Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8: Retreat Review

Author: Jane Espenson
Penciler: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Andy Owen
Covers: Jo Chen
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Publisher: Dark Horse

It's been a long time since we've reviewed a Buffy book on the site. Sure we talk about how much we love season 8 on the podcast. Yes, Spider-Ben raving on about the Sex issue and Nick heavily breathing while reading it. This volume is still focusing on the ongoing battle between the slayers and Twilight's forces and collects issues 26 to 30 and two short stories from MySpace Dark Horse Presents.

The Slayers are on the run after battling out with Twilight's forces. Twilight has demons and the US military going after the slayers as old friends like Faith, Satsu, and Andrew return to Buffy's head quarters. The Scooby gang learns that they are being tracked because of their use of magic. So they must take off to Tibet in a submarine to hide and learn from Oz (not the all powerful wizard, but the Robot Chicken Werewolf) how to suppress their magic. We learn what's happen to Oz since we last saw him in season 4; the guy got hitched and even has a little one now. With Oz's assistance, the Slayers and Wiccans try to become 'normal' through meditation and hard labor. Of course not everyone sees the advantage of being magicless, especially Willow, Giles, and even Andrew. Unfortunately for the team, this leaves them highly vulnerable to any attack. This is precisely what happens in this volume as the slayers go into battle with demons and the military without their powers. Luckily for the good guys, Willow has been able to channel the powers of several angry Tibetan goddesses to attack their enemies and even the odds a bit, but not everything is as it seems. This pretty much sets up the big battle with Twilight in the next volume. Did I mention through all this mess Buffy finds out about Xander and Dawn?

I’m not sure how I felt about Buffy’s decision to retreat. It made no sense, since it was obvious that the Slayers would be sitting ducks, so why run to a place where you are completely isolated? I’m sure this was used so they could take the comic to focus on the core members of team Buffy, rather than become another dueling epic arc that seems to be the focus of season 8. I did enjoy seeing Xander using his military skills he absorbed so many years ago. Don’t know how I feel about the whole Xander/Dawn relationship, but at least the chick will stick around for a while and not turn gay or die on the poor guy. The whole mystery about the true identity of Twilight is wearing a bit thin. But as we all know, the next trade will answer that question and then some! I did enjoy the reveal that Riley was working for Buffy as a double agent. I wasn’t a huge fan of the guy in the series, but it really would have gone against his character to be a traitor.

I think my biggest problem with this volume were the pencils by Jeanty. It seems that his art feels very rushed and it’s getting difficult telling the girls apart from each other. Took me a while to realize that was Faith and I think I actually had to wait for Giles to say her name. It must be challenging for Jeanty, given the amount of action that’s happening in each panel and the change in location. His Tibetan Gods were really well drawn though and his backgrounds are always ace. I think it would be a great idea to get him some assistance on those pencils. Other than that the story was a nice step back for our team and it leads to an epic showdown which then leads to the finale of Season Eight. I hope Joss gets back in time for that finale. B-

Beasts of Burden #1

Writer: Evan Dorkin
Artist: Jill Thompson
Letterer: Jason Arthur

Recently Dark Horse released Beasts of Burden a comic series essentially about a bunch of dogs and cats fighting the supernatural.

I wanted to give this series a fair shake people I really really did but, the phrase "talking dogs & cats" is pretty much an automatic trigger for me to go into cynic mood. Memories of those horrible Look Whose Talking movies are brought up and it sours me a lot towards finding anything positive in anything.

Talking dogs and cats don't work. Point period. They don't work because nine times outta ten whoever is writing the characters doesn't understand the concept of decent characterization. Tell me how many times the dog or cat is written as a lovable, trustworthy animal. Yeah...almost always. Dogs/cats characterized with a "Oh golly" personality are boring, they are unrelateable. I am not saying we should sacrifice an entire story for the sake of good characterization but without decent writing giving voice to the characters, the writer is making the reader work harder to get into a story, and I think that's the problem with this title.

Evan Dorkin's writing is good, you can see glimmers of it here and there, but the characterization of the dogs/cats is just felt to be lacking. The artwork for the issue has a very fairy-tale feel to it which I dig. Jill Thompson's work on the huge frog, utterly disgusting but in a good way. Rare are the times a comic's art can gross me out but there is one scene in this issue where the frog explodes, aww man, seriously, it's pretty sick.

So in short, this first issue of Beasts of Burden is off to a ROCKY start. The writing right now is meh but the artwork by Thompson is promising.

C-

BPRD: 1947 #1 - #3

Writer(s): Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart
Artist(s):Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá

BPRD: 1947 is a continuation of the BPRD: 1946 series. This story, like the 1946 series, is set in the older days of the BPRD when Professor Bruttenholm essentially sent soldiers off to investigate weird occurrences across the world. This time the Professor assembles a new group of soldiers to investigate the slaying of several Nazi soldiers throughout Eastern Europe. The way in which these soldiers were slaughtered seems to suggest one vampire making a statement to all of humanity..and well the statement is pretty much "I am gonna fuck all of humanity up" to put it simply. In search of this vampire a group of specialized soldiers are sent to a small village in France. There is more to this but I don't wanna give away anymore of the plot.

Dark Horse has cracked out another Hellboy inspired titled from the mind of Mike Mignola and yet again his style of storytelling kept me hungry for every page in these three issues I was given. I like Mignola folks, this is not news, the man can write a damn good comic. Mignola's style always seems to harken back to the old 50s comic monster tales. There is an oldness to his writing that is both familiar and new. It's hard to put into words I guess but, if you like corny horror movies and comics from the 1950s and 40s, with maybe a bit of mythology thrown in, good money you'll enjoy his stuff. His writing in 1947 is no different then usual but in this instance I think BPRD: 1947 is made even better by his co-writer, Dysart, who seems to flesh out the character's Mignola has created, giving in particular a sense of realism to each soldier in the group that has been dispatched to the small village in France. The artwork by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon is top notch and if your a fan of Umbrella Academy or the older BPRD art styles you'll dig it.

Overall these first three issues of BPRD: 1947 are good. There is some overlap from BPRD: 1946 but not so much where a first time reader couldn't just pick up BPRD: 1947 by itself and get into the story. So check this out if you get a chance, or if your strapped for cash definitely check it out in trade, it's a good tale you'll likely dig.

A+

The Umbrella Academy Dallas TPB Review

Writer: Gerard Way
Artist: Gabriel Ba
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Nate Piekos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

If I were ever to create a comic it would be released just like Umbrella Academy. I love the way that instead of having one ongoing title like Avengers or Justice League; Way just releases "seasons" whenever he feels a new idea coming on. But how would this work? Because the first book was a well told tale that had a beginning and a definitive ending. How could they keep going with the story of the seven gifted brothers and sisters? I mean they had already done what they had set out to do. Save the world from their all too powerful and crazy sister. How could they top that story? Well, how about we throw time traveling, President Kennedy, and tons of missiles in there!!!?

The story of Umbrella Academy is much like X-men or Doom Patrol, if I had to compare it to other comic books. The Professor X or Doc Niles of the book is Sir Reginald Hargreeves (The Monocle) and he adopts seven infants that will grow up to save the world. They are a dysfunctional group of superheroes who try to live as a dysfunctional family. As kids they just referred to each other by numbers, but as adults they each have their own code name which include; Spaceboy, Rumor, Kraken, Séance, Future, White Violin, and Horror (who didn't live long enough to get a decent codename). Turns that they had to save the world from their sister The White Violin.

This volume takes place after the apocalyptic battle with their sister. It really feels like that even though they saved the world, none of the siblings are out celebrating except for The Séance, who has become a celebrity. Spaceboy has become indolent and does nothing but watch TV, Kraken's working with the police to investigate his mysterious time-travelling brother No.5, The White Violin can't move and doesn't remember anything, The Rumor is dealing with the loss of her voice and is using a notepad to write down what she thinks, and of course the Horror is still six feet under. This is a really depressing start. After the first volume I figure they would be all together and teaming up against alien invaders or something. Without giving to much away things do get better when No. 5 shows back up and together they must stop Temps Aeternalis, which is an organization that has time traveling capabilities that has a plot to kill JFK. Did I mention that there are two time traveling psychos that make things harder for the team?

With his use of eccentric dialogue, nicely paced foreshadowing, and secret histories Way really had me hooked from beginning to end. Normally I grow tired of time traveling stories that feature JFK's assassination, but the reasons given at the end of the book really made me believe all of this was possible. I really didn't think I was going to enjoy this book as much as I did the first volume, because I really underestimated Apocalypse Suite. But, the book had a strong story from the beginning, with just the right amounts of insanity, dark humor, suspense, heart, darkness, and hope to keep me reading it in one sitting and rereading it again before I wrote this review. By the end of the volume, I not only became a believer that Gerard Way could tell a hell of a story using his own characters, but he could write stories featuring the X-men or the JSA or Doom Patrol and make them just as good.

What is a solid story without a prime artist to carry out the visuals? That talent came in the form of the expressive and vivid artwork by Gabriel Ba; whose artwork reminded me of a cross of Mike Mignola, Michael Oeming, Tim Sale, and Guy Davis, but with more of fluidity to his shapes and forms. His layouts are dynamic and can carry the unscripted story by themselves. I enjoyed his art in the first book, but this is a whole new level. His facial expressions were cute and creepy as if Tim Burton or Edward Gorey had design the characters. Ba does a fantastic job of grounding the insane stuff, giving enough attention to details like the two time traveling assassins Hazel and Cha-Cha wearing the cartoon masks. How can something that looks so adorable look menacing at the same time? The colors by Stewart only make the comic stand out from most new books on the market. Those vivid colors sure helped out during the brain splattering scenes.

If you aren't a fan of My Chemical Romance or just refuse to read this book based on its cult following, at least check out the intro by Neil Gaiman praising this book. If you like Hellboy, BPRD, the Goon, and X-men, Scryed, Doom Patrol you'll most likely LOVE Umbrella Academy. If you like weird, fun, and well plotted, paced story buy this book. And of course if you like My Chemical Romance, I'm sure you have already bought this book. It was a real treat to read. I think of UA Dallas in the same terms that I do of Terminator 2 or Aliens; sequels that surpass the original story. I think the one thing that I missed having in this collection is James Jean doing the covers. I'm a huge fan of his and it was a little disappointing not to have him come back again and do the covers. A small gripe really, but you know I will be first in line if these guys put together a third series. A

The Amazon #1

Writer/Artist: Steven T.Seagle & Tim Sale

The Amazon was originally published by Comico back a decade or two ago and thankfully has been given new life by Dark Horse with it's republishing of the short mini-series.

I'll be honest with you before somebody gave me this comic a week or so ago, I'd never heard of "The Amazon" and after reading this first issue, I think it's a shame.

The story essentially starts off backwards.A finished article and journal sitting in panel, preparing for the journey about to be taken. Our narrator's story is told via excerpts of this article and thru pages of his journal written whilest he was down in the Amazon. Thru the course of the story you learn Malcom C. Hillard, reporter, had been sent down to the Amazon to investigate the disappearance of an American worker off a logging site set deep within the Amazon rain forests. Hillard eventually talks to some of the missing worker's co-workers to find that they believe an Amazonian spirit had taken Robertson (the missing worker) and that all sabotage at the site was due to this spirit. After making his way to the site the next day Hillard talks with the foreman there, getting little to no information from the foremen telling him that the spirit rumors are just that, rumors. As Hillard leaves he sees two men in the distance around a bulldozer and a crane, running towards them he sees one of them briefly, a white man with tribal looking paint across his face. A couple days later news of a bulldozer and crane being busted are relayed to Hillard and he can't help thinking the man he'd seen on briefly fleeing the bulldozer earlier was in fact the missing Robertson.

The story itself, so far, is alright. I think if you go into this first issue expecting a comic you need to change your mindset though. Upon first read, this issue is very VERY slow. The best way I can use to describe the tonality and pacing for this issue is, it's like reading a normal book more or less, doesn't mean I didn't like it, rather I just appreciated the story on another level. TIm Sale's artwork as always was good. A side panel with Robertson in the leaves, eyes showing, watching Hillard, though formulaic and overused in many comics, was illustrated still quite well by Sale and is one of many of those standard panels in this first issue that stand out more then one would usually expect.

Overall this first issue of The Amazon wasn't half bad. I think if your looking for a comic of the non-Super-heroy type, this would be something worth picking up and maybe giving a shot.

B-

Strange Side Note:The illustration of Hillard bares a striking resemblance to our Mr Heltzel

Grendel: God and the Devil TBP Review

Penciller: John K. Snyder & Tim Sale
Inkers: Jay Geldhof & Bernie Mireault
Colorist: Jeremy Cox
Publisher: Dark Horse

Matt Wagner has gotten some recognition over the years for his mainstream DC books like Sandman Mystery Theater and Trinity (not the current ongoing series). I have been a fan of his since the 80’s, but I have to be completely honest before you read this review. I have never read a single issue of Grendel. I remember seeing the comics by Comico in the 80s and always liking Grendel’s costume. I was a huge fan of Mage and I even recall that there were some Grendel back-up stories in the Mage comics, but I never bothered to read them. So lucky for you and I that Dark Horse has been reprinting the old Comico stories in comic format and TPB format with new colors since 2000. The original stories were printed in Grendel # 23-33 and then reprinted in a 10 issue miniseries with a prologue (issue 23/0) drawn by Tim Sale.

It is the year is 2512 and several centuries have passed since the mask of Grendel has been worn, and in that time humanity's survived a third World War, the fall of Western Civilization, and the rise of an all-powerful Catholic Church state. America has been separated into a number of corporate systems dominated by that church. The new Vatican seems to be in the mountains of Colorado and fanatically controlled by Pope Innocent XLII. There are two men that make a stand against the church’s corruption. Orion Assante is a corporate auditor and aristocrat determined to expose the pope for who and what he really is. The second is a mysterious madman wearing the all-too-familiar face of Grendel. This time around the man behind the mask is a factory worker named Eppy Thacher who is driven by his belief that God hates him and his addiction to the drug Grendel. Innocent turns out to be the vampire Tujiro and hires Pellon Cross head of the mercenary group known as Confederacy Of Police (COP) to help establish a second inquisition and take care of Grendel. This was all part of his plot to develop a new weapon to block out the sun. In the end Assante leads a private army to destroy this weapon, Cross (now a vampire) leads an army of vampire/cops against the Vatican, and Grendel and Tujiro fight to the death.

I really didn’t know what to think when I read the prologue. The narrative focuses on the tribulations of Cardinal Emmett Fairbanks, whose domain is Laserus, apparently the LA metropolitan area in this future. I was completely lost between issues zero and one. It wasn’t until I read the entire trade that I could appreciate it’s effective foreshadowing. It was the satirical content and Tim Sale’s art that drove me to keep reading. Coming into this book with no previous knowledge of Grendel was kind of tough. I was left in the dark with much of the complexities involving politics and religion. For example the lead character (well, one of the three) Eppy, has a problem with stealing, murdering, and starting riots. It’s very uncommon for a protagonist to have this sort of moral relativism. Half way through the book I got completely lost. I have read tons of books on the corruption of religion and politics, but the dialogue was heavy and drawn at times. But, damn am I glad I stuck with this book to the end, because the payoff was intense and massive.

I found Eppy’s dialogue quite funny. I really got the sense that this Grendel was unique, because the more and more I kept getting closer to the end, I could tell he was losing it. Assante’s inner monologue reminded me of those old Slam Bradley or Dick Tracey strips. For a story that was this dark, I figured they would have gone with another artist. When I first saw Snyder’s work, I didn’t think it was going to work. However, the more I kept reading; the more his exaggerated anatomy grew on me. His depiction of this ruined future really set the stage for the story to move along. His artwork is definitely built on clarity and color and reminded me of Keith Giffen’s work on Trencher. Unfortunately it does feel a little dated and at times, it’s hard to follow those fight scenes. Jeremy Cox’ coloring is completely stunning and make Snyder’s art brighter and more distinctive. Even though he makes the characters brighter, that dark tone manages to pop up. I’m not sure if Grendel’s tale is one huge saga spanning different centuries, but I can tell you that this particular book works well as a stand -alone story. For my first introduction to the Grendel universe this book keeps me intrigued and wanting more. As complex a story and dialogue heavy as this book is, after a first reading I was content with the entire story. I suggest any fans of Criminal, Berserk, 100 Bullets, Zen, Mage, or just people that appreciate a good solid story to pick this up. B+

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite TPB Review

Writer: Gerard Way
Artist: Gabriel Ba
Colors: Dave Stewart
Covers: James Jean
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

The only time I had hear of My Chemical Romance was when my brother asked me if I wanted to go to one of their concerts about five years ago. I wasn’t into the whole scremo and emo music, no matter how many times my brother tried to get me into it. Then I hear that the lead singer of MCR was going to do a comic book. So I laughed and sneered at the thought of a guy wearing make-up and singing about being sad writing a comic book. To me it was just another case of a semi-celebrity using his popularity to get to write a comic. So I read the first issue, mainly to butcher on my website and I ended up loving every single moment of it. Waited for the trade and was pleasantly blown away by the rest of the story.

The story of Umbrella Academy is much like X-men or Doom Patrol, if I had to compare it to other comic books. The Professor X or Doc Niles of the book is Sir Reginald Hargreeves (The Monocle) and he adopts seven infants that will grow up to save the world. They are a dysfunctional group of superheroes who try to live as a dysfunctional family. As kids they just referred to each other by numbers, but as adults they each have their own code name which include; Spaceboy, Rumor, Kraken, Séance, Future, White Violin(okay not all the codenames are that great), and Horror (who didn’t live long enough to get a decent codename). After a brief background the story jumps ahead to 20 years and kicks off with Spaceboy getting a call from Dr. Pogo (a talking chimp) with the sad news that the Monocle is dead. This brings the rest of the cast together with the White Violin a warning about a new suite and Future comes back from the future after being gone for almost 20 years.

The issues keep the same kind of feel of bizarre spectacles, twist and turns, and compelling mysteries. Introducing new villains such as the Conductor and moving the storyline along through flashbacks and some insane revelations. Once you think you got someone figured out, you really are in for a shock. The title Apocalypse Suite is dubbed from the Conductor as he claims that if played accurately it would bring about the end of world. This is where one of the siblings comes in….the White Violin, who ends up killing Dr. Pogo and her brothers and sister have to do battle with her to stop the end of all that is. Without going into too much detail, all hell does break loose and there is plenty of gory action for everyone. Almost all of the characters in the story get a moment or two to shine, and not always in the most obvious of ways. There is even a mansion that gets destroyed ala X-men every three years.

With his use of eccentric dialogue, nicely paced foreshadowing, and secret histories Way really had me hooked from beginning to end. This book doesn't break any new ground as far as comics go. The way I see it everyone who has ever read comics has one or two good stories in them. There are countless of Justice League, Fantastic Four, Doom Patrol, X-men and Avengers stories out there, but is the few that are done right that stand out above the rest. To me that is what this book accomplished. It had a strong story from the beginning, with just the right amounts of insanity, dark humor, suspense, heart, darkness, and hope to keep me coming back for more. By the end of the volume, I was really sad that I wouldn’t be reading the further adventures of the Umbrella Academy until November.

Of course Way’s vision wouldn’t be complete if he didn’t have the perfect artist to compliment his story. That talent came in the form of the expressive and vivid artwork by Gabriel Ba; whose artwork reminded me of a cross of Mike Mignola, Michael Oeming, Tim Sale, and Guy Davis, but with more of fluidity to his shapes and forms. His layouts are dynamic, I enjoyed his work on Casanova by Matt Fraction, but this is a whole new level. His facial expressions were cute and creepy as if Tim Burton or Edward Gorey had design the characters. Ba does a fantastic job of grounding the insane stuff, giving enough attention to details of the weird such as the gorilla spacesuit or the walking Eiffel Tower to make them seem realistic within every panel. Of course having drawing a chimp whose brains are splatter all over the floor, I’m sure he got to break loose those hidden talents. The colors by Stewart only make the comic stand out from most new books on the market. It wasn’t all perfect though, at times, particularly during the flashback sequences, I had a hard time distinguishing between characters. I guess that’s why Way put someone in a monkey suit and put a chick in a violin outfit.

I’m sure fans of My Chemical Romance have already checked this series out, but if that is the reason some of you aren’t reading this book; I can assure you that Gerard Way is talented in writing comics as well. If you like Hellboy, Atomic Robo, the Goon, and X-men,, Scryed, Doom Patrol you'll most likely LOVE Umbrella Academy. If you like weird, fun, and well plotted, paced story buy this book. If you like My Chemical Romance, I’m sure you have already bought this book. It was a real treat to read. This volume also contains the Free Comic Book Day special and the short story originally featured at darkhorse.com .Dark Horse plans to release The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite Limited Edition in November and it would make a fantastic gift for those friends that haven’t read it yet. A-

The Chronicles of Conan: The Corridor of Mullah-Kajar & Other Stories

Writers: J.M DeMatteis, Len Wein, Larry Hama, Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas.
Artists: John Buscema, Neal Adams, Ernie Chan, Bob McLeod, Vicente Alcazar, Yong Montano.
Publisher: Dark Horse

Ah yes, as time passes, so comes another volume of Conan. The 15th volume Dark Horse has put out of The Chronicles of Conan, this trade encompasses seven stories of the Barbarian from Cimmeria

The first story in this volume called "Crawler in the Mist" starts out with Conan being rescued by some nomads, having laid in the desert sun, poisoned and weak. As Conan comes to, he finds his rescuers are traders and soon realizes that they mean to trade HIM as a slave. Conan being well... Conan, whoops some arse and sends two of his slavers fleeing, the third unable to run, left chained to the mighty Barbarian. Deciding not to cut off the slaver's hand and be free of him Conan drags the trader along with him as he looks for shelter with night approaching Wandering through the desert Conan and his "traveler" eventually come upon a city...seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The trader warns Conan of this city being home to a monster that prowls the streets at night taking anyone foolish enough to be wandering out of their homes, Conan scoffs at his companions' plea and they enter the city laying down on the streets for sleep. Deep in sleep Conan is awakened to hear his friends' cry as a huge red slug-like creature takes hold of the trader. Amidst the battling, the slug creature severs the chain linking the trader and Conan, fleeing with the helpless slaver in tow, Conan in pursuit. From here the rest of the story plays out Twilight Zone-like so I won't ruin it for you, other then to say it ends somewhat sadly.

The rest of the stories within this volume play out pretty close to the first one, Conan either runs into trouble or goes looking for it, a tussel ensues and the foe is defeated. All the tales are enjoyable to an extent. Certain readers will definitely get more out of these collected Conan volumes then others. Those not big on reading loads of text I can tell you right now will have issues with this Conan volume. At about 190 pages this sucker feels like twice that in overall dialogue I personally like the expanded dialogue as it gives more depth to the story an characters BUT...then again I am a fickle/weird comic reader.

The art within each story varies with the artist. For the most part John Buscema does a majority of the art within this volume and it is alright...it's not mind-blowing but half this stuff was in the 70s and 80s so you gotta cut the guy some slack. The best page out of this whole volume though in both story and art is in, "The Phoenix on the Sword". Art by Vicente Alcazar an Yong Montano, it displays Conan looking to tear apart those before him, an image of Kull of Atlantis above him, Roy Thomas writing of the parallel in this scene between Conan & Kull.

I don't know what it is but this page just kinda hits you in a right way...almost makes me wanna go back and read up on Kull of Atlantis, (another creation of of Robert E. Howard's).

In closing, this volume as a whole is GOOD. Not great but good. If you like Conan you'll dig this volume and for those that have never read of the mighty warrior borrow this volume from a friend...you may just be glad you did.

Serenity: Better Days miniseries Review

This review was submitted by Hero 004
Publisher: Dark Horse

Writer: Joss Whedon/Brett Matthews

Artists: Will Conrad- Pencils, Michelle Madison-Colors

Serenity is one of my favorite movies. It's one of those films that I suggest to everyone, even if they're not into science fiction. It takes watching the fantastic preceding TV series, Firefly, to truly appreciate the cinematic level that Joss Whedon takes his genre-Defying story with the feature film. Serenity is so one of a kind, in fact, that the chances for a sequel look very dim. So when a three issue comic miniseries taking place in between the Show and movie, written by Whedon himself, and containing 150 pages shows up as the likes of Serenity: better Days, I am very much down for some satisfaction of my craving for more story.

Review

At the start of Issue one, we find Mal and crew on a typical job robbing a museum, before being bombarded by an alliance-built , artificially intelligent roadster/robot and at the crew finds themselves in a freeway chase. With some gun work from Jayne and a sneak attack from Kaylee, the weapon is shutdown and in the Serenity crew's hands. Meanwhile Inara is having sex with a client, but picturing Mal. The Client ends up being an Alliance War veteran and hunter of "Dust Devils", independent terrorists who were radical about their views even after the alliance won. The crew decides to sell the weapon to a guy who tips them off to a hidden stash of money within a Buddhist temple as payment. When they get there, they find that there is a lot more than they expected: they're rich.

Issue two picks up with some comedic fantasies from the crew on what they're going to do with they're wealth. They end up kicking it off with a vacation, checking into a high class hotel. The Client that Inara was within the previous issue finds out that Mal was a Dust Devil and asks for another night with her in order to get to him. Meanwhile the alliance has found Serenity's location through tracing microchips that were scattered onto the crew's bodies by the weapon. When Malcom goes to check on Inara, he's knocked out by the Dust Devil Hunter and the crew finds out that someone is after them.

Issue three begins with Mal getting the crap beaten out of him by the hunter. Zoe being the first mate is now in charge of the ship with Mal captured and she reveals to the crew that she is in fact the Dust Devil that the hunters are after, not Malcom. Despite reluctance from the rest, Zoe transmits a message across the whole planet revealing that she is the Dust Devil and orders them to bring Malcom back to Serenity. They show up with guns and Jayne is as always up on a cliff sniping. However, an explosion none of them were expecting throws them all off as they're all being attacked by the Alliance. Mal and the hunter have to team up in order to pull off a way to destroy the Alliance ship. They succeed, but the Dust Devil hunting crew ends up making off with all of the Serenity crew's new found wealth. The conclusion features a classic talk between Inara and Malcom. She confronts him on the fact that the whole crew is upset about losing the money except for him. Inara figures out that Mal purposely hid the money poorly so that it would be stolen with fear that the wealth would split the crew up and ruin what he considers a perfect life already captaining Serenity.

Thoughts

I absolutely loved reading this, it felt just like watching an episode of Firefly. The robot stuff at the beginning threw me off a bit at first, but it ended up leading into the bigger story very quick in the same format as the TV series/film. Everyone is in character the whole way through, reading the dialogue can put a smile on any Brown Coat's face as it takes you right back to the charm of each individual member of the crew. In Better Days they are put in a very different scenario with getting rich for a while, but they react to things just as they always do and in new ways that are just as exciting. The ending was so perfect to me. What Mal did with the money is a perfect example of the brutal presentation of his soft side. Conrad's art is awesome, a clean comic style showing the beautiful futuristic scenery of Joss Whedon's universe. What can be really appreciated is his accurate depiction of the characters. They look perfectly transitioned in his close ups while fun and comic booky in between. You'll find that Better Days feels more like a sequel to Firefly than a prequel to Serenity, putting them in another adventure rather than leading into the film. This is the second Serenity miniseries; I certainly hope Whedon and Dark Horse give us another. There is character development in this book, but I'd also like to see more that flows into the movie's. Inara has left Serenity by the time of the movie, and it's talked about at the end of the show, maybe another series will focus on her leaving. Wherever Serenity flies from here, I am phenomenally happy with this miniseries. A+

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #12
Writer: Drew Goddard
Pencils: Georges Jeanty

The words "jumped the shark" come to mind after reading this issue.

The story starts out with Xander and Renee (Slayer) keeping watch over the castle, apparently there are some wolves grouping around the place...blah blah blah. THEN, you have a panel of Buffy in bed with Satsu. Cue to me saying, What the fuck? Yes, apparently Buffy has knocked boots with one of her slayers, Now, I have no problem with gals that like gals but, in the case of this story and Buffy's overall character, umm, no. The whole thing just has me shaking my head. The scenes themselves are handled alright, as it's apparently Buffy's first time with a woman but....something about the whole thing just feels wrong. Throughout this issue I almost felt like Buffy or whoever was gonna wake up from a dream. It feels...forced I guess is the word, like at some point Goddard said to Whedon...."Hey Joss...I am running out of ideas, how about we turn Buffy gay too". I know that's a harsh thing to say but, that's how it comes off as.

The rest of the story had some nice comedic moments per usual as Buffy asks Satsu to keep the bedroom jaunt a secret....then Xander, Renee, Dawn, Willow, and Andrew end up running into the bedroom a breath later, Buffy highly embarrassed.

The wolves that had been surrounding the castle earlier attack, switching forms, from vampire to wolf to bees to mist/fog...finally stealing the Slayer Scythe and making a hasty retreat. Everyone questions these new vampires' powers and why they stole the scythe, causing the Scoobies to send Xander off to meet an old "friend", Renee in tow. Yeah....the old friend....Dracula. Pretty much at the panel of Dracula, I was sorta glad the issue had ended.

Out of the BTVS universe there are 100s of different characters that could have been brought back to help enrich the overall story in this title.....Oz, Riley, Angel, Wesley, Fred/Illyria, Harmony, Spike, frakking bring the f'ing Mayor back....but...Dracula? Really? That's the character you wanna reintroduce in this series? Argh!!!

This issue was ok....that's me saying this folks....so bare that in mind. The comic itself is still leaps and bounds above most current storytelling in comics BUT, this is Buffy...so try as I might, I have higher standards for this title then the rest. Turning a character gay is fine but, do it right and not as filler till the next big story gets momentum. Reintroducing new characters, again fine, but make it one we actually give two flying fucks about. Dracula wasn't that interesting in the Spike/Dracula mini...and he's not that interesting in this.

In closing, Jeanty's pencils have started to grow on me but Goddard's writing this issue brings to mind the Fonz flying in the air....and unfortunately...those AREN'T busses below him. B-