It seems that everyone has said that if something does/doesn't happen, they "are out."

By issue #6, no one will be buying.

It never occurred to me that the Buffy/Xander thing was real...I thought we entered into dreamland with "Are you coming to bed?" and that it was all about Buffy fearing her darkness or being afraid of hurting the people she loves or something like that (you know, popping his head off with a kiss and all).
It seems very unlikely to me that either Spike or Angel would wake her (though I love the idea of them both trying & failing!) I keep thinking she'll wake from inside the dream somehow, but it doesn't seem like anyone she'd meet there would love her in the way that Amy says is necessary. As if we could trust Amy. Oh well, there's a reason that Joss is writing these things & not me.

I liked the jumping around of the comic (the "messiness"?) Felt just like a TV show to me.

Giles struck me a little oddly, too, but I think it was more the youthful way he was drawn than anything he said. I'm really looking forward to seeing him more developed in the comics. I missed him in Season 7.

I'll still be buying. Big Purp hasn't steered me wrong yet and so long as it flows, so long as the story still makes sense and the characters are still themselves, Make Mine Marvel (OK, Dark Horse but you know what I mean ;).

(gotta say, I also think people are reading way too much into what was clearly and explicitly a dream. Sure, it's probably laden with symbolism but I don't think one of the things being symbolised by Buffy and Xander getting it on is, well, Buffy and Xander getting it on - unless Joss subscribes to the 'frying pan over the head' school of symbolism ;)

Re: Buffy waking, they said it was impossible to wake yourself from The Matrix until The Kid did it (and possibly Neo before him). If there's a way she'll find it, she's the best there ever was, after all.

Giles doesn't have many wrinkles but I thought the likeness was pretty good (especially in the second to last panel of his section) and if his dialogue was maybe a bit nondescript it at least wasn't actively 'un-Giles-like' IMO.

Besides, #6 is the start of BKV's Faith arc. Wild horses (Dark or otherwise ;) couldn't drag me away ...

On first reading, the flow does seem very choppy, but it does come together somewhat. Need a second reading; some time today, I hope.

I have to say that none of the character artwork really clicks for me. There will be one panel where it's dead-on, and another that leaves me clueless whom I'm looking at. Not a make-or-break problem, though, especially knowing that the artists will change over the series.

Saje, I'm with you on St. Petersburg. Note the architecture of the church, almost completely neoclassical other than the onion domes. Toss in the bronze horseman and it's gotta be St. Petersburg.

I reckon Giles will be the one to give the true love kiss. Father's love, blah blah blah, etc.

Well two issues in and I'm still reading, so that's good.

The art inconsistencies are pretty typical for tie-in comic material. I'd say Jeanty and Owens do an above-average job of capturing the essence of the characters (but then Andy pays me to say that about his work ). It's all but impossible to accurately represent known actors to the satisfaction of fans in this medium, but this pulls it off better than most.

I'll put my vote in with everyone else who's speculating that Amy's "boyfriend" will be FlayedWarren. Though I'm not really sure what good he'll do as an antagonist, particularly as a follow-up to Amy... if I recall correctly doesn't he just make robots? So won't he just be making robots with bloody skinless-fingerprints on 'em now? *shrug*

The panel showing an unidentified figure in a red shirt and dark leather coat reaching out to Buffy is of course meant to make us think either Angel or Spike... but I really, really, REALLY hope it's neither of them. My wife pointed out that Xander on the cover is wearing a red shirt and a leather coat, so who knows? I'm personally hoping that the scene Scott Allie is promising for next issue that we're not going to be able to get out of our heads involving our two soul-vamps will be the two of THEM together.

(Then again, I'm not really looking forward to seeing any canonical continuation of Angel yet [for many reasons, most of them selfish], so any appearance of either of them would have to speak to what happened post-'Not Fade Away'.)

[/quote] sort of agree UnpluggedCrazy, for me the dialogue wasn't quite as punchy this issue, though still good and very funny in places Out-there-crazy speculation but is it possible Willow harbours a secret 'desire' for the Buffster or could provide the needed kiss in some other way ? Or better yet, Buffy finds a way to do it herself though Buffy also says "That's what I meant" in response to dream Xander's statement as in, she's afraid of herself, maybe afraid of losing herself in the 'leader role' again as she did in S7I agree that Buffy/Xander is too incest. If the story goes this way, I'm out.It never occurred to me that the Buffy/Xander thing was real...I thought we entered into dreamland with "Are you coming to bed?"Giles doesn't have many wrinkles but I thought the likeness was pretty good (especially in the second to last panel of his section) and if his dialogue was maybe a bit nondescript it at least wasn't actively 'un-Giles-like'

Now that is exactly what I thought when I read that letter. I have few thoughts on the issue, so bear with:

1) The kiss: I dont think there is anything in the comic that precludes Giles from being Buffy's kiss, there is nothing in the comic that precludes Dawn from kissing her either because Amy says this:

"Someone who wants to kiss her, like, their passionate about her".

At some point it could be that they dont know how to wake Buffy up, and if someone kisses her with a passion that they want her back it could be Giles or Dawn too. See, I think in a lot of ways, this kiss is about Buffy, its part of the nightmare, that nobody is passionate enough about her anymore that she will remain like she is forever, that nobody wants to kiss her anymore (could this be any more meta? I mean geez, nobody loves Buffy anymore could be the mantra of TWOP and other places, but this kiss seems, if they go in this direction, to want to show that people do still care about the character as does Joss--its meta to the nth degree if they go that way but I could totally see it), and remember, passion isnt just about passionate and undying love, passion and love go hand in hand for thing others than relationships. Amy says that it cannot be friends or a sister, but sure it could if any one of those people love Buffy more than Amy believes (and again with the meta where Amy represents those people who think either that Joss doesnt love Buffy or whom dont love Buffy either). I envision here a scene where everyone lines up to kiss Buffy, where Angel and Spike and Giles and Xander and Willow and every potential and everyone we know in the Buffy-verse lines up to kiss Buffy because they all love her that passionately (and that could be the scene that everyone will have burned into their head), and the real shock comes because Amy's plan relies on the fact that nobody is passionate about Buffy anymore (again with the meta). And thats how Buffy awakens, she is brought back not by a kiss but by the love and support of her friends who stand up for her. They help her back to reality...

2) Buffy and Xander: I think everything that happened between them is a dream, the kiss itself, the conversation before they go into her room, everything (its possible that they talked before Buffy went to sleep and that part was incorporated into her dream). But I get the sense that Buffy and Xander had something with each other and cut it off because both were scared, I think Buffy was afraid of breaking Xander and the friendship (thats the head falling off), and I think Xander is afraid that he cant live up to Buffy's past boyfriends.

3) I posted this on .com, but I think the funniest scene was Dawn bathing in the lake. I have no idea why, but I laughed so much at that scene.

4) I am liking the comic, though the art is kinda weird and inconsistent at times.

I enjoyed the issue, but it definitely seemed very awkwardly paced and jumpy. I think they could have cut out the scenes with Giles and Andrew and used the extra few pages to really show us the zombie army, the defense of the castle, and given a little more clear dilineation of what was Buffy's dream and what wasn't. Then again, maybe they were trying to make it ambiguous.

Of course, then we'd have a bunch of "Where's Giles!?" comments.

Ironically, we still do, albeit a bit more literal. (My money's on Eastern Europe/Russia.)

Personally, I wonder if the Buffy/Xander thing might be halfway-in, halfway-out of the dream. As if, Buffy's proposition was in real life, but it could have been a memory of an earlier incident fused with the dream. Or not. Either way, I think the text seems to be implying that they have slept together at some point since Chosen... the phrasing seems to imply it very strongly (forgive me, I don't have my ish readily available):

Buffy says "Are you coming to bed?", which has an almost casual tone (one spot where I really wish we could hear the actors perform it, if only to hear how they deliver the line -- that would tell us a lot), as if it were something normal, something you wouldn't even bat an eyelash at. Perhaps she's trying to affect that feeling intentionally, trying to catch Xander off his guard or imply "no pressure," or perhaps it's just the wacky dream world taking what people really want and laying it out there.

Xander's reply is even more interesting: once again, can't see the ish right now, but he says something along the lines of, "We don't want to go there again." And Buffy's reply includes the words "this time," I'm sure of it. Again, though, could be dream world messing with us.