Buffy Season 8 continues with the newest issue, in which Buffy teams up with future-Slayer Melaka Fray for adventures in time, sans TARDIS. Here’s my review, with spoilers.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: Karl Moline
What’s Going On:
In the far-flung future, Buffy has encountered Melaka Fray, the future Slayer last seen in the Fray mini series. After a brief and entirely expected tussle, the two come to terms and decide to work together to figure out what’s going on with the “time-faddle.” While Buffy and Mel are visiting a merfolk informant, an unknown female “from ancient times” is working with Melaka’s vampiric brother Harth to bring down both Slayers. Meanwhile in the present, the Slayer army is fending off a demonic attack at their headquarters while Willow figures out how and why Buffy disappeared just as the baddies popped into existence.
Lessons Learned Here:
- Merfolk like up-skirts.
- Slayers, even from the future, have a knack for Joss weirdspeak.
- Dawn gets no respect (but is that really anything new?).
- Veiny evil is as in-style in the far future as it was at the end of season 6.
How It Ends:
As Buffy and Melaka question the Abe Sapienesque informant about the woman working with Harth, we see that the woman is actually… Willow! And she’s looking all veiny, ala Dark Willow.
Thoughts:
This is the second issue in the “Time of Your Life” storyline, and I’m really intrigued by where it might be headed. At first I thought the woman working with Harth was going to be Drusilla, but I figured out it was Willow about two pages before the reveal. Still, it’s a pretty puzzling revelation and one that will be immensely intriguing (and probably heartbreaking, knowing Joss Whedon) to explore.
In the Fray mini series, there was a mention of a battle in the twenty first century that ended with all the demons and magic in the world disappearing. And yet, here Willow is in Fray’s world, having survived the centuries. This would indicate that she either is a vampire like Harth, or she has used magic of some sort. Based on her Dark Willow-ish looks, I’m guessing she’s using magic, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that something Willow does in the present time causes her to steal all the magic from the world for herself or somesuch. Falling off the wagon is an easy thing to do.
Kennedy has just appeared in the series, and based on the fact that Joss is writing this arc and Willow is magic-evil at some point in the future, I don’t think I’d be entirely in left field to suggest that something tragic might befall Kennedy before too long. Willow tends to flip out in an evil way when her loved ones meet their doom.
I’m enjoying the arc a lot, but I do miss Georges Jeanty’s art. Karl Moline did the art for the original Fray mini, so it stands to reason that he’d return for this story. I do hope Jeanty returns once it’s done, though. Moline does some really good art, but I’ve become attached to the way Jeanty does the likenesses and really miss it now.
