Freefall ~ Part One

Unlike for Angel and Faith this is the review you are looking for. Enjoy! 

You know how sometimes when you first see, taste or experience something and your initial reaction is... not much of a reaction at all? You're speechless, not because you are in awe, but that you literally have no opinion. To you the question was a curve ball and came shooting at you out of nowhere. You'd never thought of it like that before. You are simply border lining between "I like-y" and "I no like-y" Yet you can't get your footing right, there is just that weird feeling 'cause you're out of place and caught off guard by the issue at hand.

Then, after some time, further encounter, it... grows on you. The clouds part and it all makes sense, and you wonder: How did I not see it before? You smile at the thought.

I assume the above situation can apply to many things in life, judging by how vague of a concept I seem to have described it all. Heh.

Cover art by Steve Morris

I'm staring at the cover of Buffy Season 9 issue one ~ Freefall ~ Part One illustrated by Steve Morris and, though I never disliked the cover it never really sat right with me the first time I saw it. It may have been the light turquoise wash of it all and the seagulls giving me a feeling of sea sickness. But after further viewing I took in more of the details. Our heroine is falling at rapid pace, hair and gown fluttering. Her world, the streets of San Fransisco seem to have been sitting far above in the heavens until now, as it crumbles away falling with her. Given the situation she seems calm with only a slight sign of concern of what is to come in her eyes. Splatter I suggest. The slight streaky vertical smudges and in-out focus of clarity plays with our eyes in an artistic way. Drinking it all in, I can sense the roller coaster that is to come shaking up the life of our beloved heroine and her friends. The jostled vertical display of the title Freefall is also a very nice touch.

Judging by the style of the alternative cover it could be by none other than Jo Chen. The energy, action and extreme vantage point was striking at first sight. Buffy crouched on top of the Golden Gate Bridge, right hand firmly grasping her stake, ready to strike. It's night with the city lights glowing below, illuminating her and half her face from the jaw up. The swirly texture of the brush marks add to the gust of winds blowing the locks of her hair. She stares out, her sights clearly locked on a target we are yet to know. She looks poised, ready to leap forth.

Cover art by Jo Chen

Our bonus cover is in celebration of Dark Horse's 25th Anniversary. Buffy sitting sweet and innocent in a red cardigan with pouting red lips and eyes wide staring straight up at us. Autumn leaves fall diagonally over the stone formation she sits on, among possibly tombs and gravestones in a graveyard on this windy day. It's Buffy in Georges Jeanty's pen work cute-looking and all.          

The intro page with all the formalities and blurb to the issue also has a nice bluey-green water colour of San Fransisco with a lonesome sketch of Buffy amidst it all.

We open with four rectangular panels all slightly bigger than the one above it as we see Buffy open her tired, red eyes waking from a night of party hard drinking. Hangover indeed and jeez is the room messy!

Cover art by Georges Jeanty

The issue reads much like watching a television show with flash backs here and there as we try to fill in the blanks from her party hard night. The plans for season nine was to get back to the domestic life of Buffy as she balances it with life as a slayer so I believe the writers have achieved this goal well. However, the flash backs here and there made it a tad annoying. I found it disrupting to the flow of the story which makes me think back to how smooth the story plots were told in season eight. As far fetched and remote the grandeur of the stories in season eight were, the stories were presented and laid out well to the reader. Here I found myself not liking what I was reading. An information overload. The issue did best when it honed in on specific moments with full shot, then face, then eyes. The emotions of our heroine were felt exactly, so we could dig deep and understand. The intricacies in each panel were brilliant but sometimes there was just too many panels on the one page. Qualities in Jeanty's drawing also came through more in the few pages where they weren't over run with action and speech bubbles. 

It took me time flicking through the pages again a second go to start appreciating the issue for what it is. But I must say season nine did not open as splendidly as season eight.

P.s The issue solves the mystery of where Magical Mystical Tour featuring the Beetles fits in the timeline which I was puzzling about earlier.