Buffy 8.18

I love the Buffy Season 8 comic, a do, I really, really do. But I'm getting more than a little put off by this arc. Here we are, three issues into it, and I'm still waiting for something to happen. Maybe I've got unrealistic expectations, maybe I'm a demanding cur barking at the darkness, or maybe we've all come to expect excellence from the Joss Whedon camp because that's almost always what we get. Who knows?
The issues I take with issue #18 revolve specifically around Willow literally evolving into someone I no longer recognize, and Buffy purposely not saving some people screaming for help from a cadre of vamps. When did Buffy start ignoring the slaughter of innocents? And Willow with the weird orgasm visit to the tentacle porn creature...? And, and, and future Willow, the sad mad woman, is about as prophetic, or dark, or darkly prophetic as a cardboard cut-out of Callisto. Wait, I take that back, Hudson Leick was able to master a menacing and withering leer.
Maybe it's me, maybe I'm missing some brilliant subtlety with all the clobbering of Willow and Buffy not acting like Willow and Buffy. Maybe it's all a bait and switch, which will kind of suck if the nonsense of the last three issues are all tied up overly neatly in #19.
When's Jane Espenson going to write an issue? The strength of the show BtVS was that a lot of the shows were penned by women. So far with the comic we've had only guys writing it, and it is really starting to show in the voice of certain characters and the overall tone and direction that they are taking. We really need a breath of fresh air in the slayerverse. I also wouldn't mind having Brian K. Vaughn come back to write some more issues...and let him bring Faith along with him! That's by far been my favorite arc. It was complex, problematic, and a joy to read, and reread, and reread, and reread...
What's really disappointing is that I was really anticipating this issue, hoping to get a colossal set up for the finale. Wow, did it not deliver. It's not like I'm going to quit reading or anything. I mean, I stuck by The X-Files through the Doggett years, so clearly I'm loyal, if sometimes critical and disgruntled. I'm in for the long haul, wherever that may lead.