Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus # 3, published by Dark Horse comics, hit shelves a little while ago. I have to admit, it’s a little difficult to get through.

(Some background, I only started reading Dark Horse’s Buffy comics with Tales of the Vampires, then began the new Season 8 series. So the Omnibuses... Omnibi?... are all new material for me, which I’m eating up.)

Since the purpose of the Omnibuses is to take all the published comics (taking place during the series) and put them in chronological order within the universe, volumes 1 and 2 are comprised of "before Buffy #1" comics, which were actually written later once the comic series improved. Omnibus 3 is finally hitting the very first Buffy comics published (right around Season 3), and they weren’t done very well yet. The art is a LOT less than adequate (almost all vamps looking like green bat-faced creatures), and the dialogue was not always on target (although the writers seemed to understand Xander’s character pretty much). However, the plots were, at least, interesting.

I must say, I LOVE the cover art of this volume (it’s an homage to a screen shot from the original Scooby Doo cartoon title sequence.). So far, the cover art for the Omnibuses have all been great stuff!

In case you have not read this volume yet, I want to warn you --- there’s going to be spoilers in this review.

Starting from the beginning...

"Wu-Tang Fang" - Obviously, the title can be seen as a bit of a nod to the 90s rap group Wu-Tang Clan. I don’t know the origin of the rap group’s name, so it might come from similar inspiration. A quick internet search reveals that the rap group was inspired by a 1981 kung-fu movie entitled "Shaolin and Wu Tang."

The film explains Wu-Tang as a sword style (I’m digressing.). Anyway, the issue deals with an ancient, Asian martial arts master-turned-vampire. Some shades of The Karate Kid here. He’s looking for a challenge, and decides Buffy will provide one. He’s not disappointed.

"Halloween" - I enjoyed how the comics filled the gap of Halloween episodes, since Season 3 had none. I liked how the Scoobies were not going to participate in Trick or Treating until forced by Principal Snyder as part of a neighborhood watch-type thing; it does seem like something he would do. The Scoobies’ choices for costumes were interesting to me: Buffy as ’Jason Vorhees’ (Friday the 13th), Xander as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (not working for me, since he loathes vampires; the reasoning behind his donning the costume in the comic is weak, in my opinion), and Oz as the ’Land Shark’ (from Saturday Night Live). Of course, if you figure they are hedging their bets in case their costumes take them over again, maybe that DOES work. They crash a vamp group’s "night off," which works into the established lore a bit... no vamps hunting, but they captured victims in advance (including Willow) so they could stay in, watch scary movies, and snack.

"Cold Turkey" - Since the comics came out monthly, the next one is set for Thanksgiving. This is NOT "Pangs," to be sure. The story deals with the one vamp that survived the Halloween issue, and she’s donning Buffy’s lost ’Jason’ mask. I guess she thought her own vamp face wasn’t scary enough? I liked how the story dealt with a vamp survivor of a Buffy raid, and showed some hints of the kind of emotions some survivors might have.

"Dance with Me" - Um... yawn. The idea was interesting enough: A student who kept asking Buffy to go to dances with him, but kept being turned down, gets vamped and meets up with the Slayer. He’s still dealing with feeling rejected... .so she kills him. Really, it’s that short. I think this one might have been done outside of the regular monthly comic or something, as it’s only 6 pages long.

Click on the link :

http://www.slayerlit.us/reviews/review27.htm