WriterCon Counting Down...and S8 BtVS Comics

[liz_marcs]

Can't sleep.

Part of it is the heat.

The other part is my soopah sekrit late-night mission to an undisclosed location to get the mucho photocopying I needed to get done of my talking points and my samples for the writecon panels I'm on. This mission is now completed and I managed to get all my copies done without resorting to spending cold, hard cash.

I fear the airport weigh-in of my luggage.

Anyway, I've been stressing out about getting everything set before I leave. I'm not an OCD perfectionist control freak. No. Not at all. The fact that I drive a 5-speed manual transmission car because I like having control over my automobile is not at all proof of that. Nope. Nosiree.

The pre-writercon checklist

• George is being babysat by the 'rents. Check.
  
• Prepared for my WriterCon panels. Check.
  
• Photocopying done. Check.
  
• Materials prepared for the writercon library. Check.
  
• Multi-Fandom Character Mini-Soundtracks done and uploaded. Check
  
• Latest part for Facing the Heart of Darkness ready to go. Unh, maybe. Depends on my day tomorrow. It's been hard getting two hours to rub together in the past few weeks and the second half is a bit of a mess.
  

Now all I've got to do is laundry, packing, and straightening the house before I head off to Atlanta. Yayness!

Looks like I may be the earliest of early birds. I'm wandering into the airport around 1:15 p.m., way ahead of the people who are sharing my ride into Logan International. Damn. I'm gonna probably miss meeting up with one or two writercon people from my area who are also departing Logan, since they'll be on the same flight as ponderslife.


So, on that note, I apologize to anyone who's sent me email in the past week or so. I've been juggling three billion things, not to mention working late at my RL job so I could finish what I needed to do.

On another front, everyone's all a-twitter about the S8 Buffy comics that are coming out end of this year or the beginning of next.

I admit that I'm somewhat ambivalent on this front.

For starters, what happens in the comics is going to have zero impact on anything I write in the fanfic. I consider the comics to be "secondary" canon, if that.

By the same token, I'm a little nervous because like most Xander fans out there, I'm just a little jumpy about what they're going to do to my fave character. On the one hand, I fear that they're going to put a bullet in his brain, metaphorically speaking. I'm kind of hoping that the buttmonkey Xander we saw in Tales of the Vampires from Dark Horse is completely ignored and relegated to the memory hole. If reference is made to it, I'm hoping it turns out that it's a fake Xander or something, if only to explain Buffy's nasty attitude towards Xander when she rescues him and that the real Xander never was anywhere near ol' Drac.

What's a little heartening at least is that at least some fans in the threads about the comic book are hoping for an adult, competent Xander to show up in the S8 books. It seems like there are as many of those people as there are people hoping for a reasonable explanation for 'The Girl in Question' from S5 Angel. Here's hoping that Joss Whedon sees it the same way was the fans.

But like I said, I kind of view the comic books with a healthy dose of caution. Given the shit treatment Xander had for the last two years of the television series, I don't actually have too much hope that the comic books will treat him any better.

*covers eyes*

You guys will tell me if it's good or bad, right? And you'll tell me if you've heard anything good or bad, right?

If it's good, I might even consider spending money on the comics. If it's bad, I'm staying far, far away.

Comments

[invisionary.livejournal.com]

For starters, what happens in the comics is going to have zero impact on anything I write in the fanfic. I consider the comics to be "secondary" canon, if that.

I don't consider the comics to be canon at all. Even if they are written by Joss.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Wise move.

Especially is (HAH!) there's a reunion movie/television series at some point down the road, I suspect that the comics will be roundly ignored, even if Joss has his sticky fingerprints all over everything.

Didn't he recently come out and say that Fray was an AU future for the Buffy-verse after spending years claiming that it was the canon future?

[invisionary.livejournal.com]

Well now it's looking all but certain that the only way we might ever see Buffy on TV again is with a "re-imagining" of the series ten or twenty years down the road, ala Battlestar Galactica, and if that happens, I doubt the comics will even be a blip on the radar screen of anyone involved. And I doubt that they're going to make much of a splash today. The only ones who might care about them are going to be the hard-core fans of the series, and a lot of them don't even seem to be interested.

I mean, it's possible that they could be a big hit, but I don't see it.

And about Fray, I don't know what the current status is on that. I never paid any attention to it, to be honest.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I never followed Fray either because I honestly had no interest.

I'm vaguely interested in the S8 comics, if only to see if they'll rehabilitate the Scoobs, but beyond that, I'm "eeeeehhhhh" about it. I've read some of the Whedon versions of the X-men and I'm not impressed with what he's done with them at all. True, I hadn't read the X-men in years, but frankly I hate what he's done with Kitty (my favorite X-man) and the dynamics of the group, while never terrifically healthy, have become downright dysfunctional.

And anyone who says functional teams and/or characters are boring, I just want to point to Homicide and Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 to but the kibbosh on that. Sure, maybe there were personality conflicts, but the characters in those series were very competent at their jobs (most of the time) and generally treated each other professionally.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Didn't he recently come out and say that Fray was an AU future for the Buffy-verse after spending years claiming that it was the canon future?

Not to be dense, but what's the difference? The whole canon-versus-non-canon thing with the comic books confuses me.

Also, commenting on further down the thread, I'm curious what you don't like about Joss's Kitty Pryde

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

Not to be dense, but what's the difference?

Fray kinda makes explicit references to how Buffy ends. Namely jumping into a portal while fighting some super evil and taking all the magic with her.

Saying it's canon means we already know how Buffy's journey ends, it's kinda like S5.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

In Joss's world, Kitty Pryde is basically Mutant!Buffy complete with Buffy-speak.

Having actually been a fan of Kitty Pryde since her first appearance, and having followed her across several comic book series and mini-series, I can tell you that Kitty was a very well-definted character. Her character managed to stay fairly consistent across multiple writers and multiple series.

Joss comes along and has her speaking Buffy-speak, gives her Buffy's issues (wait, she's still in love with Colosus, her first boyfriend who unceremoniously dumped her years ago? Unh, bzzzt, sorry, no.), and basically makes her Buffy-Lite.

So, ummm, yeah, not thrilled at all with what he did with her.

[saturn-girl.livejournal.com]

IIRC, Whedon says he doesn't read the comics or novels, so I don't think he'll reference anything from previous DH comics in his series.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Please, here's hoping. I would kill, positively kill for a "competent and adult Xander" storyline out of Joss. I would even pay money (as in pay for the comic books) to see it.

Not that I expect to get it because Joss *ptui* gives us what we "need" and not what we "want."

Bleh.

At least we've got the neo-BSG coming in Octobner. Squeeeeee!

[saturn-girl.livejournal.com]

I just saw the BSG trailer for S3 and it looks freaking awesome.

BTW, when you go pick up your Buffy S8 comic, might I also recommend taking a peek at Marvel's Runaways trade paperbacks. One of the characters, Chase, has a lot of Xander like qualities which make me heart him very much.

Hangs out with a lot of superchicks.
No powers of his own, but still has big heroic moments.
Really crappy parents.
Huge heart, usually worn on his sleeve.
Has a very snarky girlfriend who calls all the shots.
Dare I say it? He's...academically challenged. :)

[rileysaplank.livejournal.com]

I'm very Meh! about the comics as well, and that's with me having got the Fray comics as well. I just don;t think they'll really add anything to the mythos of BtVS.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I agree. I'm not sure they'll add to the mythos either. I honestly wasn't all that impressed with Fray when it first came out (I flipped through it in the comic shop), and the unweildy delays between issues was not thrilling to me. I had originally planned to buy the trade paperback, but by the time the series was over, I lost what little interest I had in reading it.

[huzzlewhat.livejournal.com]

You know, I think it's just as likely that Xander won't appear at all — is written out somehow, than is given a prominent butt-monkey role. Joss isn't going to have to deal with the fact that he has the actor under contract. If he's tired of the character, and has no more stories for him, what's to say he has to include him at all?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

According to the comic book artist Georges Jeanty (I think I read this on Whedeonesque), Xander is definitely in it.

In fact, Xander's one of the first characters Jeanty was working on designing.

So yeah, the character is definitely showing. From what I understand, there's 20 "season 8" comics, but they'll be broken out into a series of mini-series each focusing on a different Scoob. Joss is only writting the first series dedicated to Buffy, the others are getting farmed out to other writers.

George Jeanty

[xxmagex.livejournal.com]

I don't know this artist, what other works has he done?

[huzzlewhat.livejournal.com]

This is what I get for being completely out of the loop — I get to look like an idiot! Publicly! ;-)

Hee.

Anyway. I guess I'll just hope for the best. If Xander does get a miniseries dedicated to him, he can't be a complete write-off, can he?

Season 8 Comics

[xxmagex.livejournal.com]

I must admit I have made a point of not reading the comics recently. I read a few of Dark Horses back in 2002/2003 and they weren't really all the entertaining to me.

Still I'm not too torn up with them coming out because-
1) I won't read them, unless everyone on my friends list start saying they're the greatest thing ever.- It's unlikely they'll try to repair the damage done by seasons 6 & 7, since the PTBs that be still don't quite realize that damage was done, so I'll take a pass.

2)Realistically, they're not really going to be all that much tied into Canon. I remember the Star Trek comics from the early 80s. They said those were canon, but the moment they started working on Star Trek III, out the window they went. TV and feature films trumps books and movies.

3) The impact on any potential reunion show/movie will have to take into account the feelings and attitudes of the actors. If SMG doesn't like it, it won't happen. She can't be happy with any project that treats season 7 as a template of how to proceed. Unhappy actor who doesn't need the money (can anyone say Grudge)does not sign on to the project responsible for their unhappiness.

Re: Season 8 Comics

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Oh, without a doubt I know the comics will get tossed if there's ever anything resembling a televised/movie follow-up.

It seems pretty clear that just about all of the Buffy-verse actors (ASH I think being the only exception) and DB and CC from Angel have zero interest right now in diving back into Whedon's world, regardless of how well or not well their careers are going.

If it ever happens (which I highly, highly doubt) it'll be years from now. It's more likely to be a "next generation" thing ala Star Trek and Dr. Who than anything else. I don't think a "re-imagining" thing ala BSG would work because Buffy and Angel were slightly too popular and ran too long. The only reason why a "re-imagining" worked in BSG's case was because BSG was a unique situation (old show, ran only one season, original series had a bad rep).

A "re-union" mini-series or movie I think is down there near a nil chance because I honestly don't think they'll ever get all the actors they want back, especially if their careers heat up or stay hot as the case may be. I also think some of the actors who do have hot careers are going to want their characters to be slightly different than what they were in S6 and S7. I think there's waaaaay to much water under that bridge to make it work, especially given the stuff some of the actors have let slip in the years since the show(s) have been off the air.

So, yeah. I think the comics will be conveniently forgotten if the franchise ever gets revived in any other media format.

Re: Season 8 Comics

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

ran only one season
You dissing BSG S2, the 1980's episodes that are set on Earth? :)

Also, come on, this is Whedon we're talking about. Him saying something is canon means nothing, since he doesn't really believe in consistency trumping whatever story he's trying to tell. The only way the story will become canon, real canon, is if it's such a hit that future fans expect it as a part of their character's backstory, and even then, it's iffy, since many "important" issues got swept under the rug in regular BTVS.

Whedon's World

[xxmagex.livejournal.com]

Who says it will be Whedon's World?

Seriously, IIRC, the creative control of BtVS is actually held by 20th Century Fox. I can see the situation down the road about 5 years or so where JW may find his influence with them on a potential reunion movie is minuscule, compared to SMG's influence (Compare box office receipts for The Grudge versus the Firefly movie). Look at happened over at the Andromeda TV show where Kevin Sorbo edged out the executive producer over conflict concerning story arcs and character development. (okay, maybe don't look considering the quality of the show after the coup- but you know what I mean.)

The odds are slim, but I know what I'm rooting for.

Buffy the Next Generation? Hmmmmm Interesting image. Hogwarts with Vampires? :)

Franky Who Cares?

[keith5by5.livejournal.com]

Xander is decent, normal, and full of good qualities. A man who makes mistakes but tries his hardest. A true hero.

The sort of person Whedon is completely incapable of writing. Wether it's through a lack of talent or emotional depth or a rejection of all the qualities that makes Xander what he is, I have no idea.

Re: Franky Who Cares?

[set-aka-ian.livejournal.com]

[quote] Xander is decent, normal, and full of good qualities. A man who makes mistakes but tries his hardest. A true hero.

The sort of person Whedon is completely incapable of writing. [/quote]

Pretty much sums up his portrayal of Cyclops in his Astonishing run.

He's been the freaking team-leader for years, bossing around the likes of Storm, who spent her teenaged years being a *goddess,* and has hardly spent a night since he was *sixteen* without one incredibly hot super-powered babe or another in his bed, and now he's been Jossed into a pathetic loser crippled by his own insecurities who was awarded the team-leader position by Xavier because he was afraid poor widdle Scotty didn't have any other reason to live...

My bile surges like the tides.

Re: Franky Who Cares?

[skipp-of-ark.livejournal.com]

Hey, let's not forget how the "Kitty Discovers Colossus is Alive and Being Held Prisoner for Scientific Experiments" scene read like repackaged "Buffy Discovers Angel is Alive and Released from Hell" from that S3 episode, complete with Shirtless Hero who Collapses at the Heroine's Feet, Crying.

Or how Joss's second Astonishing arc basically painted Professor Xavier as a massive hypocrite who knowingly ignored the sentient intelligence developing in the Danger Room alien computers for the sake of training the X-Men, or, How Joss Managed to Incorporate His Issues with Fathers and Father Figures.

Re: Franky Who Cares?

[keith5by5.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know, after two and a half eps of Firefly, I firmly intend to stay away from anything Joss Whedon related. The more I see, the more I'm convinced Greenwhalt was the true talent.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, my god. Ever since I found out that the comics mostly will come out this week, I've been anxious about it. And just like you I'm nervous about Xander's arc, especially if they make him to go to Africa. Unlike you though, I have decided to consider it canon, cuz it has the label of being S8 on it, and it will probably serve as background for future, post NTA, comics about something Joss already has in his mind. And because it coincided with AS5 I have consider it canon. Also because its Joss who will make up the arclines.

Koos