#buffy comic

A Buffy Reboot #6

Now introducing Willow.

High School is Hell by Jordie Bellaire, Dan Mora, Raul Angulo. Rating: 2.5 stars.

Read on July 13th.

So, I don’t know if anyone else is having trouble with GoodReads right now, but for me it’s really acting up. Soooo, this review is probably getting posted well after I’ve finished this one. I am a huge Buffy fan and I loved the idea of Buffy in a current setting. And someone on BookTube who is a huge Buffy fan has read this and really recommended it so I thought it would be good. And oh boy did I not agree with that person at all.

First, I have to say that I’m not huge in the comic and graphic novel section of books. I find one every now and again that I enjoy but on the whole this isn’t my favorite Genre to read. Second, this art style is just...not great. Some things that have obviously gotten more time dedicated to them look absolutely gorgeous (I’ll have a post with some photos up soon), but on the whole the art is bad. I don’t know if these characters are supposed to be stylized like the ones in the Buffy TV show, but if they are then it’s just really not it. The characters only look like the ones from the show when it’s a real close up frame of them and they’ve obviously taken a lot of time to make them look good. Thirdly, I don’t like how the story is so obviously pulling all of the major players/plot lines from the show. We have a young Robin Wood who we don’t even meet until season 7, Spike and Drusilla are there already, Angel is briefly seen lurking in the shadows, Anya owns a magic shop already, and stuff like that.

I also like that it seems like Buffy's love interest is going to be a young Robin Wood and not Angel. As much as I love both characters, I'm sure the writers are cognizant of how in today's age, a 16 year old girl dating an older, in fact a 200+ year older man, would be seen as problematic moreso than in 1996.

One of the biggest changes so far is probably Cordelia's personality. Still confident and debatably arrogant and characteristically blunt but this Cordy is a sweet, kind and thoughtful person off the bat. Probably to skew away from the kind of tired '90s high school mean girl head cheerleader trope.

Xander struggling w depression in this verse is definitely an improvement to the very unlikable traits that Xander had especially in the early seasons of Buffy that went mostly unacknowledged in the show and only recently being talked about

Willow already being in a relationship w a girl is A+ and Giles' character seems to be viewed as younger or "hot dad librarian" by the characters in comparison to being the old fuddy duddy in the show and seems to be more young acting in nature or just less comically old acting.

What's also interesting is that Dru seems to be in her right mind and Spike seems not to be her lover but her pretty boy right hand vamp. I also liked Anya's early introduction and that she's a neutral witch in this verse instead of a vengeance demon-and that she already owns the magic shop, that just seems to fit.