Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer:  Jordie Bellaire and Jeremy Lambert
Art:Â Ramon Bachs
Colors:Â Raul Angulo
Letters:Â Ed Dukeshire
Reviewer:Â Tony Farina
Summary
It’s Faith, Buffy and Willow versus Xander – not everyone is making it out alive. No Buffy fan will want to miss the shocking conclusion! Meanwhile, Wesley Wyndam-Price has arrived in Sunnydale with his own secret mission.
Positives
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20 is well paced, well balanced and was over too fast. I am on record as saying that Jordie understands Sunnydale’s vernacular better than anyone. She never makes any of the words said seem out of place. The dialogue crackles. This month, she and her co-writer Jeremy Lambert take it up a notch. They set up an issue that would translate perfectly to a TV show. The cuts from scene to scene are always perfectly timed. We don’t spend too long in any one place, but we spend long enough to care about what is happening. The plot of this issue leads everyone to the library and the logical ending for this issue.
It helps that Ramon Bachs manages to do such expressive work. Books with teenagers require a lot of body language. They don’t always say what is on their minds, but they manage to express everything in the way they move, look or in some cases do not look.
Negatives
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20 does a lot of hand wavy magic. OK. This is a book about magic things. They don’t always need an explanation, but the point of the Watchers it to explain things. This is lacking that. This version of Faith is not particularly good. I think she has room to grow. It is not my Faith. That is just it. She is not MY Faith, but that does not mean she isn’t this world’s Faith. She is. I get that. I just don’t care for this one’s attitude very much. More on this in the verdict.
Verdict
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20 has a lot going on. At no point do all the disparate storylines feel out of place here though. Each new subplot informs on the major story. That makes for great storytelling. Readers are never bored and stay engaged. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea to see this story unfold this way or to see this version of Faith. We have to remember, that this is part of a multiverse. The characters you know and love are out there somewhere. I would suggest to keep calm and slay on.
