Wednesday Reading meme

[cornerofmadness]

With taking care of Mom I missed getting out to get that Entertainment Weekly Angel reunion issue. Sigh. I finally read the first 4 revamped Buffy's. Not really going to go into it right now (as I'm pressed enough for time on my two July deadlines) but I will. Am curious is anyone else as meh as I am over this.

What I Just Finished Reading: Camp Strange by Renee Perez which she wrote for her autistic son so I'm giving it leeway but seriously the grammatical errors really should have been caught by the indie publisher.

The Wrath of Fate by Robert Brown of Abney Park which is a self insert fantasy for the band and was all right. He's better off sticking with lyrics.


What I am Currently Reading: The Demon of Dakar by Kjell Ericksson. It's convincing me I'm right. I do not like Scandinavian mysteries. This is the second one by this author and this is even more boring than the first (also makes me wonder what awards readers see that I don't)



What I Plan to Read Next: Unchanged from Last Week since I ignored what I said then. Nine of Stars by Laura Bickle and to get back to Zero Sum Game (it's still down my aunt's house and I'm still too pissed to go get it) Also started Marshsong by Nato Thompson on my ebook but it is not catching my attention but it's one I won in exchange for review

Comments

[rahirah]

I like the reboot comics all right, but I was really hoping that the re-vamped Spike and Dru would be more compelling. They've been a bit of a snooze so far -- I mean, the whole raison d'etre for Spike and Dru was that here was a vampire couple who were devoted to each other. Yeah, sure, but human standards they were twisted, but they weren't human.

And in the reboot it just seems like Dru doesn't give a shit about Spike -- he's just a disposable minion to her. And Spike's a bit cranky about that, but if he was ever in love with Dru, he seems to have got over it long ago. I don't think that making her sane had to result in that. Maybe they did it to facilitate Spike breaking away from her sooner, but... eh. And the motions they've made towards having Spike fall for someone else involve a character that Spike has no real history with (and, annoyingly for me, is one of the very few characters I have no interest in seeing him with). So it's neither believable nor exciting that he may be falling for this person, because it's happening too fast and there's no reason for it.

I think that's part of the trouble: like the Star Trek reboot movies, the comics are relying too much on people knowing the original series, and riffing off that rather than establishing itself on its own. It reads like very well-written, well-produced AU fanfic. And I get that they don't want to bore established readers with rediscovering the wheel, and I can't blame them for wanting to avoid the Spike/Angel wars like the plague, but...

AND ANOTHER THING I'm all for updating the outdated social assumptions that have aged so badly for the original series. However, in their zeal to make all the characters well-adjusted and eat all four food groups, they've kinda neglected to give them any flaws to overcome (except for Xander) or any internal conflicts to drive the narrative. Buffy's totally fine with being the Slayer. Willow's not struggling with insecurity or hubris. As someone said elsewhere, it's like they've all been skipped ahead several seasons, character-wise. And this is great for them as people, but... having fixed all the characters' problems in the first series, what next? Do the writers have long term plans for character development, once the novelty of the rebootness has worn off?

I really have enjoyed them, but I have niggling doubts. Not helped by the fact that reboot Spike is very dull. I have no idea why they picked him to be in the crossover with Buffy and Angel, because he and Buffy haven't exchanged two words yet, and I can't imagine him having the same sort of entertainingly adversarial relationship with Angel as original Spike did. He's just too... tame. (Honestly, from the original promo material, I was expecting Dru and Spike to be in a full-on femdom master/slave relationship, and what we got instead is just bland.)

Apparently I have thoughts.

[cornerofmadness]

You've hit on almost everything I don't like. No one feels right. I particularly dislike Willow, it's like we're getting end of series Willow. And yes Spike/Dru (who you know I love) are dull as dishwater(I haven't seen what happens with Xander in this as I'm only on #4) Does Dru even have visions? WHo knows. I'm not enjoying sane, pant-suited Dru at all and I thought I might like her in charge (one of my favorite of my own Spike/Dru fanfic was the one where I flipped their roles). I would have loved femdon master/slave with them but this is gray and boring.

Even the belly shirts at school (since they are so big on telling girls what we can't wear in school) bug me.

But you're right there are NO flaws. Cordelia is nice (you want to take on bullying is wrong then leave Cordy as is). Willow basically forcing Buffy on a date with Robin (who I do not like as a teen) really rubbed me the wrong way.

So yeah I have thoughts and none of them are that good. I like Anya. Does that count? And Angel Zero gives us Angel completely divorced from all the reasons he was dragged back into this world and I'm not sure how I feel about that either.

[rahirah]

I like Anya, I like Giles and Jenny having a real relationship. I don't really mind the changes to Willow, and Xander's basically the same character, just with a little less 90's misogyny. I like that Joyce has a life. I don't mind Robin, especially as some stuff comes up later that makes him more interesting. I just feel like...

Admittedly a lot of my malaise is Spike-related; reboot Spike is no fun, and it doesn't seem like they're going places with him that will interest me. But that aside, I feel like it's more Xander's story than Buffy's, so far. This Buffy feels more like... like Kendra. She's all about the duty. From things the writers have said, that's deliberate; they don't think kids today can relate to Buffy's "I wanna be normal!" schtick. I don't necessarily think that they're wrong about that, but... that was a core character trait. And it doesn't seem like they;ve replaced it with anything. What does this Buffy care about, besides slaying?

[cornerofmadness]

I haven't gotten to Jenny yet. Maybe it's because young WIllow was the one I connected with the most is why these changes annoy me so much. Xander does seem the same though his attraction seems more genuine and less misogynstic (though in 2-3 it looked like they were nudging him toward the InCel line)

You do have a point about Buffy. I'm not sure where they're going with this but it's not working in many ways. I DO like Joyce having a life

But yeah Reboot Spike is dull

[aaronlisa]

So I've read the first collected volume of the comics, which I think is the first 4 or 5 issues (I'm too lazy to go to my bookshelf to verify that.)

I really liked the art. I found that I'm liking the art a lot better than I did the Dark Horse art on a whole. I am not sure if I really like the Xander-arc so far but I like the fact that Joyce has a boyfriend. And I like how Robin was introduced.

I am not overly upset about the fact that they've presented these characters in a way that assumes the reader is familiar with them and knows the original canon. I kind of feel that most reboots are better off to assume that the audience has some level of familiarity with the original canon.

While I like Anya and Dru, I am not sure how I feel about Spike. He doesn't feel like Spike. Well almost every character feels like who they are supposed to be, I feel like the new Spike is just a different character wearing his face. And to be honest as someone who loves Spike/Dru, I think I'd rather had just a sane Dru without Spike or having had Spike being opposed to her already.

We'll see where the next volume of collected issues goes before I make a final decision. I think that the first few issues tried to do an awful lot and I am not sure if the writers succeeded on all levels.

[cornerofmadness]

The art is good but it is better for the women than the men. Cordy, Buffy and Willow really look like the actresses. Xander and Spike only sort of do but yes for AMerican graphic novels the art is much better.

I hated Darkhorse's Buffy comics so this is better.

but so far what I'm hearing is a lot of us don't like Spike in this

[aaronlisa]

Yes I hate most of the Dark Horse artwork.

I am willing to give Spike a chance to improve and I am liking his character over Xander to be honest.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah it was bad. Angel's with IDW was hit or miss.

I'm going to stick it out for a while longer myself. Oddly I like Xander better here than I did on the show but that's not saying much