A few bits o' news.
1. By request, here is a review I did of "The Origin" a while ago. Click meh!
2. Again, by request.... here are some other reviews I've done that do and don't fit in with the topic of this site. If you shop on Amazon, you might have (but probably not) seen some of these. But here is my Amazon review profile: Click meh (as helpful!)
3. Yeah, it's a few days old. Yeah, I knew about it a few days ago. Yeah, I posted about it on Facebook and debated elsewhere before posting it here. Yeah, I'm lazy and all that. Yeah, yeah yeah. Click the cover on the right. Remember how much Jon Foster sucked at covers (with the sole exception of #12)? Well... Jo Chen still does the opposite of suck. Well... actually the opposite of suck is literally blow if you think about it, but she doesn't blow. She rocks. She is the opposite of... things not rock-like. But yeah, that's the cover for #16 and its her triumphant return to the making of Buffy covers.
....and yeah, that's Buffy fighting Fray. The description of the issue, provided by SlayAlive, is as follows:
July trumpets the return of Jo Chen, but also heralds the return of both Karl Moline and Fray to the Buffyverse! The Buffster squares off against her futuristic descendant in this four-part arc by Joss Whedon and Karl Moline, who first collaborated in 2003's Fray mini-series.
Hoah yeah! So we've got Moline doing the arc, Joss writing, and both Buffy and Fray starring. I couldn't be happier we've got Moline for this, but how cool would it be if the "back in the present" scenes are pencilled by Georges. Very cool, methinks.
So lets look at what we've got coming up.
SOON
March 5th: Buffy #12 (Big surprise!)
Mid/Late March: Angel- After the Fall #5 (Two days are up, Angel)
April 2nd: Buffy #13 (Drac's back)
Mid/Late April: Angel- After the Fall #6, First Night 1 (We see how Connor, Lorne, and Spike's spent their first night in Hell)
May 7th- Buffy #14 (Hypno Dawn stomps shit)
Mid May- Angel- After the Fall #7, First Night 2 (Wes gets ghosty)
JUNE
Angel- After the Fall #8, First Night 3 (Conclusion)
Angel- After the Fall #9 (back to the main story)
Buffy #15 (Peace, Drew)
JULY
Buffy #16 (Hey, Fray)
(probably) Angel- After the Fall #10
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
15 comments:
Aw, that's awesome. Too bad I read this post, though, I'd actually somehow managed to avoid that spoiler...
...so NOW what do I do. My girlfriend adores "Fray" beyond what's really sane (which is saying a lot, coming from me), but she also abhors spoilers... How can I keep this a secret for five fraking months?! Gnaaargh, horror.
On a slightly less raving note; there's not going to be a standalone between the Tokyo-arc and this Fray-stuff? Or is the Fray-issue a standalone?
No standalone. The #11 was the standalone for the "Wolves at the Gate" arc. When it's collected in the TPB, it'll be at the front instead of the back.
The Fray arc will be an arc. I wouldn't worry about spoiling your GF unless she doesn't look at covers. It's not really a spoiler, as it's on the cover. It's kinda like "In Cloverfield, a monster attacks NY." Not a spoiler, since it's the whole idea of the story lol. If I were you, I'd show her the cover. Won't ruin anything for the story. Kinda like the way #8 did show Buffy and Faith fighting, but it wasn't spoilery because the actual fight was about the context of it.
I guess, but it would spoil that Fray will appear in the issue - something she wouldn't know 'til, well, when she buys it (which'd be ten seconds before reading it, with this cover) if I don't tell her, as she's much too busy to browse online for this stuff. So it's a big difference in a way, knowing Fray'll be in it for half a year, and getting the surprise as she sits down to read.
As for the standalone, ah, I see, I was wondering how they were going to arrange the TPB seeing as I was under the illusion that they'd have a standalone after the Tokyo-arc as well. What's the official total number of issues for the book, by the way? 40?
I'm 95% deliriously happy about this - especially since Moline'll do the artwork - but I have to say, I'm 5% sceptical. I'm really not sure if the best way of returning to Fray is by way of a time-travelling crossover with a much more well-known character. I feel she deserves her own spotlight, she's more than a secondary Buffy-character. Fray is as much of a central-stage-character as Angel has become after five seasons of his own show. I'd like to see him return as a sidekick on Buffy just as little as I'd like to see Fray take second seat to her. So I'm a little sceptical.
But still, 95% f#%%&#!g happy.
Yeah, Season Eight is now exactly forty issues. Joos knows whats going to happen and when/where it will happen. The final ten will be plotted out by Joss and bestselling author Brad Meltzer. Meltzer will write the former ten and Joss will write the latter ten.
As far as Fray losing "main character" status, I wouldn't worry. I think she's going to be a focus of this arc, but I doubt she'll join as a member of the Buffy cast. I think it's probably going to just be a cross-over. Meaning that "Fray" will eventually continue as it is.
I think "Fray" should continue, even if Joss isn't the writer. It should be made into a monthly, with Moline as the artist, as it would surely sell.
I'd like Fray to continue as its own thing more than just about anything save a Slayerverse live-action-project (still hoping hard for Ripper), and I'm just a tiny bit scared that such a crossover could "fulfill" the Fray-promises Joss has made and keep him from getting around to making more Fray-stuff in its own right.
And Fray is one thing I sincerely hope will never be handed down to someone else to write OR draw. I most particularily hope it'll always stay purely Joss-penned.
(Oh, and just so you know, my girlfriend's delirious right now, so thanks for advising me to tell ;) )
Also, yay, Brad Meltzer. The only thing I've read by him was "Identity Crisis", but my gods did I love it. It made me CRY. In PUBLIC. And I'd never even read a JLA-book before.
NICE, I've been meaning to ask someone about Identity Crisis, but I kept forgetting. It's easy to understand without background on the DC continuity? I've never read any DC at all before, but am considering trying Identity Crisis.
PS: So badass that your GF likes Buffy. And reads the comics. None of my friends even like or will give the show a chance. Only my mother did, and she LOVED it.
Actually, I met my girlfriend online because of - huh, I can't recall anymore, but it was some Angel-quote - because of her recognising a quote I did from a Whedon-show on a message-board we'd both been registered on for a decade. We hadn't really been having had much interaction before that, but I got all "yay, someone on this board likes Angel!" and found her MSN-address in her profile so I could add her. We talked sporadically (we don't even live in the same country, time difference and shit) a couple of times a month for a year and a half or so (she was the person who made me try out Firefly, actually), and then one week we happened to chat every evening four days in a row, and I realised couldn't stop thinking about her. Which was weird for me, I'd never had a crush on anyone before. So, I told her, and she'd apparently liked me for a long time with me being to stupid to pick up on it.
So now I'm spending all my money and vacations flying back and forth between Norway and Canada. Sigh.
Yeah, it's nice having someone who likes this stuff too. We've got a very similar taste in a lot of tv-shows in general, not just Whedon's, and to a less extent we seem to like the same books and comics. Of course, in other areas where I'm very geeky, like history and ancient religions, I'll only get eyerolls from her if I start blabbering, so...
I have some friends who like Buffy, too, though. Most of them because I recommended they watch it, but not all.
Hm. I do go on, don't I.
Anyway, IC: I was going home from the city I study in to my parents' town, which is a close to four-hour-trip, and I dropped by the local comic book shop first to see if I found something to read. Seeing Joss' name on the cover of IC having written the introduction, I chanced it and bought it. At that point I'd read very little DC Comics, and just about all that I had read was Batman-stuff without the rest of the DC universe mixed in. And I have to say, I really liked it. Granted, I had a very intense read, reading the entire novel from beginning to end while sitting alone on a boat for hours, but yeah, I really liked it. I have heard people who thought you needed to be familiar with the DCU to like it, but I didn't feel like that. Of course, I'm geek enough to know some basics without having read any though.
The general premise of the book is to explain how the "Holy smokes, Batman" and "Gosh, Superman!"-age could exist in the present, much darker continuity, and I think it does so rather splendidly. But I can't promise you that you'll like it, not knowing just how blank you are on the DC Universe.
By the way, if you'd like to try out some DC-stuff, I can highly recommend Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's "Batman: The Long Halloween". There's a lot of stuff I could recommend, I've gone from reading no superhero-books to reading way too many (that together with tv-shows and curricular activities have completely killed my once oh-so-active fantasy literature reading), but I think that's my favourite Batman-book. It's set after his first year AS Batman too, so no continuity-baggage except for the events of Frank Miler's "Year One", which isn't as good but still worth the read. (You don't really need to have read that one either though)
*Frank Miller's "Year One"
Thanks! I actually have "Year One" because it was a few dollars in a bargain rack, but haven't read it yet. I'll probably guy Long Halloween, as I see it every time I go to the bookstore.
Hope you won't regret it. :) Let me know what you think!
If you're going to read anything by Meltzer, I would suggest reading his Green Arrow stuff, as I think that's his best DC work to date. Identity Crisis is decent, but avoid his Justice League ongoing at all costs.
I like the idea of more Fray, but I'm skeptical about this.
-M
Me too. Looking forward to it - a lot - but with a lingering sense of scepticism. However, if successful, it's likely to draw in a bigger audience for any actual Fray-sequels Joss might do, which in turn makes them more likely. (I hope) The Season 8-fanbase is bigger than the Fray-fanbase by far.
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