Johanna's Reviews: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Note from the Underground

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Note from the Underground
Writers: Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza
Penciller: Cliff Richards
Inker: Will Conrad
Cover Art: Paul Lee & Brian Horton
Based on the television series created by Joss Whedon

With the conclusion of the source material, I had hoped that the comics 
would provide an acceptable substitute for the witty horror/adventure 
stories of which I was previously an avid viewer. Unfortunately, this 
particular story falls short in at least two ways: There's lots of 
telling, not showing, and the story seems to be trying to be everything 
to everyone. 

By the latter, I mean that there's too much background explanation for 
those familiar with the character and show, and too many otherwise 
pointless cameos and in-jokes for the new reader. The authors seem to be 
going out of their way to show off fannish knowledge, which leads to 
page clutter with all the captions and balloons. This text-heavy style I 
tend to associate with the work of Mr. Nicieza, but I don't know here 
who's responsible. I just know that it's annoying. 

That leads back to the first problem, clunky writing. For example: the 
book begins with Angel undercover as a buyer for a mystical drug called 
soul drops. Presumably, he knows what he wants to buy. The dealer, 
obviously, knows what he's selling. So the only reason to spend a page 
having Angel tell the dealer what "soul drops" are is that the writer 
couldn't think of a more elegant way to get the necessary information to 
the reader, information that is reiterated again when we need to know it 
anyway. (That's one of the problems with a story that's intended to work 
in both serial and collected format.) 

The premise seems familiar, with Buffy in a gladiatorial situation 
reminiscent of one of the poorer ANGEL episodes. We've also seen Faith 
temporarily sprung from jail before, although usually her presence has 
some important purpose. Here, she's under-used, which distracts me with 
concerns about the revolving door on their judicial system. I think I 
might have liked the whole thing better if it had been done as an Angel 
story. Those sections of the book were more interesting to me, and half 
the Buffy cast seemed to be afterthoughts. 

This storyline concluded, in individual issue form, with issue #50, so 
many of the choices can be attributed to a desire to bring back 
characters for a kind of anniversary celebration (as the editor mentions 
in the introduction). The execution, though, reminded me of being 
invited to one's significant other's school reunion, with the resulting 
feeling of being left out of part of the group's history together. 

The reader is dropped into the middle of many scenes, which makes 
necessary lots of explanation of how we all got there. This technique 
means lots of action, good for keeping the artist interested, and 
presumably customer interest through immediate involvement in a gripping 
premise. When reading this series, though, I expect Buffy butt-kicking, 
so I don't automatically find a demon fight interesting. (I find that 
the show does the action better, anyway, because it's live, not static.) 

The artist does nice pinups whether it's Buffy kicking butt or Faith 
asleep under an artfully draped sheet. Overall, though, the whole thing 
was frustrating. Aside from what I've already discussed, it's yet 
another Buffy story in which she's told how important her work saving 
people is, only to have the story itself show us that if you're not a 
special friend of Buffy, then you've got a good chance of getting killed 
without a second thought.

I know one of the most basic lessons in life is "it's all who you know". 
I just wish that my fantasy fiction didn't attribute this attitude to 
the good guys so often.

-- 
Johanna Draper Carlson             
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