Buffy #20 Review
Writer: Jordie Bellaire & Jeremy Lambert
Artist: Ramon Bachs
Colours: Raúl Angulo
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
The story is really heating up now. There are things which have been teased a few issues back that are finally coming to fruition, and lots for long time fans of the show. Not to say that new readers won’t enjoy events either, but if you have a familiarity with the TV series then you’ll definitely get more out of it. There are twists and turns a plenty. The scooby gang is getting bigger. Tension between all of our main characters. A larger plot filled with all kinds of mysteries. And Xander. Having him replacing fill the void of Angelus from the TV series was a stroke of genius, but as the story progresses he’s filling a more and more grey area, and it’s difficult to know where he stands or if he’s a full on villain. Since the comics began a lot of time has been invested in telling Xanders story and it has been filled with twists and turns. Exploring the soulless vampire Xander makes for some excellent storytelling which is anything but predictable. It would be remiss not to mention Anya as well. Every time we've had a chance to spend more time with her she becomes more intriguing and it's abundantly clear that her story is going to be very important overall. This issues continues that trend, with a few moments which will make readers gasp and does a great job of building the suspense up.
The biggest danger that the comic has is the size of the cast. In the TV series the bigger the cast got the better the story was, which applied to both Buffy and Angel, but in a twenty-two page comic it’s difficult to spend time with each character, making sure they get the character development that makes the series so good, as well as progressing the overall story and not getting bogged down to much. Earlier criticism of the series was that it didn’t spend enough time with the characters, but since the beginning of the Hellmouth event there’s been more than enough time spent with each of our heroes to satisfy fans and give us much needed character development. Jordie Bellaire and Jeremy Lambert are managing to juggle the time with each character really well at the moment, but it’s a fine act to get right and as the cast continues to expand it could become potentially difficult to get it just right.
Ramon Bachs has done a great job with the art since he’s taken over, the quality and style of the artists working on the series has been incredibly erratic since it began, and he’s done a great job of capturing the characters likenesses and emotions since he took over. The only real criticism is that his characters are in danger of becoming a little bit too cartoon and caricature like here. But for an emotion filled story he does an excellent job of letting us know how each character is feeling. And each of his characters are faithfully recreated from the TV series. Then we have the colours from Raúl Angulo, our faithful colourist who has worked with each of the artists and brings a sense of unity to each of their wildly differing styles.
There are plenty of moments in this issue to get fans incredibly excited, the expansion of the Scoobies allows for more complex storytelling, and it looks like two fan favourites are here to stay. The soulless vampire Xander storyline is intriguing and how it will play out feels very unpredictable. There are a few moments which are guaranteed to take readers by surprise as well. The art is good although in danger of feeling a little too cartoony for Buffy.
Artist: Ramon Bachs
Colours: Raúl Angulo
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
The story is really heating up now. There are things which have been teased a few issues back that are finally coming to fruition, and lots for long time fans of the show. Not to say that new readers won’t enjoy events either, but if you have a familiarity with the TV series then you’ll definitely get more out of it. There are twists and turns a plenty. The scooby gang is getting bigger. Tension between all of our main characters. A larger plot filled with all kinds of mysteries. And Xander. Having him replacing fill the void of Angelus from the TV series was a stroke of genius, but as the story progresses he’s filling a more and more grey area, and it’s difficult to know where he stands or if he’s a full on villain. Since the comics began a lot of time has been invested in telling Xanders story and it has been filled with twists and turns. Exploring the soulless vampire Xander makes for some excellent storytelling which is anything but predictable. It would be remiss not to mention Anya as well. Every time we've had a chance to spend more time with her she becomes more intriguing and it's abundantly clear that her story is going to be very important overall. This issues continues that trend, with a few moments which will make readers gasp and does a great job of building the suspense up.
The biggest danger that the comic has is the size of the cast. In the TV series the bigger the cast got the better the story was, which applied to both Buffy and Angel, but in a twenty-two page comic it’s difficult to spend time with each character, making sure they get the character development that makes the series so good, as well as progressing the overall story and not getting bogged down to much. Earlier criticism of the series was that it didn’t spend enough time with the characters, but since the beginning of the Hellmouth event there’s been more than enough time spent with each of our heroes to satisfy fans and give us much needed character development. Jordie Bellaire and Jeremy Lambert are managing to juggle the time with each character really well at the moment, but it’s a fine act to get right and as the cast continues to expand it could become potentially difficult to get it just right.
Ramon Bachs has done a great job with the art since he’s taken over, the quality and style of the artists working on the series has been incredibly erratic since it began, and he’s done a great job of capturing the characters likenesses and emotions since he took over. The only real criticism is that his characters are in danger of becoming a little bit too cartoon and caricature like here. But for an emotion filled story he does an excellent job of letting us know how each character is feeling. And each of his characters are faithfully recreated from the TV series. Then we have the colours from Raúl Angulo, our faithful colourist who has worked with each of the artists and brings a sense of unity to each of their wildly differing styles.
There are plenty of moments in this issue to get fans incredibly excited, the expansion of the Scoobies allows for more complex storytelling, and it looks like two fan favourites are here to stay. The soulless vampire Xander storyline is intriguing and how it will play out feels very unpredictable. There are a few moments which are guaranteed to take readers by surprise as well. The art is good although in danger of feeling a little too cartoony for Buffy.
A Look Inside
