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When
I read The Blood of Carthage as part of Dark Horse's
monthly series, I found the whole thing rather average. Reading
it as a collection it seemed better, but on a couple of occasions
it seemed to be getting into its stride only for something to
drag it off the rails.
The
basic story sees Buffy inadvertently killing the guardian of
a demon, forcing her to (eventually) team up with the remnants
of the once-mighty Blood of Carthage to prevent Ky-Laag from
destroying everything.
Into
this, Golden throws a few extras. The Scoobies are forced to
turn to Spike for help, and naturally he's got an agenda of
his own, something that harks back to a previous run-in with
the Blood of Carthage.
There
are also flashback sequences to Sunnydale in the late 1980s,
which reflect how much Xander and Willow have changed over the
intervening decade - although Xander fails to see it and it
has to be drummed home by Spike.
On
the downside, the story is perhaps a little overlong (it was
originally a five-parter) and Golden fails to resist bringing
back Lucy sodding Hanover and the tedious Ghost Roads concept.
This idea has always struck me as a bit of a cop-out and nothing
here has changed my mind.
The
artwork is okay without being spectacular. The various flashback
sequences are told in different styles, mostly be Paul Lee and
Brian Horton, although Chynna Clugston-Major handles the Xander
and Willow ones.
Overall,
it's a not bad, but it could have done being a bit shorter and
without the Ghost Roads cop-out. BACK
TO THE TOP
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