The Origin #3 of 3

The Origin #3 of 3

3-issue miniseries.

Originally published from January 1999 – March 1999.

A grieving Buffy is now at crossroads in her life. Contemplating the possibility of returning to her normal teenage life, she attends the school dance. Now feeling abandoned by her friends, she connects with Pike, who knows of her double life and as a faithful steed, is willing to go into battle with her. She enters the fight solo, however, after being challenged by the senior students turned vampires. Mayhem ensues with fighting occurring all over, which ends with Buffy burning down the school gym to kill the remaining vamps. The burning of the school gym is something that has been referenced multiple times throughout the TV series but is never seen in the movie due to budget restraints. It happens here first.

The story caps off with an epilogue of sorts, first showing her former friends discussing what happened to Buffy after the night of the fire, from her complete isolation from everyone else, to her expulsion and her parents' divorce. We then cut to Buffy, having run away with Pike to Las Vegas [this story is continued in the non-canon late '90s Buffy series story arc, Viva Las Buffy! This story, which begins with issue #51* is actually far more enjoyable than The Origin, with more Whedonesque dialogue and vastly superior artwork]. The final page of The Origin cuts to the Sunnydale High library, the all-too familiar setting in seasons one-through-three. Buffy, Willow and Xander are sitting around --Giles standing close by-- with Buffy having told them the story of how she came to be a slayer (the same story we just finished reading). It is a nice tie-in to the main series and a clever way to end this mini.

*Viva Las Buffy! is chronologically the first event to occur in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and yet it happens so late in the comic's publication (the series ended with issue #63). When the comic first started, the TV show was then in its third season. The comic followed the TV show and its major plot and character progressions, essentially doing their own 'versions' of stories that could have been told throughout seasons three, four, five and six. When the show reached its seventh and final season, because it was so tightly knit together as a steady arc, the comic did not intend to accompany it. During its final year of publication, it instead went back in time and essentially did a Buffy: Year One. The final issues to be published by the series tell stories that lead up to season one, and go through the first two seasons; making the series go full circle.

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I had more difficulty writing the reviews for The Origin than I thought I would. It seemed like a good way to kick off the new era of my blog, and in a way, it was. But the comic itself is so merely adequate that it failed to inspire a lot of enthusiastic writing. Perhaps I'll next jump into something more exciting. Season Eight, perhaps.

The Origin #2 of 3

The Origin #2 of 3

3-issue miniseries.

Originally published from January 1999 – March 1999.

The second act in this miniseries improves upon an adequate but awkward introductory issue as it opens with Buffy waking from yet another all-to-real slayer dream; judging from her reaction this time, it appears her nightmares have been getting worse and worse, signaling the growing urgency in her life to assume slayer duties. Afraid, she tries to hide from her responsibilities by intentionally not meeting up with her Watcher Merrick, who is conveniently able to find her with ease.

In a warehouse, Merrick tests Buffy's athletic abilities, before going into another history lesson about slayers and vampires. The Watcher serves a dreaded role in the Buffyverse, acting as the encyclopedia of everything demon; a character whose central role is to explain things to the audience and give important expository monologues whenever they are needed. It is a testament to Anthony Stewart Head's warm presence and undeniable acting range that Rupert Giles is as great of a character as he is. Here is a character who was clearly not as fortunate in terms of dialogue as the rest of the cast and whose power depended so greatly on the actor; a character who could have easily been unbearable under the guise of an inferior talent. In this comic, attempts are made to make Merrick into a likeable character, and his brief humorous lines do help this, as awkward as they come across.

This issue is the Buffy and Merrick Show, which might be why it is the strongest entry in the miniseries. Little is seen of the high school friends, and if anything, they could have been used even less. They are unmemorable characters serving little purpose and clearly no effort went into the writing to do otherwise. This is a shame. Buffy, in the face of embracing her new life, now sees her shallow peers for who they are, and in these pages we see the start of the end of these relationships. It is interesting seeing her in this social status as seen in the first issue; essentially playing a Cordelia Chase. Was Buffy genuinely happy as a Cordelia and felt like she was unfairly stripped of her life in becoming a slayer? Or did she always feel isolated from her friends because of her inherent slayer-ness and it was not until becoming the slayer that she felt she could embrace this side of her? Arguments for each could probably be made using examples from the TV series, which show her frequently at battle with herself.

The issue ends off on a shocking and disturbing event, something which was altered and toned down for the movie. To great surprise, the story actually lands a punch. Woe was felt.

The Origin #1 of 3

The Origin #1 of 3

3-issue miniseries.

Originally published from January 1999 – March 1999.

The miniseries has been collected in an 80 page single-volume trade paperback but for your moneys worth, you're betting off purchasing Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus Volume 1, a 300 page paperback which collects The Origin as well as a number of issues/stories from the monthly 1998-2003 series.

It's no secret that Joss Whedon was disappointed in the 1992 film adaptation of his Buffy the Vampire Slayer screenplay, which sacrificed the slayer/watcher mythology and title character's emotional ordeals in favor of cheeky comedy and teen comedy tropes.

When Whedon wrote the television pilot script several years later he based it after the events told in the movie. He doesn't actually consider the movie to be a canon entry in his universe; the television series instead acting as a sequel to the original film's screenplay. Early into Dark Horse's publishing of Buffy tie-in comics, writer Christopher Golden wanted to tell a faithful retelling of the original screenplay, and he was given approval to write his 3-issue miniseries, The Origin.

The story begins with a brief two-page prologue set during “Europe: The Dark Ages”, in which a slayer is killed by the vampire Lothos, which follows up with a watcher calling on the next girl, frightened and reluctant, saying 'But I'm just a girl.”

“As long as there have been vampires, there has been the slayer, a chosen one. One born to hunt the darkness, to stop the spread of evil.”

We jump forward several centuries to “California: The Lite Ages”. Seemingly average teenage girl Buffy Summers and her friends are watching (and I use that word loosely, as they're putting far more energy into their idle chatter) a movie in the theater, supposedly a horror film. When an obnoxious male sitting behind her, named Benny, expresses his interest in seeing what happens in the movie, Buffy humorously replies, “Everyone gets horribly killed except the blonde in the nightie... who finally kills the monster with a machete, but it's not really dead.” I like to think this line was either taken directly out of the screenplay, or modeled after a similar line. It actually sums up Whedon's own motivation in creating this story. Years of watching horror movies wherein the stereotypically portrayed blonde girl is either a helpless damsel in distress or downright murdered (usually both) got to him, giving him the idea of telling a story set in a similar world as slasher and monster movies, but going against convention; throwing away the 'damsel in distress' and replacing her with a strong leading female, one more than capable of fighting her own battles. His title character would possess a degree of super-human or super-hero strength, so with the immediate physical threat not so much an issue in her life, he could instead focus on telling her emotional battles. As we now know, Whedon would use the television series to further illustrate his feminist stance, with its cast of strong females outnumbering the males (and then there's the argument that all or most of the central male characters are frequently emasculated by the females, or just generally being placed in emasculating situations).

Also introduced in the theater scene is Benny's taller, handsomer, quieter and most mysterious friend Pike, the soon-to-be love interest for Buffy. He's sort of a wannabe Angel, minus the thousands of human homicides on his conscience.

In the next pages, we get a very glimpse look at Buffy's unsatisfying home life, feeling ignored by her parents, who are in these panels surprisingly happy together pre-divorce.

After Buffy falls asleep on the couch, we cut to a page long flashback to 18^th century Hong Kong, cutting to Buffy's alert wake up, repeating the final line of dialogue said in the flashback. We know this flashback is also a dream, and is an important aspect of the slayer mythology; before they are called, their dreams are filled with the memories of real slayers of the past. It's sort of an unconscious preparation.

The next casual-teens-casually-conversing scene is light on plot, its importance being for Buffy and Pike to meet again and become formally acquainted. The dialogue doesn't have the usual flare, pop-cultural context or creative language that the TV series has. And I'm referring to this miniseries in general, really. Aside from plot advancing expository moments, the dialogue in The Origin leaves much to be desired, resulting in the tonally lite bare-on-plot scenes being entirely unmemorable.

When the watcher Merrick introduces himself to Buffy and delivers the news of her calling, the issue picks up on momentum, with the final action-heavy pages of the issue opening up the panel size to better showcase the art. The artwork is light on detail and character likeness, but the colours (relying on purples, greens and reds) help make these pages eye-popping.

Reviews for the next two issues in this miniseries coming soon.

A New Focus

Over the last year I have been spending less and less time watching films and more and more time watching serialized television dramas. Perhaps my personal favourite of all that I've watched is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Don't get me wrong, there is some competition to be had. Six Feet Under, Twin Peaks, The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos. However, this is probably the most enthusiastic I have ever felt for a genre (fantasy/sci-fi/horror/etc.) television series, and being a lifelong fan of genre films, it pleases me to an infinite degree that there is actually a genre TV drama that I possibly enjoy more than even the most elite of TV dramas. The only one that really comes close, for me, is Six Feet Under.

After watching through the entire 7-season 144-episode run of Buffy in a two-and-a-half week span earlier this year, my appreciation reached maximum height. I needed further Buffy in my life, and before I was about to watch through the complete series a second time, I discovered the large library of Buffyverse comics. What really sets these comics apart from virtually every other comic based off a TV property is that a series was actually made that was written and produced by the television show's creator -- Joss Whedon -- and that the series is actually considered to be a canonical continuation to the television series. Season Eight, which started in 2007, 4 years after the television series finale, isn't just a clever name. Sir Whedon himself will tell you that the series exists in the same continuity as the TV series. This is currently an ongoing Season Nine and Whedon has once briefly mentioned the possibility of creating a Tenth.

Buffy's spin-off series, the 5-season 110-episode Angel (another series I watched through in full in a relatively short amount of time) also has a comic series continuation, Angel: After the Fall. The canon status on the Angel series gets a little shaky and debatable following Whedon's departure after issue #17. The series continued for a couple more years, finishing off with #44, but issues #18-44, to my knowledge, had zero creative involvement or overseeing or executive producing by Whedon.

There also exists an 8-issue Spike comic series intended to bridge the gap of Spike's life following Angel: After the Fall and before his arrival in Buffy: Season Eight, but the canon status on that is debatable as well.

Oh right, I forgot to mention an important little detail which created some stress on the writers of these comics; for the entire duration of the before-mentioned Angel and Spike comics, IDW Publishing actually owned these characters in their comic book form. DarkHorse, of course, was the publisher for Buffy. There was a divide; a limitation on both series which were forbidden from featuring character crossovers because of legality issues. It was all a bit messy and created some disappointment from fans who were long awaiting any sort of Buffy/Angel or Buffy/Spike reunion Well, rules were broken anyway and illegal crossovers occurred.

Thankfully the cross publishers is in the past and all of the family in once again under the DarkHorse name (for the first time since 2002). An Angel series is currently ongoing alongside Buffy: Season Nine, and thanks to there being the single publisher, any worries regarding timeline disputes and limiting character cross-overs are no more.

And seeing as how I brought up the old days of Buffy and Angel comics, pre-IDW ownership, I might as well acknowledge that yes, there were comics of both titles published in the late '90s up to the early '00s, coinciding with the then-ongoing TV shows. Buffy ran for 63 issues from 1998-2003 and as for Angel, 17 issues from 1999-2001, followed up with a 4-issue Angel miniseries from 2001-2002. I'm not mentioning these ones until now as they are the furthest away from canon as any of the Buffyverse comics. They were written at the same time as the shows, to match up with the major events but with completely new and separate stories along the way, and with no involvement from Joss Whedon (of course; he was too busy making the shows). These comics are of a rough hit-and-miss quality, often with artwork and writing notably inferior to the 2007-present Buffyverse comics. These issues were not genuine Bufy, but rather, a tie-in product. Granted, there are still some really good ones in the bunch.

The first Buffyverse comic to be set in the television universe is an 8-issue miniseries written by Whedon himself, titled Fray. His involvement continued with two other mini series, Tales of the Slayers, and Tales of the Vampires. These anthology titles brought back many of the TV show's most acclaimed writers, who would later join Whedon in Season Eight.

After IDW Publishing obtained the Angels rights around 2003-2005 (along with every other character in the main Angel cast at the time the series ended), they spent a few years publishing a series of mini-titles, usually of 3 and 5 issues each. Some were adaptations of acclaimed episodes, such as Smile Time, A Hole in the World, and Not Fade Away. Others were originals, such as Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets. IDW never started its first monthly Angel title until the Joss Whedon-plotted After the Fall in 2007.

I have come full circle of sorts in this introduction, briefly mentioning all of the Buffy and Angel comic series and mini-series. What I plan to do with my blog from this point on is review all of these comics, issue by issue. Or if I succumb to the workload, I might wimp out and switch to trade volume.

I apologize for this long read and whenever I have the strength, motivation and time, I will begin my mission. Heads up: it might be slow starting as my final exams are in the very near future.

In a Glass Cage

Welcome to Dreary McDreayton. Today's attraction:

In a Glass Cage (1987)

Beyond here lies not a shortage of depravity and the demented.

But there's more. I'm just not sure if I can put my finger on it.

The young imposter. Angelo. His spiraling descent is one which has to be seen. Watch, as he transforms a safe modern day house into a camp for inhumane human experimentation.

No, seriously. Watch it. [If you think you're really up for it. It's rather harsh.]

Taste the Blood of Dracula

The second half of the 1950s and the entirety of the 1960s mark the peak of Hammer Studios - at least, as far as horror movies go - and I'm sure no reasonably thinking person would disagree. By the 1970s it was clear they were growing tired, desperate, and out-of-touch; the slow-moving Gothic tales they had to tell were of little interest to a post-Night of the Living Dead horror community. One '70s Hammer I do think of escaping this unfortunate result was Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, which might have had to do with being under the wing of - of course - Terence Fisher. It was his last movie as a director, and the only film he made post-1960s.

Fisher having made five out of seven of the Frankenstein titles is the primary reason for that series staying as fresh as it did, and the second reason being the incredible Peter Cushing, who always gave a performance worthy of a Shakespeare play, regardless of what movie he was working on, and the quality of its script. The Dracula series was not as fortunate. Fisher departed after having done the first three, and never returned. Number four, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, was one of the series' high points for its lush cinematography and a successful not-too-campy/not-too-moody balance. We picks things up with Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), which takes place immediately following the predecessor, and even having an early scene wherein a horrified character walks onto the final scene of Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, witnessing it from his own perspective. This is a strange confused little movie, which deserves credit for originality. It centers around three gentlemen who have grown bored of their bourgeois life style and begin looking for excitement. By chance, they meet the servant of Count Dracula, and agree to go to the castle to engage in a blood ritual where they have to drink the Count's blood. They are disgusted by the contents of their cups and refuse, so in trying to convince them, the servant himself drinks his own cup. His body has a terrible reaction and he dies; the men flee into the night. Dracula is pissed and now wants to make the three men suffer.

The premise is a quaint one, but lifeless performances from the leading men, lifeless dialogue for everyone in the story, and lifeless appearances from Dracula himself make this film more of a bore. Christopher Lee's contempt for the role was steadily increasing, but that's not the reason for Dracula's awkward and yawn-inducing scenes. It was the script; nothing interesting was written for him. Dracula himself was actually an afterthought for this movie. In the original story, there was not even going to be Dracula, or at least, not played by Lee; only a minor-role Dracula with virtually no screen-time. But in order to get the film distribution in the United States, they had to include the Count. They upped up Lee's salary, and he jumped aboard, again. But sadly, Lee himself can only save these movies to a degree, as Dracula's screen-time in them is not substantial. Yes, his scenes in the first Hammer Dracula, along with Prince of Darkness and Risen From The Grave, were very well staged, written and shot. But that magic has gone. Taste the Blood of Dracula is the series' first empty sequel; not made to entertain, only to make money. I have a feeling the later sequels will be more of the same.

Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell

*spoilers follow*

As the final chapter to Hammer's 17-year-in-progress series, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974) brings the center of the story to a most fitting location: an asylum for the criminally insane. Cushing reprises the Baron after a five-year hiatus, and director Terence Fisher also returns, making this is 5th Frankenstein film. As a whole, I do not consider it on the same level as his earlier films in the series, but its sporadic flashes of a chilling and melancholic atmosphere make it a worthy addition. Victor, who had years ago, we discover, was charged and committed to an asylum, has charmed his way into the position of their doctor (we later find out he secured the spot by means of blackmail). A young student of medicine and Frankenstein-wannabe finds himself as an in-mate in this same institution, where after being maltreated by two guards, becomes an assistant to 'Stein, who now goes by the name Dr. Victor. Victor wishes for the young Dr. Helder to take over his position as doctor over the ward, allowing him more time for his personal experiments, which we soon find out of course, is his several-decade-long struggle against nature at creating human life. We run into more-of-the-same, with the introduction of a beautiful helper of Victor's who can't speak. And then we see his creation, bearing one of the worst makeup jobs I have seen in a Hammer production. What could have - and probably should have - been the most speculative movie in the franchise suffers from an inconsistent tone, which too-often dwells into camp territory, sometimes even aiming for laughs. The ending, however, is all too fitting: upon another disastrous failure of a creation, Victor merely shrugs it off and plans out his next attempt. Frankenstein's ambitions will always be his driving force, but is it his lack of humanity and decency which repeatedly prevent his success?