What Happened Here?

What is It?: "Stake to the Heart" is a trade paperback collecting four issues of a pre-Season One Buffy adventure by Fabian Nicieza.

Timing: After "Slayer Interrupted", before BtVS: Season One. This is the third and final story arc of the "Buffy: Year One" series.

REVIEW: The story behind "Stake to the Heart", the final arc in the Buffy: Year One series, is hard to follow, but not in the way that one would feel stupid because they couldn't understand. It's just that the writing is just so completely convoluted that it makes the story indecipherable. We are left with unanswered questions aplenty: At what point did Buffy see the demons? If she couldn't see them all along, how did she fight them in the end? What changed TO make her see them? Could they harm other people? Because--I'm not going to spoil it--but something happens to a character other than Buffy that SHOULD have killed that character, but in the end said character was left unscathed. However, in the final part (Part Four) of this trade paperback, the story gets back on its feet as Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce enter Sunnydale and settle into their new home. All I have to say about that is writer Fabian Nicieza has 'brass testes' for that joke/reference he made as Joyce laid exhausted in the couch when they first arrived in the new house. The joke is ballsy, creative, and perhaps a bit tasteless... and it's also memorable.

Angel's story line is interesting, and makes for the best reading in this trade paperback. We see him hanging out with Whistler, the demon introduced in Season Two of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" who helped Angel get back on his feet, and they inadvertently cause most of the trouble in this book. Angel tries hard to correct his mistakes, and that's where a major error occurs. Whistler and Angel discuss options, and Whistler goes to WOLFRAM AND HART for help. In the television show ANGEL, Angel had never heard of Wolfram and Hart. Though I realize that this trade paperback isn't part of the Buffyverse canon, an error in the continuity so large is very hard to ignore.

So what went wrong here? We know that Scott Lobdell, who co-wrote the first two arcs of "Buffy: Year One" with Fabian Nicieza was absent for this volume. But previous arc, "Slayer Interrupted", wasn't much better than this. I guess "Buffy: Year One" will go down as a one hit wonder.

Art: Cliff Richard's pencils are good; nothing at all different from the previous arcs of Buffy: Year One. What makes this arc special is that some of the pages are actually painted, the art here done by Brian Horton. The monsters are especially beautiful, and I can say the same for the covers (also painted by Brian Horton). So, while this trade paperback doesn't have much in the way of story, the art is something to be treasured. But, sorry Mr. Fabian Nicieza... Good art isn't enough to rescue this trade paperback from the depths of suckage. Buffy: Year One started off strong with "Viva Las Buffy" and plummeted to the aforementioned depths as quickly as Sisqo's career fell off.

Characters We Know: Buffy, Dawn, Joyce, Angel, Whistler, Hank Summers, Giles, Xander, Willow, Jesse, and -ahem- Lilah Morgan.

Rating: 4/10

The Appetizer Was Delicious. The Main Course? A Bit Soggy

What Is It?: "Slayer, Interrupted" is a trade paperback collecting four issues of a pre-Season One Buffy adventure.

Timing: After "Viva Las Buffy", before Season One. This is the second story arc of the "Buffy: Year One" series.

REVIEW: Starting off this book is a bonus one-shot comic called "Dawn and Hoopy the Bear." The comic is scripted, penciled, colored, the whole nine yards by Paul Lee (Season Eight fans know him as the artist who drew "The Chain"), and the job he does portraying Dawn's younger self is phenomenal. Knowing how good this story is, it makes me feel a little better about Dawn appearing in these stories (which I explained my gripe with in my review for "Viva Las Buffy").

Now, on to the meat and potatoes of this trade paperback. The collected miniseries "Slayer Interrupted" is pretty much a direct continuation of what's happened in "Viva Las Buffy." Pike is out of the picture, Buffy has just come home from her stint is Las Vegas, but she isn't staying at home for long. Buffy ends up in a mental hospital (heavily influenced by the episode "Normal Again") and grapples with both reality and some bad ass demons. Let me reiterate this before I get to the negative: When I say the demon(s) are bad ass, I really mean it; the Big Bad of this arc is something that would've looked like cheesy CGI had it been on television, but it worked here. Some other good parts were the Giles vs. Ripper showdown and the one-page depicting Cordelia laughing at Willow in Sunnydale. While the latter has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and interrupts the flow of the story, it was worth it just to see that sad moment.

Here we go, down to the nitty gritty negatives. There is a lot that I don't like here, especially the way the main story line is executed. Buffy doesn't seem to grapple with her identity at all; as soon as her parents put her away, she believes that she is insane with no qualms. She doesn't even question the notion that she is insane until she sees a demon in the asylum. Thing is, if Buffy thinks she's crazy, seeing a demon shouldn't convince her that she isn't; it should convince her that she IS. That's just one example of sloppy story. Dr. Primrose's back story is extremely contrived, adding nothing but cringe factor.

What I thought would be another hit from the writing team Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza was a flop. Though, I can't take issue with the art, as Cliff Richard's pencils and Brian Horton/Paul Lee's covers remain consistently as good. If you're looking for a Buffyverse fix, this may be worth it for the sheer joy of the bonus story, "Dawn and Hoopy the Bear." And, even though any fan of "Viva Las Buffy" will be disappointed with "Slayer Interrupted", the story still has some good sections that make it worth a read. If not for "Dawn and Hoopy the Bear" I'd have given this volume a 4/10, but I have to add a few points for that Paul Lee gem.

Art: Paul Lee is a master of Dawn's facial expressions, apparently. He makes grand use of them in here. However, Cliff Richards does a lot of great work in "Slayer, Interrupted" as well. The opening sequence of the first issue is one of the best page designs I've seen, and it just brings a lot of life to the story. He did a good job here, it's just disappointing that the story wasn't as tight as his art work.

Characters We Know: Dawn, Buffy, Joyce and Hank Summers, Willow, Cordelia, Angel, Whistler, Giles, Quentin Travers, Harmony.

Rating: 6/10

I'm Baaaaaaack

What Is It?: "Viva Las Buffy" is a trade paperback collecting four issues of a pre-Season One Buffy adventure.

Timing: This takes place AFTER "The Origin" and before Season One of BtVS. This is the first story arc in the "Buffy: Year One" series.

REVIEW: After reading the so-so "The Origin" comic, I was weary to get my hopes up that the other pre-Season One Buffy comics would be any good. But in this trade paperback "Viva Las Buffy", gone is Christopher Golden's disjointed storytelling and artist Joe Bennett's green vampires are no where in sight. Instead the infinitely more competent team of writers Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza and penciller Cliff Richards, with Paul Lee and Brian Horton tackling the covers.

In this miniseries, Buffy and Pike (who narrates this tale) take on a vampire-run casino in Las Vegas, while the other characters from the series (who Buffy, at this point in her life, has yet to meet) deal with their own demons. Angel's story arc is very true to the show, as in he pretty much does nothing but watch over Buffy. However, he gets into his own bit of trouble during this, which leads to a very interesting twist involving time travel and temporal folds. Perhaps the most interesting side story in this miniseries involves Giles, who finds himself in a spot of trouble while trying to stop a colleague from using black magic to take him out of the competition to become Buffy's watcher. There are many nods to the show there, including appearances by Quentin Travers, Wesley Wyndam-Price, and even soon-to-be-rogue watcher Gwendolyn Post.

Each story unfolds at a satisfying pace, very similarly to the show it's based off of. Buffy is especially entertaining, as she is one-hundred percent in character. Here, she is Season One Buffy, lacking the edge and the bitterness that the character later took on in seasons six and seven. Here she has excepted her destiny as the slayer, but is still very new to the world and hasn't developed the cynical outlook that she later does. It's refreshing to see Buffy like this. Another great aspect of this series is the villain, who is--to say the least--unique.

While ninety percent of what I have to say about "Viva Las Buffy" is complementary, this isn't a perfect volume. The inconsistency of Pike's character from "The Origin" to here is disturbing and, though the character is much more likable here, I sometimes felt like this Pike was a completely different character all together. Another thing that annoyed me, perhaps unreasonably, was how Wesley was portrayed. What he did (snitching on Giles) was perhaps in character at that point in his life, but I can't say it didn't annoy me, as I've become a very big fan of Wesley. My biggest problem, however, is Dawn's presence in this miniseries (as well as the other pre-Season One comics). Essentially, we are seeing these events as Buffy remembers them, not how they truly happened. I have to say I'd much rather know what actually happened in these stories, not the magically altered memories including Dawn.

Art: Stylish, bursting with color and action. The vampire-staking effect is also awesome.

Characters We Know: Buffy, Giles, Angel, Joyce and Hank Summers, Dawn, Gwendolyn Post, Wesley, Quentin Travers

Rating: 8/10