Buffy Season 9 issue #6
No monkey business around here.
Cover One. My first reaction was: Yay! It's Spike! My second reaction was: Oh, it's Phil Noto, dang! Thankfully the comic was not by him. I just don't have much appreciation for his style. Take the cover for instance. Spike's expression look familiar? Well it should if you've see the series, if you've seen the posters of the series and if you've seen the distasteful comic Old Times you've seen this exact photo tracing of a face combined with poor rendering type of drawing. Not to mention that bold black outline around the figures that just screams awful. Basically we see Spike shoulder to shoulder with Buffy. He raises an eyebrow at her and she gazes but at him while she is in post-poof of a vamp, the flicks of vamp dust fly about.
Cover Two. Well here's an interesting cover. When I first saw it I thought the comic had already begun and I'd been conned out of a second cover. Alas! It wasn't. An African American woman in a black leather coat threatens to throw a stake at a blond vamp carrying a limp female victim in his arms below a full moon but starless night. It's of course a glimpse of the past of Nikki the vampire slayer and her long battle with English punk vamp Spike in his evil days. A very in your face cover by Jeanty.
It's a new arc so we open fresh. We open with the past. New York 1973. There is only one slayer in the world and she isn't Buffy. The Slayer Nikki we find is fighting a vamp and she's losing. Don't worry it's not Spike. We've already seen that. We find out she's pregnant and on drugs. No she's not high. It's that stupid "Cruciamentum" where a slayer he beefed up with drugs that wipe her clean of all her super human strength and thrown into a house with a hungry, tortured for weeks vamp. Well, in this case it was a city rooftop. Rent's too expensive in New York, I see. The treat is we get to picture the Watcher Crowley, previously mentioned but never seen in season 7 of the show. Pallid faced, grey hair and crow bar moustache. Dresses a lot like Giles did too, that is, when we first met him. Must be customary Watchers attire.
I was wondering how Nikki's tale ties in. And then it did so seamlessly as the conversation of 1973 drifts into the issue at hands for our troubled Slayer. It's a delicate conversation between Buffy and Dawn, and Jeanty draws it beautifully. The close up of Buffy's sad eyes with her mouth muffled by something soft. Then the next panel a side view of her sitting on her bed, legs crossed cuddling a pillow tightly to her chest, half her face buried in it. Dawn sits at the foot of her bed comforting her. The colours are soft with pastel indigo sheets, pinks and greens with mahogany brown.
Skip along and we see 'guys night' about to happen. We find out that Spike is still a permanent resident of the bug ship as it glowingly hovers on a vacant lot in town to drop off Spike. Pretty with the swirling dust and golden light rings.
A bit more of the past and we see a wonderful panel of the Washington Square Arch in New York. The sky is illuminated in the colours of the aurora borealis with a full lit moon and sparkling stars and street lamps to complement the skies glowing in blues and greens. Under it all the Slayer and her Watcher discuss the serious matters.
Lastly would be my favourite. The last two pages of this issue is a beautifully coloured scene by the pool at Buffy's apartment. Yes, it's not the drawing in the panels that amaze it is the colour. The scene opens with a panel depicting Buffy sitting on the edge of the in ground pool with her legs in the water. A inflated beach ball floats on the surface of the pool. The water glows a brilliant blue from the underwater pool light. It illuminates the liquid in a cool glow and all within the vicinity. A black coat is just in view standing beside Buffy. It's Spike come to receive his share on the secret. The conversation is a long one and the end a surprising one.
No comments:
Post a Comment