six. Is it possible to get a hold of one without being a member of the BCC?
MB x
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