MY THOUGHTS Review of Vol 3 by Andrew Wheeler.

I found this interesting review of the third collection of Season 8 (#11-15).

To read a review by someone who isn't a fan of Buffy and who has just read a few issues of Season 8 was very entertaining and a bit sad.

Season 8 is trully for the fans of the tv-show.

If you haven't watched Buffy, all seasons or just the latest ones, it must be hard to get invested in the comic. After all, how could an outsider read the dept, the hidden layers that are hidden beneath

more side jokes and pop-culture references than most of us see on network TV in a week.

if you don't know the characters? Wheeler thinks that no mayor things changed in A Beautiful Sunset and Wolves at The Gate, at least not plot wise. I guess I have to agree on that, but say that we fans noticed other things that may or may not be important to the plot, but be very important to the characters and us readers. For example, we discover that Buffy is still human and still lonely, carrying the world on her shoulders. She can share something so intimate with a person as sex, and then go back to being that person's boss, because she has too. She wants to be more than the slayer, but who else will lead the army?

That, a fan will see. And we can read (not always tough)

what's arch flippancy, and what’s true emotion, since the two are intertwined in the same panel.


The comic is cool, beautiful, fun and moving, but it's harder to get invested in than the tv-show or any tv-show(and I bet compared to other comics as well). On TV we could see the actors' lips twitching, hear the laughter or fear in their voices and we were drawn in by the emotion showing in their eyes.

Often when watching a show, that's enough to get invested, to understand the characters somewhat and want to see more. (Maybe I'm wrong, and for a non-fan it's as hard to get into the tv-show as the comic, but it's something to think about.)

What I'm getting at is, while almost going off-topic, the Season 8 comics, not the arcs, not the stand-alones, have boring background this-has-happened-so-far, the-characters-just-happen-to-be-reminiscing-about-their-past-lives-so-the-reader-can-get-to-know-them-before-the-real-story-begins frames and pages, eating away on the story. I haven't read a lot of comics, but I bet that many comic fans would agree with this guy Wheeler, and say that, at least volume 3 of Season 8 isn't all that unless you have the background story clear. Or maybe I'm talking out of my ass.

Sucks for this guy, but great for us fans. After all, more pages with story, less catching-up. Not that good tough, if Joss wants more fans...

What do you guys think about Wheeler's review and my comments? Ass-talk or do we have a point?