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A fairly uninspiring
plot and Hector Gomez's artwork combine to make The Dust Waltz a
pretty average graphic novel.
As usual, there's a
host of new arrivals in Sunnydale, including an old hag who looks like a
gorgon, her pneumatic sister and Giles's niece. It's just a shame
that only the television series can really be considered canon, since
Jane would have added to the show's overall continuity.
Split into three
chapter, Dan Brereton's story soon has the gang (including Angel)
captured and taken to the Hellmouth, where it's up to Buffy to rescue
them all.
It's unfortunate that
this sort of thing seemed to form the template for the early Dark Horse
comic releases, which seemed to rely on the Slayer saving the day, while
the rest of the Scooby Gang are chained up, tied up or otherwise
incapitated.
This wouldn't be too
bad if someone other than Hector Gomez had been entrusted with the
pencilling duties. Gomez has an uncanny knack of drawing Cordelia
and Willow in such a way that not only do they look nothing like
Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan, but the only way to tell them
apart is what they're wearing - if it's a short skirt and there's some
cleavage on display then the chance are it's Cordy. Oh, and since
when have werewolves been green?
A fairly average
release then, although I'm inclined to be slightly generous given that
it was one of Buffy's earliest comic strip adventures. However,
minus marks for overdoing it on all the continuity references (a
constant bug-bear of mine when it comes to spin-off novels).
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