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Ugly Little Monsters Part 1

Dark Horse's comic series continues to deal with the aftermath of Joyce's death in another story set soon after Forever.

The story opens with Tara and Willow accompanying Buffy on patrol, but the Slayer wants to be left alone to patrol since it's the only thing that's helping her keep it together.

Tensions rise after vamp attack leaves Tara with a scratched cheek. She has to stop Willow from casting a spell against a group of mouthy guys and then Anya proves to be her usual tactful self.

The Ugly Little Monsters of the title are a bunch of creatures who invade the Summers house, winding up in Dawn's closet before diving out of the window.

Also part of the mix is Spike's discovery of something called Ezekiel's Bane, which apparently enables the owner to tap into and manipulate energy created by intense emotional experience. Despite the assurances that it's in safe hands now that he's given it to Giles, you just know it's going to play a part in the story sooner or later.

Storywise, it's another fairly average installment. A few things are set up and we get to meet the monsters by the end of the book, but it doesn't feel particularly gripping so far. I usually find characters falling out pretty boring, so the fact that there's a wedge between Tara and Willow didn't exactly have me dancing in the streets. Anya's ex-vengeance demon act is also something that gets on my nerves, so well done to Willow for pointing this out to her.

Artwise, the characters are generally recognisable, although Dawn struck me as a rather poor likeness (it doesn't help that she's rarely in the foreground and is consequently drawn in less detail).

A couple of minor observations - Buffy reads Fray, although Xander is clearly the more obvious comic book fan. Tara's facial expression on the cover reminded me more of Samantha's nose twitching on Bewitched than anything else. (She also seems to have rather long feet and is drawn a lot slimmer than inside the comic, where a couple of panels are a bit unflattering).

A reasonable start, but hardly breathtaking stuff, I'm afraid. back to the top

UGLY LITTLE MONSTERS, PART 1

Written by TOM FASSBENDER and JIM PASCOE

Pencils by CLIFF RICHARDS

Inks by JOE PIMENTEL
and WILL CONRAD

Colours by DAVE McCAIG

Letters by CLEM ROBINS

Cover by JEFF MATSUDA

DARK HORSE COMICS


RATING: 5/10


NEXT ISSUE:
UGLY LITTLE MONSTERS, PART 2

PREVIOUS ISSUE:
NIGHT OF A THOUSAND VAMPIRES