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Wild Girl #3 (buffy mentions)

By Ray Tate

Saturday 8 January 2005, by Webmaster

Wild Girl #3

Writers : Leah Moore and John Reppion

Artists : Shawn McManus, J.H. Williams III (vignette), Wildstorm FX(c) Publisher: DC

Feh. This was easily the worst issue of Wild Girl. Nothing happens. Zero. Nada. Zip. Oh, the creative team pretend something happens, but take me at my word. Nothing happens.

The birds from last issue decide to test Wild Girl to see if they can trust her. How climbing a brick smoke stack to retrieve a ring indicates trust is beyond me. Also beyond me is why the reader should even once suspend her disbelief.

We know Wild Girl will reach the top and make it over to the other side where lies "Precious"—er, the ring. No, let’s contrast this dull scale with another more exciting climb—that made by bona fide super-hero Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In the season five finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy must climb a tower to save her sister Dawn from being blood sacrificed by the mad god Glory. Each drop of Dawn’s blood opens dimensional gateways that release monsters unto the earth. Buffy battles Glory all the way up the tower and finally reaches Dawn, but she’s too late. The ritual has already begun. Glory’s henchman has already cut Dawn, and her blood has already let in the monsters. Dawn prepares to die. Will the Slayer kill her sister Dawn and save the earth? Will Dawn make the decision for her?

Buffy finds a loophole in the ritual. Dawn is Buffy’s sister in magic not reality. Dawn was made from her body and blood. Dawn was placed in her care, and she was given the false memories of Dawn’s existence. Dawn’s blood is the same as Buffy’s blood. As always, Buffy proves herself to be unique among Slayers. She does not do her job. She finds a way out to be The Slayer. She does the one thing viewers cannot expect. She sacrifices herself so that Dawn may live. The one character we knew would get out alive in season five dies.

Buffy’s climb induces tension because Joss Whedon focused the purpose of the climb on a character who on an ordinary show would been utterly expendable. Whedon further convinces the viewer that there can only be two outcomes: Armageddon or Dawn’s death. Buffy pulls a third unseen but fairplay ploy that drops every jaw of every viewer. Furthermore, the finale of season five sets up seasons six and the final seventh season.

In Wild Girl there can only be one outcome of the climb. The outcome is tedious. The climb also prepress the reader for nothing more. The artwork is fine, but so what? The writer fails to impel drama and leaves the reader hoping for an episode of Bigfoot and Wildboy rather than another chapter of Wild Girl.