First, we've got the cover to the Director's Cut of "Angel: After the Fall" #1. Cover by Alex Garner, includes Brian Lynch's script and a full commentary.
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Next cover is the fifth Buffy omnibus. "Volume Five of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus series begins immediately after Season Three, after Sunnydale High has gone up in flames. Buffy is plagued by dreams of fellow Slayer Faith, who now lies in a comma. Jane Espenson, the celebrated writer from the Buffy TV show, writes the powerful Faith story Haunted. And as summer comes to an end, Buffy and Willow begin their first year of college in The Blood of Carthage, in a story written by acclaimed Buffy novelist Christopher Golden. Meanwhile Buffy embarks on a new romance with Riley Finn, and Willow and Oz's relationship comes to an end in Golden's Oz: Into the Wild. This volume also features work by Buffy Season Eight contributors Cliff Richards and Paul Lee and Brian Horton.* Collects Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Haunted, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Blood of Carthage, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Autumnal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Oz "Into the Wild," DHP 2000: Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Take Back the Night," DHP #150: Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Killing Time"" Sounds like some pretty good stuff. I've been wondering if that Oz book is any good.
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The next cover you've seen before. It's the variant to Buffy #15, which I threw up again to prepare you guys for the NEXT cover...
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Foster's Buffy #15. And guess what? Not big on his #13 or 14 covers, but this one I like. The blurb for the issue is as follows: "Having traveled from her base in Scotland, Buffy ventures to the heart of Japan in order to reclaim her stolen scythe, in Drew Goddard's conclusion to Wolves at the Gate. Along the way, Buffy and the legion of Slayers join forces with the irresistible Dracula to defeat a tight-nit group of nefarious vampires, in which the Slayers suffer a massive hit." And it's out June 4th.
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Preview for #13 is up here.
8 comments:
The Oz-book is one of the few non-canon books made by someone who wasn't a writer on the show that I actually liked. It wasn't insanely great or anything, but it was definitely an alright read.
If it's good enough, I'll buy the actual Oz TPB after I read it in the omnibus. He was one of the few characters who needed a spin-off and didn't get one.
I wouldn't say Oz NEEDED a spin-off, I feel he was mostly cool due to his particular dynamic with the rest of the characters - but he COULD've carried one, sure. I'm far more interested in the idea of bringing him aboard "Angel", though, I feel like he'd be a very good fit for the show, especially in the post-Willow werewolf-yoda state we last saw him.
Speaking of stuff they should've brought back on Angel, Kate Lockley should totally show up as a bitter, lonely rogue demon hunter (only somewhat more cool than Wesley ever managed). I don't know why, but I really feel like her character having been on a Lindsey-like walkabout to acquire the means to fight a one-woman-crusade against the things that ruined her life and killed her father would've been the perfect way to put her character back on the show and remove one of the few loose threads it had.
But, by the same token, wouldn't that feel kind of redundant after we've seen Wesley and Lindsey go through their transformations?
Also, IMHO, I'm not sure anyone was ever cooler than S4 Wesley. Kate? Not a chance in hell.
Reacting to that Director's Cut cover: Dear God, can IDW please find some artists who actually know what Angel looks like? (Other than Urru, of course, who is awesome.)
The Jon Foster cover to #15 is pretty good -- Buffy looks very graceful, though her face is a bit off -- but the Georges cover looks fantastic to me. So iconic.
Yeah, I'm not that anal on the likenesses being spot on, but that cover did not look right...
But, by the same token, wouldn't that feel kind of redundant after we've seen Wesley and Lindsey go through their transformations?
Absolutely. There's also Wood on Buffy who's a similar kind of character to that. The thing is, they did it in very different ways. I don't need Kate to come back like that, I just dislike the way she was left hanging without an explanation to where she went, and I'd feel that this'd be a doable way to bring her back. I have no doubt that if they actually were to bring her back, they'd have a way to do so way more interesting than my suggestion, though. I was just letting my imagination run off with me.
Also, IMHO, I'm not sure anyone was ever cooler than S4 Wesley. Kate? Not a chance in hell.
Oh, agreed. You won't find a bigger season 4 Wes-fanboy than yours truly, have no fear on that account. Though season 5 Wesley does at points get close. ;D
I thought Kate's story came to a nice, neat ending in "Epiphany." I wouldn't want to bring her back because (a) some characters just need to never come back; I mean, not everyone always returns, and (b) her story just seemed so *done*.
I don't need to bring her back. I just need an recognition that the character isn't dead and an explanation why we suddenly stopped seeing or hearing from her.
It makes no sense for her never to be mentioned again. Angel saves her by a miracle, for crying out loud. Even without that, it seems odd. All other big characters that disappeared LEFT - Gwen, Lindsey, even Nabbit can be explained as just realizing he wasn't wanted. But Kate, having given up everything in her life due to Angel's effect on it, being then saved by him in the nick of time, all of she, Angel and the entire fang-gang are just to suddenly disappear? It feels weird and artificial. I'm not complaining about the end to her arc - I thought it was good, too. I'm just complaining that she then disappeared for no good reason. I'm fine with her disappearing. I just want a in-story reason.
(The same, by the way, goes for Whistler on Buffy)
To clarify, my wanting her to come back or be referenced again is not due to thinking that'd improve on the story. It's because it would remove one of the (few) elements on the show that felt unrealistic to the degree that it makes me think "Well, it's a tv-show" - a thought that's death to the enjoyment of what I'm watching. Angel was really good at a) avoiding that and b) when it got in situations like that, clear them up in hindsight. But Kate never was. Storywise, she served her purpose, and I'm fine with never seeing her again. The problem is that it feels so unrealistic that such a major presence in Angel's life (and vice versa) would almost die, be saved by a miracle, and then suddenly never be seen or heard from ever again. It damages my ability to buy into the realness of the story. All I need(ed) would be a "Kate moved to Florida"-line or something like that. I don't need it to be good, I don't need it to improve the story, I just need it to make sense.
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