I’m now current on Buffy

 
Last week I was deeply annoyed when I received the third issue of Buffy Season 8 in the mail, with no sign of the second. Yesterday the second issue came in, and I read them both together.

As with the first issue, my reactions are mixed. Even reading #2 and #3 literally back-to-back (I finished the one, immediately started on the other), it still seemed to go by really quickly. I have no objections to the story or the storyline, I enjoy seeing my favorite characters continue to develop as people, and I’m impressed with the way Joss respects the Buffyverse past while not letting it limit him. But, damn it, there’s not enough.

It may be the 24 syndrome. I liked the idea of the show, but found it too distracting to try and keep up with the episodes in regular broadcast. I ordered the first season on DVD, to help me pass the time in Iraq, and was instantly addicted; I have in fact actively advised against watching the show in any way other than through continuous DVD viewing.

Not the same with Buffy, but some of the principles hold. The first three seasons of that show, too, accompanied me to Iraq (I bought the fourth online and had it shipped to me), and I watched them in fairly straightforward sequence, going through each season in a week to ten days. It’s a different perspective. Things I remembered developing progressively, over weeks and months (from watching the broadcast seasons) were revealed as a lot more streamlined once I didn’t have to wait through seasonal scheduling delays. More than that, I had already discovered that seeing a season in toto gave a more realistic overview than one might receive in moment-to-moment viewing. Basically, a season — especially as done by Joss, though others have learned from his example — is a consolidated work. If this is so for television, all the more so in the comic-book format.

Think about it. Given commercial time, a standard television episode runs, what? forty-four minutes? forty-two? Even in that abbreviated form, three episodes still equal a decent-sized movie. The comic-book ‘episodes’, though? Ten minutes each, fifteen max. It would take three or four to equal one television episode. The comic-book episodes, then, are always — taken one at a time — going to feel abbreviated. Because, let’s face it, they are.

I’ll read #4 when I get it, to finish this arc. Once that’s done, though, I believe I’ll let them stack up until I have more of a handful, anything from four to six issues at a time. It’s just more satisfying that way.

( Spoilers under the cut )

It’s not the same as if the series were still on the air. But it’s still fine storytelling, and I’m willing to follow it for the forseseeable future.