maggie2 | One Page Preview for #36

sueworld2003 pointed to this one page preview for #36

http://forum.slayalive.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=buffyseason8&thread=10896&page=10#228614

A few reactions below the cut:

1. OMG, it's so good to see Spike again after all these years. And that's *so* very, very Spike.

2. Angel is obviously insane. OK. Not *obviously* insane. But insane is a pretty good explanation for those three panels. He's already at the tailor having the costume made when he 'hears' the tailor telling him to have the costume made. Also? Talking bird? Usually evidence of being batshit insane. To me it matches his expression in the reveal panel in #33 -- which always struck me as batshit insane. We still don't really know, though. But you know where my money is.

3. Sooooooo good to see Spike again. I guess I already said that. Look! He's drinking! IDW forgot that Spike drinks. a lot. Look! He's not hitting on the girl who is definitely making herself available. IDW forgot that Spike can sometimes talk to a woman without wanting to hump her. Look! He's in a ship's cabin alone! IDW forgot that Spike spends a hell of a lot of time alone. And white socks. So cute. I just want to nuzzle him.

4. Love, love, love the way the last two panels play. And that line is just exactly Spike. I love that he IDs Angel right off. I love the implied contrast with Buffy who so didn't ID Angel even after a whole battle/conversation with him. Spangels 1, Bangels 0.

5. Timing. The Angel panels are well in advance of the Spike panels. The Spike panels are all post Harmonic Divergence. I'm pretty sure that's Harmony's magazine on the bed next to Spike. The protest follows the Harmonic Divergence stuff -- and the girl has incorporated Twangels propoganda -- the men in the castle are now the 'slayer's victims'.

Joss has a big mountain to climb in this arc, but boy this one page is great. Did I mention that it's Soooooo good to see Spike again?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then it's a pointer at whatever it is that's at work. The fairy tale stuff. (More vindication -- I always thought that was a marker for things being not what they seemed).

I'm not a good judge of the art one way or the other. I just don't know the comic book rules for when you should have detail and when you shouldn't.

Who knows what happens when Angel sees Dawn. It's a guess that he's insane. It's a guess that Dawn's still the key. And it's a guess that Joss would remember that crazy people can see glowy green. So who the heck knows?

Oh, and if this Geppetto is "the tailor dude is Geppetto from Fables by Bill Willingham. AKA the Adversary, who has conquered thousands of worlds and united them under his fascist rule." (credit: eilowyn and rebcake) And if he's the same guy from Living Doll, then the Dawn foreshadowing could be also about Angel.

All that talk about losing your soul? Very Angel. He's the one with the detachable spirit.

More Angel = Dawn parallels. Dawn and Angel have both been puppets. And both perhaps being tended to by the same dollmaker.

Will have to ponder that. I'd still rather the foreshadowing to be about Dawn herself, for the simple reason that I've always thought that the formula of having Dawn be a giant in a story called Twilight was significant. But we'll see. Foreshadowing can only really be read backwards and not forwards, and it would be interesting if Dawn and Angel end up being mirrors of some sort. Certainly Geppetto links them up.

Me bouncing up and down. So much pay off on one page. What will an entire issue deliver? An entire arc?

You'll want to read this.

Every section resonates with Season 8. Duplicates, blue fairies, the dollmaker mastermind of the universe.

Very interesting. Will have to read more closely -- but not tonight! Sleepy time.

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