Week 17: Season 9 #16-20

[Buffy Summers]

This week we are discussing Buffy Season 9, volume 4 (issues #16-20).

"Welcome to the Team, Part I"
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Georges Jeanty
Buffy takes on the zompire epidemic in San Francisco with new allies—the SFPD and Billy the Vampire Slayer! Just as Buffy finds contentment in her life, she's torn from routine battle and forced to confront an ancient demon from her former lover's past!

"Welcome to the Team, Part II"
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Georges Jeanty
Ripped from the middle of a zompire battle, Buffy finds herself face to face with Illyria and a mystical council in LA. She's been unwillingly recruited to take down a former enemy while her friends in San Francisco are left in a Buffy-less lurch with dire consequences...

"Welcome to the Team, Part III"
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Georges Jeanty
The remnants of magic left on earth are in danger... The Siphon is back, and he's more charged than ever before as he takes out one magical being after another, absorbing their power. Pulled into this battle to save the world—again—Buffy is partnered with Koh and Illyria to put a stop Severin.

"Welcome to the Team, Part IV"
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Georges Jeanty
The Siphon is loose and gathering power after a brutal brawl with Buffy, Illyria, and Koh. But there are bigger things. More important things. Real terror greets Buffy as soon as she returns to San Francisco, where friends and family await her with troubling news.

"The Watcher"
Writer: Andrew Chambliss Penciller: Karl Moline
The loss of the world’s magic has finally hit Buffy. Hard. As friends and family continue to fall, Buffy is helpless... and Xander is beyond fed up with helplessness—and Buffy! He is so finally ready to do something about it!

Source: Wikipedia

What did you think?

 

[Priceless]

Some enjoyable bits in this volume, which was very much centred on Xander and his anger issues. This is the first time we really see Xander over-react and show some violent tendencies, and it was quite shocking to see him slapping the medicine bottle out of Dawn's hand, but she dealt with it so well, it just made me even more of a Dander shipper

The panel of Dawn in the hospital bed was so sad. You realise how much trouble she's in when the person Xander thinks to go to for help is Andrew. Xander is obviously not in his right mind I couldn't help feeling sorry for Buffy when she learns that Dawn is dying and it's because she destroyed the seed, though she doesn't wallow.

I'm not totally invested in Billy, Anaheed or Dowling, so their stories aren't that interesting to me, though they do move the story along. I like Severin as the baddie, he's more interesting than the 'new scoobies', except Koh, who appears once again to assist.

The Watcher was better than Welcome to the Team, as it was totally from Xanders perspective and gives real insight into how his feelings overwhelm him and he and beats Angel to a pulp, which was wonderfully graphic.

It is funny when Xander refuses to speak to Buffy and used Andrew as a go-between, and this issue can use a bit of comedy as it's very dark. And here comes witchy Willow to save the day

 

[sosa lola]

Thoughts on S9 #20 The Watcher:

Xander always had anger issues. He always reacts to unpleasant incidents or suggestions by shouting and throwing sharp comments - a habit he must have picked up from home. But it was always talk (except in Entropy), Xander was never really physically violent until a possessed Angel kills Giles. I also feel the reason he started having frequent anger fits in S9 was because of the way he keeps bottling up his feelings whenever he loses someone/something so precious like Jesse, Buffy, his eye, Anya, Renee and eventually Giles. Giles was the last straw. Adding to that his feeling of helplessness, watching those people dear to him be killed and not doing anything about it: Seeing Red, Buffy (almost) and Tara. And in S8 Giles.

(S9 #20) Xander: “I went down there to make a difference. But I didn’t. I’ve watched a lot of people die. Tara. Anya. Renee. Giles. But that’s what I do. Watch. Watch. Watch. It builds up in you. Hides in you. Becomes part of you. You don’t even know it’s there. Until it finally makes you do something besides watch.”

Xander’s violent physical attacks were triggered by Giles’ death on the hands of Angel. I loved his line “You always have an excuse” when Angel tells him that Twilight made him do it. However, unlike becoming a vampire and losing his soul which were things Angel had no control over, Angel chose to follow Twilight. So I feel that Xander pummeling him to a bloody pulp was justified.

I also loved Buffy stopping him from killing Angel and telling him that she didn’t want to lose Xander, which parallels Xander telling Buffy that he didn’t wanna a lose her when she was getting ready to murder Faith. That was a nice continuity there.

 

[wickedwillow]

Thoughts on S9 #20 The Watcher: I also loved Buffy stopping him from killing Angel and telling him that she didn’t want to lose Xander, which parallels Xander telling Buffy that he didn’t wanna a lose her when she was getting ready to murder Faith. That was a nice continuity there.

That's a really good observation that I missed the first time around. It made me think of when Gunn does cross the line and kill a human and even though he does it for Fred it ends their relationship as he isn't the man she loved any more.