Tales of the Vampires #3

Timeline

Continuing from Issue 2

The Sitch and Thoughts

The third installment of our frame story once again focuses on Edna, the young watcher-in-training, who has become increasingly fixated on Roche (and on whom Roche is becoming fixated as well). Edna's journal reveals how frightening and fascinating her cellar experiences with Roche and the other young watchers are. She would never show that fear as Roger, the boy who taunted her earlier, would be delighted.

Edna continues to believe something wrong about the way that Roche and the adult watchers are acting. Edna believes, as does the reader, that something deeper is at work, only intensifying her reaction to Roche.

Roche welcomes the children the next morning by telling them that he could tear their heads off their necks if the chains weren't holding him. The children's watcher warns Roche to mind himself to which he replies that he will not have the next generation of watchers believing that he is harmless. Edna steps in and says that the beast (Roche) is right and that she wants to hear the truth.

She challenges Roche to tell her something that convinces her that vampires are nothing more than...beasts, Roche finishes the thought, angrily amazed that she called him one to his face. Roche tells her that she will understand everything soon. Edna replies that he should speak quickly if Roche is to explain EVERYTHING to her. At this point, another watcher-in-training offers her biscuits to quiet Edna.

The journal starts again with Edna noting that she has learned one thing about Roche before he even starts his tales - that she can make him angry and that she has no idea why on Earth she would want to. Even as the ink dries on the page, we see the first two bolts coming out of the wall and Roche's chains being loosened.

So, I mentioned in the review for the last issue I had an idea what was going on between Roche and Edna. I have two ideas. One, Edna is understanding more quickly than the others what the true relationship between a watcher and vampire is. She is both attracted to and provoking Roche to attain the knowledge she needs. A weaker theory given the evidence, I admit, but a possibility and certainly where the story at face value is taking us.

Option two, and this is where my money is, Edna is one of the activated Slayers. Everything about her makes sense. Her incredible animosity and attraction towards Roche. Her complete ability to infuriate her opponent. And that sharp post-Buffy Slayer wit. A great tale for this issue, though we don't get much movement here. I felt like this story was a mid-trip recap in some ways with a very simple point about the relationship between Edna and Roche.

Big kudos on the artwork here as well. There was a superb use of light and dark both with the shadowing of the candle during the journal writing a well as Roche's face peering from the dark. The artists do a great job in evoking Roche's emotional reaction to Edna in a 2/3 dark-covered panel through only eye and mouth placement.

Overall, enjoyable but I wanted it to move on to the next chapter. A story that leaves you wanting more has something to be said for it and the next installment is just a mere 30 days away from this issue.

Credits

Joss Whedon Story
Alex Sanchez Pencils
Derek Fridolfs Inks
Michelle Madsden Colors
Annie Parkhouse Letters

Father

Timeline

Hollywood, 1922 through Los Angeles, 2003.

The Sitch and Thoughts

Father is a series of simple vignettes, ranging from Hollywood in 1922 through modern-day Los Angeles. Outside of a 1920's jazz club, a female vampire is attacking a man named Tom Mitchell at the opening of the tale. With no words, we see that as he stumbles away, the female turns him. At this point, we get the narrator's voice - the voice of the vampire's son, Cyrus. "Something very bad happened to my father once."

As Mitchell is placed in the ground and then returns as a vampire, we learn that Cyrus is an orphan, his mother taken by a lingering illness some years before. Tom returns to his house and finds Cyrus asleep in his bed. Oddly enough, something about the child's smile makes him return to a human appearance.

Santa Monica Pier, 1930. Tom is buying Cyrus an ice cream cone, having raised him these past eight years. The two are enjoying a corn dog at the pier. Tom has continued to work as a trumpet player in night-time jazz clubs. Cyrus notes that his dad never ate and assumes that he ate only after he went to sleep. Tom meets and then attacks a young woman on the pier while Cyrus sleeps in the back seat.

Los Angeles, 1945. Cyrus returns from the War, and reveals to us that he knew what Tom was before he went to war. After seeing him, still unaged, the horrors of war have made Cyrus feels like Tom's condition doesn't matter. Tom marries Marcie, his war-time sweetheart, shortly thereafter in a late-night wedding with Tom in the front seat. After the wedding, Marcie introduces Tom to Alice, her mother, noting his youthful appearance.

Pasadena, 1950. Alice convinces her daughter that Tom isn't good for Cyrus and Alice's first baby. Cyrus is elected to tell Tom that he is not to come around the baby. Alice turns up missing a few days later. Cyrus and Marcie raise their family with no sign of Tom for fifty years.

Santa Monica Pier, 2000. Cyrus, now an aged man, contacts Tom to talk about things. They don't talk much, and just walk around the pier, talking about the way things used to be. Tom, still youthful, sees an attractive woman giving him the eye. He tenses but decides to take Cyrus home, acting like Cyrus was made of glass. Cyrus knows that Tom is still what he is.

Los Angeles, 2003. Cyrus is bed-ridden with age, an old man, with Tom as youthful as ever. "This is how we were, right before the door was kicked in." The door bursts open and a young woman, one of Buffy's slayers, jumps on Tom without a word, stakes and dusts him. She asks if Tom was going to hurt Cyrus. He replies that he was taking care of him. The Slayer asks if Tom was Cyrus' son. "I said yes. It was close enough."

'Father's' main plot driver was its examination of what happens when a vampire outlives his children (or well, almost outlives). What would it be like to see them age and know that you never will? That very premise is what bothers me most about the story.

Why would a vampire care?

Why did Tom not attack Cyrus as a baby? There was no soul to prevent the monster that Tom had become to prevent it. Both Spike and Angel have referenced stories in which they had no problems with babies before their ensoulment. We get almost no explanation except for the smile the baby gave. A mystery...

The exploration of the relation from Cyrus' perspective was much richer, though. And maybe that was the point. Most children, and especially sons as a generalization, want their father's approval, presence and acceptance. Sometimes, it allows us to overlook their faults, which we come to realize as our lives progress. Cyrus' story is all about that love.

Finally, the ending was also one to ponder. When the slayer comes in the room and stakes Tom, Cyrus is almost non-chalant in his response. I don't quite yet understand that response. Perhaps it is part of the mystery that is a on & off relationship to a father that you know isn't...good. Another mystery for the reader. Sometimes family relationships are just that - a mystery. I am interested in seeing other reader's response. Talk to me about it in the forums or on PM.

Credits

Jane Espenson Story
Jason Alexander Art
Michelle Madsden Colors
Annie Parkhouse Letters

Antique

Timeline

2004 - 2005

The Sitch and Thoughts

Antique is a Goddard-penned follow-up to Buffy's season five opener - 'Buffy vs Dracula'. This final tale of issue 3 opens with Dracula sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, telling a tale of his own. The blustering Dracula assures us that we have surely heard the tales, tales from which we are not to hide our fear and shudders. Dracula then reassures that no harm will come to us as his guests and that we should not be frightened. The response? "We're not."

Dracula turns in surprise to the answer as we get the surprise that Drac's monologue isn't to us, but instead to an off-panel presence. Dracula tries to frighten his guests by turning into a bat, wolf and a big puff of fog, which the guests are DEFINITELY not frightened by. Dracula is amazed by the deceit of three helpless young women, laughing himself to tears.

We with Drac suddenly realize that his "guests" are Buffy Summers and two of her slayers. Dracula continues to attempt to scare them by becoming a swarm of bees and then a night panther. "What's a night panther?" Finally, one of the Slayers asks a question and is immediately put under Drac's thrall for the remainder of the tale.

Buffy and the Slayers are encouraged to keep up their charade to which Buffy replies "What's scary about an old man?" In two panels that I missed the first time I read it, we finally see Dracula as the non-entralled Buffy does - a withering old man.

Drac tells Buffy that the lesson has only begun. Buffy, unimpressed, tells him to knock the schtick off because Drac knows why she is here - he has something of hers. Drac denies it and Buffy tells him she's not leaving without it. Drac makes a final blustery threat and is stopped mid-sentence by a manservant in the background asking if the Slayers are gone.

Drac's head drops in apparent exasperation.

The manservant approaches Drac and is told to go back to the dungeon with the Harpies. "Xander, get over here." We realize that the manservant is one Xander Harris, hunched over and wearing his eyepatch. The Harpies have been trying to dress him as a Bobby, and he threatens a rain of death on the slayers. Dracula assures him that he can take it from there and begins to bargain with Buffy, noting that they both have needs and can come to an arrangement.

Drac's deal? He keeps Xander and Buffy's death will be as painless as possible. Drac jumps Buffy, and they begin to fight. Buffy sends the non-enthralled slayer after Xander. She also tells Drac to release Kira, the enthralled slayer. Buffy and Dracula tumble out the top window as Drac tells Buffy that she too will become antiquated and seen as a joke by the young slayers.

Drac then waxes philosopshic about age and its ability to reduce someone to a tall tale and fodder bad for "terrible films and television serials", changing from form to form as he fights. Buffy's reponse? "You know who talks about aging? Old people." She is treated to a slap from Xander. Buffy tells Drac to release Xander and after a short inventory of what he has in life, Drac agrees.

But first, he asks for a moment alone with Xander. Drac tells him that it has been one of the best years of his life and that Xander is welcome back at any time. Drac promises that neither he nor the Harpies will eat Xander at any future visit. "Go now." As Xander follows Buffy out, Drac sits down on a park bench in his garden. Three panels pass. Drac remains on the bench, now an old and lonely vampire.

So, what to say about this story? It is perhaps the most mixed reaction I've had to a story in a while. On the one hand, it had great, humorous dialogue and is an interesting take on Dracula. Buffy's decisive blows to Dracula's pomp and bluster left me laughing more than once. In fact, the story amplifies the windbag that Spike makes Dracula out to be in season five.

On the other hand, I felt the story was little conflicted in what it was trying to do. The tale bounded somewhere between humor and pathos for poor Dracula. The middle ground it tried to walk left me feeling like it never really achieved either. So many times it felt like we were being passed from a moment of humor to another moment of humor or pity for Dracula without a clear transition. As mentioned above, the tale sometimes amplifies the image of Dracula to a point of absurdity. At those moments, the story loses its punch

The story didn't hold together too well for me as well, which is very, because I loved Goddard's first Tales of the Vampire story - The Problem with Vampires - as well as his recent Angel episode "Why We Fight". Both of those stories held up well and were great at peeling back the layers of the story with subtlety.

Don't get me wrong. There were moments in this one that were gold. Dracula's assessment of Xander's fighting technique amounting to lots of smacking is classic. Overall though as a story and a follow-up to Buffy vs Dracula, I have to agree with Buffy and the Slayers. Am I impressed? I'm not.

Credits

Drew Goddard Story
Ben Stenbeck Art
Annie Parkhouse Letters

What's My Line?

Were it not for these chains, I should tear off your heads and make a
fountain of your spurting necks.

If I'm to understand EVERYTHING, you had better speak very quickly.

I'll give you my biscuits if you'll stop...

How about now?
I'm not even sure what you are.
I am fog.
Oh, then no.

I think I'm allergic to bees, no wait --- I'm allergic to soy.

I will save my questions until you are finished...

Letting people finish shows respect.

They are scary and cold. And they keep trying to dress me up like a Bobby.

Yes, Master. A bobby is a police officer.

I have an inquisitive mind, but interrupting is rude.

Master, I have slapped her. Run! Or turn into a dog. And run!
Did you teach him to slap?
No. I believe that is his natural instinct.

This is a beautiful garden...for you to die in, Slayer!

Thank you for teaching me to ride a motorbike.

Cover

Eric Powell Art

Starting with this review, I am going to say a few words about the artwork on the cover. Note that I am not an artist nor do I have a huge art background, but I will say what I like and don't. The cover for issue three was done by Eric Powell (The Goon, Star Wars Tales, Black Panther, Incredible Hulk and Batman to name a few). Powell provides us with a lush, painted cover with Dracula levitating a sheet-covered blonde, presumably Buffy, while two horned, winged skeletons play stringed instruments. The image is a perfect mixture of the image that Dracula wanted to project while revealing that much of Drac's back of tricks fall to basic sleight of hand with the Slayer around.

Rating: 2.5 of 5

Published February, 2004