Buffy the Vampire Slayer S.09 #5
Writer: Andrew Chambliss
Art: Karl Malone and Andy Owens
Cover: Steve Morris
Issue five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a stand alone tale within Season Nine of the series. Artist Karl Malone substitutes as penciler, with regular series penciler, George Jeanty, returning next issue. Writer, Andrew Chambliss, puts a lot of new cogs and devices into play and drastically changes Buffy’s up and coming status quo. All exciting concepts awaiting to be fleshed out within this new series.
Surprisingly, this issue does not pickup issue fours cliffhanger; as “Freefall” arc’s villian, Severin. in defeat gains an unexpected yet familiar ally. Instead, this issue begins with our slayer experiencing strange reoccurring dreams. Remember the first slayer, dressed in tribal rags and face paint… usually has the stance of a Lowland Gorilla?… Well she’s back to once again harass Buffy’s subconscious while bearing cryptic messages about B’s future. She reveals that there may still be power contained in Buffy’s broken scythe (a legendary artifact to be passed down the slayer line), but is Buffy the one capable of accessing it?? You’ll have to pick up this issue to get the rest of the goods, as all this occurs within the first six pages, and you truly cannot pass up the cliffhanger, especially if you call yourself a fan of the Buffyverse.
Stand-in artists, Malone and Owens, craft a grounded and fluent presentation. Not quite the detail Karl Malone’s proven in the past, for example: Joss Whedon’s slayer of the future “Fray” and Frays arc within Season Eight was also pencilled with greater detail by Malone. As the backgrounds suffer most, his facial expressions are expressive as ever and accents Adrew Chambliss’ shocking story beats well. Also worth mentioning art wise, is Steve Morris’ beautiful with a touch whimsy cover art. He has been producing imaginative covers for “Buffy” and “Angel and Faith” since the beginning and I can only hope he’s in it for the long haul!
I’m very much enjoying Chambliss’ interpretations of our slayer as he hits Whedon-esq moments pretty flawlessly. It’s an incredibly important style that any writer must perfect before jumping into any Buffy character. With the events of Season Eight, primarily with the destruction of the life seed and Giles unfortunate end, we have a much smaller cast as must of the Scooby Gang is A) Dead or B) trying to live out the rest of their lives as normally as possible. That means we get a lot of Buffy time and that is a good thing.
Andrew Chambliss puts a lot into play for the series future and I’m finally feeling the excitement and the building momentum of Season Nine. The cliffhanger at the end of this issue opens the door for the series to crash head first into Christopher Gage’s “Angel and Faith” book. If you are by some odd chance reading “Buffy” but not “Angel and Faith”, I’ll have to kindly ask you to head to your local comic book shop and pick them up as they have been consistently enjoyable starting with issue one. And it also picks up heavily from the fallout of Buffy Season Eight. I’m ecstatic at the idea of the inevitable crossover between these two series!
Make Mine Whedon!
Story: 8
Art: 7.5
Also Recommended this Week:
Magneto: Not a Hero #3 – Magneto battles Josephs cloned version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!
Wolverine and the X-Men #4 – The fallout of “The Dark Angel Saga” has dramatic repercussions on the Jean Grey institute!
Batgirl #5 – To save the life of Bruce Wayne…
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