I loved the issue. Enormously.
I had doubts until now. It happens in showbiz: a creator loses interest to his characters and passes them to other writers who see them quite differently. Soon after season 8 has started, Joss has suddenly got several new shiny toys - "Dr. Horrible", "Dollhouse", "Cabin in the Wood". He could just keep his name on the season out of loyalty to DH and let other writers re-shape Buffy according to their vision. And, given how insanely popular Stephenie Meyer is, it was possible that new writers, especially Meltzer, who never wrote in Jossverse before, tried to reinvent Buffy and Angel as Bella and Edward on steroids.
Except, no. This is Joss, and these are still his characters. Spike's big entrance, knocking down Big Ben with his ship, was perfect. All his lines reminded me again how much I love Joss' dialogue. Faith's "man-bitch formerly known as Angel" was in character. Willow turning Angel into a frog was priceless.
Everybody except Buffy and Angel are in character. Buffy calls Angel "baby". Buffy doesn't question Angel's motives. Buffy sends Angel to protect slayers - not everybody, but only slayers. Whom he targeted.
Her personality is skewed; she's a grotesque version of the Buffy we know. In a recent interview Scott Allie said that the glow worked like a drug, "a visual representation of what was going on, the way they were infused." He added that "you should not let the characters off the hook completely for their actions. It worked like a drug, clouding your judgment, but you're still you. You should not abandon responsibility for your actions, even if you might have acted differently if not under the influence" - and I admit that the analogy with drug annoys me a bit. It's unfair, given that both Buffy and Angel aren't "taking drugs" voluntarily. Angel was manipulated into "taking drugs", believing them to be a medicine; Buffy was infused against her will. But that's technicalities. The point is that they are affected, and it's part of the plot.
The exact nature of the drug is unclear. Here's how I see it: the drug has turned Buffy into a slightly upgraded cave!Buffy - "Boy smell nice. Want boy." - but in a less obvious manner. Buffy still can make choices that override her instincts, but only in extreme situations, like when she saw her sister and her friends in mortal danger. Buffy still loves her friends. She is protective of her tribe (slayers). But her primal urge is to copulate and procreate. So that's what she and Angel do: procreate Twilight. Cavemen win.
Angel's out of the picture, but he promised to return soon. He better. So far, Bangel arc has disappointed me, because Joss missed a chance to explore a really interesting conflict here. Clash of wills, conflict of personalities. On TV, Buffy and Angel were such fascinating characters. Joss could write an awesome story about them - about love and duty, about hard decisions and impossible choices. But he pursued titillation instead of conflict, created IWRY on steroids - a story about Angel making decisions for Buffy's good. Plus, porn. What a waste. But if Angel will be back, there may be a conflict, after all. We'll see.
-- Spike's ship and the crew. So far, the most extravagant explanation I read is that Joss wanted to depict "Spike shippers" as ugly green bugs. 🙂)))) But, seriously, why alien bugs? My impression is that Joss pursued two goals: 1) to cut off any parallels to Serenity, to avoid the temptation to reinvent Firefly characters in the new setting and 2) to show that Spike has been very, very far away and had a lot of problems of his own to be well-posted on Buffy's situation.
-- Jeanty draws fantabulicious Spike's close-ups. His general plans are usually static and can't compare to Urru's fluid and dynamic style, but his close-ups have just the right balance of likeness and stylization.
-- "Full steam ahead, Bug One!" -- "I'm Bug Three." This is so Joss. Even a throwaway line contains so many layers. Apparently, the bug sees his number as a name. He doesn't want to be called Bug One. He is Bug Three and proud of it. Am I stretching or this is Joss' comment on endless debates who's number one in Buffy's heart?
-- Looks like Andrew is alive and okay again. Apparently Willow has magically healed him. Yay!
And, finally...
-- The Master. Ta-dam! The evil has a face, after all.
If I understand the situation correctly, it was The Master who was manipulating Buffy and Angel all along. Somehow his dust turned into flesh (again!) and he decided to avenge that pesky cheerleader who destroyed him, and that insolent vampire who took his beloved Darla away. Also, to create the evil Twilight dimension for fun and pleasure. Most likely The Master is still stuck in the Hellmouth like Vinnie-the-Pooh in Piglet's house, so he schemes from there, using The Seed - the ultimate magic artifact that can do anything: to pluck Angel from the apocalyptic place he was, to give him superpowers, to imprint The Master's scheming self into the dog, the stewardess, Whistler, people in the park who talked to Angel. The only thing The Seed can't do is to get The Master out.
Of course, I may be wrong - the actual Big Bad is the Universe, after all - and The Master is "the old enemy" who becomes Buffy's ally. At first sight, The Master's only line in #36 suggests that he has something Buffy needs - which indirectly supports "Big Bad Universe" theory. (But isn't Joss a master of misleads? And the line is written in "Twilight" font.)
Another indirect argument in "Big Bad Universe" favor: Spike talks about the Twilight dimension as an alive, intelligent species ("ditched at birth [...] come looking for mummy.") So, yes, maybe Joss got interested in the theory of biocosm - "Avatar" made it pretty popular - and applied it to season 8.
But let's look at the situation from the outside.
Evil has to have a face. Comic is a visual medium. An abstract Big Bad kills the intrigue. But if "Big Bad Universe" was a smoke screen to distract us from The Master, then everything falls into place. The lameness of "Big Bad Universe" suddenly makes sense - it is supposed to be lame and far-fetched, because it's not true. It's not the universe who wanted to create Twilight to redress the balance; it's a concrete person who wanted to destroy Buffy and used the laws of the Universe to reach his goal.
If this person is The Master, then the conflict becomes really juicy. Buffy isn't struggling against a nebulous concept. She fights an old enemy. Whom she killed twice (in Prophecy Girl and When She Was Bad). Who killed her twice (in Prophecy Girl and The Wish). Who hates her guts because she has ruined the Clan of Aurelius. Angel, Darla, Spike - The Master has lost them because of her. And he wants revenge. For him, it's about his family - and the girl who has destroyed it. He's a high-octane Holtz - upside down and inside out.
It's personal. It's visceral. It's exciting. It's simultaneously intimate and epic. Because such twist firmly connects season 8 with the show's mythology from all the 12 seasons of BtVS and AtS.
Of course, the question remains how The Master was brought back. Is there anybody behind him? A real puppeteer?
I doubt that Joss will introduce another Big Bad that late. Besides, Angel, the Universe and The Master - who could surpass these three?
Here's an idea about The Master's resurrection. In issue #34 we learned that space-frak created several events in the past and the future: Willow regaining her powers, Fray turning into the slayer. Could The Master's resurrection be the consequence of the space-frak? Then his primary goal was to make space-frak happen so that he could get resurrected. (It's pretty non-sensical, but time-travel doesn't make sense, period.) In any case, The Master has turned Angel into his puppet, using an old prophecy about The Twilight and appealing to Angel's ego and his desire to protect Buffy. Maybe he kept Angel in a dreamspace dimension and fed him nightmares to weaken his will and then sent him back confused and devastated.
The Master's plan goes smoothly until Spike's arrival - which is purely accidental; our Glorious Leader couldn't miss the chance to knock down Big Ben. The Master expects Angel to bring Buffy to him, like The Anointed One did in Prophecy Girl. Instead, Buffy arrives with Spike in tow. Replacing one vampire with another will most likely be the crucial factor for turning the tables in Buffy's favor (I don't see any other reason to send Angel away and deprive us from Spangel snark).
The only way to stop The Master is to break The Seed. The consequence: the end of all magic on Earth. After mucho angst, arguments and maybe fighting they'll finally break it and Buffy will get rid of the Twilight drug. She'll realise that the bestest day in her life is not-so-bestest and she'll break down (as shown in the flashback in #10).
What next? Up to this issue I was almost sure that season will end with Angel sending Buffy to hell to save the world, but, given Angel's departure, it's highly unlikely. There is a couple of interesting set-ups in the first arc, "The Long Way Home", that could echo in the last arc: Ethan Rayne's dreamspace and the kiss of true love.
And I'm sure that there will be surprises. Surprises that will make complete sense as soon as we accept them. The Master's return was a big surprise. But now, when The Master is here, the idea to bring his back seems pretty obvious from a writer's POV. The Master is the patriarch of the Aurelian clan - and he was killed off before the vampire mythology of the verse became really interesting and personalized. Most likely The Master has been growing and developing in Joss' mind as long as he was creating Angel and Darla's backstory - and finally, the creator found a way to play with a previously neglected character and give him his due.
Great idea by One True b!X - that the Twilight symbol is an upside down Sunnydale crater and the star is the Seed. Another reminder how carefully the season was plotted.
Another interesting idea - by heidishambles: that the real Anointed One is Angel, not the boy from season 1. The prophecy reads: "And there will be a time of crisis, of worlds hanging in the balance. And in this time shall come the Anointed, the Master's great warrior... The Five will die, and from their ashes the Anointed shall rise. The Brethren of Aurelius shall meet him and usher him to his immortal destiny. ...the Slayer will not know him, will not stop him, and he will lead her into hell."
"From the ashes of five" - Doyle, Cordelia, Wesley, Fred, Gunn?
