theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Gore, and War
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Adult/minor relationship
gorybmovie's review
4.0
Time of Your Life
Buffy meets Fray! I’ve been waiting for this moment since I first read the Fray comic book limited series in 2001. Willow sends Buffy on a mission from a mysterious source that takes her to New York and throws her through a time rift to the future. Seeing Buffy and Fray fight was awesome particularly because both slayers fight with the mystical scythe. The scythe originated in the Fray comics and was given to Buffy in season seven of the television show. Nice to see that detail come full circle. Also, as you can tell by the cover, this arc marks the return of Dark Willow. She is an older, wiser force to be reckoned with than she was in season six and this time Xander is not around to help Buffy.
Xander is stuck with Dawn in present day Scottland standing with Dawn against an attack on the castle. Dawn continues to go through changes in this arc as well. Literally. But hey, at least she’s not a giant anymore.
Time of your Life also features appearances from many characters from season seven including Willow’s love interest, Kennedy (or as I call her Not-Tara) and Vi, who was played by Felicia Day on the show back before the red-headed actress became a household name.
I was very pleased to see that Karl Moline, who illustrated the Fray comic book series, returned to draw this arc. He did a fantastic job and it was amazing to see Fray and future Manhattan, or Haddyn as it’s called, return to the Buffyverse.
After These Messages...We'll Be Right Back!
Back in 2002, a BTVS animated series was greenlit. The show would have been in the same vein as Batman: The Animated Series. Unfortunately, none of the networks bought the show. It was a shame really because many of the actors from the series had planned to return to voice their parts and the animation looked fantastic (similar to the Batman series). The series was set during the first season of the show back when the Scooby Gang was still in high school and Buffy’s primary foes were vampires. In After These Messages we get to see what an episode from the animated series would have looked like.
In this issue, Buffy gets some much-needed sleep and dreams of her life not long after she first moved to Sunnydale. I loved this. It was so nice to see Buffy with her mom again, to see Buffy and Angel, and computer hacker Willow. This one-shot brings to light how much Buffy has changed over the years and is a nice bit of nostalgia for fans of the show.
Buffy meets Fray! I’ve been waiting for this moment since I first read the Fray comic book limited series in 2001. Willow sends Buffy on a mission from a mysterious source that takes her to New York and throws her through a time rift to the future. Seeing Buffy and Fray fight was awesome particularly because both slayers fight with the mystical scythe. The scythe originated in the Fray comics and was given to Buffy in season seven of the television show. Nice to see that detail come full circle. Also, as you can tell by the cover, this arc marks the return of Dark Willow. She is an older, wiser force to be reckoned with than she was in season six and this time Xander is not around to help Buffy.
Xander is stuck with Dawn in present day Scottland standing with Dawn against an attack on the castle. Dawn continues to go through changes in this arc as well. Literally. But hey, at least she’s not a giant anymore.
Time of your Life also features appearances from many characters from season seven including Willow’s love interest, Kennedy (or as I call her Not-Tara) and Vi, who was played by Felicia Day on the show back before the red-headed actress became a household name.
I was very pleased to see that Karl Moline, who illustrated the Fray comic book series, returned to draw this arc. He did a fantastic job and it was amazing to see Fray and future Manhattan, or Haddyn as it’s called, return to the Buffyverse.
After These Messages...We'll Be Right Back!
Back in 2002, a BTVS animated series was greenlit. The show would have been in the same vein as Batman: The Animated Series. Unfortunately, none of the networks bought the show. It was a shame really because many of the actors from the series had planned to return to voice their parts and the animation looked fantastic (similar to the Batman series). The series was set during the first season of the show back when the Scooby Gang was still in high school and Buffy’s primary foes were vampires. In After These Messages we get to see what an episode from the animated series would have looked like.
In this issue, Buffy gets some much-needed sleep and dreams of her life not long after she first moved to Sunnydale. I loved this. It was so nice to see Buffy with her mom again, to see Buffy and Angel, and computer hacker Willow. This one-shot brings to light how much Buffy has changed over the years and is a nice bit of nostalgia for fans of the show.
peter_xxx's review
3.0
This episode in season 8 of buffy is written by Whedon again. It is also a crossover with his Fray graphic novel. It has been a long time since I read the Fay graphic novel, so I was a bit unclear on all those characters.
The good thing about this book is that Whedon is the master in the sort of dialogue used in the Buffy tv series. The downside is that the storyflow is a bit chaotic. Something I don't really get with his tv shows but have seen show up in some of his comics.
In this trade there is also a very nice short story by Jeb Loeb, where Buffy deals with what she learned in the previous issues, and that reminds us of the first season of the tv show.
The good thing about this book is that Whedon is the master in the sort of dialogue used in the Buffy tv series. The downside is that the storyflow is a bit chaotic. Something I don't really get with his tv shows but have seen show up in some of his comics.
In this trade there is also a very nice short story by Jeb Loeb, where Buffy deals with what she learned in the previous issues, and that reminds us of the first season of the tv show.
marobbins's review
5.0
"And what in this world is stronger than love? Time. Only time." Ahh, that's all I can say to capture the essence of this book without spoiling it. Read it, especially if you are a Buffy fan.
mjfmjfmjf's review
4.0
Well that was. Complicated. Weird. Centaur Dawn was cool. Being back in the future with Fray was cool. The ending kind of worked including Willow not watching the ending. Not sure it had a lot of point, unless it was just to revisit Fray. But also to show even more fractured language than Buffy speak. Still, even with the time travel, it was a good read.
mezza's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
sonofthe's review
4.0
Here we see Buffy thrust into the future, and the Slayer she meets there is apparently from her own comic series.
The future is all science-fictiony, taking some cues from Blade Runner and Star Wars Episode II. Flying cars! Car-jacking. Jumping around all frenetic-like from cars to buildings. Hm. Maybe there's a bit of Stalone Dredd in there too.
The story reads like a mostly stand-alone episode in a TV season, but with a little bit of tie-in. Not having seen the whole TV series, I know there's some stuff I missed, but it still made sense to me.
Ooh, and I forgot about the wild adventures of Xander and Dawn in the forest. Ghost armies and Elf-Ents (ha! get it?). Admittedly, that part was kinda random, but they had to follow through with the set-up.
Then there's the one-shot at the end of this volume: After These Messages…We'll Be Right Back! The art is all Tartakovsky-esque (or something?). Looking it up I found it was a call-back to the proposed Buffy animated series from 2002. Cool! Too bad that never got made.
All in all, a fun volume.
The future is all science-fictiony, taking some cues from Blade Runner and Star Wars Episode II. Flying cars! Car-jacking. Jumping around all frenetic-like from cars to buildings. Hm. Maybe there's a bit of Stalone Dredd in there too.
The story reads like a mostly stand-alone episode in a TV season, but with a little bit of tie-in. Not having seen the whole TV series, I know there's some stuff I missed, but it still made sense to me.
Ooh, and I forgot about the wild adventures of Xander and Dawn in the forest. Ghost armies and Elf-Ents (ha! get it?). Admittedly, that part was kinda random, but they had to follow through with the set-up.
Then there's the one-shot at the end of this volume: After These Messages…We'll Be Right Back! The art is all Tartakovsky-esque (or something?). Looking it up I found it was a call-back to the proposed Buffy animated series from 2002. Cool! Too bad that never got made.
All in all, a fun volume.