I've been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rewatching, because I watched this stuff voraciously long before working on the comics. I’m supposed to be rewatching Angel in order to be better equipped to launch the Angel & Faith series. But I felt like I had to go back to the beginning, and then dive into Season 3, when all the juicy stuff goes down between Buffy, Faith, and Angel. That’s where, for me, all the intensity of Buffy and Angel’s romance blossomed, which recently had them listed as TV’s number-one All-Time Sexiest Couple in Entertainment Weekly. That’s when Faith showed up and started to ruffle feathers and self-destruct, and it’s also partly how Angel and Faith ended up with their own comics series (launching this month). Angel once sought to mentor Faith. What if she could pay him back now that she’s a wiser, stronger, sturdier version of her earlier self? That third season of the TV show, more than any other, solidified who these characters would be to one another. Then. Now. Forever.
With Joss Whedon (the guy who started it all, for all you newbs) laying the foundation, and the ever-talented Christos Gage leading the charge alongside artist—one of my favorites!—Rebekah Isaacs, Angel & Faith promises to be a thrilling romp through the grayest streets of London, where two fan-favorite characters will truly come to understand the meaning of redemption. (And it’s about time Faith had the spotlight!)
My TV viewing has taken me into Season 4 of Buffy, and I’ll start on Angel soon, hoping to watch them concurrently (nerd!). Joss planted an homage in the very first issue of Season 9 that hearkens back to the episodes I’m watching now. It’s always a pleasure to find yourself unexpectedly in on the joke . . . and Joss is so good at making the reader or viewer feel like they’re a part of the characters’ every experience from the very beginning.
With Season 9 Joss is working with the insanely talented Andrew Chambliss, who moonlighted as a TV writer for Dollhouse and The Vampire Diaries, and now is comics scribe extraordinaire! (Okay, so he’s still doing the TV thing, currently with Jane Espenson on Once Upon a Time, but I like to think he’s a comics writer first and foremost. Creepy? Mostly.) With series artist Georges Jeanty setting the stage, Season 9 will join Buffy in the aftermath of Season 8, where she was the supreme general of a Slayer legion. Now she’s a solo-Slayer espresso maker, exploring her twenties with a new apartment and “roomies.” It’s a welcome change of pace, though still a struggle for the ever identity-crisised Buffy. Willow is magickless, and a little peeved. Dawn and Xander are trying out the domesticated scene in San Fran. As promised, the focus is about these wonderfully (super) human characters.
Meanwhile . . . I’ve also been working on another Whedon-related project that’s been on the stands for a month. The Dollhouse comics were born straight out of the TV show, expanding upon the story started in the much-loved pair of episodes titled “Epitaph.” The comics focus on the postapocalyptic landscape and follow two groups of key characters struggling to survive and fight against an unseen technological enemy. Even if you aren’t familiar with the show, the comics provide a great launching point into this strange new world, with a cast of characters dealing with identities, whether their own or those forced upon them. Andrew Chambliss, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jed Whedon, who wrote for the show (including the “Epitaph” episodes), have reunited for this five-issue miniseries.
It’s an exciting year for Whedon fans, and for fans of great, original tales starring some of the most intriguing characters on TV or in comics. I’d say I’m biased because I work on these projects, but I was biased long before I climbed in the sandbox.
--Sierra Hahn