Just finished it. It was pretty good. Too bad we have to wait till July to continue with the full series.

Phunkle | March 30, 17:33 CET

It sounds like there is additional material from the Comic that was in the DVD. Can anyone confirm for me?

Jelly | March 30, 18:19 CET

There are 15 more pages included (not counting ads).

Phunkle | March 30, 19:11 CET

This was such a tight setup to the story arc. I thought it was really well done in both art and story. I had no trouble deciphering the characters I already knew. The drawing and inking really made the art believable.

It looks like 'Epitaphs' is going to go a long way to connect the two stories we are left with at the end of Dollhouse Season 2. We have the primary story ending in the explosion at Rossum, and the secondary story told in two parts with 'Epitaph One' and 'Epitaph Two'. I've always wondered what happens with our characters in that 10 year gap. It looks like now we'll find out... and it will be a fun ride!

Also, more story about Alpha is always a good thing

NFA110 | March 30, 22:03 CET

Were Echo, Paul, Topher and Adelle in it?

Simon | March 30, 22:34 CET

No, but I would expect more on that side of the back story in the July issue.

NFA110 | March 31, 00:09 CET

That was really good. I think Zone does win the saddest story award. Geez.

Sunfire | March 31, 02:39 CET

According to Mo Tancharoen's Twitter account, we can submit letters, questions, comments, etc. to dollhouse@darkhorse.com (I'm assuming some might be published in the issues themselves, as done with Buffy season 8).

Waterkeeper511 | March 31, 03:16 CET

Saddest story award indeed. Poor Zone, and poor little Plus...

I will say, I am a little surprised at the abrupt end to Ivy, though she could easily appear in another body later on. (Oh, the beauty of the Tech!)
Alpha's appearance makes me excited, especially with him forming a small army.
I feel a whole lot of awesome coming our way.

I'm interested to see who will be appearing at the stadium as these "others". Someone unexpected would be awesome. Hopefully, the "Lost" Others will be absent.

Tech-Head Delta | March 31, 05:22 CET

MORE WHISKEY. PWEASE. :3 Haha.
I've yet to read this, but it sounds amazing. I loved the mini comic, so I bet the rest is love.

Fred_Sonja | March 31, 05:39 CET

I'm not absolutely certain, I think there's sort of a tragic dramatic irony to that entire group more or less forcing themselves into the whole epitaph situation because of their "shoot first" policy. (Is that vague enough? do I even need to be?

I sort of hope there is some sort of actual grounding in that rather than them post-fact revealing that our charming group of survivors just being mindphobic.

And I sort of missed things, is that thing in July an ongoing or a miniseries since they seem to have dropped the "Epitaphs" part from the name?

orangewaxlion | March 31, 08:03 CET

It'll be a mini-series, but i forget how many issues. Maybe three?

Invisible Green | March 31, 15:36 CET

Fred_Sonja, I agree with the call for more Whiskey. There has to be a great story behind how she ends up waiting in the Dollhouse for E1 to arrive.

Orangewaxlion, it is ironic that our merry band just forced themselves down that certain path to E1 due to Zone's actions. Can't say I blame him though, given his story.
Being chased by butchers would probably be in their future either way, but this did cement their path in the storyline. It will be fun to see their further interactions with what is going on around them and how they continue to survive.

Question: Should we be trusting Alpha right now? I don't think we know for sure that he is on the good side currently, so he could be creating an armed unit for his own purposes. Though, that would imply that Ivy is on his side, which is a little hard to believe. But then again, there are Whedons involved with this story, so who knows what will happen!

I need to rewatch this show soon.

Tech-Head Delta | March 31, 18:08 CET

Tech-Head Delta, I think based on where he ends up in E2 we can cautiously trust the aims of Alpha. It is possible that he is more serving his own ends at this point in time, but I think he/we are going to see that his ends end up being for the greater good ('the greater good') as this progresses.

I also think that Zone's trigger-happy attitude just screwed them over, but in that situation I would probably also shoot first and ask questions later (or run away like a little girl). Plus, it was a really good way to once again show that making the quick choice in a situation may cause more problems than not.

Can't wait until July when the miniseries comes out. According to the link just posted, it will be a 5 issue arc with the possibility of more to come. There is so much story possibility that it is difficult not to be overly excited!

NFA110 | March 31, 20:06 CET

The issue was a quick read, but I will surely pick it apart several times between now and July. It was nice to see the pages from the DVD release in standard comic book size, too.

Ivy 2.0's death was very abrupt indeed, but I guess we should expect such things from a series that is known for suddenly killing many fan-favorites with a bullet to the brainpan.

CrazyKidBen | March 31, 22:03 CET

NFA 110, you bring up a good point. Alpha will definitely end up on the good side by the end, but I'm just not quite sure I trust his motives yet. I have been taught to question every piece of plot that I think I understand when there is a Whedon involved. It might make a story stressful, but oh so much fun. Good thing we have at least 5 more comics coming along.

Zone's trigger-happy action was correct and their existence is going to be much more difficult now, that's for sure.

CrazyKidBen, I was glad to see the DVD comic's pages in there too. I keep worrying that I will lose that one someday.

Also, That abrupt moment reminded me of the demise of Agent Ballard. I believe our reaction was "Wha-? B-bu-but...Paul! What..Caroline.." then the scene changed and we had to pick our emotions up off the floor and continue with the E2 story. What a great night that was.

Tech-Head Delta | April 01, 00:13 CET

Since this thread has a spoiler warning do we really need to put spoilers behind blinvisible writing? I only ask because I haven't figured out how to do it....
anyway I hadn't felt the need for any more Echo, Paul, Topher, and/or Adele right away since the finale had really explained a lot about them. Instead the comic touched on characters who had left the Dollhouse before the end, and who I was really interested in hearing more about!
Tech-Head Delta: I'm pretty sure we are NOT supposed to be trusting, but that only makes the situation more interesting and exciting (I'll be looking forward to July, but will that continue this story or skip to a different story line?)!

embers | April 01, 02:16 CET

Embers,

I'm guessing it will still be a continuation of this story based on the issue cover released in the newer post (see March 31- (Spoiler)Andrew Chambliss to return to the Dollhouse. It looks like the comics will flow around Echo, Paul, Topher, and Adelle rather than dealing with them directly at first. There might be a shift once we get further into the meat of the story, but for now we're going to be dealing with Alpha, Ivy, and Mag/Zone/Griff.

NFA110 | April 01, 02:44 CET

Actually Delta, I'm still not sure that reaction was necessarily "correct." I sort of burned through the issue pretty quickly but it seemed like Ivy represented a third type of identity gone amok between the butchers and the blank slate actives.

I didn't really get the impression that the people whose identities just got swapped around were necessarily inherently dangerous. If it weren't for that policy there's even the chance that eventual-little-girl-Echo never would have even felt the urge to kill everyone else to protect herself. (Or himself? I can't even remember.)

Man, I'm weirdly so much more bummed out by this apocalypse comic than I am by the post-apocalyptic story.

orangewaxlion | April 01, 07:32 CET

Not for this issue.

Simon | April 01, 07:56 CET

Ivy's death doesn't look permanent, judging by the variant cover shown in this MTV article.

discombob | April 01, 10:08 CET

Embers,
I'm a relatively new member/poster (and a huge spoiler-phobe myself), so I decided to err on the side of being overly cautious. I also agree, whether we can trust the characters or not is one of the most exciting parts of Dollhouse.

Orangewaxlion, Zone's actions were correct from a survival standpoint. But you are right, he should have noticed that Ivy was different from all the others and not killed her. I agree with your point in your previous post, if Zone wasn't so quick to shoot, the storyline would be vastly different. That action really did force them into the situation we find them in when Epitaph comes along.

Tech-Head Delta | April 01, 23:58 CET

Actually Zone's tendency to shoot first is probably one explanation for Maggie's antagonism toward him that we saw in the TV show. However I can understand his response of not trusting anyone: it was probably the direct result of having to kill his beloved pregnant girlfriend before she killed him(!). Maybe he should have seen that 'Ivy' clearly wasn't like the crazy killers or dumb shows, but it is also clear that 'Ivy' didn't know his own name so he wasn't meeting Zone's one single criterion for acceptance.

So far the characters seem very consistent with the TV show, and make me want to rewatch my DVDs!

embers | April 02, 03:21 CET

Discombob, I think you are correct. After another read, I noticed a second meaning to Alpha's line "there will be others."

CrazyKidBen | April 04, 20:55 CET