Man, this is going to be an erratic month, comics-wise. I was looking at consecutive weeks of 1, 4, 1, 4, and 1 comics. Feast or famine strikes again. This week is Aaron Stack and Sleepwalker, I mean Warbird, I mean, Greg Horn Sexy Fight Cover Comic, blast it, I mean Ms. Marvel. Hmm, I think I took that joke about one step further than I ought to have. Oh well.
Fortunately, I remembered that the next part of BKV's Faith the Vampire Slayer arc is coming out, so that makes two, at least. Good times.
Naturally, once I start thinking about Faith, I start thinking about why I always prefer her to that "other" slayer, and I think at least part of it was that Faith actually enjoyed being a Slayer. She seemed similar to how Peter Parker was in the early years of Amazing Spider-Man, where this bright kid, that gets picked on, ignored, dissed, who lives in a less than ideal situation, has an escape. He can put on the mask, and be this super-cool crime-fighter, making with the wisecracks while he saves the day. He can climb buildings and lift cars, and his biggest bully in his everyday life, is also his heroic identity's biggest fan.
Faith, from what we know of her, didn't have all that great of a life growing up, probably nobody ever made her feel exceptional, but then she becomes the Slayer, suddenly people need her to save the day. It doesn't matter that Faith doesn't see much of a future for herself, education-wise, or even see all that great of a future for herself period, because this lucky event came along and changed everything, and she gets to actually do something with her life, so she was damn glad to be doing it (and I know some of that "devil-may-care" attitude was to hide her doubts and pain, but Spidey hid insecurity behind jokes, that doesn't mean he didn't enjoy web-swinging between skyscrapers).
What I've been trying to do is figure out who in the cape and mask realm is most similar to Buffy. She struck me as someone (at least in the early season, before she was always depressed) that had a good everyday life, and being the big hero was just a drag on that. it made it hard for her to hang out with friends, spend time with the family, do all the things she'd rather be doing. She did it, because she understood the importance of the work, but at least part of her wished it was someone else's job. I'm not sure who that describes; later Spider-Man, perhaps as he got angrier?
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3 comments:
It sounds a wee bit like She-Hulk in her most recent run, too.
I would say Buffy - before SMG got sick of the role and writers got sick of writing her as a sympathetic character - was a lot like the Spidey of the Lee/Romita & Conway/Adru era: somebody trying to live his life, yet finding it irrevocably screwed up by the whole "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" routine.
Faith is closer to a soap opera stereotype I've always enjoyed: "the bad girl who tries to reform."
For a Marvel comics parallel, I'd say she's closest to Rogue before Gambit entered the equation.
Although Faith does enjoy her powers more than Anna ever did.
matthew: That's true; Jennifer does enjoy being big, green and fabulous. As well she should.
fortress keeper: Yeah, I have to give Buffy credit: she always did the duty set before her, even if it really wrecked her personal life.
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