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A review by dr_matthew_lloyd
Buffy: The High School Years - Freaks & Geeks by Yishan Li, Joss Whedon, Faith Erin Hicks
2.0
The theory behind this series of comic books is solid. Of all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that could be fleshed out by additional stories, season one is the best; the basis for this story in particular - a group of nerdy vampires highlight how Buffy's old life as a popular girl in LA conflicts with her new life as an outcast in Sunnydale - fits with the high school fears manifest as monsters theme of early Buffy. The error, then, lies in the execution. Pages and pages of this story are spent establishing things that anyone who has watched the show will know about Buffy, her friends, and their high-school social position; far less time is spent on the characters of the vampire nerds and Buffy's 'bullying' of them. More of a problem is that the characters don't really sound like the quick-witted heroes of the television show which, coupled with art that doesn't really look like the characters either, means that this doesn't really feel like Buffy at all. It is worth noting, though, that I have found that Buffy comics written by Joss Whedon himself don't quite feel like Buffy either, and reading them helped me appreciate how much Sarah Michelle Gellar brought to that role. I did laugh a couple of times, so there is that.
Tonally, it feels like this volume is targeted at a young audience - perhaps even younger than I was when I started watching the television show (it was 1999 and I was thirteen). Much like the X-Files Origins novels I just read, I find it strange to target related works from twenty-year-old television shows at children this young (unless they're supposed to be at the children of the now-adult fans of the show?). I stumbled on the book in my library, in the comic book section next to adult literature, not in the children's section, so I guess they were confused, too. Certainly, it doesn't feel clever enough to slide alongside the episodes of the first season of the television show as another 'episode' targeted at a teenage audience. If it is meant to act in much the same way as the animated series, I would say that it's biggest failure is the absence of Dawn. I'd take even a half-hearted attempt at an early season flashback if it incorporated the changes that the Order of Dagon made to Buffy's past (an attempt that has been made, and could be developed further).
One more word on the art: it is generally good, but the characters don't look all that much like the actors who played them on television. This dissimilarity is only a problem because the characters don't sound like Buffy characters, either.
Overall, this short thing I didn't know existed until this morning was a bit of a disappointment.
Tonally, it feels like this volume is targeted at a young audience - perhaps even younger than I was when I started watching the television show (it was 1999 and I was thirteen). Much like the X-Files Origins novels I just read, I find it strange to target related works from twenty-year-old television shows at children this young (unless they're supposed to be at the children of the now-adult fans of the show?). I stumbled on the book in my library, in the comic book section next to adult literature, not in the children's section, so I guess they were confused, too. Certainly, it doesn't feel clever enough to slide alongside the episodes of the first season of the television show as another 'episode' targeted at a teenage audience. If it is meant to act in much the same way as the animated series, I would say that it's biggest failure is the absence of Dawn. I'd take even a half-hearted attempt at an early season flashback if it incorporated the changes that the Order of Dagon made to Buffy's past (an attempt that has been made, and could be developed further).
One more word on the art: it is generally good, but the characters don't look all that much like the actors who played them on television. This dissimilarity is only a problem because the characters don't sound like Buffy characters, either.
Overall, this short thing I didn't know existed until this morning was a bit of a disappointment.