Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Dust Waltz

Just like the title says, here's the Whedon-and-most-respected-company tweaking of the BTVS film into what would be now considered the true Buffy-verse. It comes not in a TV episode, nor a film, nor a novel...but in the comic book, and somehow it feels like that's where it should have started. It fits this format perfectly. A synopsis is pretty much unnecessary, as there are many noted above and below, yet the great thing about this little story is that it fleshes out the Buffy Summers character nicely. In quick, deft images and dialogue, much of Buffy's pre-Slayer history is vividly portrayed. Family relationships, educational priorities, social ideologies...you get a fuller picture of the immediate pre-Sunnydale Buffy that dovetails precisely with the TV show. I am finding that this universe created by Joss Whedon is one that can be entered in a variety of ways (TV, comics, novels...) yet maintain depth and integrity. I cannot think of too many other concepts that can manage that. The absolute WORST thing about reading this tome is that now I have obligated myself to get ALL of them...quite a bummer, no?

There are two reasons that this graphic comic retelling of Buffy's beginnings as a Slayer: 1) it is based pretty strictly on Joss Whedon's original screenplay that the Buffy movie was based on, and 2) it is one of a number of superb Buffy graphic tales from Dark Horse Comics. For those who have exhausted all the Buffy and Angel episodes, and desirous of new sources of Buffyverse adventures, one can't do better than these comics. Many of them are scripted by Buffy screenwriters such as Jane Espenson. They aren't cynical and cheap attempts to rip off unsuspecting fans, but excellent stories in their own right.Some people read THE ORIGIN and see a story remarkably similar to the movie, and others see enormous divergence. I see less difference in story than in tone, though there are a couple of hugely important differences. The two best known are the death of Merrick and the burning of the school gym, the latter referred to in the TV show and which appeared in Whedon's original script, but which was cut out for the shooting script.The one difference in plot--and it is important one--that is more subtle is the frequent dreams that Buffy has of previous Slayers. In this story, Merrick has some trouble convincing Buffy that she is the Slayer until he mentions her dreams. Dreams play a gigantic role in the Buffy television series. In fact, the first time we ever see Buffy is in a dream she is having. Very nearly every episode has at least one dream sequence, and sometimes more than one, and the final episode of Season Four is almost all dreams. The brilliant thing about the dreams in THE ORIGIN is that it both contrasts Buffy with her predecessors and ties her into a long decision. She may be the Slayer, but she is not the only Slayer there has ever been. Also, by stressing the brute fact of being a Slayer--that you only become her as the result of another's death, and you will be the Slayer until your own--a sense of doom and foreboding permeates the story. Interestingly, we are not shown the moment when Buffy becomes the Slayer. I have always wanted Whedon to address that, explaining who the Slayer immediately before Buffy was. Also, I'd like to know why Buffy, who obviously was a potential for many years, had not been located before she had actually become the Slayer, and in fact was the Slayer before she was contacted.The greatest difference between THE ORIGIN and the Buffy movie is tone and atmosphere. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the movie, was a summer teen comedy. It overstressed the silliness of having a vampire slayer named Buffy, and focused entirely on the comic aspects of the story. The TV series was the genre-buster extraordinaire, being comedy, drama, horror, action, and soap opera all at once. The movie, however, is all comedy against a backdrop of horror. The graphic comic hints at the multilayered product the movie might have been had the studio and producers signed onto Whedon's vision. Instead of something unique an

It reads entirely differently than it performed in the movie - but it's exactly the same script.This graphic novel version is fabulous. It's the script for the movie that started it all, done the way Joss Whedon obviously intended it. It's still got its good comedic bits, but the drama plays much better. The illustrators have depicted Buffy in her now most famous guise, as Sarah Michelle Gellar, though - oddly - they've opted to utilize the rendition of her first Watcher, Merrick, from his one cameo appearance in a flashback on the T.V. series instead of depicting Donald Sutherland from the film, where everything else is faithful to the movie."The Origin" is true to its advertisement: it's Buffy from the beginning, where she came to her calling at Hemery High, trained for her reluctant future role in life, first tested herself against a superior opponent, and prematurely outgrew her frivolous pre-teen youth to adopt a responsible persona. There are only minor changes from the film version, the most notable being that of the demise of Merrick, which makes more sense here than it did on screen, presumably because the movie altered Whedon's vision.The best thing about this piece is simply the artwork. It's worth the cost for that, alone.Enjoy the Buffy you never really knew, but only thought you did.

As one of the people who thinks Sarah Michelle Gellar makes the best Buffy, this trade was a great way to start off my Buffy collection. This trade is made up of three issues, "Destiny Free," "Defenseless Mechanisms," and "Disco Inferno." In "Destiny Free" we meet carefree Buffy. . .okay, not so carefree, but the more Cordelia-like version of Buffy complete with careless parents. She is having dreams/flashbacks of past slayers and vampires, meets her first watcher, and stakes her first vampire. The artwork isn't bad, it isn't incredible, but it gets the story across. One qualm is that a lot of the male characters are hard to tell apart, maybe its just me but some areas are a bit hard to follow as if they crammed too much in one panel. The neatest thing about the first issue is where Buffy asks her watcher "they can't come in, right? Unless you invite them, is that true?" I think that line captures how it must feel to suddenly find out vampires are real -- I would certainly be concerned about whether or not they could pay me a visit as I slept. The next issue is "Defenseless Mechanisms" is very eventfull with Buffy trying to juggle slaying, school, and cheerleading. Merrick explains a bit of vampire history, Buffy deals with her nasty classmates, gets some Perrier water blessed, and sets out to fight vampires. We also see more of Pike. The ending is very sad so I won't ruin it. On to issue three, "Disco Inferno" where Buffy is still reeling from the end of issue two and already her so called friends aren't on her side. There's a dance, vampirey chaos ensues and finally we realize that all this is being told by Buffy to Xander and Willow over lunch. Aside from a bumpy first issue, the trade overall is very good and great for those of us that can't sit through the original movie without fast forwarding here and there.

Christy Swanson was fine in the BTVS movie, but I'm so used to Sarah Michelle that it would be almost painful to watch the film after all this time. I like Buffy just the way she is now. So when I saw that Dark Horse Comics was bringing out a graphic novel version of the original story I decided to live dangerously and purchase my first Buffy 'comic.' I've stayed away from graphic novels, not because I don't like them, but because they are expensive for the amount of story one gets. But this looked like a good time to make an exception.I'm not going to spend anytime elaborating on the plot. If any readers do not know the story of Buffy's entry into Slayerhood, suffice it to say that Valley Girl meets Watcher, discovers vampires, and kills same. With increasing aplomb. Buffy as Valley Girl is a bit more irritatingly mindless than Buffy as Slayer, but it's all in good fun. And, as all of us know, when Buffy grows up, she is as bad as they come.Christopher Golden and Daniel Brereton have done a masterful job of the conversion of the original story line, with plenty of sarcasm, dry wit, and sight gags. And the art work is simply superb. If the comics of my jaded youth were as good I would probably never have switched to reading books. Joel Bennet is the penciller, and Rick Ketcham has completed the work beautifully with the help or Randy Emberlin and J. Jadson. The images are clear and crisp with a great deal of expression. Good stuff all around.I still have a problem with sticker shock when looking at graphic novels but I have agree that the end product can often be worth it. Given what it sets out to be, this is a great gift or collector's item for the Buffy nut of your choice. Even if that nut happens to be yourself!