Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1

Thanks to Boom Studios, we are travelling back to a time to when it seemed common place for a nubile girl dressed in mini skirts was driven by angst, love and hip talk to kill vampires and their demonic brethren and when Joss Whedon was deemed the best of the best.

By know you should all know the story; once a generation a Slayer was born and in this generation, it was a peppy blonde slip of girl.Â For seven seasons, Buffy and her friends took on as many social elements as they did demon.Â The show was a mix ofÂ trendies, in the shape of Buffy and Cordelia, the socially outcast in Xander and Willow and of course the most perfect boy you couldn’t have in Angel.Â To say the show set the mark for hero-esque shows is a bit of an understatement; consider Willow actually predates Samllville’s Chloe Sullivan as the computer search girl by four years.Â It could also be said that the show was so popular that creator Whedon, much like his sci-fi contemporary J. Michael Straczynski would spend spend a lot of time trying to recapture their respective lightning in their bottles.

Jordie Bellaire, probably better known as an excellent colorist who regularly works with Joelle Jones, is the writer who is taking Buffy into this generation.Â Bellaire’s writing tries hard to recapture the flow of the shows; ironically Mrs H and I have just restarted the show from season one; with every character involved, bar Buffy, actually sounding like their TV counterparts.Â As well as Xander and Willow work, when it comes to Buffy her voice is a little more darker, maybe mature than expected.Â The impression is that she has been Slaying for a while and is quite deep into her career.Â This is slightly different to the show, but it does go to show how grounded the normal people in her life make her, thus giving their almost always endangerment a tangibleÂ thing.

The art is supplied by Dan Mora who works some magic to give the cast an air of recognition, with tweaks thrown in for good measure.Â The mix of the familiar and the almost new gives the book a fresh look.Â Sure, it helps that there are a couple of panels where there is no mistaken who is who, Xander and Giles benefit the most from this.Â The panel design is also great at pushing the story along and giving the book a snappy feel.Â As the show works the best when emotions are at the forefront, Mora does a great job with the faces of the gang as they express their way through the first of many vampire encounters, the action panels also have some snap to themÂ Colors are provided by Raul Angulo whose dark scheme allows for the vampires to feel at home and also increases the juxtaposition at the inclusion of “normal” kids like Xander and Willow.Â Ed Dukeshire is responsible for the letters and does well in allowing the characters to speak in turn without causing reader confusion.

As fun as this book feels, I am not sure of the reason for it.Â Dark Horse has previously published the Buffy book set after the TV show as cannon which was really popular.Â So why go back to the start and re-vamp (no pun intended) the whole thing? I am sure that there will be elements of fun as we get to meet the newer versions of Mr Pointy, Kendra, Spike, Angel, Faith et al but is that enough for you to buy into this book?Â Whilst I am on the fence at this stage, the quality of the work and clear love for the show is evident throughout the books pages .

Writing – 4 Stars
Art -Â 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

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Written by Jordie Bellaire
Art by; Dan Mora
Colors by; Raul Angulo
Letters by; Ed Dukeshire
Published by; Boom! Studios

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network