Buffy : Season 9

01. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9

From: Joss Whedon, Andrew Chambliss (story/writing), Georges Jeanty (pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Michelle Madsen (colors) via Dark Horse.

Why: A lot of of people shy away from the Buffy titles if they didn’t watch the television show, but the truth is that these are exceptional comics, regardless of whether you watched the show or not. While a certain amount of nuance and subtlety will likely be lost on you initially if you’re a new reader, that will eventually not be true at all and on the whole, they’re surprisingly new reader friendly. For this “Season 9″ series I would say all you need to know is this:

Buffy Summers is a vampire slayer. She has some amazing friends that help her in that battle against evil. A while back they destroyed a hellmouth (their former home of Sunnydale California) and they did it by empowering all the “potential slayers” in the with real power. Sharing this slayer power was an amazing thing, but it had consequences and in Season 8 (something big happened – SPOILER – I’m not going to say it here so I don’t ruin it for others that might want to read Season 8 ) and as a result in this new series, a lot is different in Buffy’s world. But she’s still a vampire slayer, and she still has some amazing friends that help her in that battle against evil.

See. Now you know everything you need to know to go out and buy one of the best comics I’ve read this year. I’ve battled with my 3 Chicks co-stars about Buffy because they claim to not be interested, but for anyone interested in really well done, smart, layered female characters with a feminist bent, it honestly does not get better than Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The entire manifesto of the concept and the series was one of feminism. Additionally, unlike so many of our beloved big two female superheroes that get passed around from creator to creator, some of whom care very much and some that don’t care at all, because Joss Whedon is involved, the Buffy story is always done right. The creators always care, and I’m here to tell you that it makes a huge difference.

The first three issues of Buffy Season 9 find Buffy living and working in San Francisco, with a few new friends and a whole mess of old ones. She’s hated by a lot of the world (which is not that unusual) and she’s dealing the best way she knows how – with a stake and witty banter. The art by George Jeanty in this new series has been exceptional thus far and the writing from Andrew Chambliss is hitting that perfect sweet spot of sass and seriousness. So far Season 9 is a homerun. I wrote more about issue #1 here.

Stats: Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 drops this week and I can tell you unequivocally, it’s the best issue yet!

Female Positive Bonus Points: Buffy, one of the best pop culture heroines ever created, and an exceptional example of a perfect transition from the small screen to comics is the obvious lead and she honestly puts a surprising number of female comics characters to shame with her awesomeness. Add to that a vast and epically powerful cast of female characters that are layered and impressively three-dimensional. And lastly, you’ve got a creative team (and this has been true on every issue of Buffy I’ve read beginning with Season 8 ) that are impressively devoted to these characters and have literally no interesting in exploiting them. The creators on Buffy have amazing love for the characters and it’s evident on every page.

08. ANGEL & FAITH

From: Christos Gage (writer), Rebekah Isaacs (art), Dan Jackson (colors) via Dark Horse Comics

Why: Faith was never my favorite character on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but she was always interesting to watch and she was a character that stirred the pot in good ways, even if she got on my nerves. However, in comics (and this comic series particularly) she’s pretty great. She makes a good foil to Angel, and she keeps things light and less brooding. Faith doesn’t work so well for me as the lead on a book, but as a co-lead, she’s turning out to be rather brilliant.

In this series, Faith is helping to “rehabilitate” Angel after some truly terrible things that happened in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 run – though I don’t think you have to have read that run to be able to understand what’s happening here as they bring new readers up to speed pretty easily. Nobody else wants much to do with Angel after the events from Season 8, which is a perfect fit for Faith who is a bit of an outcast herself. Faith and Angel are two characters that have needed, and frequently seem to need time and again, serious redemption, and so they play nicely off of each others strengths and weaknesses. Angel is on a mission here to right the wrong he’s done, and though Faith suspects it’s a bad path, she’s busy both getting his back and keeping an eye on him for when it will eventually all go horribly wrong.

So far it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Gage has a great handle on both the main character’s voices and he’s moving the plot along briskly, with just enough time for some nice character work. While the Angel series at IDW was quite good on the whole, it is nice to have all of the Whedonverse characters back under the same publishing roof at Dark Horse, as this series and the Buffy Season 9 series tie loosely to each other in the best of ways, and as they should. Rebekah Isaacs’ artwork, as always, is simply a joy to behold. Everything is beautiful and well-considered and the storytelling is simply sublime. More detailed review of issue #1.

Stats: Angel & Faith is currently on issue #3, with issue #4 dropping in two weeks. Still plenty early to jump on board.

Female Positive Bonus Points: In addition to a very strong female lead and some good female secondary characters, this book is drawn by the always fantastic Rebekah Isaacs.

Click on the link for more :

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/11/07/she-has-no-head-8-great-new-female-positive-ongoings-you-should-be-reading/