by Alan Rapp on May 20, 2021
in Comics
After preventing a pair of vampires from assembling the Judge, the team follows Willow into a parallel Earth to where the original television show’s timeline is unfolding (and that Xander isn’t a vampire). Anya is along for the ride although she doesn’t reveal her true motivations to the Scoobies (are they called Scoobies in the alternate timeline?) and keeping them safe from the Lurkers looking to cleanse the world of those who don’t belong.
For the big worlds’ colliding event, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #25 is actually a bit dull as the new characters avoid their original counterparts and avoid any possible negative reaction to running into themselves. While it’s nice to get a few panels of the original group, there’s nothing all that interesting happening to them. And when all is said and done it doesn’t take much for Buffy to convince Willow to return home offering no climax to the story.
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- Title: Angel – Dear Boy
- wiki: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to Los Angeles and the adventures of a vampire with a soul. The Second Season of Angel is fixated on Darla (Julie Benz) and the return of Angel’s sire. After being gaslit for several episodes, an already shaky Angel (David Boreanaz) discovers that not only is Darla alive but is human. We witness Wolfram & Hart’s plan to turn Angel evil by framing him as an unhinged obsessive responsible for the murder of Darla’s husband (an actor hired, and promptly killed by Wolfram & Hart). The crime leads to the return of Detective Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Röhm), a character that never quite worked and would exit the show just a few episodes later. “Dear Boy” also highlights Angel’s disgust at the seedier side of being a private investigator when he’s hired to spy on a cheating spouse supposedly abducted by aliens.
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- Title: Angel – Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
- wiki: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to Los Angeles and the adventures of a vampire with a soul. It may not be the best episode of the series, as some argue, as the Rebel Without a Cause references are little too obvious and it lacks the necessary ingredients of both Winifred Burkle and Wee Little Puppet Men, but the second episode of Angel‘s sophomore season has a lot going for it. “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” fits nicely into the show as the introduction of the Hyperion Hotel which would become the new home base of Angel Investigations as well as open the door for the series to explore more of the main character’s past.
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by Alan Rapp on March 5, 2021
in Comics
I’ll admit, I fell off a bit with my reading of rebooted Buffy and Angel comics with the whole Hellmouth crossover. I’ve picked up a bit here and there, and that’s what made me notice this new 40-page one-shot centered around Faith. The issue offers a glimpse of Faith prior to her introduction in Sunnydale but after she became noticed by the Watchers Council as a potential Slayer (Or became a Slayer? It’s confusing).
The mix of a rebooted universe where you are not sure how much history has carried over, the hit-and-miss schedule I’ve taken recently with the various comics, and not knowing exactly where the comic fits in to the overall timeline all added to my overall confusion here. The story is relatively simple, the Watchers are fucking with Faith, testing her in a movie theater against vampires, wiping her mind, and starting over.
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by Alan Rapp on February 4, 2021
in Comics
In many ways Buffy the Vampire Slayer #22 feels like the calm before the storm as we’re taken around Sunnydale on the eve of pending events. There are several pieces to the latest issue of the rebooted Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, but the common thread seems to be characters seeming lost or out of place.
We see to characters in astral form seeking answers, both the lost Willow and the former slayer Morgan Palmer (who has taken up with Anya to get revenge against the Watcher’s Council, although she seems less sure of her decision the more time she spends looking in on Buffy and Giles).
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