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Review: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9’ #21

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It’s the beginning of the end with the release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #21, as Andrew Chambliss kicks off a brand new story arc that sets the stage for the season’s looming finale. With only 4 more issues left, ‘The Core, Part One’ significantly pushes the narrative forward with a new mission, and wastes no time delivering exciting (though slightly ambiguous) plot twists that will leave readers dazed, but not surprised.

WRITTEN BY: Andrew Chambliss
ART BY: Georges Jeanty
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: May 8, 2013

Following last month’s example, this is also one of the least contrived and most entertaining installments of the season thus far. Xander, battered and bruised, returns after his forced rendezvous with Severin (The Siphon) and Simone; both of whom spoon-fed him promises of a better future if he betrays Buffy and provides them with intel in the form of the infamous VAMPYR book. Willow, having returned in issue #20, successfully manages to wake Dawn up, though the results are less than positive. She needs to juice up on magic in order to effectively save Dawn’s life, and she can acquire this magic in the Deeper Well; so, a new mission is born.

With the aid of Giles’ VAMPYR book, the gang reads up on The Deeper Well, while Georges Jeanty, Michelle Madsen, and Dexter Vines provide two visually fantastic panels bringing their research to life. Besides being designed to hold an abundance of magic inside, the Deeper Well is also a tomb for the Old Ones—the first demons to walk the Earth—who were too powerful to be defeated by mortal creatures. If anything goes wrong on their mission, Buffy and co. can inadvertently unleash hell on Earth.

The artistic team get an A+ for their take on the Deeper Well, especially considering their inclusion of Illyria in original form. But, Madsen steals the show with her colours, as she uses a noticeably larger and brighter colour palette in a mere panel, which, surprisingly, livens up the entire issue.

The rest of ‘The Core, Part One’ continues with confirmation of Xander’s betrayal, unbeknownst to Buffy and Willow. Debatably, his betrayal had more empathetic merit in issue #20 when there seemed to be no options for saving his girlfriend; but it’s a hard pill to swallow knowing he’s putting his trust in the bad guys.

The last 4 panels need mentioning as well, as Chambliss and Jeanty amp up the excitement in both script and art. It’s rare that Jeanty hits the mark with his artistic style, but his sequential illustrations of a main character’s return, The Scoobies’ stand-off with the guards, and Severin and Simone seemingly succeeding in their master-plan, is pure visual entertainment; only made better by Chambliss’ engaging plot developments. Arguably, even his variant cover is preferable over Phil Noto’s, this time around.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9” #21 offers a handful of great moments, but there are a few problems to be shared. The first deals with continuity errors. It’s revealed in the VAMPYR book that the last Old One to be imprisoned in the Deeper Well created the first vampire. But according to the BuffyVerse, more specifically in Season 5 of Angel, episode 16, Illyria blatantly confirms the existence of vampires during the days prior to her banishment to the Well. So, there’s a lot of confusion surrounding this fact. Moreover, there are believability and plausibility issues regarding the guards’ strategically bad judgement calls when protecting the Deeper Well; and product placement in the form of an obnoxiously featured iPhone makes an obvious appearance.

All that said, this installment is very enjoyable, and the fandom will eat it up.

4/5 Skulls

Reviewed by – ShadowJayd

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[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

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Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

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