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Date Posted: 14:38:54 07/28/07 Sat
Author: KdS
Subject: Buffy S8 #5 - "The Chain" (Spoilers)

Following the teaser at the end of the previous issue, I was wondering if this would be a Whedonian angstfest about how superheroing was still a horrible thing even given the new set-up. This story doesn't make any difference to the general high fatality rate of any non-Buffy Slayer who is the protagonist of an official BtVS spin-off, but it tries and to my point of view succeeds in setting up the idea of a new spirit of sisterhood in the still unnamed Slayer Org, rather than the manipulation and backbiting associated with the old Watchers' Council. I'm confidently expecting the "Buffy condemned thousands of girls to horrible fates so she could slack off" crowd to take this issue as more ammunition though, even given the way that the first four showed that Buffy hasn't been partying in Rome all this time.

But what is intriguing is whether this issue indicates a real change in the Buffyverse's moral tone or whether it's setting up problems for later. In the past in the Buffyverse the idea of being a backroom figure who sends people on missions to face potentially fatal threats has been denounced as flatly evil or at the very least morally corrupting. I am intrigued by who the dreadlocked black Slayer who orders the nameless heroine on her mission to the underworld is - I don't believe we've seen her before in the comics. The fact that she isn't shown fighting at all would seem to paint her by previous Buffyverse rules as one of Whedon's utterly hated Rear Echelon Motherahemers, but she is treated with considerable respect by the story. The black Slayer who is in the fight scene with the protagonist and Simone is clearly a different person - she's more heavily built (in fact the first Slayer we've seen so far in the comic who isn't built like a whippet) and has cornrows rather than locks. I'm also intrigued by the older woman who counsels the protagonist when she's first Called - does this mean that there are Slayers activated at over twenty, is she a survivor of the Council or someone more newly recruited? And it still remains an open question of how centralised the new organisation is and who at what level is making what decisions. (Whedon doesn't like that kind of world-building at all, but I think it really will be vital to whether this spin-off works in the long run.)

And I do wonder about the portrayal of the protagonist's mission underground. If she's allying with the egg-laying fairies and the giant slugs (I haven't decided if the skin-to-skin slug friendship ritual is thoughtful world-building or a rather icky sexual exploitation move) then are we going to start getting more sympathetic non-human characters in S8? And if so, are they going to run into the old problems this creates about the moral significance of Not Killing Humans no matter how great the provocation/necessity?

Quick bits:

This issue appears to make it deliberately clear that all the Tales of the Slayers comic stories are full canon from the point of view of this series, despite the lack of fit between the TotS and TV S7 versions of Nicki Wood. (Also, the new Slayer Org seems to be using restrained vampires as a learning aid, despite how well that turned out in the Tales of the Vampires framing narrative.)

Thanks to aycheb on LJ and a now-deleted online review for pointing out that Simone, the rather arrogant punkish Slayer who'd rather have guns than a sword in this issue, was also the one bugging Andrew about guns a couple of issues back. Is this set-up?

I enjoyed the cheesy TV ad with Andrew imitating "Bob" Dobbs - but are they really trying to keep all this secret or not?

Coarser remark: the protagonist has to bulk out her bosom to impersonate Buffy? Was Whedon even looking at SMG during the last few years of the show?

Future bits:

Brian K Vaughan's Faith story kicks off next issue. What is Faith's current relationship with Slayer Org? Is Robin still around? And what will Faith's sex life be like, given that its portrayal will probably be a major factor in intensification or reduction of the widespread fan perception that Whedon has issues with the less romantic forms of female sexuality?

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