It seems fitting that this month’s sidetrack into the world of television-related comic books fall on the first day of Comic-Con – which I unfortunately am not attending. One blessed week ahead of schedule, the fifth installment of the eighth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on the shelves. It marks the first stand-alone issue and the last to be penned by Joss Whedon for an indefinite amount of time. Apparently a story he was quite anxious to tell, The Chain focuses on one of the unnamed faux-Buffys planted by the new council to keep evil on its toes. And if you’re at all familiar with the last season of Angel: no, it’s not the fun “Buffy”, hoing it up in Italy… it’s the emo “Buffy” who has to live in caves and be unceremoniously killed.
Just as he likes them, Joss’s anonymous heroine is strong, intelligent, selfless and ultimately tragic. It seems odd that after all of this time he still feels the need to deviate from the linear storytelling for a random parable of female empowerment. Isn’t this girl just another Buffy, Faith, River or Fray? Actually, she’s not. Unlike her predecessors, she exists in a vacuum – without friends, family, history and, given of the brevity of her cameo, she will never even have fans. Joss has tried to create characters that are truly alone in the past, but because of either his affection for them or the fans’, they never remain completely detached. This is the heroism he seems to like the best, the noblest of sacrifices, but this was the only way he could really tell it.
The Chain is brief but poignant. It’s not funny like the previous books, and our glimpses of familiar Buffyverse faces or mighty brief. As the pencils go, Paul Lee’s first stab at the new incarnation of the Buffy seems to be a bit more accurate than Georges Jeanty’s. Andrew and Vi (the red-headed, beret-wearing potential) show up in a hilarious infomercial aimed at educating new slayers, and for the first time in the series, comic book Andrew actually resembles Tom Lenk.
Buffy: Season Eight returns in early September with the first of a four issue arc that promises a lot of Faith, a lot of Giles and a lot of Cleveland (which, Liz Lemon, ain’t so hot). The Chain was an entertaining and heartfelt departure, but I’m much more interested in the folks I know and the story that matters. Futility is too depressing.