Sunday Splash Page #98

"Surprise In Stereo", in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #7, by Brian K. Vaughn (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Andy Owens (inker), Dave Stewart (colorist), Richard Starkings and Jimmy (letterers)

There had been other comics based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer while the TV show was still going, but they focused on stories that could fit somewhere within the margins of the episodes. This was the first series that was really a continuation of where the show left off after Season 7, with Buffy now in command of an army of 500 Slayers, attracting the enmity of all sorts of people.

I didn't give a shit about that. As far as the series went, I was always much more interested in Faith than Buffy (likewise more interested in Spike than Angel). So, when they solicited an arc focused on Faith, written by Brian K. Vaughn, whose Dr. Strange: The Oath mini-series I enjoyed, I was all in on that.

In this case, Giles tags Faith to go kill some high-born, British girl who's teamed up with a vaguely Gambit-sleazy warlock to kill Buffy. Love how the Scoobies always give her the stink-eye for her past fuck-ups, while also figuring it makes her perfect to do the work they rather not dirty their hands with. Faith has to learn to pass as aristocracy herself, but befriends the girl and tries to divert her off the path Faith's walked already. It doesn't work, because those sorts of things never do for her.

Anyway, it was an fun little 4-issue arc, which didn't convince me to continuing buying the series regularly after it concluded. I did pick up one more issue about 18 months later, a one-shot that focused on Faith and Giles and their traveling "help lost Slayers" road show, but it was written and drawn by someone else and not nearly as good. Season 8 eventually ended, and then Season 9 kicked off. That included Angel and Faith, which we already looked at in Sunday Splash Page #28.

That does it for the "Bs", other than the current Black Cat series, which I probably won't double-back to until after it's finished.

Sunday Splash Page #85

"Where's a Billy Goat When You Need It?" in Bishop: The Last X-Man #9, by Joseph Harris (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Art Thibert and Allen Martinez (inker), Jason Wright (coloring), Jon Babcock (letterer)

So this book is from the last year or two prior to Grant Morrison taking over on X-Men. I guess when the X-Books were drifting a bit after Onslaught and Operation: Zero Tolerance. Assuming we don't consider those things evidence of aimless drifting as well. Anyway, Bishop realizes he came to the '90s looking for Fitzroy, then got caught up in X-Men bullcrap for several years and should probably go back to dealing with Fitzroy. But that lands him in a future where his old enemy has become ruler, really embraced his ability to mess with time. It's a technologically backward place, with most of humanity back to the Middle Ages. Fitzroy has an army, so Bishop has to pull one together as well.

I talked 4 years ago about repeatedly getting sucked into comics that were going to be about a character dumped in an unfamiliar, post-apocalyptic setting, and trying to cope. Usually, those books don't end up working for me overall, and this one isn't any different, but it did come closer than most. Maybe because Harris seemed to really try to make it a different crappy future from what Bishop is used to. The Sentinels are not a factor. The large cities seem to be gone. He does encounter some Morlocks, and the last remnant of the Hellfire Club, but mostly it's new stuff. Or, if it's old X-Men stuff, I don't recognize it. 

Like the giant in the picture above, or a race of sort of gargoyle/dragon looking creatures that were terrorizing a small walled city out in the middle of a desert. Bishop ends up with a few mutants on his side, but none of them are ever said to be descended from anyone he knows. Gambit's there as creaky old man, which I guess is one thing familiar to Bishop. So Bishop really is a bit out of his depth, with few allies, and hell, it's a long haul just to reach Fitzroy to try and fight him. 

Plus, it doesn't seem like Bishop has ever actually stopped Fitzroy. At best, Fitzroy has always turned tail and ran, but that leaves him free out there to start again. And Bishop knows this, and all his allies who understand there's history between the two know it. Which makes them wonder what's going to make this time any different, and whether they should really be throwing in their lot with him. This Fitzroy, at least, doesn't seem like he plans to flee, which should probably be a bad sign, but it doesn't seem like Bishop is too worried. He's pretty sure things will go like they always will, and he just needs to make sure Fitzroy doesn't escape.