Clem!!
Creative Staff:
Script: Christos Cage
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Dan Jackson
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“Day Off (Or Harmony in My Head)”
The rules of magic are literally being rewritten in the Vampyr book. With day-walking vampires and a male Slayer, Buffy & Co. are trying to keep the weirdness under control. Willow is learning the new rules, while Giles is coming to terms with his newfound youth, and Xander is trying to save his relationship with Dawn. The family is together, but the team is still tempted to write personal new rules into the book—and bad guys are always lurking to make things worse.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I love stories like this. The in between stories when the characters, in this case literally, get to relax and unwind. Buffy and the girls are at a spa, Xander’s at the shrink, and Spike’s fighting off the worse of his own kind. Ok, Spike doesn’t get a day off, but not everyone can be so satisfied. Besides, he gets to see Clem, so it’s an overall win.
Buffy’s day off is uneventful, and good for her. She’s been a Slayer for about 10 years now and she deserves that day off once and a while. The exchange she has with Dawn is great too. She—not so subtly—tries to talk Xander up to Dawn, but Dawn’s not having it. She strikes back that she could be having the same relationship she’s talking about with Angel or Spike or Dowling. In a bit of meta-commentary, they drop the subject of boys by referencing the Bechdel Test.
There’s another exchange the two sisters have that references that there’s not enough Hemsworth brothers in the world for “what [they] need.” I love it. Christos Cage gets it!
The bulk of the issue focuses, on all things, on dependency. The new breed vampires and Buffy compromise on a new rule of magic and Clem gives Harmony the run down on what’s really important in the world. She, like Dracula, wants the new rules to help her in every way possible. The monkey paw effect knows that ain’t gonna happen and, since Clem is doing the writing, nothing gets written. He knows better that the love she’s asking for would be disingenuous. Besides, we already saw them fight off the consequences of Dracula and Xander’s dealings with the book. Why start up the same storyline yet again? I did like all her wishes though; they were completely self-centered, as Harmony’s whims should be.
But she gets the unicorns she asked for. And that was totally adorable.
In Summary:
The highlight of this issue was, of course, Clem. He lays down the law of anyone who wants to write in the book. It doesn’t feel too fake-y because Harmony totally would need it explained to her like that, and Clem knows that. The little exchanges he has with Buffy and Spike are gold too. Buffy has always been great at character interaction, even if some of the other parts are weaker. This is no exception.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: December 24, 2014
MSRP: $3.50
