To Have Faith

Over the past several months, traceable to the "Time of Your Life" arc in the Season 8 Buffy The Vampire Slayer comic, I've become convinced that Faith needs her own book. We've had precious little to sate our thirst for the disgraced slayer; last month's one-off stand alone "Safe", and the series early (issues 6-9) and brilliant arc "No Future For You". It occurs to me that Faith has a lot of untold stories, while Buffy's story has become tired. Worse, the Buffy comic has now introduced that the world in general is fully aware of vampires and slayers. Of course everyone thinks the vamps are cool and the slayers a bunch of senseless kill joys, but that's the least of the problems with this storyline. One of the great things about BtVS, the show, was that the slayers and the vamps and demons were all covert, with the public largely blissfully ignorant. Occasionally someone, say, Joyce, would comment on how many people died in Sunnydale of 'neck trauma', which just added to the fun. Why they, Whedon and Co., would choose to remove this from the Buffyverse and 'out' both vamps and slayers is a mystery to me, and not working all that well from my perspective. The current loose arc, "Predator and Prey", isn't as horrid as the Fray crossover "Time of Your Life" but it's damn close. The portrayal of Harmony is spot on, but it's Harmony we're talking about here. Not a deep well to plumb, more like a one trick pony drinking from a mud puddle. I can't help but think that it's all senseless, directionless, just plain old less.
I won't be giving up the Buffy Season 8 comic anytime soon, but I no longer circle the release date on the calendar and plan my day around stopping at New Dimensions Comics. I would go back to doing those things if Faith had her own book. Faith and Giles toiling in anonymity, righting wrongs, fighting the good fight. Faith seeking atonement for her past evil self, always a bit haunted by her dark side. See how gloriously problematic her character is? She's the hero that I can relate to. She seems more real. While Buffy, I dare say, has become a caricature, if not dangerously close to a Mary Sue. And where's Twilight? Season 8's supposed Big Bad. Where's he hiding? Didn't Buffy used to take the fight, sometimes foolishly, to the baddie?
I don't know what's happened, but season 8 meanders more than a run through a hollow.