Gahhh I still need to read issue 2. I'll pick this one up tonight.

lisatwingomez | January 02, 10:38 CET

"I don't mean to be rude, but that's kind of a cliché."
Willow just got it right. My expectations on Willow - Wonderland were high, but this series has turned out to be an uninteresting filler with inconsistent art and a predictable-as-hell story IMO. All this trip is so déjà-vu and uneven.
Sure, there were some interesting moments in the first two issues, but in this one, only the two last pages got me barely interested.
The dialogue was good in the first two issues. Not anymore. The pop-culture references feel forced and not funny at all, especially that "sopranos finale was better" line. As for the "psychoanalysis talk" thing with the water the octopus, Aluwyn and all that stuff, I thought it was just boring.
So I'd say this series is not entertaining at all. When the only moments that get me interested are not related to Willow and her witchy scoobies but to Buffy/Angel & Faith, I think there is some kind of a major problem in the story.

Stelian | January 02, 10:51 CET

Willow: "Hey, Buffy, I can fly naked too!"

Moscow Watcher | January 02, 11:41 CET

I have my copy of Willow:Wonderland # 3.

I'll keep it brief.I liked the issue although thought it was a little slower than issues 1-2.The end of the issue does seems to be setting up some intersting stuff and i do see some parallels with Twilight as well as nods to Willow's magical addiction from season 6.

Buffyfantic | January 02, 12:09 CET

Stelian, I'm pretty much with you on this. Willow's book I was enjoying far more than Spike's, which I've found almost entirely a misfire, but this issue mostly just bored me.

@theonetruebix | January 02, 14:40 CET

Add me to that list. I just finished it, and was struck by how silly it all seemed. And really, it is a story we have had before, of being in the wraps of what seems to be a group that loves you but is really doing nothing more than fooling you into thinking you are safe and secure. And, gills. Really? Really?

Dana5140 | January 02, 16:13 CET

Plot wise, what are the chances that the Siphon ends up being the magical anchor Willow needs back on Earth in order to make the connection back?

@theonetruebix | January 02, 16:18 CET

b!X - you've got a point there. Or what if Willow becomes the Siphon somehow -- I've got a bunch of theories in my brain... however -- there is one character who has the ability to open up dimensional portals and is currently sick and living with what could be a PTSD version of Xander... don't know.... What if Willow used Dawn to bring magic back? Meh - I could go on with theories for a bit! Just hope Willow's story picks up a little bit.

onethsndwords | January 02, 16:40 CET

Both of you raise interesting possibilities...

Dana5140 | January 02, 16:53 CET

Another slightly more out there guess/note; I have no idea what its current ability level is after the ATF/miniseries mess is but... if it was as reset to Angel S5 level as I *think*... Illyria could open portals too. I leaned toward the Siphon as of last issue, but hmm.

apollo11 | January 03, 03:46 CET

The constant lack of Dawn's face in the portals, either in this issue or the last (read them both together) better have stuff to do with the key again. I enjoyed this one, it was wackier than the second but they read well together. I didn't like the Sopranos gag but no more than any other small lines in the comics. I also liked that the issue reaffirmed Willow's need for the group. I've been thinking she's evolved and become much more independent lately, so I think it was a nice reminder to us and the character that the Scoobys like and even need each other!

Jaymii | January 03, 16:37 CET

Loved the issue in all its wackiness, especially the cute octopi collective turning Cthulhu part. That was... humorously gross but consistent. The Sea Anemone/Tree of Life analogy somehow reminded me of the Avatar's weird 'intelligent' ecosystem - I guess the Anemone is Wonderland's analogy of Terra's Mother Earth. One has to wonder if the Wonderland has its own Seed as well? And the Amphibious Witch is totally Gunther the Mutant species. I guess it is implied that humans can devolve back to amphibias with sexy gills. The Anemone revelation part better pay off, eventually. My single complain with the mini so far that it is so overloaded with premonitions, murky visions, cryptic sayings, etc that it becomes hard to try and analyze every next coming one seriously. I mean... the Memory water font, the Caterpillar Guy warnings about light and shadows, the faceless friends dream, Dawn vision, the Goddess Stone Vision, the Anemone vision, etc etc.

Btw, in this last vision Dawn is totally having a proper face, same as Xander, Buffy and Angel.

dorotea | January 04, 07:15 CET

I think in the last vision it was meant to be Faith, because she was next to Angel - no? The art was pretty bad. The assumption is that Dawn is still in danger.

Liam Mars | January 04, 07:30 CET

@Liam Mars

Christos Gage confirmed in a twit that it was Dawn and Angel.

dorotea | January 04, 07:40 CET

When a Willow miniseries pulls a ~dozen comments in a day, and they're mostly about which plot tokens the writers have available for the next issue (rather than What These Beloved Characters Are Going Through), the Buffyverse is in rough shape.

One might say.

waxbanks | January 04, 08:03 CET

Has it ever stricken anyone else that the Buffy characters keep having to decide between being in a happy place ELSE where... or the responsibility of being with their friends? Willow feels like she HAS to be with Buffy helping in the fight, whereas not long ago, Buffy was happy and felt like she HAD to be with her friends being in the fight. Xander and Dawn are happy in their apartment and everyone is like, "You guys gotta be with Buffy being in the fight." And even Spike is like, "You're hot and all and you really dig me, but like, I was miserable with Buffy and that's REAL." So that one of the major plot points of the Whedonverse right now is characters finding happiness somewhere but then being like "This happiness is bull shit! I gotta go be cranky with my friends!" Why should Willow hang around with Buffy and Xander when Xander's got his happy couple life with the puking and the bathroom tile smashing and her and Buffy haven't been all that close in some time and Snake Lady really digs her and she really digs snake lady and they do a nice job doin stuff together and have nice sex and everything. Maybe, to a certain extent, everyone has to let go of their high school friends and their high school drama and let their nice little lives form the way they want them to. You know, like, I dig the fact that Buffy decided, "No, I'm the Slayer, and I slay vampires, and also, I know I dig people doing this WITH me and Xander and Willow don't want to and Giles is dead, so I'm gonna hang out with this MILDLY interesting cop guy and this kid I just met who doesn't have any super powers but has really good intentions and a lot of gusto!" You know, and maybe Faith, too. She was like, "Hey, I have this job I like helping these wayward youths, but hmmm, here is my past, in the form of Angel and my dead mentor and all this guilt and like responsibility I have to him just cause he visited me in jail a couple times, I'm gonna screw up my whole life for him." Maybe to a certain extent these peeps have to let go of one another. You know, like, you always love'em, right? But you don't choose them over everything ELSE, right? Maybe if Willow likes magic and is enjoying magic land and snake sex she should just STAY there.

cderochefort | January 04, 11:10 CET

ROFLMAO cderochefort, you have a point here. Except for an itsy-bitsy part where the world might be rotting away without magic. And of course this being the Buffyverse, everything just have to end in tragedy, and heartbreak, and turning eeevil, or shooting the puppy, or else we might get the wrong impression that Joss and Co are getting soft.

dorotea | January 04, 12:34 CET

:( I'm gonna miss the puppy. :(

cderochefort | January 04, 13:46 CET

If a puppy ever appears in a Joss project... we know what is coming for it.

apollo11 | January 04, 14:45 CET

I just hope no more scoobies die :( it would take so much away from the finale of the show for me, that being said I do enjoy the series and am extremely pleased to be able to read these stories at all ! To my surprise I even want dawn to live!

Aedan | January 04, 16:46 CET

The series is ok, but nothing special. However compared to the Spike mini-series or the actual Buffy run for Season 9, it's high art. Seriously..
Anyway...two quasi Tara references (holding hands to be more powerful and "Mr Octopus Fantastico").
Does anyone else have trouble imagining Allyson Hannigan's voice saying the dialogue in the comic?

drlloyd11 | January 04, 17:45 CET

Didn't see this in the store I go to this morning. Have to say I'm enjoying both the Willow and Spike (and Angel and Faith) comics more than I've enjoyed Buffy's own story since "Harmonic Divergence."

I'm tunnel-visioned by the "we will continue to support the Fray universe." I can only see all the current storylines as converging on keeping magic out of Buffyearth and turning Willow into an immortal, limited, and mean-spirited GrayWillow. Imean, I'ven't liked much in the Buffyverse for a long time, but this is the first time I'm feeling like Joss is actually turning against his audience, Burt Reynolds in Stroker Ace fashion.

[ edited by DaddyCatALSO on 2013-01-05 22:28 ]

DaddyCatALSO | January 05, 12:25 CET

...give us a short cut on the side bar?

cderochefort | January 06, 16:24 CET

Only just read the issue today. Yeah, I don't know about this series. Feels super psychedelic and strange just for the sake of it. It feels like we have entered a world with no rules we understand, and in so doing we have lost stakes in the story. I kind of just want Willow to get back home and for the Scoobies to be together again.

Giles_314 | January 10, 15:50 CET

I finally got my copy (so I'm even slower than Giles_314! LOL), and the only thing I felt that was dull was that it was wicked obvious to the reader that Willow was being manipulated and delayed and lied to. It took Willow the entire issue to see what the readers already knew, and were waiting for her to catch up. It made this feel like a 'filler' issue (written for the psychedelics and not to move the story forward).

But I didn't hate getting to see Willow relax and have fun for a bit.

embers | January 12, 05:53 CET