Well, #6 came out last week, so I guess it's time for me to comment on #5.
I have to say I liked Urru's artwork more in this issue. Not that I ever
hated it the way some fans do, but I would've preferred something more
detailed. (Like the slightly less unpopular work Jeanty does for Buffy
S8.) But I think Urru's style works better for epic fight scenes than
anywhere else, and there was a lot of fighting here.
In alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer Stephen Tempest <stephen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> I've got a theory. (Actually, I've got a couple, but the other one
> involves bunnies). Vampires' hair (and fingernails) always resets
> itself to the length it was when they died - if they cut it shorter,
> it quickly grows back to the default length. However, if they treat
> the hair with chemicals - such as hairgel or bleach - it stays at the
> shorter length and doesn't regrow.
Heh. But Angel also mentions cutting his hair, so it must still be
growing, and he *surely* hasn't stopped using product. And in Lessons,
Spike's bleached hair has grown out a bit and shows dark, unbleached
roots. Though maybe that just means the bleach has to be reapplied
regularly to stop hair growth.
Seriously, I don't think there's any way to make vampire hair entirely
consistent in the Buffyverse, especially with the bit here in #5. One
theory I sometimes toy with is that vampires' hair and nails stop growing,
unless the vampire *wills* them to grow and drinks extra blood to fuel the
growth. But I don't offer it as an explanation: there is no textual
evidence whatsoever that any of the writers have anything like this in
mind; and anyway it still wouldn't account for Spike's hair in Lessons,
when he was too demented to be working on his appearance. I think we're
just going to have to live with inconsistency as far as vampires' hair
goes.
> Looks like Wesley wasn't dematerialised as a direct result of Gunn
> blowing up the W&H offices, but rather the Senior Partners called him
> back to chew his head off for letting them get blown up. Of course, we
> now have the big quiestion as to exactly what his duties are... by the
> sound of it, I'm guessing "keep Angel alive so he can suffer until we
> eventually kill him" would be along the right lines.
Makes sense that that's his assignment. They don't seem to have been
directing his every move, though. Have they been dumb enough to just
trust Wesley all this time? Are they relying on threats to keep him in
line? Or are they confident that what Wesley does for Angel will serve
their purposes, regardless of what Wesley intends?
> Lorne definitely has a drink problem, doesn't he? Interesting comments
> about Fred - firstly, we were told her soul was destroyed, not sent to
> the afterlife. And secondly, when Buffy went to heaven, she wasn't
> with her loved ones either: she just "knew they were okay". (Which
> wasn't actually true, but anyway...) So either Lorne and his
> colour-coded cohorts don't know what they're talking about, or we were
> fed false facts on Fred back in Season 5.
Well, the cohorts might not know what they're talking about; but Lorne was
there during S5, therefore *he* shouldn't be simply ignorant. So, is this
a deliberate change to the S5 story that will become significant later?
Or did Joss and Brian just forget what was said about Fred's soul in late
S5? There is precedent for the latter in Joss's little boo-boo about
Warren's death.
At first I was confused by the mysterious blue figure was that appeared at
Spike's place and on Connor's roof. Probably some sort of projection of
Lorne's, allowing him to rally the troops without attracting attention by
physically traveling to each of them. Or was it something else entirely
that I missed?
I liked the gag about Angel's lame speech. Instead of having him start
off lame and eventually build to something moving, the comic goes all the
way and lets Angel's speech just awkwardly peter out. And yet the people
still apparently cheer him. I guess they hear what they need to hear.
(Parallels there to the Hero of Canton's speech in Jaynestown.) Or else
they're just cheering at his showing up for the fight, not at the speech.
> And everyone gets together to fight. Aww. (Cheats.)
"I was as surprised as you," Angel says. I for one was NOT surprised at
all. As plot twists go, Angel's friends joining him is pretty untwisty.
But it's satisfying anyway, for the same reason that it's usurprising.
Where would Angel, and indeed the whole Whedonverse, be without the heroes
coming back together to help each other in the face of death?
I really liked Groo freeing the dragon so it could fight the T-Rex. "Now
that is something I would very much like to see" was perfect for his
character.
> Although points to
> Lorne for some inspired rules-lawyering...
So there was nothing in the rules forbidding any hell lords from fighting
on Angel's side? That was a pretty big loophole, though perhaps an
understandable one if the other lords don't really know Lorne.
> and this was all Gunn's
> plan? Hmm.
I took him to mean the coming-together part, and not the whole duel
between Angel and the other hell-lords. But maybe it's both? I too am
unsure how Gunn can take credit for Connor and his crew rejoining Angel.
Maybe he figures that once he got the ball rolling by sending Angel to
Illyria, the rest would all follow naturally.
> Loved the way Spike assumes Wesley's return is due to an amulet, and
> the sarky remark about nobody ever staying dead...
Spike really doesn't look happy to see Wesley again. "Wouldn't have ever
come here if I knew he was back" were his last words of the issue. I
don't think it's just fear that Wesley might be working for the Senior
Partners (if Spike has even had time to realize that yet). He seems to
have known that seeing Wesley would have a major effect on Illyria. And
in S5 Wesley was closer to both Fred and Illyria than Spike was, so poor
Spike might be feeling a wee bit threatened now.
> And Illyria's reaction on seeing Wesley walking and talking again
> is... to turn into Fred? Um.
So there was a surprise in this issue after all! The rest of this issue
unfolded in an enjoyable but very straightforward fa****on, but that last
page really spices things up.
> Given the situation, I'm assuming that
> her continued erratic behaviour - that had Spike so worried he asked
> Angel for help - is due to grief over Wesley's death. Now I'm
> wondering if she adopted Fred's form because she associates those
> weird human emotions like love with that shape, or because she is
> trying to please him.. or even because Fred's memories/soul/whatever
> is reawakening within her?
The reawakening soul could be the reason for that discreet change to the
S5 story about Fred's soul being destroyed. If it was a deliberate
change, that is. Another possibility is that Illyria is now having
episodes where she thinks she *is* Fred, and seeing Wesley brought one on.
I like that idea. However, Illyria never forgot who she really is in any
of the previous issues, did she?
> And now we have to wait three months before we find out...
Evil.
--Chris
______________________________________________________________________
chrisg [at] gwu.edu On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog.
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