Years ago, Joss Whedon was a guy who wrote and directed
television shows and the occasional movie. There was no Runaways and
Astonishing X-Men wasn't even a glint of light on the horizon. In fact, the
idea that he'd take time out of show running two network teevee shows while
prepping for a third to write a comic book was laughable. Insane, even.
Then came Fray.
Fray was a Dark Horse original series - eight issues (which took a year-plus to
publish, a disturbing foreshadowing of future endeavors, sadly) drawn by Karl
Moline and written by Buffy creator himself, Mr. Whedon. It introduced Melaca
Fray, a street-level criminal in future New York who also happens to be,
unknown to her, the Slayer. I won’t spoil that series for you but will say that
it’s fan-f***ing-tastic. It also introduced the scythe, which has become so
important to Buffy/the Slayers in Season Eight. If you don’t have it, go get
it.
Now Joss has solid comics track record, having written
several high profile comics, generally to high praise. BtVS:S8 is his latest
project and after great arcs written by Brian Vaughan and Drew Goddard – out of
which at least one pick of the week came – Joss is back behind the typewriter
for this one. And it’s just great.
Everything a Buffy fan could want is present, and in
abundance. Laugh out loud dialogue. Bizarre situations that are completely
believable within the Buffyverse. The long awaited reunion of Willow and
Kennedy. Amy, skinless boy, and this seasons Big Bad. And action. It looks like
the HQ castle may be history, hit hard with mystical artillery with who knows
how many slayers inside. Also, we get the beginning of what looks like could be
a very nasty fight between Mel and Buffy.
But wait, Buffy’s in the present and Mel is like, what? 500
years in the future? How did that happen? Easy my friends, it’s that old Star
Trek McGuffin, the Temporal Anomaly. Not since Yesterday’s Enterprise has the
hole in space-time been used this effectively. Now Buffy’s facing a mad as hell
Fray who’s convinced Ms. Summers is some kind of glamour thrown onto some nasty
demon she really, really wants to kill. And Fray’s pretty good with the
killing.
To summarize, this is going to be a fun arc.
Final word on the art. I don’t give 5s freely. But I’ve had
a man crush of Karl Moline since Fray was first published. Hell, I even followed him to CrossGen
for the late, lamented Route 666. Georges Jeanty has been doing great work on
this book up to now, but no one can draw Fray- and futuristic, decaying, flying-car filled New York – like Karl.The opening two-page Fray/Buffy splash is genius. Just, Wow. I giggled like a schoolgirl wneh I saw it. It's that good.
