Spike (IDW Publishing)

Creator: Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Horror, Comic
Rating: B+

I wasn't initially going to review this mini-series, but I decided to do so while writing the review for Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, simply because it acts as a bridge connecting Angel: After the Fall to Season Eight.  I'm not entirely sure yet if I'm going to do stand-alone reviews of the other mini-series within the After the Fall franchise, or the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic franchise either, but Spike is special.

Initially Spike was conceived as a longer series, but the move to Dark Horse Comics changed things up a bit, limiting this run.  Instead, what we have is a eight issue arch, placing Spike and a new crew in Las Vegas, once again in opposition to regular villains, lawyers Wolfram and Hart and mentally unstable vampire Drusilla.  There's a lot of discussion about Spike's soul in this series, which is always an interesting topic, and by the end of it Spike has acquired a space ship space (that resembles a penis in this series) full of space bugs, who become his next new crew.

I really thought this series was a lot of fun.  It was snarky and dark and returned Spike to the (mental) place where I loved him.  There's no Buffy, but Spike needs to grow a bit on his own - we saw that in season five of Angel.  This arch is also fun and nicely introduces new characters - like Season Eight it also reestablishes old favourites, like Drusilla.  I love Drusilla and I doubt I will ever get tired of them bringing her back to screw with the day once again.

Most importantly, though, I really like how this arch connects After the Fall to Season Eight.  My biggest problem with Season Eight is the fact that it's hard to place just when that all is happening, this arch tries to establish a bit of continuity between the two series that I think is going to be continued (at least a bit) in Angel and Faith and Buffy the Vampire Season Nine.  Or maybe I'm just being a bit too optimistic, seeing as I've only read about ten issues of each series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Creator: Joss Whedon

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Horror, Comic

Rating: B-

Set some time after the completion of both season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and season five of its spin-off Angel, the comic series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight shows us how Buffy Summers and the surviving Scoobies manage following the defeat of the First Evil and the creation of a multitude of slayers.  Slaying has become a secret, paramilitary organization helmed by Buffy, and is now starting to draw the attention of governments. A new organization, Twilight, is gaining prominence and directly threatens the slayers. This season brings an introduction of new characters, primarily in the form of slayers, and a return of old favourites (and not-so-favourites).

The thing that I really disliked about this season was that it was really hard to place in time.  You know from the start that it's set after the conclusion of the TV runs of both shows, but it's not as clear, at least from the start, where it's occurring in relation to the comic Angel: After the Fall and its many mini series.  This is a problem that's never really entirely resolved, a disappointment given as it becomes a bit integral to the plot later on - especially as characters cross over from Buffy to Angel and back again.  This is a problem that, to the best of my knowledge, never really gets resolved, although it ceases to be an issue (or as much of one) in the next editions of this story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine and Angel and Faith, along with their mini series, all of which are under one publishing house and presumably one direction.

There are really kind of two arches here, as is common within Joss Whedon works.  There is both a Big and a Little Bad, and for the purpose of remaining relatively spoiler free, I'm not going to identify who (or what) either is beyond the existence of Twilight.  If you really want to know, check out the Buffy Wiki.  With this, two arch idea in mind, I'm going to say that for the most part I really liked the first arch and the Little Bad, while for the most part I kind of disliked the second arch and the Big Bad.

For the first arch, there's the whole feel of the world of Buffy, even though it's in a completely different setting. We see Buffy trying to step into this leadership role that is so much bigger than anything she's done before and really succeeding at it, while also still coming up against a lot of the same struggles that she's dealt with for many seasons now.  You can really see that she's struggling. There are a lot of ties to the way the show was, especially in the earlier years, which I loved.  In particular, both the Slayers and the organization of Twilight really reminded me of season four's Initiative.  There were a couple of more stand-alone episodes that didn't seem to work as well as the more overall arch, notably the Japanese vampires who stole Dracula's powers, although I did enjoy the return of Dracula.  This wasn't too bothersome overall, though, as I don't think Buffy's ever really been known for its stand-alone episodes - no one cares about Inca the Mummy Girl or the hyena possessed students who ate Principal Flutie (the exception here, is "Once More with Feeling" which was just awesome).

The second arch, where timing becomes a bit more important, is a lot less well done.  I liked the overall fight and the motives and methods of our heroes - I even really liked the conclusion of things.  I didn't really like some of the themes, though, or how some things played out after the revelation of Twilight.  Some of the themes here are ones that played into the themes of the series as a whole, which I liked, while others seemed to violate the rules of the world, which I disliked.  These rule breakages seemed to be waved away with a bit of a "it's magic" bullshit, which I tend to dislike as well.  I had to suspend my disbelief a fair bit in this arch, which I don't like.  There's just... this lack of consistency, I guess.

What I'm a bit undecided about here, is regarding the relationships this season.  There are a few here: the ongoing Angel/Buffy/Spike triangle, Willow/Kennedy, Dawn and Xander's love lifes (both which see the introduction of new characters), and Buffy's imposed stint of celibacy.  To start, the likes.  I really like what they did with Willow and Kennedy.  While I'm not the biggest Kennedy fan, I appreciate the fact that the writers respected Tara's death and haven't caved into the demand to get rid of Kennedy and bring her back.  I also like the fact that the two of them struggle and go through ups and downs, because ups and downs (and more downs and sometimes deaths) is what Buffy is about.  I also loved the Dawn storyline, and the fact that we're slowly given the backstory as to just how Dawn became a giant (yes, this is related to her romantic life).  Xander's was cute too.  Xander tends to be rather abused in the Buffyverse, particularly when it comes to romantic entanglements, so every time they introduce a new romantic partner for him I find myself hoping that she's the one and wondering just how it's going to explode.

Now, for the less good.  I have a lot of mixed feelings regarding the triangle.  In general, I have no problem with its continued presence within the series, and I really understand the perspectives of both Buffy and Spike.  On the one hand, Buffy will always view Angel as the first love of her life, the good guy, and the guy who got away.  At the same time, she also views Spike as the guy who's been there, especially in the last few seasons when she's been at her lowest, but he's also the guy who's hurt her.  I don't doubt that she really does love him, as revealed in the finale of the TV series, but that love is a convoluted and confusing thing.  She's not yet at a place where she can really accept and embrace that love, and might never be there.  I don't know if they'll end up together in the end or not, or if they'll end up both alive in the end, or both dead, or what - it being Joss, I kind of suspect that Buffy, Angel, and Spike will all die before this triangle is ever really resolved.  The point is, for Buffy there is always that love for Angel, and I think there is also that love for Spike, regardless of who she's with - be it Angel, Spike, or someone else entirely.  For Spike, there is also always Buffy, regardless of who he's with.

At the same time, Angel is not in this situation.  Buffy is not always the one for Angel, in fact I don't think she's been the one for him for some time now.  Within the continuity of Angel he has moved on.  He's found another great love and it is for her that he longs, not Buffy.  After a point, when Buffy was brought up within Angel it was more and more with either nostalgia or out of a desire to oppose Spike; this is particularly prominent in season five, when Spike joins the cast.  When he enters into the Buffy world, however, any development of the character in Angel appears to be discarded - which really, serves as a slap in the face to his relationship with Cordelia.  For me, this really becomes clear in After the Fall, when Angel is broken and thinks he's dying - it is for Cordelia he calls for (inadvertently naming his male dragon after her), not Buffy.  To have him fall back into the "let's be with Buffy" thing here just seems like an insult to that character development.

Angel: After the Fall (Continuing Series)

Creator: Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Horror, Comic
Rating: C

The problem with the second half of Angel: After the Fall is that it retains all of the problems of the first half, while losing much of the strengths.  Here, Angel: After the Fall ceases to really retain the tone of the earlier series, but becomes increasingly confusing.  One of the things that I love most about Joss Whedon in general is the humour, even if it’s something that makes you stop and scratch your head for a moment or feel bad because what you’re laughing at shouldn’t be funny.

Here After the Fall embarks on life-post Hell.  Everyone is trying to regroup and reconcile post the trauma that they’ve been through, without having actually lived through due to the tricky nature of time travel, and the world of magic and demons has been fully revealed to the people of L.A.  Throughout this arch the issue of humanity is approached repeatedly, as is the issue of how to make amends and overcome past deeds – which I have to admit relates really well to the overall theme of Angel the series.

The big problem that I had with the first half of After the Fall was that the art isn’t consistent, a problem that pops up once again in this half.  I actually really liked the art at the start of this half, but then that arch finished and things changed and once again I was left questioning who was who and what the hell was going on.  Making things worse is that there is a lot less overall continuity here, and many of the storylines of different arches are pretty much dropped at the end.  There seems to be less continuity among the characters, making the big reveals to be just all that much more confusing.  Another big issue that I had was that characters are introduced or reintroduced, then forgotten about.  I really did like how Nina and Kate returned to the series, but they seemed to be forgotten about midway through – similarly Gwen returns, then disappears.  This happens as well with main characters, and while this is sometimes covered by little miniseries that occur alongside the greater arch of After the Fall, the whole thing gets rather confusing.  Perhaps I was just missing the cues within the individual comics that a miniseries was coming up, but at times it really appeared as though I was reading a series that had crossover episodes with another show that I hadn’t watched yet.

The other problem is that a lot of the humour is really gone. The show worked really well as the opposition of two forces; usually Angel against someone else, and most notably in the final season Angel against Spike. The dynamic of the two souled vampires was one that in my opinion really saved the show (even if it didn’t go so far as to actually save the show), and is one that was really lacking in the comics. A lot of the time either Angel is gone, Spike is gone, or they’re both gone, and we’re left questioning where they are, what’s going on, and why is this so dark and bleak. I can do dark and bleak, but I like Joss because it integrates both the dark and bleak with the light and humourous really nicely. This is lacking here.

Another note; I really did like how this arch made reference to the many people that Angel has lost, both in terms of character deaths and actor deaths. I missed Lorne in the second half of the series, although I really respect the decision to not use him following the death of Andy Hallett I don’t think they did enough to explain his absence. There’s a shot later on in the series that shows all the Angel dead, with Wesley, Cordelia, Fred, and Lorne each being pictured (I can’t remember if Doyle was also shown), although Lorne’s death is never explained or even stated – it isn’t clear in this continuation if Lorne is still alive and just elsewhere – continuing his estrangement from the Angel crew following the demands Angel made of him in the finale – or if he’s died off screen.  Through the use of Wikipedia I was able to discover that there was a special Lorne tribute comic, which I love, but this wasn't explained in this comic, which I dislike.

Angel: After the Fall (Maxi-Series)

Creator: Brian Lynch, Joss Whedon
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Horror, Comic
Rating: C+

I’ve long been a fan of Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse, to which the series Angel belongs.  While I never loved Angel as much as its predecessor, I did pretty much enjoy all five seasons of it and was also happy to hear about the continuation of the series via a comic book.  In my opinion, the medium of comics is pretty much perfect for works like those that come from Joss Whedon’s mind as you’re restricted not by money or the limitations of technology but rather by your own imagination.  Whedon and his crew have amazing imaginations, thus when I heard about Angel: After the Fall I was really excited.

The story picks up shortly after the events of the series finale, and following Team Angel’s attempt to eliminate Wolfram & Hart and the Circle of the Black Thorne, our favourite group of evil lawyers retaliated by sending Angel, his crew, and all of Los Angeles to Hell – literally.  The bulk of the old crew is back, but each has been transformed in some way or another by the final battle, and it’s up to Team Angel – or perhaps just Angel – to figure out how to get L.A. out of Hell, or at least just make it a better place for the many humans now enslaved by the demon population.

I liked the overall arch of the first half of this series, and the way that Angel’s problems are both the same things that he’s been dealing with since the time he was on Buffy while also being completely knew.  The Buffyverse world has completely changed, and After the Fall really shows how it’s changing.  It’s a fun world to watch, although certainly not a fun one to be in.  Another thing that I liked was the fact that the first half of the series did retain a lot of the Angel elements, notably the tone and humour, while embarking into this new world.  The things that attracted me to the show are still here, just slightly different.

What I disliked, however, was the fact that things were confusing.  The introduction of the series is a bit confusing and things are presented out of order – I liked the First Night arch, but as a reader who is potentially waiting for monthly installments it took way too long to get there.  Furthermore there’s the introduction of new characters, characters who appeared in Angel, and characters who have appeared in previous Buffyverse comics but neither TV series.  A lot of this gets really confusing, leaving the reader going ‘who the hell is that’ a lot of the time.  Even when this does get clarified, if it gets clarified, it’s still a bit jarring at first.  This is particularly annoying in regards to the Angel regulars; the people who we should be able to recognize but don’t do so quickly because of the way they’re drawn.  Making matters worse is the fact that the art itself isn’t always consistent, thus Angel in one issue might look different from Angel in another issue, and thus you have to reintroduce yourself to even major characters every few issues.  The only exceptions here are the characters who really stand out – Lorne (who is green and has horns), Illyria (who has blue hair), Gunn (who is black), and Spike (who is Spike).  This is something that really gets worse as the series continues and more characters are introduced.  It’s not a good sign when the main character of your series is not easily recognizable.

To end this arch on a good note, however, I did really like the dragon and the way that his name was alluded to but not revealed for so long. It was a nice running joke as different people figured it out, and then more so as the reader finally figured it out. There are nice hints and I think the name in general really shows the way  that Angel has evolved over the course of the series.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchinson, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker
Director: Drew Goddard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: A

I didn’t really know what to expect going into this movie.  I’m not really a fan of horror films in general, and the trailers to this kind of suggested (at least to me) that it was a slash and kill type movie.  Not really my thing.  As such I really delayed going to see this movie, but finally went for two reasons: 1) I really like the cast and 2) it came out of the mind of Joss Whedon.  While Whedon has his fair share of misses, I’m pretty much always willing to give him a chance, no matter how many times he disappoints me.  I’m very pleased to report that in The Cabin in the Woods Whedon does not disappoint.

There are two basic premises to this film.  The one depicted in the trailers is that a group of university students go out to a cabin where they somehow trigger some kind of killing spree and end up all dying horribly violent and bloody deaths.  The second one, that is set up very quickly, is that these university students are actually a part of some kind of operation as conducted out by a bunch of people in suits.  While they are not the ones doing any of the actual killings, they do control the setting and are able manipulate the protagonists into fulfilling the requirements of the operation. They are even able to manipulate their personalities, through the release of pheromones, causing them to fill the horror movie five-man band of the Whore (Hutchinson), Athlete (Hemsworth), Scholar (Williams), Fool (Kranz), and Virgin (Connolly).  As is typical in a horror movie, their lives all go to shit as the operation progresses and they unwittingly release the Zombie Redneck Torture Family.  That is actually what they’re called in the movie.

 

This film is actually really well done.  It’s more than just a horror movie; it’s a deconstruction of horror movies.  Rather than simply sending the protagonists to a cabin where they’re systematically killed off by the redneck zombies there is more to this film.  It takes you out of that simple setting and shows you just why all these torture porn flicks happen. The premise of the film is awesome because it provided some reason as to why the whole thing happened – which to me is somewhat of a rarity in horror films.   I loved the humour of this film.  It’s very dark and twisted, exactly what you would expect to come from Whedon.  There are a few brick jokes and a lot of things that are brought up earlier in the film are referenced later.  There is a lot of continuity in the film as well; the redneck zombies are of the fast moving, hard to kill type, and this is continued on later.  The acting is also amazing.  Once again, I saw this movie in part because of the cast – Thor, Topher, Avery, Fred – I admit, I did spend a chunk of the movie referring to the characters by these names, and at one point had a mantra of “don’t kill Thor!”  The movie is dark and gruesome and bloody.  It’s also funny and thought provoking.  The ending is also amazingly well done.  While I did think that it was a little slow at points, particularly in the beginning, I thought that overall it was awesome.  This is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

The Avengers (2012)

Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comic

Rating: A

The Avengers was awesome.  So far, it’s definitely the best movie that I’ve seen of 2012, and I’ve seen more than a few.  The action was stellar, the special effects great, the comedy subtly genius.  The basic idea of this film was nicely set up in the previous Marvel movies (the Iron Mans, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulks), with the introduction of both many of the characters and the elements that were at play.  My one problem with this movie was that there were still a lot of names that I didn’t really pick up on, because they weren’t really said often enough.  Without doing an internet search I would be unable to tell you the superhero alter ego of Renner’s character.

The premise of the movie is a bit complicated.  Asgardian Loki (Hiddleston) has made a deal with an alien race; in exchange for retrieving the Tesseract he will receive an army that he can use to conquer Earth.  Using his scepter Loki manages to enslave Dr. Erik Slevig (Skarsgård), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Renner), and several other S.H.E.I.L.D. agents, while also stealing the Tesseract and blowing up S.H.E.I.L.D.’s remote research facility.  S.H.E.I.L.D. director Nick Fury (Jackson) reactivates the “Avengers Initiative” and calls in Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk (Ruffalo), and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Johansson).  In the pursuit of Loki they are also joined by Thor (Hemsworth), Loki’s brother and the god of thunder.  The group don’t exactly work well together and are as likely to fight each other as Loki and with the exception of Romanoff none entirely trusts Fury, suspecting him of withholding the entire story.  It is up to the group of them to come together for the greater good, stop Loki, and save the planet.

The best part of a movie like this is the action, and The Avengers doesn’t fail to meet expectations.  It’s an action packed movie, and despite the league of some of the characters none of the fights are one sided.  There’s no moment when the bad guys line up and wait to be slaughtered one-by-one by the good guys, nor does the fact that Thor and Loki are gods make the outcome of a fight rather obvious.  Even the very human Phil Coulson (Gregg) gets a few good shots in.  The space bits were a bit over the top and I have to admit that the alien invasion kind of reminded me of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. 

The second best part of this movie was the cast.  Downey, as always, is stellar as Tony Stark.  I don’t think he was as funny as he was in the Iron Man films, and I would have enjoyed a little more between him and Pepper Potts, although his interactions with Jarvis did make up for it a bit.  Seeing him squaring off with Captain America, Loki, and Thor really gave us an idea of just how powerful Iron Man is, and for the first time he seemed to really be up against an opponent who is his match.  I liked Captain America more in this film than I did in Captain America, although I do hope that by the next movie he’s gotten an upgrade on his uniform.  I think I liked Thor more in Thor, although part of that is because he’s quieter and more stoic than the other Avengers and thus fades a bit when in a larger group.  Hiddleston makes an amazing villain; I spent part of the movie hoping for his sake that he doesn’t look as creepy in real life as he does when he’s playing Loki.  His timing was amazing, I just wish that he hadn’t been wearing that horrible horned helmet for so much of the film.  I enjoyed both Johansson and Renner’s characters, and I liked that the Black Widow was utilized more – I’d like to see standalone films for them in the future.  I’d also love to see a standalone film for Nick Fury.  Smulders character left me wanting more – it was nicely acted, I just found myself questioning who she was every time she appeared on screen (did they even mention her by name?).  I didn’t really care for Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, although he’s not my least favourite Bruce Banner.  When Stark asks Banner if he smokes pot I was waiting for him to say yes.  Ruffalo, however, had the distinction of playing two very different characters, and while his Banner was lacking his Hulk was amazing – easily the best part of this movie.  It says a lot about an actor when he manages to make the Hulk funny.