That it does. Thank you Joss.

I love this comic as much as Fray.

ChosenOne5376 | July 04, 04:12 CET

I… just… wish… it… weren't… so… slow… coming… out…

We need a team of top artists cranking out Buffy 24/7. :)

quantumac | July 04, 06:22 CET

I second that motion!

Rowan Hawthorn | July 04, 06:33 CET

I thought what he said about Willow becoming a deux ex machina was interesting.

I hadn't really thought about it, but now that she's all uber-powerful and NOT having addiction issues, she really is able to deal with pretty much anything, and not be worried about getting hurt.

Is there really anything else that could threaten her? Besides OTHER witches, I mean?

deird | July 04, 06:49 CET

Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this, but I thought the whole point of Willow being so powerful, in control and uber-witchy is that she's got nowhere to go but down, now.

Her arc for this season was kind of summed by Warren: "And therein lies, it's very operatic, your downfall. You're just so STRONG."

She's not just this deus-ex-machina cure-all. Right now she is, because Joss is setting her up for a shake-up, if history's taught us anything. I don't know what form it's going to take, maybe it will be another witch.

[ edited by pat32082 on 2007-07-04 04:26 ]

pat32082 | July 04, 07:24 CET

Another witch? Hmmm. I don't think Amy is quite up to challenging Willow herself, but there is one witch who could be used as leverage.

Put yourself in the villians' shoes. Amy wants power. Willow has it. Warren wants retribution against Buffy. Willow is one "big gun." The question is, how do they set Willow against Buffy? Answer - find her weak point.

All Amy and Warren need do is poke around the Sunnydale crater, looking for a certain casket. Once they find it, they need to attract the help of, as Giles once said, "...others in this world who can do what you did. You just don't want to meet them." That's not an issue for those who walk on the dark side.

"We have your 'Always.' If you want her back, you'll do as we say."

Get my drift? Instant leverage and a whole bushel-load of angst!

quantumac | July 04, 08:24 CET

I know a lot of people like her, but I'm glad Kennedy hasn't been in the comic yet. She always rubbed me the wrong way. :/

Dan Corson | July 04, 13:23 CET

Heh, could be quantummac. Sometimes seems to me like when all you have is a Willow, every problem starts to look like a Tara though ;).

I agree with pat32082 that Willow is being set up as the biggest gun and also that Joss knows that so it's probably for good reason. Any time a character gets so powerful they can't be hurt you either have to take it away somehow or just accept that you can no longer create drama (or at least not involving physical danger).

To me, the review over-emphasises the 'women vs. men' aspect, even though the General's retort to Buffy at the end of issue 4 seemed to be deliberately designed to puncture that, to tell Buffy (and us) that it's bigger than that now, that it's more about 'the other' and how we respond to it as a species.

Saje | July 04, 15:44 CET

A friend of mine gets her comics by mail awhile after they come out. I finally asked her this past weekend haw she felt about issue 4. Like me, she was also disappointed in it. She used to be a comics reader but has not read them in years. She was wondering if it was just that comics had really changed over the years.

I am assuming Willow is invincible for a reason. I am assuming that this plot line and the handling of the characters will not be as obviously...clunky (pardon the literary jargon) as it was in the fourth issue. I am assuming Joss is setting things up. I just hope there is someway that he give some satisfaction on all of it before Christmas.

I know, broken record much? ;-)

newcj | July 04, 18:16 CET

Seems as if the reviewer wasn't familiar with Amy before the comic. He referred to her as "a witch" with "a strange grudge" just before he mentioned the "return" of Warren. Not that it matters much.

With the exception of giant Dawn, I'm enjoying the comics, but I'm not wild about the shortness of each issue. That's just the nature of comics, I know, but it's too little Jossness with too long a wait for the next! By the time each issue arrives, I can't exactly remember what happened in the previous issue. I have no doubt I'd enjoy the bound version much more, but I can't wait that long, either. Argh.

April | July 04, 19:23 CET

I was afraid for Willow. Amy fights dirty and has gotten a lot stronger, and Warren's easily the scariest Buffyverse villain for me. Willow was the only real match for Amy now that she's working with Warren, and it seemed to me to be a fairly even match at that-- remember that is was a Giant Dawn Stomp that gave Willow the moment she needed to immobilize Amy. And Willow couldn't defend herself against Warren until Buffy and Satsu showed up.

The all-powerful magic is a problem, but we've already seen that her power itself can be used against her by a clever foe. The lightning-speedy healing is the real problem in my opinion- going from nearly dead to ok but fatigued is jarring for me to read. I really like that we see flashes of Dark Willow though-- I really don't think things are as simple as some reviews seem to suggest.

[ edited by Sunfire on 2007-07-04 20:34 ]

Sunfire | July 04, 23:33 CET