I do not like the time shift Fray story...as I've said earlier, seems like a retcon to somehow have Fray's wonderful chronicle as part of canon, even with what happened in "Chosen".

The Satsu thing, eh...seemed contrived. But I did love the rest of Wolves at the Gate. But...

Love lots of the "moments", but had to dial back from the comics...they just do not satisfy, especially the Angel book, which ultimately became incomprensible.

Eagerly awaiting Dollhouse, of course.

Chris inVirginia | December 31, 03:47 CET

Interesting that 4 of them are comic related...guess that makes sense since that's all we're getting for now on the Angel/Buffy front. I definitely agree w Dr. Horrible being #1.

DeathIsYourGift | December 31, 03:54 CET

Crap! Not caught up with the After the Fall comics. Just got a bit spoiled. Oh well.

Harmalicious | December 31, 04:09 CET

Yes, "Spoilers" for the AtF mention in the #8 spot on the list. Did not know that...

CaptainB | December 31, 04:15 CET

Is it a spoiler if the comic has been out for two weeks?

anythingbutxuffy | December 31, 04:25 CET

Wow, 2008 was kinda sweet.

Pointy | December 31, 04:39 CET

Yep, 2008 was great in this respect. I would add the final few issues of Joss's Astonishing X-Men run and Runaways arc as well.

Sunfire | December 31, 04:47 CET

Hell yeah. That was a great Runaways arc.
I too think there should be a SPOILER warning, cause comics get delayed where I'm from. Not all comic shop owners are super competent....

Astonishing_Chaos | December 31, 05:11 CET

Whoops, just caught a spoiler for an issue that I hadn't read.

My fault, obviously. But, again, whoops.

WilliamTheB | December 31, 05:18 CET

Yeh- this is bottom of a l-o-n-g list of ways I would have chosen to find out about you-know-who. (I live in a tiny coastal town in Australia with no comic shops within a 2 hour drive and it does take TFAW a month to ship to me, so it's not like I'm a casual fan who just couldn't be bothered to pick up the comic.)

Drat and bother the lack of spoiler tags!

Edited- Just cos' I'm a spoilt brat, doesn't mean YOU have to be!

[ edited by missb on 2008-12-31 08:28 ]

missb | December 31, 05:38 CET

Connor!?!?!

This is why I don't read the Angel comics. I was happy where we were!

I agree with everything Chris in Virginia said. I too had to let the Buffy comics go a bit... they were good, but started leaving me feeling cold. But that's just personal. I couldn't touch the Angel comics with a ten foot pole and now see that was the right decision for me.

[ edited by Simon on 2008-12-31 07:46 ]

ailiel | December 31, 06:25 CET

I thought Nathan's appearance in PG Porn would make this list. :(

eroslove | December 31, 06:32 CET

OMG...Angel's human? Conner died?? We won an AWARD??? I seriously had no idea.

[ edited by Simon on 2008-12-31 07:46 ]

buffywrestling | December 31, 06:39 CET

Damn, like others above me I just got spoiled for Angel #8

Let Down | December 31, 06:49 CET

yep, I was spoiled as well at #8. Honestly, I would have appreciated a warning, since I'm getting Angel only in hardcover (plus, I'm in Europe, so I play catch up with the Buffy comics as well), though I realize the item may be old news for most people. I also realize how impossible it is to stay completely spoiler-free on the Internet, so I'm not mad or anything. Just a tad disappointed. No biggie :)

nyrk | December 31, 07:07 CET

Erm, I had read the comments here and was just gonna skip over the Angel mention at #8, but folks spoiled it in the comments. D'oh ! If you guys edit and inviso-text your comments about it, it'll prevent more readers like me who only go for the hardcover collections or trade paperbacks of the comics from being spoiled.

I know, I know, I shouldn't come into a thread like this given the subject line, but I keep forgetting that people will talk freely about Angel: After the Fall and I always feel like I'm current on my Whedon projects (aside from Astonishing X-Men, which I don't mind being spoiled for 'cause I dunno if I'll ever get around to borrowing it).

Chris in Virginia, the comics didn't do anything to make Fray a part of Buffyverse canon. It was already that way, being written by Joss, done before the show was even in its final season, and explicitly referencing the Buffyverse, slayers, and all that. Back when the book was published, there was absolutely no reason to assume that Joss had gone out of his way to write a "What If...?"-style, alternate universe tale. The scythe appearing in Buffy Season 7 further cemented Fray's place in the canon, an on-screen commital, if you like.

There was no reason to assume from the spell in "Chosen" that Fray's world (1 slayer, and not having one for a couple hundred years or so) couldn't happen, because there was simply no way to know how things would go down between the end of Season 7 and whenever that "End of Magic!" event happens, along with whatever reduces the slayer line (and who's to say that spell can't be undone/countered anyway).

I dunno why folks are still fighting the Fray thing (though I agree with those that think the time travel/crossover arc was missing something, maybe a bit rushed-feeling and flimsy, much as I like the Willow development). I see it more from people who didn't read the Fray comic back when it was published or before it showed up as an element in Season 8, and also from people who still refuse to check it out (not intended as Fray-fanboy elitism, just a trend I've noticed that may or may not be accurate. Disclaimers are fun).

[ edited by Kris on 2008-12-31 07:14 ]

Kris | December 31, 07:09 CET

That sucks but what constitutes a good period of time for the comics before it's no longer considered a spoiler anyway? Because if you hadn't read any of the recent comics at all, it's probably not best to read a post titled "best of 2008 in the whedonverse."

I agree the Connor thing is a good moment but I really don't think it'll stick anyway.

I also am of the camp that doesn't understand the Fray resistance. It might have been better to leave well alone in one sense, but it was nice to see her again. I like Fray.

[ edited by Simon on 2008-12-31 07:47 ]

DeathIsYourGift | December 31, 07:32 CET

Considering Joss started Season 8 written to connect S7 and Fray, I think it would be difficult to leave Fray "alone." I dunno, just sort of antithetical.

Giles_314 | December 31, 07:41 CET

Not trying to be snarky here but we don't have to link to every post from BuffyFest.

Rule of thumb regarding the comic books, I give a grace period of about a month for the latest issue. So I've invisiblised the spoiler in people's comments and added a spoiler tag to the entry.

Simon | December 31, 07:43 CET

Well done, with the invisible text. It's a shame so many people were already spoiled for such a big moment in the comics, but at least it's been edited.

Emmie | December 31, 08:08 CET

DeathIsYourGift, I'm up to date on Buffy, Runaways, Dr. Horrible, and doing a good job of avoiding Dollhouse spoilers aside from premise news and the odd character detail that slips by me. I'm only up to as far as the trades go with Angel, Issue #8, the last part of "First Night". So...yeah, coming into this thread was a risk, I figured.

Simon, good to know the guideline on the comics. I wouldn't want to accidentally spoil someone on the month's current Buffy comic outside of its respective talk-about-the-issue thread.

Kris | December 31, 10:59 CET

Dr Horrible had to be top, one of the high lights of the year for me.

Gota luv that Buffy | December 31, 11:39 CET

Does anyone else wish they would do this in reverse order? Knowing number one before number ten seems odd to me.

Vortigun | December 31, 12:31 CET

Uh.... Better Days, anyone? The second Serenity Comic Trilogy was very good, with the promised Shepherd's Tale lurking somewhere in the wings.

TDBrown | December 31, 14:41 CET

TDBrown, personally, I really wanted to like Better Days a whole lot more than I finally did. The art was nothing special, the story did not flow well at all and was sometimes very confusing, and ultimately, seemed a weak story not worth the effort. The best part of the whole endeavor was the cover art by Adam Hughes.

Shepard's Tale, I am looking forward to. Hopefully, this story will have time to breathe and not feel so rushed as Better Days.

canaryfarmer | December 31, 16:48 CET

wow I didn't know that about the spoilers. I'm still catching up on angel. In fact I just finished season 1! Wow major spoilers. But otherwise loving the moments of this year. I agree with everyone else, though, I didn't really like the fray arc, but loved wolves at the gate. Oh yeah and Shepherd's (geez how do you spell that) Tale, looking forward to that.

[ edited by Chris the Bloody on 2008-12-31 17:26 ]

[ edited by Chris the Bloody on 2008-12-31 17:26 ]

[ edited by Chris the Bloody on 2008-12-31 17:26 ]

[ edited by Chris the Bloody on 2008-12-31 17:27 ]

Chris the Bloody | December 31, 17:25 CET

Said it before, say it again: If you haven't read a thing being discussed, don't discuss it. Don't bother reading threads discussing it. 'Holy emotion' of surprise and all that, remember? For god's sake, folks, how hard is it to read a comic without talking about it, or to keep from spoiling the endings of stories you haven't read?!

Fandom is ravenous: runs out of food, eats itself. There are better ways to pass the time.

Never mind instant gratification, the problem with this damn forum is CONSTANT GRATIFICATION.

waxbanks | December 31, 17:37 CET

I agree with the comment above about Better Days. The story felt muddled. Perhaps it would have presented itself better as an actual show episode. After all, not every tale is best told in comic form.

bluesuncompanyman | December 31, 17:53 CET

Kris: I didn't read Fray originally and have no specific desire to, but by Joss's splitting of the continuities I think it was a better idea, so it wasn't all Fray-newbies criticizing it.

DaddyCatALSO | December 31, 18:47 CET

Sorry, confused by that sentence a bit, maybe I'm not reading it right. Joss split the continuities ? I know there're the theories that that's what "Time Of Your Life" accomplished, but there's no concrete evidence one way or the other just yet...and technically Buffy and Fray would still share the same continuity, just different timelines from 2004 onwards, if it's the case.

I understand some reasons for not wanting to read Fray. A lotta folks only care about the characters introduced in the TV series, not the peripherals and add-ons that were introduced in the comics, fair enough. But given that Fray was a Buffy-related tangent Joss went on while the show was still running and even incorporated an important prop from it into the show, had it built for real, and more impactfully has now had the two characters meet, I would be too curious to not check it out if I hadn't already read it (you can almost for sure find it online for download if you're worried that it won't be worth the cash).

Kris | December 31, 20:22 CET

Or at the library.

Rachelkachel | January 01, 00:14 CET

Heh, yes, or the other free way that's also legal that I often forget about.

Kris | January 01, 10:41 CET