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Finally
we come to the end of the Bad Blood story, and a nation
rejoices. But not just yet, there's the final three parts to
get through first, all handily collected together in one volume
- aren't we lucky?
Anyone
who's read the reviews of the individual comics or the two previous
TPBs in this series, Bad Blood
and Crash Test Demons,
will know that I haven't really been a fan of this storyline.
It
was clearly an attempt to match the mix of ongoing arc and individual
storylines that we get on the television series, but the ongoing
arc has dragged too much and with the odd exception the separate
storylines haven't been upto much.
Both
problems rear their heads here.
The
Selke arc has been dragged out, with the Doc only managing to
create his clone of the Slayer on the last possible attempt,
and one of his early failures comes back to cause extra trouble.
In
the meantime, his Buffy clone has managed to impersonate the
real one, although Cordelia at least seems to appreciate the
Slayer's new-found fashion sense. It's also rather plot convenient
that while the vampire element of the blood prevents clone Buffy
from seeing her own reflection, there's apparently nothing to
stop her walking around in the sun or entering houses. Nice.
The
comic book's less than brilliant non-arc stories are also shown
up with the Scoobies forced to decorate a carnival float. And
trust clone Buffy to suggest they go for clowns...
After
the quality of the previous installments, Pale Reflection
doesn't feel like a particularly disappointing end to the Bad
Blood arc, but for a nine part story it doesn't feel like
the epic that it probably should have been. BACK
TO THE TOP
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