Fray - Oh that’s f*&%kin AWESOME!

Author: Joss Whedon
Penciller: Karl Moline
Inker: Andy Owens
Letterer: Michelle Madsen
Colorist: Dave Stewart

Now, I am a Buffy the Vampire Slayer addict, so being as such it’s no big amazement that I checked out the Fray trade paperback when it showed up at my public library.

Simply put Fray is the story of Melaka Fray a young gal in the future who is seemingly the next “Chosen One” aka Vampire Slayer. The beginning of this tale starts out slowly, I’ll just be honest with you but, it all serves the overall story, BELIEVE ME. In the first couple of pages Buffy-fans are already waiting for a Watcher to show up…..Watcher shows up…AND THEN LIGHTS HIMSELF ON FIRE! Apparently the last slayer to appear was a century or two ago and Watchers have become a little unhinged waiting for the next Slayer. The story breaks most of the stereotypical Buffy storylines and really is something even a non-Buffy fan can get into. There were one or two points in reading this that I got me some goosebumps and was shouting to myself, OH THAT’S F*&%kin AWESOME!! There are also some classic Whedon humor moments and…oh I don’t wanna spoil it other then to say, the stand-off and the cab…HILARIOUS.

Ignoring the overall story (which I find hard to do) the artwork of Karl Moline is something to appreciate greatly. This book is not littered with cheesecake shots, nor heaving breasts, it is what it is. Moline’s style conveys the strength of Melaka’s character while at the same time not totally ignoring that, well, that she is kinda hot. I guess to put it more succinctly Moline makes the Slayer’s strength her sexiness. I will not say everything Moline did was great though as the enviroments that the characters were in, seemed somewhat lacking at times, but, given the story and the detail that was put into most characters within the book, this is kinda forgiveable. The details on that huge ass snake, ohh that was sweet. Lettering also plays a more important part in this book as you have almost classic noise affects like KOOM, WHOMP, KRACK appearing throughout the book, which, I don’t know, they just add a small bit to the overall geek-out, geekgasm factor that you have when reading this, props to Michelle Madsen. Props really to all the artists on this thing (Andy Owens, Dave Stewart and those mentioned already), yeah….I liked this book A LOT, lol.

Other then the enviromental details in this book, my only real critcism for Fray is that it didn’t become an ongoing Dark Horse series. I know that in general Dark Horse isn’t really known for ongoing titles but, honestly this series could have easily become one. I somehow think the reasoning for the series ending the way it did was simply due to time delays on the part of Whedon, I kept remember hearing something to the effect that the last couple of issues got delayed awhile (which given Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, isn’t too big of a surprise).

To sum this whole thing up, whether your a fan of Whedon or not, try out Fray, it’s good and about the only thing you’ll find to bitch about is that there’s not more to read after the story arc finishes up.