Not too impressed with this installment, the art or the story. Andrew's reference to House was funny, and Buffy's "What the hell dimension" line was too, but otherwise, it flopped. ( )

Nice to meet new folks in a more personal fashion again. Especially nice to see old friends. I always liked Fred, and now after the trying together of these plot threads, the shaping of our new big bad feels significantly more significant. Thank goodness. Or oh crap. Take your pick. ( )

Solid Buffy comic; the best so far of season 9. A new-and-different Scooby gang is out hunting (new and different) vampires; Billy and cop dude (Donovan?) have grown on me as characters. Illyria reappears, which is always fun. The Siphon plots advances in an unexpected fashion. And poor Dawn! ( )

4.5

*Book source ~ Library

From Goodreads:
Buffy is unwillingly recruited by the demon Illyria and a mystical council to take down the Siphon—for good. He is on the loose again, and a danger to all remnants of magic! Meanwhile, back home the loss of magic has begun to affect those closest to Buffy . . . Collect issues #16-#20 of Season 9.

I’ve been waiting forever and a day for this volume to show up at the library. I’ve read the rest of Season 9, so this one fills in the gap of what’s going on with Dawn. I still hate Xander, no surprise there. Love Buffy and the motley crew she’s collected, but I miss Spike so much. *sigh* But Illyria and Eldre Koh are here. Yay! The artwork is decent except for Andrew. He looks zero like he’s supposed to. I can’t even tell it’s him until someone calls him by name or he says something geeky. That Siphon is a piece of work and Simone is a real cunt nugget. All-in-all, I love this instalment of the Buffyverse. ( )

The Good: Xander makes you care about Dawn. That's what we remaining skeptical fans have needed since the moment Dawn appeared in the series. A reason to care about her. She's grown up some, but she's still, at heart, the annoying little sister we all wish had never been introduced. Her relationship with Xander is the only thing that makes her likable, but at least we have that now. Xander is still full of his flaws, the one character that never evolves past his episode, always reverting back to default mode come the next. This graphic novel stays true to that, as annoying as it may be. We see him once again contemplating questionable things based on emotion over logic.

The Bad: The artwork is getting laughable. I mean, look at that cover. Clearly Buffy. Clearly Xander in black and white at the bottom. Obviously the artists have a grasp on what the characters are supposed to look like. Then on the inside we get rushed cartoony nonsense that barely resemble the characters. I couldn't identify Buffy in more than a few panels. Xander is slightly better, but the eye patch is a pretty big tip off. Judge for yourself.

{see blog for photos}

Not good. ( )