The motion comic only covers the first 20 issues or so, so just half the season. There hasn’t been any indication they’ll finish the season, but it seems silly that they wouldn’t, even if what was released has gotten mixed reviews. The voice actors are very different from the TV actors which is okay, just reinforces this isn’t the same as the show, but then nothing will be. So my impression, it’s better than nothing, which sums up how I feel about the comics so far. Joss of course did write the season ending arc and did state they will be going on with season 9.
Definite mixed feelings about the end of 8. My expectations for anything Joss writes as being instantly superior to anything out there were not met by any of the Buffyverse comics or by Dollhouse. I guess I was spoiled by the TV shows. Actually, I know I was. But, it comes down again to mediocre Buffy/Angel being better than nothing at all. I think I’ll wait for the TPB collections for 9. 8 was definitely up and down and ended down for me. Some spoilage ahead if you do intend to get caught up.
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I gave up on the Angel comic series so the whole thing about Angel being Twilight and Spike coming in on his bug ship came out of left field for me. Plus I don’t think I should have to go research an expensive Angel comic to figure out why Angel thinks this is his Sanshu (I am only kind of guessing from the Buffy comics obviously—I assume this is why he is so, okay, I’m Twilight, I’ll trick Buffy into ascending with me to this higher dimension), or why Spike is head of a ship of alien bugs to understand the Buffy wrap. I really became disinterested in the Angel story maybe 12 issues in—crappy art, so-so writing, and just too dark. I don’t think I laughed at all reading it. So different from the television show. I gave up on Angel well before I started phoning it in for Buffy with the Retreat arc, hoping that’d get better. From his crossover into Buffy, I don’t think my instincts were wrong about the wreck the comics did to his story. Unfortunately, re-combining the two stories back into Buffy felt forced, even though they apparently were moving this way from the first Buffy S8 episode with Twilight.
Stripping Buffy of her entire supporting cast just… sucks. I can see why it was done, but Willow, Xander and Giles were just as important reasons for watching the show as Buffy and Angel (and Spike). Depowering Willow leaves the door open for more of her in season 9 since her gaining some power back and going dark was foretold in Fray but it sure seems like bye-bye Giles forever, and I can’t see Xander and Dawn making anything more than cameos as they get to lead normal lives now.
Buffy doesn’t even have a Watcher anymore. Logically, I can see this is where Joss was taking Buffy’s story – back to basics, a precursor to Fray. It is truly a reboot of the franchise, but unfortunately I just don’t find it as addictive as I used to. The whole bit we debated about Joss’s vision of Buffy being the end-all and be-all kind of back-fired for me. If the comics are Buffy canon, I gotta say, I’m kind of disappointed. Maybe I should’ve stayed blissfully ignorant with the DVDs of anything post-TV show…
Anyway, I’m still a Buffy fan, so I know I’ll be following Season 9 though probably in TPB format only and definitely will give the Angel/Faith series a shot too. Even if my faith isn’t restored in the rebooted-Buffyverse, I’ll always be a fan of the DVDs.
