"Right Back To The Beginning! Not The Bang, Not The Word... The True Beginning"

What Is It?: "The Dust Waltz" is the first Buffy graphic novel that Dark Horse published. It was written by Dan Brereton with pencils by Hector Gomez. It is from the first run of non-canonical Buffy comics.

Timing: The timing is ambiguous, though Scott Allie has recently stated in the opening to the second BtVS omnibus that it is--contrary to what Wikipedia says on the matter--set in Season Three of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Knowing that, it can only take place between "Revelations" and "Lover's Walk." All the characters know about Angel being alive, but Cordelia is still smitten with Xander and Willow is dating Oz. It is impossible for it to be set in Season Two, because Willow and Oz don't officially become an item around the time Angel loses his soul... So that leaves the only open spot for this comic to be between B3-07 and B3-08.

REVIEW: This is a very early Buffy comic. "The Dust Waltz" takes place in--contrary to popular belief--mid-Season Three of BUFFY and is the first Buffy graphic novel that Dark Horse ever published. The story is surprisingly coherent and fits in nicely with the mood of early Buffy. The tone is light and the voices, for the most part, are pretty on point. The one character that the writer messes up here is Buffy Summers herself; she, in "The Dust Waltz", is for the most part a clueless and annoying character. Her charm wasn't captured in this depiction of her.

I also had a problem with the inclusion of Giles' niece. She was a character who simply added nothing to the story; the story could have been told the exact same way without her, and our main characters would have a lot more page time than they do. However, I have to add that the plot itself is actually very creative... much more so than I'd expect for the first adaptation. I won't spoil anything, but it includes a demon competition over the Hell Mouth.

Art: The art is old school. Very old school. Some of the colors are inconsistent, causing confusion when you try to identify characters. Also, a big thing for me was the depiction of Willow. Compare her and Cordy's face. Their faces are drawn EXACTLY the same way. They could be twins. Plus, Willow's hair is brown here; same as Cordy's. I really, really don't get that. And Xander looks like he belongs on the cover to a Saved By the Bell DVD set. While the story gets points for being innovative, the overall effect of everything suffers from the way the characters are portrayed.

Characters We Know: Buffy, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Angel.

Rating: 6/10

Before Sunnydale

What Is It?: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin (trade paperback collecting the miniseries). This is a faithful adaptation of Joss Whedon's original script for the Buffy movie (you know, the cheesy pre-Buffyverse one that everyone mucked up), turned into a comic script by Buffy scribe Christopher Golden (who has yet to woo me) and Dan Brereton. Joss has said that this can "pretty much be accepted as canon" but that he had a few issues with it.

Timing: A little less than a year before Buffy comes to Sunnydale.

REVIEW: This, it seems, is just what a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would want to read. It's a faithful adaptation of Joss Whedon's original script for the "Buffy" movie that, to be kind, was ruined by the director and Donald Sutherland.

One would think that this version of Buff's origin would be foolproof. It depicts Buffy as Sarah Michelle Gellar, Merrick as the show's version, not the movie's, AND it follows Whedon's script closely. However, not all is well with this trade paperback. One, the most obvious problem is length. What should've been a six issue mini series was squeezed into three, which beat the pacing black and blue and hindered the amount of involvement we readers could get in the story. Lothos, instead of the looming threat he should've been, is nothing more than a run of the mill vamp to us, as he is never fleshed out to be more than that. Another problem is the depiction of the vampires here. The story is supposed to be updated here to be consistent with the Buffy-television universe, but many of the vampires are actually colored green. Yes, GREEN. As in blue mixed with yellow. Another species of vampires are these bat-like horned creatures that we never meet in the show who are also green. It would be great if they were distinguished to be DEMONS, not vamps, but within this short series, they're referred to as vampires and are also killed by stakes.

I can't say the comic didn't hold my interest though. The Buffy/Merrick relationship, as different as it was from Buffy/Giles, was one of the most captivating aspects of "The Origin." I do wish it had the chance to develop over a longer miniseries, but what was done here was executed nicely. The climax, Pike's allure, and Buffy's alienation from her friends also made for good reading, though the Buffy/Pike relationship developed way too quickly for me. (SPOILER:) It went from "You're icky" to Smoochies with absolutely no transition besides a bike ride.

I'd recommend passing on "Buffy: The Origin" for now. If you just by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volume One", you can find "The Origin" collected in there, with many other Buffy miniseries for a much cheaper price.

Art: The art is okay. Very, very plain, but not necessarily bad. Though there were some odd panels (including a fight scene where, in one panel, it looks like Buffy has eight foot long legs with no sign of knees or feet) penciller Joe Bennett is competent enough to create effective action sequences as well as convincing dramatic scenes, especially the Buffy/Pike motorcycle scene after (SPOILER:) Merrick dies. The colors are great contrasts between light/bright and dark/moody as Buffy begins to leave behind her old life (omigod bubblegum pop!) and realizes her destiny (tough-ass slayer). Kudos to colorists Jeromy Cox and Guy Major for that.

Characters We Know: Buffy, Merrick, and a brief appearance by Xander, Willow, and Giles

Rating: 5/10