So I’ve got behind on my Buffy comic reviews, so I’m going to review the last three episodes of the Faith arc together. As expected Faith becomes close with the evil slayer who is a member of the English aristocracy (mostly by fighting the gargoyle), and then (again not suprisingly) Gigi is trying to kill Buffy.
It was well done, Faith was well captured, and Gigi worked as a character. Gigi’s Warlock friend seemed very much a cardboard cut-out, but that’s all he needed to be I guess.
And in the end the story wasn’t about Gigi at all, but Faith, Giles & Buffy’s relationship. But there were serious problems in the execution. This plot-line lost a lot of its power because we had no idea of what Buffy and Giles or Buffy and Faith’s relationship had been like since Sunnydale hit into a hole, so it wasn’t anchored to anything.
I think maybe it’s a problem with the genre, because there seems to be a lot of ‘telling’ rather than showing going on. Characters explain exactly what their motivations are, whether it’s Twilight or Faith. The ratio of fight scenes to conversations is so much higher than it was in the TV, so there doesn’t seem to as much space for character, which I miss. I do enjoy the comics, and like the ideas, and where the characters are, but I’m just not convinced by the way it’s told.
Talking of problem with comic books. The baths! Never in the history of literature have female characters been so disproportionately cleaner than their male counterparts. Why do Faith and Gigi make plans in the bath?
No, I know the answer, it just pisses me off.
Tomorrow I’ll review the ‘Anywhere But Here’ and then maybe I’ll review Tales of the Slayers (which I got ages ago). I’ve been remiss in the Joss content for a few months.
I’ve been loyally buying the Season Eight comics (and loyally reading your reviews !) so I had to comment. I agree that this arc feels totally untethered from the series. Faith has always been challenging Buffy for her belief that Buffy is an uppity, self-righteous leader; so when in Season Seven Faith gets a chance to lead, and gets people killed, it had a deep emotional impact. She finally seems to understand that leadership is more than ordering people around- it’s a responsibility to those people, and an incredible pressure. That scene from “Chosen” where Buffy hands her the scythe and says hold the line– it cemented something in their relationship, I thought. Not a perfect understanding, but an acknowledgement of their journey together, and that they’d never be the girls they were back in Season Three.
And this arc felt, to me, like that moment never happened.
I mean, the constant Faith flashbacks to her worst moments with Buffy ? Her violent loss of control; and her overidentification with Gigi. I mean, Faith was a killer, but to have the comic tell me that she’d become best friends with a girl murdering other slayers for sport is a little beyond the line, for me.
YMMV. Anyone’s mileage may vary. ;) But I was hoping they’d give Faith more credit.
No, I know the answer, it just pisses me off.
Me, too. Although I must say, I’ve been on all-male long-term outings where on occasion the guys have taken a perverse pleasure on who smells the worst. “Jesus, you stink! Did something crawl into your pants and die? What, you think it keeps the bugs off?” “Screw the bugs, I can keep the bears away!” When I’ve gone on week-long canoe trips, one of the rituals is that at the end of the trip, when you’re back at the outfitter’s base, you take your first hot shower in a week and then change into clean clothes that were left at the base before we left for just this purpose.
It’s a guy thing. Sometimes.