Spike #1. Review thing.

[elisi]

So, new Spike comic and what do you know? I have meta! :) It’s been a while, so let’s see how I do? *flexes Buffy meta muscles* Oh yeah, like writing a bike! I’m going to do this with lots of subheadings, so people can pick and choose what part they want to read. Although there is some s8 snark scattered throughout. Sorry. I have issues.

Why I like Lynch’s Spike
First of all, then yes, Lynch can be a jerk. Secondly - I don’t care. Lots of writers are jerks. Should he stay away from fandom? You betcha. But hey, that’s his funeral.

Anyway, I’m presuming that there are *other* reasons for people to dislike his Spike. I was thinking about this, and why I think he’s great. Partly it’s because I like Spike, full stop. Like my icon says, I like all the different Spikes - good, evil, loving Buffy or Angel, I adore him. As for Lynch’s specific Spike, then that taps into something that pre-dates the comics. I wrote a post (more a rant really, inspired by various things) a long time ago about Why didn’t Spike go to Buffy? (avrelia also has a brilliant, and much more measured, post here). My conclusion was that ‘He cares more about being a hero than getting Buffy.’ This is hugely simplified, of course (and made a lot of my fellow Spuffies very sad), but I was fed up of everyone thinking that he was staying away because he thought that Buffy didn’t love him (rather, than, say because he wanted to leave her free to do what she wanted). Although, looking at s8, I can now certainly see the justification of that mindset. s8!Spuffy is reminding me mostly of Martha/Doctor: You know, she likes him, is grateful that he saved the world and all that, trusts him and so on and on, but just doesn’t love him like *that*. (Don’t get me wrong, s8!Spike is lovely. But s8!Buffy is a million miles away from *my* Buffy, and with the glow thing on top I don't feel I have even the most tenuous grasp on her. The banter is spot-on though, and I can see why people enjoy it.)

Anyway, I like Lynch’s Spike because he’s his own man, secure in himself and who and what he is, someone not always trailing after others (Buffy, Angel) but striking out for himself and saving the day, just because he can. Also, he makes friends with people, and if there’s one thing I want Spike to have it’s friends who are all his.

I think Spike loves Buffy and vice versa. I think they’d be very happy together (when they’re not throwing furniture at each other). I also think that Spike loves Angel (and vice versa). I think (ultimately) he stayed with Angel because he knew Angel needed him more [than Buffy did]. They bicker endlessly, whilst always having each other’s back. This is how Lynch writes them, and it’s exactly how I write them too. So yeah, no problems.


Why I think that ‘evolution’ page is awesome
Apparently people don’t like it. It’s one of those cases where I find myself baffled, because it strikes me as so obvious that it’s hard to find the right words to use. So, I figured I’d let the picture itself do the talking, just with a couple of captions added:



We’ve seen this conflict/difference between them since the beginning - the ‘artist’ versus the one who thought it was all just a party. Now they’re all souled up, the dynamic stays - Angel (so often morally compromised by circumstance) is the one who thinks carefully about how and why. See him talking to Jasmine about world peace vs. free will. Angel is the one who had a soul, and then a destiny, forced on him - the one who doesn’t have choice, and because of that thinks about things a lot more carefully - and chooses to fight. Spike OTOH is the one bending the rules, the wild card, the Bad Boy of champions. Notice how he describes Angel - dull, coma-inducing, boring... It’s tearing Angel down even as he builds him up, equating nobility with someone overly politically correct who takes everything (himself included) way too seriously. Spike puts himself in contrast to this - he’s cool, laid-back, easygoing - big damn hero, yes, but not one for the big speeches or over-thinking things.

Let me borrow an example from C.S.Lewis’s ‘The Horse and His Boy’. (Background story: A king has twin sons. One is kidnapped as an infant. After many adventures the day is saved, and the one who was kidnapped - Cor - discovers that because he is the eldest, he - not his brother Corin - will one day become king):

“Oh dear,” said Cor. “I don’t want to at all. And Corin - I am most dreadfully sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom.”
“Hurrah! Hurrah!” said Corin. “I shan’t have to be King. I shan’t have to be King. I’ll always be a prince. It’s princes have all the fun.”
“And it’s truer than thy brother knows, Cor,” said King Lune. “For this is what it means to be a king: to be the first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there’s hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.”

Spike is more than happy to let Angel be King. ‘Cause he is smart enough to know that the princes have all the fun.

(Plus there’s a hundred-plus years of issues between them, with Angel as father-figure, brother, destroyer etc. etc. But I’m not bothering going down that avenue now.)

Thoughts on the issue itself
I’ve heard that there are people who think this issue... slow? Time wasting? Well allow me to disagree:

- We get all of Spike’s story, from siring and right up to the present day.

- We are introduced to the plot (Vegas is full of badness!), and it’s revealed who’s pulling the strings (at least some of them, I’m sure there’s a twist).

- We are introduced to canon characters and see how Spike gets on with them, and meet his new friends (complete with enough background story to fill in anyone unfamiliar with previous instalments).

- We see Spike arrive in Vegas and tackle his first problem, introducing him to the Big Bad.

- Plus, we get a couple of pages worth of Twilight-mockage. (Mocking Twilight is always a good thing in my world!)

Not bad for a first issue. Beginnings are delicate things, and I appreciate that all the background has been filled in. I know where Spike (and everyone else) is at, and that’s pretty helpful when I’m reading a story about him!

Anyway, onto more specific things...

Vegas thing looks fun (and horrible, of course). I wonder how it’ll all end up with a [pan dimensional] steam punk ship.

Background story is brilliantly done. And 'Alone together now' is making me green with writerly envy. Plus, Angelus in the background of Spike’s siring? Oh yeah.

(I’ll deal with the Twilight thing separately.)

Spike/Angel snarky banter! *profound love* And Illyria!!! This exchange made me laugh out loud in delight:

Angel: Illyria, watch the civilians.
Illyria: I am. They’re weeping. It’s repulsive.

Then, the getting-the-band-back-together. OK, so the fact that Beck is now dressed as a girl in a comic book is less than yay worthy, but hey - she *is* a girl in a comic book, and Lynch & Urru make no claims about being feminist in any way. What I *do* like is Spike’s 'I’m on a mission, love. The dark forces are stepping up and I want someone who will have my back. Beck can handle herself in a fight and she takes direction. There’s no romantic intentions here.' Beck’s in the story because she’s a good fighter, and a good friend, and I sincerely doubt she’ll ever be shown as a love interest. *crosses fingers* (She hero-worships Spike rather, but I think she got over that in Shadow Puppets. So I’m optimistic.) Plus, she’s just adorably excited to be in Vegas. ♥

And Betta George! \o/ Everything’s better with him around. Plus, he brings up Connor. LOOK PEOPLE HE EXISTS! (Calling him ‘Teen Angel’ made me smile.) Damn I hope this comic gets the blessing of the PTB and becomes ‘canon’ since that means Angel’s greatest love hasn’t been consigned to the ret-con dustbin.

’Everyone else sees the flying Elvises, er... Elvisii? Elvees?’ *cheers for language joke* (’Is this a Cirque thing?’ Heh.) Also, Spike is smart and figures out what to do immediately. Which leads to the wonderful end panel of him deciding to just lie down for a minute (hey, his shoulder’s out of socket, I’m not blaming him!) - but still trying to maintain his cool. :)

Dru, of course, is a wonderful surprise (and mmmmm, those pages are just luscious!), although who is her beau? He reminds me of the werewolf from Asylum, but that could be coincidence. And why does Spike have his soul? Anyway, I can’t wait to see what happens when Spike and Dru meet again!

All in all - good set-up, nice mystery, and my boy Spike set for lots of heroics! I’m on board and eagerly awaiting next month.


The Twilight Thing
So, here’s the part where I am ALWAYS up for a Twilight joke. It might be stupid, but never as stupid the books themselves. And I rather love the idea of them being written by Spider, rewriting her somewhat one-sided (and problematic) thing with Spike into a Twu Wuv yarn (It's called TWINKLE! This keeps making me chuckle. Told you I was easy...) Plus 'Now there’s a teen wolf thrown into the mix for no apparent reason' is so RIDICULOUSLY accurate that it’s almost painful. (Although if Dru's lover IS a werewolf, then it's v. nice foreshadowing.) To jump sideways then I find s8’s ‘Twilight’ cover with Spike as Jacob far more insulting - because Jacob really is pointless. He’s the guy who has NO CHANCE IN HELL, and is only thrown into the mix to create artificial tension. Thanks Joss, we didn’t need that. (Going further, then does that mean that Spike is destined to fall in love with and marry Queen Twilight?)

Anyway, if we go with the ‘canon’ thing, then both the Twinkle craze and the movie about Angel (and girl!Spike) in Hell-A go much further than anything in s8 to show why vampires have become so popular. Imagine for a minute that the Twi-hards found out that their darling Eddykins was real... they’d totally fight tooth and nail for him and his kind. Plus, with hero!Angel saving LA from the hordes of hell (based on a true story!), the public has plenty of positive role models to project their feelings onto. I’m sure Twilight (the organisation) happily exploited this. (Thank you Mr Lynch for filling in some plot holes - feel like explaining why Buffy lost her mind and started robbing banks? Can't be done? Ah well, it was worth a try.)

Nostalgia and bitterness. s8 lovers should probably stay away - I don’t want to harsh your squee
Reading this issue was actually a bittersweet experience. Because for a few pages I had my show back - it was Illyria and Angel and Spike, fighting and bickering and being so completely themselves that it made me miss my show more than I have for a long, long time. And I remember that they cancelled it, that we could have had more, that we’ll never ever get them back, and it’s painful. My beautiful, beautiful show.

And the thing is - s8 doesn’t inspire those kinds of feelings. At all. Everyone is OOC and badly drawn and the story makes no sense and they destroyed my Angel. Seeing him here - rigidly moral, a little petty, and just... Angel - it suddenly brought home again the *immense* damage done to him in s8. It’s so vast that I can’t really grasp it. And I don’t think I can ever forgive Joss.

So yes, I’m bitter. I didn’t think I had it in me to have any feelings about s8 anymore (my feelings went from bemusement through frustration to disgust and then ended up in mocking indifference) - but apparently I can still be bitter. I wrote Buffy & co. off as a lost cause years ago, but I had hoped that Angel and Spike could stay unsullied. How wrong I was. Spike is still himself (miraculously), but I want him to do his thing and then run far far away from the train wreck again as fast as his undead legs can carry him.

So yeah, I’m clinging to this comic, partly because it's set BEFORE everything goes to hell Twilight. I didn't want to end on such a downer, but... *deep sigh* I think I'll watch some Angel tonight. Maybe 'Damage'. And I'll raise my glass to both my souled vampire Champions.


Oh! I forgot to talk about the 'aerial sex' joke. As people have noted it comes out of nowhere, doesn't fit with anything and is pretty pointless. Much like the aerial sex itself then.

Also RL is actually pretty busy at the moment, plus it's my birthday tomorrow, so I might be a little slow in replying to comments. But I always get there in the end.

Comments

[elisi]

I am glad you are enjoying something in the comic world.
I've loved Lynch's comics ever since I first saw all the special ops people appearing going 'hut hut hut' which was... page 2 or 3 of 'Asylum'? :)

I just wanted to say that one of the things I love about season 8 Spike is exactly that he is his own man. It screams through in every panel.
Oh absolutely. I am so grateful that I could kiss s8. Well, almost.

And as for AtF... I won't deny that it had problems. It was *a* story of what could have happened post-NFA, and I thought it pretty good. Decent plot, sound characterisation, etc. I can understand that you wanted it to have far more dire consequences for Angel, and that's fair enough. But as a story about Angel, it worked.

The problem I have with s8 is that the cartoon parading around saying he's Angel... isn't. And it doesn't address his darkness, because we can't even be sure that he's himself. Queen Twilight says in the preview that he IS Twilight. So... he's like pod!Cordy? Who knows. I *always* go for the character driven story, and in s8 everyone is OOC, and they whole thing is story driven. Hence my disconnect.

And I hope that it'll not turn out too badly. I might not like it, but I'm not spiteful. I still wish for the best. (IT WAS ALL A DREAM! *g*)

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

Lol about it all being a dream! (And not impossible given how highlighted dreams have been since the beginning).

I think we are at one on our readings of these, we just gut in different directions about what we want. I totally agree that Angel in s8 is blackwashed beyond recognition (to the point where it's not dealing with the very interesting real darkness the poor guy totes around with him). And I'm glad you love Spike being his own man in season 8.

I did love Asylum. It's the post NFA deal that was the insurmountable breach for me.

[elisi]

Lol about it all being a dream! (And not impossible given how highlighted dreams have been since the beginning).
I dearly wish Joss had the guts to go with that...

I think we are at one on our readings of these, we just gut in different directions about what we want.
I think that's a fair assessment.

I totally agree that Angel in s8 is blackwashed beyond recognition (to the point where it's not dealing with the very interesting real darkness the poor guy totes around with him).
Yay! Agreement is good!

And I'm glad you love Spike being his own man in season 8.
Like I said in the post - I always love Spike. (Provided he's in character, of course. And Spike w. his steam punk ship and his bug crew? Totally awesome!)

I did love Asylum. It's the post NFA deal that was the insurmountable breach for me.
Out of interest, did you like Spike: AtF? Or was it all part of the same deal for you?

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I was about to give you a volume on my reactions to Lynch and then stopped myself! The short version, Spike: AtF was more like Asylum which I liked a great deal. But it still had the notes on Spike that had always rankled and which by the time we got to Spike: AtF had really soured me on the whole deal. But probably the key thing is that it came after Lorne got his groove back -- and that's the line I won't forgive. Given that Lynch just does see Angel as the model of a souled vampire, I cannot like anything he has to say about Spike. I also really hated that he had Spider forcing sex on Spike while chained and that he refused to acknowledge fan concerns about what that represented. (Imagine having a woman beaten and in chains clearly using sex to stay on the good side of her captor). It's a pity because the rest of that story was good. Spike's relationship with Jeremy; his effort to try to save folks. Though as Deb might remember, the downside of that story was that anti-Spike fans loved the way it reminded us what a thorough-going loser Spike is.

That might also be part of my problem. Anti-Spike fans love Lynch's Spike, for all the reasons that I have a problem with Lynch's Spike. See, e.g., Cheryl's glee at the return of Dru (and the blurb advertising it as the reunion fans have been waiting for).

I don't think season 8 is meant to be read as a straight-forward anything. Whether it's Twilight juice, or the distorting effects of the seed, or a dream -- I think it's all skew and twisted. I just think it's on purpose (on the grounds that while I think Joss is far from perfect, I don't think he swallowed a stupid pill when he decided to write this story). If I'm wrong about that, then I agree with your complaints about season 8 right down the line. I think the twisting is useful for highlighting aspects of the story that are worth airing, but it wouldn't be good if we're supposed to think that sober versions of the characters would act the way they're acting.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Cheryl's glee at the return of Dru (and the blurb advertising it as the reunion fans have been waiting for).

Well, to be honest about it Cheryl is... Hmm. I cannot come up with a tactful way to say it and in my mother's teaching "If you can't say something nice about someone..."

I can't say something nice.

So, regardless of the likes of Cheryl and her ilk, Dru is a wonderful character to use in Spike's journey. She isn't someone easily dismissed, easily destroyed, or without emotional impact on the protagonist.

It's important that Dru is both victim and villain... and Spike knows it. She can do horrible things, she's done awful things to Spike, and she's had unspeakable things done to her. She is part innocent part villainess and Spike can see both parts. He's loved her. He's loved her for a hundred years. That's not something that is just forgotten nor is it without meaning. He will not vanquish her easily because she actually means something to him, even if it's something that's in the past and rather horrific.

She can also play on so many of his worst insecurities. She is the first (among at least two but in many ways, many, including the 'universe' itself) who always chose Angel over him. (Even when she arrived to 'ask him back' in Season 5, it was because she was angling for him to help her retrieve 'Daddy').

Dru also knows in his heart he was a knight who wanted something glowing, something glistening. She knew these things about him even when he had forgotten (she knew of his fascination with Buffy and what she represented before he did).

Dru has insights into him, and huge blind spots regarding him (her assessments of him can be... clouded). She knows the places where it will hurt the most, and Spike is handicapped in regards to dismissing her. She knows him, and she has powers to see even more of him than he does.

Really, Dru is a great antagonist for Spike. Short of Buffy, Angel, or his Mom, she is the person most capable of twisting the knife in the ways that hurt the most, draw the most blood, and have the ability to really root out character aspects the character that are interesting to explore (the lover, the fool, the errant knight, the wounded poet, etc.)

So for all of Cheryl's disingenuous squee for self-serving shipping reasons, from a Whedonverse-writing POV, Dru is probably one of a small handful of characters that work best as a Spike-specific foil, one who provides both opportunities for psychological damage and emotional breakthroughs. JMHO

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

O.O I have so much love for this comment!

Yes, Dru is the perfect antagonist for Spike for all the reasons you named and we never saw her with him, since he has a soul.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

This is a great comment, and I will try to bear that in mind as Lynch goes forward with it. I just see it as a way of saying that Buffy's old news and Spike's going backwards to deal with his Dru issues. But if you take away that sensitivity, then what you say here makes sense.

[shapinglight]

That might also be part of my problem. Anti-Spike fans love Lynch's Spike, for all the reasons that I have a problem with Lynch's Spike. See, e.g., Cheryl's glee at the return of Dru (and the blurb advertising it as the reunion fans have been waiting for).

Whatever glee Cheryl may be displaying about Dru's return, I highly doubt she's paying money for the comic. She hates Spike. In fact, there've been times when I find myself suspecting that she's never watched all of AtS either.

As for Dru, though I do have concerns about how Lynch will handle her interactions with Spike - I wouldn't like it if he tried to make out that Spike's love for Buffy was nothing and that Dru is the real deal - I agree with shipperx below that one can't just dismiss Dru as if she never existed. Her relationship with Spike is nebulous because she herself is nebulous as a character, but it lasted for over 100 years, so we have to accept that it meant something to both of them, even if Dru was pining for Daddy the whole time.

I like Fanged Four stories (like Elisi, I liked seeing Angelus lurking in the background of the Dru siring Spike panel in the comic)so I'm willing to see how Lynch handles Dru's return before making a judgement.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

It is only fair to give Lynch a chance. On this point, I'm just saying it makes my gut clench to even risk going in that direction. It's not just Cheryl. Lots of fans prefer Spike with Dru and it's all so wrong. I've been very happy to leave it all in the past with Crush -- and would vastly prefer the closure to Dru's story to come through Angel's story because he's the bastard who created her and he is the one she loves the most. Sorry! This really is a button for me.

ETA: I'll be curious to hear if Brian has anything new to say about all of this, cause he did already throw Dru in Spike's face back in Shadow Puppets.

[shapinglight]

Well, we'll see soon enough, though I agree that Angel should have been involved too, but maybe he will be, if only in flashback (though of course Lynch is one of the Angel and Angelus are two different persons brigade). One thing I'm not anticipating is that Dru will stick around through all 8 issues. I don't know enough about how Brian has had to restructure the story on learning he only had 8 issues. I might ask some time.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

And not impossible given how highlighted dreams have been since the beginning).

I'd go for a walking nightmare as the first arc said. In Buffy's dream in the first arc, it's her and Xander discussing whether Dawn is doing it to herself. Much of S8 reads like Buffy's worst fears come to life and she makes a wish in her dream.

Moreover, you have the Seed, the Heart of all Magic, with the Master protecting it. As awkward as that is, it's kind of fitting given he was the embodiment of nightmares for her in the first season. As he quotes from Cinderella, 'A dream is a wish your heart makes.'

I don't think it'll be a dream in that it didn't happen, I think it might turn out that it's a subconscious made real.

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I expect it to be something like that. The whole season is just bent and twisty the way dreams and/or fantasies and/or fears can make them bent and twisty.