Almost as entertaining as reading the “Buffy” Season 8 comics is reading Scott Allie’s From the Editor pieces on the Dark Horse Web site. In a January editorial, he apologized profusely to fans for Dark Horse’s accidental leakage of the identity of season-long villain Twilight when advance covers of Issue No. 34 were released online showing — SPOILER ALERT
— that Twilight is Angel.
Personally, I don’t relate to the whole spoiler and spoiler-alert phenomenon. Sure, I prefer not to know what’s going to happen before I see/read an episode/movie/issue/book, but if I accidentally find out, it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the product all that much.
Generally, if someone tells me what happens in a TV episode or comic book before I get to it, I don’t see it as the end of the world. I’m not all about WHAT happens, I’m more about WHY and HOW something happens. That is, after all, the essence of storytelling.
I learned that Twilight is Angel the way it was intended by the writers: By turning from page 13 to page 14 of Issue No. 33. And I’m glad of that, but what really matters is whether this is a good story twist or not.
I think the “Buffy” writers are on to something here. We don’t yet know why Angel took up the Twilight guise, how responsible he is for evils that have been attributed to Twilight, or why he felt now was the right time to reveal himself to Buffy. Those are all fascinating questions, and these questions (the why and how, rather than the what) are the reasons I’ll be picking up forthcoming issues.
I like Angel’s initial explanation to an angry/confused Buffy that a villain was necessary so Buffy and her Slayer army would have something to focus on.
Angel (speaking to Buffy): “The mask, the cult … It wasn’t just to distract the bad guys. It was to focus YOU, too. To push you to be what you’ve become.”
I’ve always believed in the old adage that heroes are defined by the villains they face. Were Buffy simply slaying run-of-the-mill vampires every Tuesday night, she wouldn’t be so iconic; she would merely be a video-game protagonist. And it’s no coincidence that the best seasons of “Buffy” correspond precisely with the best “big bads” of “Buffy.” As I see it, from best to worse, the season order is 3, 2, 6, 5, 1, 4, 7, and the villain order is Mayor/Faith, Angelus/Spike/Dru, Trio/Dark Willow, Glory, The Master, The Initiative/Adam and The First.
Season 8 has had good character developments (Xander and Dawn getting together being the highlight), and the potential of Buffy and Angel rekindling their old flame would blow everything away. But what’s really important is that a memorable villain must emerge, whether it’s Angel himself (very doubtful) or something Angel knows about that he will explain to Buffy in upcoming issues.
Now as for this Buffy-and-Angel thing, I’ve always been a fan. I don’t know if I believe in soulmates in a real-world sense — indeed, it’s such a tenuous, idealized concept that even my spell check doesn’t recognize “soulmates” as a word — but I certainly do when I’m watching a TV show. A TV show is a version of reality with the mundane stuff edited out, and only the emotional stuff is kept in. So every scene between Buffy and Angel in the first three seasons of “Buffy” is charged with love and lust and longing — we never see them, for example, when the conversation turns to something boring, like groceries or the weather. Once they’ve said all the interesting things, the scene ends.
I’ve always subscribed to the “Buffy and Angel as soulmates” theory, even when it was unpopular during the Buffy-Spike days. Heck, even during the Angel-Cordelia days, Buffy-Angel ‘shippers were criticized for being hopelessly naïve about romance and not understanding how mature relationships work. (Although it was a valid criticism, it only made me latch onto the Buffy-Angel ideal even more.)
So, yeah, I’m excited to see how this plays out, although it kind of takes some suspense out of the “Angel” comic book. The timeline for the TV shows was always clear because they took place in real time. But “Buffy” Season 8 does not take place concurrent with “Angel” Season 5 (the one season of “Angel” that aired after “Buffy” ended). Rather, the entire “Angel” comic book series — including the stories being told right now — seems to take place before “Buffy” Season 8.
Also of potential concern is my belief that Buffy and Angel living happily ever after should mark the end of the story. I don’t want “Buffy” to end just yet. It’s bad enough that there’s no “Buffy” or “Angel” on TV anymore; I’d hate to see the comic end, too.
At any rate, what we’re seeing in the “Buffy” comic is something I suspected ever since “To Shanshu in L.A.,” the Season 1 finale of “Angel”: That the writers would find a way for Angel to transcend his gypsy curse and vampire nature and have a normal relationship with a human being, namely Buffy. The twist is that both Angel and Buffy are further from normal human beings than they’ve ever been — Buffy, for example, can fly now.
But whatever. They still have the same personalities, so they are still Buffy and Angel. And even if I had heard about it via a spoiler rather than via reading, I’d still be excited about this story.