THE LONG WAY HOME PT. 3 (8x03)

Contrary to popular opinion, I feel that "The Long Way Home Pt. 3" is the worst issue so far. While not awful by any stretch, there are certain things that confuse me, certain things that bug me, and certain things that deeply worry me. When reading comments online I simply hear that many love the comics just because the Scoobies are finally working closely together again. My response is "really? Is that the only reason?" I find myself wondering now more than ever what it is that people want out of these comics and what they wanted out of the main series. Apparently their wants are a whole lot more simplistic than mine are. I'll leave whether that's a good thing or a bad thing for another day. So, lets jump right into the problems!

Problem #1: Ethan Rayne. Ok, Ethan making an appearance in of himself doesn't bug me all that much. But when you've got Ethan, Warren, and Amy all within the same issue, one (namely being me) starts thinking "fan service." An overload of old characters appearing at once just doesn't feel like a realistic continuation of the series -- it feels like subpar fan fiction. If Whedon's idea of carrying on the show 'without restraints' is a ton of fan wank, fan service, and over-the-top situations (even by Buffy standards), then plop me down in the "I don't like it one bit" column. Sometimes showing restraint and taking the "less is more" approach works wonders.

Problem #2: the confusing narrative. While reading this issue, I just get no solid feeling of pace and grounding. Drastically different things are intercutting with each other so quickly that I'm not sure whether to blame Whedon, the comic book format, or maybe both. A good example of this is the fight between Willow and Amy. It just feels completely impersonal and underdeveloped. We see Willow exchange a few words with Amy, apparently absorb her magic, blast away looking ridiculous, and cast a spell on the demon army. But... it turns out she didn't take Amy's magic... and then we're back in Buffy's 'dreamspace'... and then we're back watching Willow get all pixelized, which I gets translates to going black now... and then Dawn squishes Amy with her foot but doesn't because Willow traps her in a mystical holding box of some kind? Color me confused. Too much jumping around and with the comic book format I just can't buy or follow what's going on.

Problem #3: wonky characterization in villainry. General Voll's been completely lame (although he doesn't make an appearance in this issue) and Amy's unfortunately still a one-dimensional meaningless villain, carried over from The Killer in Me (7x13). In every panel Amy's in she has this incredibly goofy 'evil villain' smile on her face. It doesn't help that the artist's rendering of her doesn't look like Amy at all. This problem with the villains extends in a big, but very different, way with the huge reveal of Warren at the end of the issue.

Problem #4: Warren. I can't count how many ways this is an awful revelation. Unless this is the ghost of Warren or some illusion I'll be pretty pissed. The worst thing this means is that Amy resurrected Warren somehow, which honestly completely ruins one of the things I respected most about the Buffyverse: it's take on resurrection. That 'take' is that you simply cannot resurrect people who died a natural death. Warren died from skin loss and was then scorched by Willow. There's no coming back from that. If Warren's resurrected, then get prepared for the possibility of every character that died on Buffy to be resurrected! If that's a notion that makes you rejoice, then I think you're reading reviews from the wrong guy. The comment about Kennedy also made me sick. Whedon's treating the fact that Willow resurrected Kennedy from a mystical death in an extremely flippant way. And Buffy doesn't even call her on it (Season 6 people)! Not cool.

Whatever jargon Whedon uses to explain this, if Warren is indeed alive, it still negates the relevance and lasting power of everything Willow did at the end of S6 (killing a human) and the subsequent time spent dealing with it in S7. Plus, the First appeared as Warren in Conversations with Dead People (7x07), which means he was, unequivocally, dead. Is Whedon trying to ruin rewatches of the series or something? Are we soon going to find out that Tara didn't really die, or that when Angelus snapped Jenny Calendar's neck it was really just a magically created double? What's next? Frankly, I'm already tired of it. If Whedon brings back another dead character, he's really going to lose me.

I've also got to say I'm not terribly happy with what we've seen out of Giles so far. I've got no clue what he's doing. Maybe that's the point, but I'd rather people talk about him vaguely than seeing him doing these weird things that are never explained. I don't mind a little ambiguity in plot, but if it goes on too long the film will lose me. But enough of all my negativity. For all the problems readily apparent in this issue there are also some positive qualities.

The panel that takes the cake is Buffy dreaming about being smooshed in between a nude Angel and Spike, although I must admit I have a hard time seeing Buffy dreaming herself dressed up as a nurse in a sexual fantasy. Doesn't really seem like her style. However, this panel is hilarious, ridiculous, and nurse-aside utterly believable. The imagery on the side is equally hilarious: stakes in roses and trains going into holes of an erupting volcano. I also greatly appreciated the 'cube' panel which, of course, has all kinds of throwbacks to the series along with a picture of Whedon himself thrown in there for good measure. Very cool!

Some of the dream imagery coming out of Buffy is fairly intriguing as well. You've got Amy's cage, a dead pig man, and the three X's. I'll be honest and say that I'm not the best when it comes to speculation, so I'll leave that for others. But I've certainly heard some interesting theories on what all of it means. Really, though, I think the page that best captures what I wanted more of out of this issue is when Xander consoles Renee about getting stabbed. Now there's good, solid, character interaction of the variety that's sorely missing in this mostly-action outing.

Overall I feel the best comparison to this issue is Primeval (4x21), an episode that was very light on taking the time for solid characterization and very much focused on the 'big battle.' Issue #2 succeeded so much in my mind because of its heavy focus on the characters. Its dialogue was believably funny, while here it feels fairly forced. Essentially, Warren's back, and I'm not happy about it. While I still enjoyed this issue to an extent, I obviously have serious problems with some of the things Whedon is doing.