The Scoobies are back together, now with Giles.
Creative Staff:
Scripts: Christos Gage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Dan Jackson
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“New Rules Part Two”
After saving the world from Slayer-turned-supervampire Simone, and restoring magic and the life of her magically created sister Dawn, Buffy is in the best place she’s ever been. There is a little weirdness going on, with the Slayer handbook’s pages suddenly being blank…But she’s back together with Willow, Xander, and Spike, doing what she was meant to do as the chosen one: slay vampires.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Much like the first issue resolved a lot of questions remaining regarding the continuing plotlines from Buffy Season Nine, this second issue begins to deal with the continuing character interactions between our beloved Scoobies.
What I love about Buffy is how much they can accomplish in a single shot (or in this case, panel). Willow and Kennedy didn’t exactly leave each other on the greatest of terms, but back together fighting the forces of evil, it takes a little quip between each other for everything to be fine. As they say, “Look at us, all mature.” Even in their forgiveness, they’re sarcastic with each other. It’s something the people in Buffyverse can never turn off, and that bugs me, but the moment was a great one. After all they’ve been through—Willow regaining magic and restoring it to the world and Kennedy making a private bodyguard unit of Slayers—they have matured.
More than that, this issue is simply about maturation. Buffy and Faith have their own little conversation with each other and, while Buffy’s still playing mom, Faith knows better than to stay with her. Things might be happier for Faith, but they’re not what would make her grow as a person. In the Scoobies, Faith might grow complacent with her role. With Kennedy’s team, she’ll be allowed to mature and become “mom” of her own to a whole new batch of Slayers.
Then there’s Giles, who appears 12 years old now and just can’t get his hormones in check. We saw him ogling at Faith’s boobs in Angel and Faith, but it’s not just that. His voice and his skin are that of a 12 year old and his own maturity has dropped with his age as well. He’s still the Giles we know and love, he’s got all the book smarts of old Giles, but he can’t lead the team. He’s not the father figure any more, especially because he’s younger than anyone else. Buffy proved she can make the tough decisions that no one else can and she’s going on 25 now. It’s her time to lead the Scoobies for real, with Giles serving as solely a Sage character, providing only knowledge not guidance.
Illyria also comes up in the volume, with Eldre Koh mentioning that the Old Ones are not killed so easily. Seeing the return of Illyria would certainly be welcome, but I wonder what she’d bring to the group as it stands. Perhaps Koh and Illyria will go to Angel’s side of the pond. Seeing her again may give Angel growth in ways he wouldn’t anticipate.
I’d say the two biggest storylines in the issue were between Buffy and Dowling and Xander and Dawn. Buffy’s relationship with Dowling is very much a symbol for her own maturation. The last normal boyfriend she had, Riley in season four, could keep up with Buffy at every turn. But jumping off the deep end with Buffy isn’t just a jump off a cliff; it’s often a jump into the Deeper Well. Normal people usually aren’t ready for that, no matter what masks they put on to convince themselves they are.
Dawn and Xander don’t exactly have it easy either. They’re both normal people, but Xander’s being haunted by the ghost of his now-dead-and-formerly-immortal ex-girlfriend and they’re about to visit Dracula, the man who Xander kind-of-serves-but-not-really. They’re equals now, but he’s still compelled to call him master and he’s still too pompous to call anyone anything but peasant and other words that degrade them. He’s Dracula after all.
In Summary:
The pace of characterization seems like it’s so much quicker than the plotline here. Essentially, two things happened in regards to the larger plot: The Vampyr book is being written in again and Xander and Dawn visits Dracula to learn more about the super vampires. Everything else is a character moment and those character moments mean so much within so little space. A panel in characterization can tell what a page can in plot and this issue is packed full with character panels.
I’m consistently impressed with the characterization in Buffy, as we started off with all these people being high school students who thought they couldn’t die. Things quickly changed once they started facing the forces of evil and Buffy actually died for like 17 seconds. But every moment has lead up to this. The girl who can save the world.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A-
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: April 23, 2014
