The following is a review of the new issue (the sixth) of the new canon comic book series spearheaded by Joss Whedon, the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
I didn't make a review of the first four issues "The Long Way Home" or the fifth "The Chain," those didn't propel me to write about it. This one did propel me to write about it. Plus that it stars Faith, one of my favorite characters.Faith now resides in Cleveland, the second Hellmouth (many fans became enticed about it after mentioned in the last episode of the TV series) and her relationship with Robin Wood seemingly is in the past tense. Robin in charge of a slayer troop, Buffy said there was 10 in the first issue. So far we have seen the troops of Buffy's, Xander's, Andrew's, Giles', and now Robin. One can guess Willow has one as well. But, there is no mention of slayers being under Faith's guidance. The plot entails Giles visiting her and offering early retirement in the country of her choice after a wet-works mission. Faith has to go undercover with Giles' refinement lessons to the 19th birthday party of Lady Genevieve to assassinate her. Lady Genevieve, a Rogue Slayer, is trained by her warlock to kill Slayers and according to Giles, will usher in the apocalypse. She seems to be doing it for something he promised her. They seem to be doing this secret from her parents. She referred to the red-haired self-proclaimed 'handsome' warlock as Roden. He seems to be connected to this 'Twilight' mark that was on General Voll from the first arc.
It is a pretty good issue. Joss Whedon said in an article that the artist drawing Faith captures her mannerisms, that is no exaggeration. You can literally feel Faith jump at you, every sketch of her embodies her. Not like Buffy, who in some panels looks like a little girl and can easily be confused with other blond characters. Joss has said that the artists feel more comfortable drawing new characters because they don't have stigma of having them look like the actors and can make them their own. It is noticeable. The whole issue feels like Faith's dark world, except the middle when it gets to Lady Genevieve. Obviously, it is a mood shift and deliciously Whedon, when Faith says, "So who is this evil bitch, anyway?" and it cuts to this smiling happy rich girl on a horse on a bright day. But it does feel like a whole different comic. Giles explains as quickly as he can that Genevieve is beyond redemption than Faith. He has detected magical protection over Genevieve's estate, but I don't think he knows about her warlock. The warlock seems like an interesting character as well.
The issue squeezes in a quick scene between Xander and Buffy, they don't discuss Warren but the Twilight and Xander buffing (pun not intended) up for slayer Renee (who we suspect to have a crush on him) to 'spar'. Buffy taunts Xander about Renee, much like she did with Willow over Kennedy in the season 7 episode "Killer in Me." We do see Xander's newly minted comic book torso, not six-pack but does show advantage of being drawn. This issue seems more air-tight and whole than the last ones, especially issue four. The writer, Brian K. Vaughan brilliantly captures Whedon's vocab. Faith says, "Haven't clocked you since the Sunny D went from being an outie to an innie," which I completely got. But the best line which could make fans go berserk into reconstructing... "Hey, I likes me some kink, but if you think I'm going downtown on this chick, you chose the wrong Chosen One." The line could reach one to think that Faith isn't a lesbian. It has been popular fan thought that Faith was in love with Buffy and is bisexual. This could get interesting at how fans interpret it. What is interesting is that Giles admits the parallels between him and Faith. Faith has been compared to Spike and Angel before. It is also interesting to mention that how the Angel troop and the Buffy gang view Faith. Wesley selected Faith to salvage Angelus to get Angel, not kill him in Season four of Angel, while now Giles selects Faith to kill a slayer. Granted, it is not the same with Angel.In this issue's letters column "Slay the Writers," Joss Whedon answers the question that the reason The First could take the form of Warren was that he was legally dead for a bit but Amy never told him.
