Saturday, June 07, 2008

Book Review: Buffy Omnibus Volume 4

Omnibus, volume 4 (O4) is the best of the series so far. The writing is much close to the quality I came to expect from the series, partly due to the inclusion of the 19-issue, 200-page “Bad Bood” by Andi Watson, who has written the scripts for several graphic novels in the Buffyverse.

But the overall writing is better than the previous volumes. There were times in the first three volumes when I had to make myself continue reading. In O4, I had to make myself stop. Even the supplemental stories were well crafted.

And this volume ties in nicely with Season 3 of the TV series. The characters are more consistent with the series, and the action fits nicely in between the cracks of the season. For Buffy fans, volume 4 is a must read.

7 comments:

Dragonfly7673 (Vicki) said...

awesome, I didn't realize volume 4 was out yet! I had high hopes for the season 8 volume 1 but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. volume 2 is out so I may get that.

Dragonfly7673 (Vicki) said...

you turned off the moderator check on new comments?

Lee said...

Volume 2 was mostly forgettable, since I can’t remember much about it, and I only read it last year. But it’s still good to read them in order. You can find my comments on it here. Choose view E and sort by Summary.

After a year of approving everything, I figured that it was time. The person I was might say something nasty never did.

Tim Jones said...

I enjoyed BtVS Season 8 Volume 1, but I thought Volume 2 was a lot better (review coming on my blog soon-ish). I've read a few snippets from the Omnibus series online, but haven't read any of the physical volumes - your review has got me interested, though!

Lee said...

Thanks, Tim. The Omnibus series presents the original comic book stories in chronological order. It suffers from the limitations of that media—namely flat characters and childish plots—except when they venture into serializing a graphic novel. Then they have more room to play.

I just finished reading Season 8/2 as a whole. I had read all of the issues as they were published, but I find saving them until the “episode” is complete is much more satisfying. Even in the Buffyverse, it individual comics don’t stand up.

Dragonfly7673 (Vicki) said...

I bought Season 8/2 last night and I'm looking forward to the Faith arc. I wasn't too sure about 8/1 it seemed a bit 2-dimensional to me. which sounds a bit silly when referring to a comic but it didn't seem to fill out the characters that we know and love.

I'm much more up to date now that I got an RSS feeder!

Lee said...

RSS rules!

Hope you enjoy 8/2, Dragonfly. I was going to post a review of it today, but I didn’t quite get to it yet. Maybe...

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