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WHAT
HAS HAPPENED BEFORE?
Well, nothing we know about. This is Spike and Dru a few
days before they enter Sunnydale, so this one-shot takes place before the first one-shot,
Paint the Town Red.
This issue
features Ryan Sook's third Buffy story - the first being PTTR, the second,
Bad Dog from
the Annual and finally this issue. All of the team from PTTR have returned apart
from James Marsters, Spike himself, who has commitments on the show. It's a shame
they couldn't get him to do this issue as well.
WRITING
I couldn't help but think that this issue would suck
writing-wise. I thought that after Golden's less than impressive story in the
Annual, and the whole Angel limited series (it's best if we try to forget about that isn't
it?) that this issue was to be the same. How wrong was I? Extremely wrong.
I could not be more wrong. It's like me saying, "The Annointed One is a
sorely missed character" - I was that wrong!
The comic begins with Spike driving his car with
Dru by his side. In the first three pages we get an explosion of great writing,
great artwork and a killing (by our heroes, no less). Spike's singing reminded me of
the scene in Lover's Walk when Spike leaves Sunnydale blasting out a rendition of
My Way.
Golden's back on top form, as he was with issue
12 of the ongoing. He makes Dru mad and Spike cool. Examples...
Dru: I think I hear a whistling in my veins.
Now it's a happy tune.
Spike: They call me Spike, actually, long story,
kinda bloody too.
Golden brings the action to St. Louis. The
story revolves around a casino on a boat called, appropriately enough, The Queen of
Hearts. Here Golden introduces a villain called Due Zachariah King, a mean old
sonofabitch. Cool and debonair on the outside, but as this is a Buffy story, he's
not all that he seems. The villains in this issue are some kind of weird mutated
fish demons. Not like the ones in Go Fish or in the opening of The
Wish, but big
bulky green scaled smelly demons with ripped shirts, which somehow reminded me of The
Incredible Hulk. They give Spike and Dru a run for their money. Zachariah is
the 'boss' of the mutated fish demon things (he is also one himself, just a lot bigger and
with more arms) but I could see this coming - it wasn't hard to spot.
The finale is fantastic. A battle between
not only between Spike and Dru against the mutated fish demons, but these huge jellyfish
creatures called The Spawn of Ickthala are after the mutated fish demons as well.
(This is because as one of the demons fell into the water, the Ickthalas got the taste for
them and went after more.)
This issue is definitely a lot bloodier and has
content that I would not recommend for younger readers. One thing that shocked me
was that sex has been introduced into the Buffy line. Spike and Dru lay naked on a
bed, which suggests that they had some kind of 'action' the night/day before. I
wouldn't have thought that they would show it. I guess it was important as it showed
a symbolism of their love, but I felt it was a bit too much. Although bravo to
Golden for introducing the matter into the line.
Dru gets a lot more 'screen' time in this issue.
With PTTR, Dru didn't have a lot to do, but here it's the loveable mad Dru we first
fell in love with. What let down PTTR a fraction was the fact that Dru was not
featured heavily. Sure she was there but Spike seemed to take centre stage.
But with this tale they both get their fair share. Which is how it should be.
Verdict: after this last few attempts
(Annual,
Angel limited series) Golden is back on track with this issue. Hats off to the man
who should write for the show!
ART
Sook returns to the characters he does best. Sook is
my favourite Buffy artist, so perhaps I might be biased when reviewing. But when I
say that Sook is a great artist, it's no lie. A style that is very unlike what I've
seen before. I think that Sook's leaning further away from his Mike Mignola
comparisons (saying that, on the bottom of page 26, with the close-up of the green demon,
it is very Mignola. Quite uncanny).
Sook does a great job with the characters, he
makes Dru very sexy in the shot of her pole dancing. He makes Spike look extremely
cool and calm in the end fight scene. He does a fabulous job with everyone else.
Since PTTR, I feel that he has been putting in more detail into his work - more
fine lines, more shadows, more facial expressions. Very nice too.
After seeing Sook's magnificent pencils in this
issue, it's hard to picture any other artist doing Spike and Dru, I doubt they could have
the same effect as Sook does. The only complaint I have of Sook in this issue is on
page 11, the bottom of the page with the picture of Spike saying "Bloody hell".
It doesn't look right. It's been overdone on the lining effects. But we
won't condemn him for it as it's not a usual pattern (take note Mr Gomez). Sook
seems to be doing a great job drawing figures. Not the numbers but the body shapes.
He seems to get the arms in the right places. Take the Dru pole dancing shot.
The arms are in the right place, shoulders where they should be, legs are drawn
magnificently. I like this guy a lot. If I were a woman, I'd marry him.
Verdict: Repeat after me.
RYAN...SOOK...IS...GOD!
NITPICKS
Lettering. It's great - when Brosseau doesn't leave
out letters, but I noticed many mistakes - 'uicy' when it should be 'juicy', 'o' when it
should be 'to'. A slight cock-up over at Dark Horse. It's off-putting but an
easy mistake to make.
I like Major's colours. It's funny how with
Richards' and Zanier's work he piles on the blues but with Sook he uses a lot more
different tones of dark purple. Seems odd. Cover wasn't all that, too blue for
my liking.
OVERALL
Go and buy it now! Stop reading this review and go and
buy it! GO NOW!
Next up: Spike and Dru in
Buffy #14. It'll
be interesting to see how Richards draws the characters. Also in the pages of
QoH,
there's an advert for the Angel ongoing series. I'm not saying much on this apart
from "I hope the interiors are better than the crap advert that's supposed to be
selling it!" Back
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