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Date Posted: 09:12:10 04/25/07 Wed
Author: Age
Subject: Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Seven.
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: L.W.Look at 8.1 (Spoilers) Part Six." on 09:09:53 04/25/07 Wed

Turning to the next page, the aftermath of the successful operation. The first thing to note is the obvious contrast between the condition of the slayers and the guys who had attempted to bring down these demons. The guys do not look military at all, but are wearing casual martial arts clothing; however, the last panel reveals that they were armed, with little guns, in comparison with the slayer harpoons, but this discrepancy comes down not to size, but to intelligence: the slayers came well prepared for the creatures they were to meet; the demons stood no chance from the outset. These guys were dedicated enough to give their lives, but for what? Were they sacrificed to set up the slayer encounter, a test of some sort to discover the strength of the opposition? In any rate, the women succeeded where the men did not, a thematic nod to girl power and to the idea that slaying means more than just a killing, that it has a metaphorical emotional content, the traditional province of the feminine and a thematic reason perhaps why the guys were no match for them. As for the ‘tattoo,’ don’t tell Xander but it doesn’t look like a guy with a monocle frowning, it looks like a clown frowning. I don’t know what it is, a star, something coming over the horizon. Trouble. A fanatical organization that prizes devotion over life itself? A frown turned upside and then upside down again does point to reactionary forces at work to undo the smile that activation of the potentials brought….a smile like the one on the cover of the comic.

Anyway, I just have a couple of comments more to make about this page and the one overleaf: Buffy’s feeling of weirdness using the crucifix to slay sets her apart from the demons; again Joss Whedon is using Christian imagery, but for symbolic, not religious, purposes. In the page overleaf, there is a progression in the panels from the level of the slayers in the church, our interior, our insider’s view of them, out the window and up to the hovering guy. This progression changes the reader’s perspective so that we now see the consequences of the slayer organization from outsiders’ eyes, preparing the reader for the next page, back up in the air. Who is the hovering guy with boots and long black cape? Beats me. Puss In Boots from Shrek?

On the next page we move from the ad hoc military organization of the slayers to the established male dominated one as the story explores the consequences of the slayer organization from those outside it: there had to be a reaction to it. There are five panels on this page, most are arranged horizontally in a hierarchy, but the first is arranged vertically as a repetition of and contrast to the helicopter panels the reader saw earlier where Buffy and her team were descending. The position of the vertical panel is logical because the conversation of the three adjacent panels occurs in the helicopter of the first panel. The contrast between the slayer helicopter panels and this one is striking: that of the slayers is coloured purple for night; while the army helicopter is approaching from the sun during the day with the panel mostly coloured yellow. A shot such as this would render the observer blinded by the glare of the traditionally masculine sun; are we to assume this has meaning for the conversation, that this general is unable or unwilling to see the slayers from their standpoint or is this simply an image of power concentrated in the one?

The general, in army uniform green, is having a conversation with a non-military guy who is dressed in purple, reminiscent of the colour of the earlier panels with the slayers; it’s not then hard to realize that the purpled guy is debating for a more moderate view of the slayer organization. However, the general spells out for the reader just how dangerous it seems to him: it’s a terrorist organization, with a hard line ideology that does not jibe with American interests and whose charismatic leader can do…turn the page. (Before we do, it’s interesting to note that the vertical panel stops before the full page in order that the view in the final panel at the bottom isn’t obscured. It isn’t logical that the two in the helicopter would be looking out at themselves; so the panel on the left has to stop. Not only this, but the four panels on the right follow the emotion and logic of the conversation, the first establishing the interior scene, the colour and the name of one of the pilots repeating the colour of the first panel; the second moves the reader into the non-military guy’s perspective, as readers are mostly non-military, in order to see the determined and angry face of the general as he delivers his lines; the third is the close up as the general overwhelms the conversation, just as the panel is filled by his face; the final panel moves the reader out of the helicopter to witness the evidence to back the general’s statement. The non-military guy, never really at ease, seems shocked by what he sees….it’s a page turner that’s for sure. It’s worth asking what ideology is espoused by the slayers that does not jibe with American interests…also which Americans, I thought Buffy was American too?)

Turning the page, the reader gets to see in the first wide panoramic panel the huge gaping hole that used to be Sunnydale when Spike used the amulet to bring light to the underground and stop the uber vampires. It’s easy to see how someone outside of Buffy’s cadre might view the ex-town’s condition as a problem, a big problem. Certainly it would go against American interests if a bunch of people went around blowing up whole towns. Nuclear bomb anyone? I mean how many hellmouths are there in suburban America? They must just be quaking in Cleveland. Just how, uh, real is this comic book continuation of the series going to take the destruction of Sunnydale? I thought it was somewhat metaphorical, symbolizing the end of Buffy’s denial strategy with the road ahead clear for her to make her way as a person. I guess a darn great gaping hole isn’t something you can just sweep under the rug cause there’s nothing to sweep, and I guess if you want to illustrate reactionary forces you start with something that will give those forces an excuse to dismiss your title character as a terrorist. I guess there’s always tension between the metaphorical and the literal, between the psychological and the political themes. Anyway, the army is looking for something in the huge crater on these two pages and sending in yellow suited guys to find it. What they discover is that they’ve got the willies, even if there’s no mystical readings…woah…no mystical readings…uh, so these guys know that this used to be a hellmouth but don’t give Buffy the benefit of the doubt as to motives for unfortunately destroying it?

Turning the page once again, they discover more than the willies, but an actual living relic of the museum that used to be Sunnydale. Hmmm, is this a psychological relic, a metaphor representing some aspect of Buffy, a longing for home, for escape, guilt, or some thematic retribution for using magic? Or will Amy be used to show metaphorically that Buffy is beyond the touch of adolescence? Something nasty happens to the yellow suited dude because in bold great yellowish letters he exclaims:AAAAAAHHHHH! Why does this nasty thing happen to him. Well, the yellow suited guy has been lowered down by himself, recalling the slayer team’s descent. On the previous page the reader saw three of the yellow suited guys, just as there were three slayers accompanying Buffy; however, unlike the slayer team, they don’t go down as backup. He’s alone. It seems that everything has been an antithesis of what Buffy did earlier in the comic on her mission, with the army’s going back to Sunnydale symbolic of their reactionary motives, their desire to turn back the clock so to speak.

End of part seven.

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