Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Paperback]

Set in the fifth season, 'False Memories' finds Buffy still trying to cope with the sudden acquisition of a younger sister. Not only is Dawn every bit as irritating as a sibling can be, Buffy keeps running into memories of Dawn's involvement in old episodes which weren't there all that long ago. Trying to keep her sister out of trouble and sorting out what is real and what is not are becoming major distractions for Buffy. It is bad enough that Buffy has one of the world's toughest night jobs - hellmouth cleanup patrol, now she has a nosy sister as well.

Once again, Sunnydale is visited by a new vampire menace, this time from Japan. Yuki Makimura and her companions, a group of vampire monks, are hardly tourists. While the vampire has no qualms about making sashimi out of our favorite slayer, her real agenda is another thing entirely. Yet when Dawn uncovers some clues to the mystery, but Giles goes all mysterious. Stymied by her watcher, Buffy is forced to turn to the [highly] unreliable help of Spike.

Once again, Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe have joined to create and interesting plot. Dawn is a welcome addition to the 'literary' Buffy world (I had an irritating younger sister of my own). I am at last getting used to the illustration style of the Dark Horse graphic novels. While the artwork is always of very high quality, I kept wishing the illustrated characters would look exactly as they do in the show. That is an impossible task, of course - just my inner perfectionist coming through. The truth is that Cliff Richards, Joe Pimentel, and Will Conrad have again turned out the spectacular artwork that makes good plot and dialogue into something memorable.

Only useful if you're desperate for some Buffy tales. The writer, Pascoe, just doesn't have the characters down. He tries to reflect their quirky dialogue, but it's painfully forced. Art is important in comics, but if the writing isn't there, it doesn't matter. Just not very impressive, and I'm a huge Buffy fan....

Despite my devotion to all things Buffy (e.g., triple digit number of action figures) I have not really followed the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comic books all that much, picking up issues here and there if they struck my fancy. I picked up the first issue, the three-part "Origin" storyline, and the two-part "Wilderness" Willow and Tara story. Since then I have checked out a couple of the trade paperbacks, but did not pick up anything else until "Tales of the Vampires" came out. Now, of course, with Joss Whedon scripting "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight" I really have a "BtVS" comic book to look forward to each month and will probably check out the first omnibus collection of Dark Horse comics when it comes out. However, I picked up "False Memories" a specific reason that once again proves my idiosyncratic perspective on reviewing certain items.

This trade paperback collects issues #35-38 of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comic book, written by Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe, with pencils by Cliff Richards that are inked by Joe Pimentel and Will Conrad. "False Memories" is set during the fifth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," after the arrival of Dawn but before the revelation to the Scoobies that Buffy's kid sister is the Key to another dimension. Unexplored by the television series, the title of this story act reminds us that when Dawn mysteriously appeared in Buffy's life "so did a million memories of them as sisters--impossible memories that can't be real, because Dawn simply was never there." I find that to be an extremely intriguing idea and actually wrote most of a "BtVS" novel in which each chapter had a different character from the "BtVS"/"Angel" universe looking back at a key moment from the past that was now slightly different because Dawn was now part of their memories. The idea was that Dawn's involvement spoke to some significant insight about that particular character; to wit, Dawn reflect the angels of their better natures (I came up with an absolutely awesome reason for why Wesley was sent to be Buffy's Watcher when Giles was fired).

So I picked up "False Memories" knowing that Fassbender et al. were obviously mining similar ground. I was not only interested in seeing their take on this aspect of the show's fifth season, but also totally depressed that I have no trouble finishing reviews but can never finish an actual novel (insert "Those who cannot do teach" observations here). What I found was a key different in that in this story Dawn's inclusion in these revised memories tends to be significant (e.g., she is the one who tells Xander to give Buffy CPR when the Master kills Buffy in "Prophecy Girl," the finale to the show's abbreviated first season). The problem is that Dawn is now trying to get involved in Buffy's current Slayer activities the way she does in those false memories. The Slayer knows that those memories are false, but that does not make the threat to Dawn any less real when Buffy's little sister suddenly goes missing.

Ultimately, the false memory part of this story is not an integral part of the action, although the revised flashbacks are a treat. More central to the story is Dawn's discovery of a two year period two hundred years ago when there was no Slayer. Giles refuses to explain the gap and Spike might be making tantalizing comments about what he knows about the cover-up, but is not revealing the fact that the missing Slayer calls him "William." That story line stands on its own, even if our minds immediately stray to the "Lost Slayer" series of novellas by Christopher Golden. Ultimately the flaw in "False Memories" is what happens with the Master. I mean, I thought he was really dead after "Prophecy Girl," and then really most sincerely dead after "When She Was Bad," but apparently I was wrong. Still, there is a concerted effort to find new things while covering old ground, so this one is worth a look for "BtVS" fans. Finally, the cover of this trade paperback is also the photo version of the cover for "BtVS" #38. In the front of the book you find the photo cover for #35 followed by the four drawn covers in order.

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