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Vengeance is a dish best served cold: Buffy #21 review

 The first Buffy issue of 2021 was certainly an eye-opener, particularly as it focused on everyone’s favourite Vengeance Demon. With Anya Jenkins at the heart of her own issue, it gave us a fun, fast-paced backstory explaining just how she got into the position we saw her in at the end of last issue. We also learn a great deal more about Morgan, the Slayer who has teamed up with Anya in an attempt to take down Giles, Wesley, and Robin. The first thing we learn is that Anya’s origin story is pretty much the same as in the show; Olaf cheated on her, she turned him into a troll, D’Hoffren offered her a job. But the second thing we learn is that Anya’s stint as a Watcher was actually surprisingly similar in a way to Giles’s. Or at least, Giles’s stint on-screen. Anya is fired by the head of the Watcher’s Council because her behaviour is ‘rebellious and out of line’, leaving Anya to argue that her Slayer would have died had she not acted. She is then informed that the Council is not inten
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End of the road, start of trouble: Angel & Spike #16, Willow #5, and Buffy #20 review

Although real life did a good job of getting in the way for a few weeks, I’m back to review the final few Buffy universe comics for the year. With the Willow miniseries being wrapped up, and Angel being cancelled, as well as the most recent issue of Buffy , we have a lot to get through. So let’s get started... Angel & Spike issue 16 So, it turns out looking back through my past reviews that my disinterest in the Angel & Spike comics was more pronounced than I realised, considering I forgot to review issue fourteen altogether. But now the news has broken that issue sixteen would be the last, somehow resulting in me actually owning all of the issues despite cancelling my subscription. Perhaps it was the knowledge that this was the last issue, perhaps I’d resigned myself to never getting into the swing of these comics, but reading issue sixteen was just as underwhelming as previous issues. Part of the problem was, of course, the cancellation meaning a slightly rushed wrap

Werewolves and Vampires and Slayers, Oh my! : Angel & Spike #15 and Buffy #19 review

With Covid still doing a number on the comic schedule, we’re still an issue behind with Willow . But Angel and Spike, as well as Buffy and Kendra, are still muddling through their own storylines and it looks like this month some more familiar faces are joining the fold... Angel issue 15 The latest issue of Angel & Spike has unfortunately, once again, failed to actually pique my interest. Anyone who’s been keeping track of my reviews will know that I’ve not exactly been blown away by these comics even when there were snippets that held my interest, but it seems that even those snippets have disappeared now. I had known before my issue arrived that some people had been really quite unimpressed by the issue, but now with a copy of it in my hands I think ‘unimpressed’ is perhaps a bit of an understatement. Frustratingly, the comics are continuing to push the Angel and Kate story of Kate being a reincarnation of some woman Angelus turned and killed with, and they’re also doubling

Pulling the threads: Willow #4 and Buffy #18 review

 Perhaps the most interesting thing to note at the start of this review is how the current pandemic has caused Hellmouth-level disruption to the Buffy comic release schedule. With Willow being pushed back a month or two due to production shutting down, it’s created a very odd little plot-hole within the comics themselves. While this month saw the release of the fourth Willow c omic, it also saw the release of Buffy issue eighteen, wherein Willow has finished her adventure and returned to Sunnydale. Needless to say, this is creating a little bit of confusion, and while I’m sure it won’t affect things too much, it’s certainly making things a little more complicated than the writers perhaps meant for them to be. Willow issue 4 As I’ve mentioned in my previous reviews, the Willow miniseries, while interesting, has been trudging along in a fashion I haven’t exactly been overwhelmed with love for. Issues two and three were ones that I felt would seem a lot better in retrospect, once al

Five reasons to listen to My Dad Wrote a Porno

 It’s been five years since My Dad Wrote a Porno was released, and to celebrate that wonderful fact, I’ve decided it’s about time to share my top five reasons for listening to it. For those of you not in the know, the Belinda Blinked books are written by Rocky Flintstone, the pseudonym of Jamie Morton’s father. Morton himself decided to look on the bright side of his father’s books and enlisted friends Alice Levine and James Cooper to help him navigate the life and times of Belinda Blumenthal. Since its release, the podcast has worked its way through five of the Belinda Blinked books, with the announcement they will be reading through the sixth book in 2021.   So, if this has piqued your interest, take a look at my five reasons for getting into this unique podcast... It’s so bad it’s good If you’re thinking the basis of the podcast sounds... Interesting, you’d certainly be right. But beyond being somewhat unorthodox to read your dad’s erotic literature for the world to listen t

Something Wicked This Way Comes...: Buffy #17 & Willow #3 review

 As we reach the midway point of the Willow miniseries, and issue 17 of Buffy, we find ourselves learning more about the sinister underbelly the Slayer and her friends must face... Buffy issue 17 The first thing to be noted about Buffy issue 17 is that it’s another little stand-alone or background issue, much as issue 13 was. But rather than focusing on Kendra or another Slayer, we are finally properly introduced to the Watcher’s Council in its brand new, shiny format. And not only are we introduced to the Council, but a familiar-looking Watcher by the name of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. The most striking thing about this new Watcher’s Council is that council head Quentin Travers is conspicuously missing. In his place, we have a new female head of the Council quite possibly introduced to move away from the majority of the Council being female as they were in the show. Despite the exception of a few female Watchers mentioned in passing, or appearing in season five, it was very much impl

My love-hate relationship with special edition books

 Anyone who loves reading probably has at least one special edition of a book- whether it’s a limited edition, whether it’s signed, whether it’s a more expensive copy with an elaborate cover. I know I’ve got a few of those myself. And that’s what I sometimes struggle with. You see, the special editions I own- whether signed, anniversary copies, or simply the ones with lavish covers- mostly just sit on a shelf. The thought of reading them and subsequently ruining them- spilling a drink on them, getting the cover scratched up in my bag, god forbid tearing a page- makes me extremely uneasy, and as a result I don’t read them. I have a signed Neil Gaiman book- The Ocean at the End of the Lane - that I adored, but have only read once. I fully intend to buy a second copy- a paperback- that can be read and beaten up and left lying around, but the signed copy has lived happily on a shelf in my bedroom for the past seven years. I know I’m not the only one who shares these- perhaps insane- re