By Chuck Suffel
Preview – Review! Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #5 – Slayer Interrupted
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Karl Moline Inker: Andy Owens Colorist: Michelle Madsen
From the Dark Horse site:
“Buffy’s dreams have become all too real lately as she deals with a magicless world. She’s still fighting creatures of the night, as Willow and Xander grow distant and nightmares plague the Slayer. But something is telling Buffy that there is more to her dreams than meets the eye . . . and that her greatest fears may yet become reality!”
When I was in grade school I used to go to my grandmother’s house a lot. I would wind up there after school when I was too young to hang out around the school where my mom was teaching after-school. It was great, she always treated me like a little prince anything and everything I liked was always at my disposal, but I also remember her need to watch her “stories”. General Hospital was, I think, her favorite. I remember being so unbelievably bored when she had that on just waiting for my chance to turn on cartoons. I remember promising myself that I would never care about stupid stuff like that.
Well friends January 11th’s Buffy has shown me that I was fooling myself if I thought I didn’t have stories of my own. Buffy was a soap opera as a tv show and has definitely remained one in comic book form. The slayer army, Xander’s inability to have a girlfriend that doesn’t get killed, Dawn’s crazy love life, Willow losing her powers, face it fans this is a soap. So obviously I must hate it, right? Well no lately I’ve been noticing the comic books I really enjoy are definitely action packed and super-heroy but they all have very character driven plots. X-Factor, X-Force, iZombie, Irredeemable, Animal Man I could go on and on.
I do have to admit that the plot had gotten a little stale towards the end of Season 8. What with the whole “Big Bad” named the same as that annoying sparkly vampire series. Also the deaths not only of Giles but of all magic as well. It had gotten depressing and I was kind of reading the title out of habit, waiting for the plot to turn.
Well wait no longer fans of the Buffyverse! It finally seems like our heroes are getting back to just that, being heroes! Last months finale to the “Freefall” four parter was a good issue, chock full of action and drama (as well as a cool cameo by Spike) but it left me wondering where they would go next. This new issue really felt like a return to the show, there was slayer lore, Buffy getting help from a “scooby” or two and some really huge reveals. No the magic has not returned to the world but our heroine is finally working on it.
Buffy’s world has always been a little angsty and emo-ish and the start of Season 9 wasn’t much different. A lot of hand wringing and it’s all my faulting. Now it seems that Buffy has been punched in the gut and told to woman up! As well as stumbling across a clue to finding out just how, if possible, to undue what she’s done. And that big reveal I mentioned? Definitely big. I’m really looking forward to seeing just what Joss and the crew have cooked up for us this time. I just hope those dark kids will be quiet while I’m enjoying my stories.
Come see me @ http://charlessuffel.com