WARNING: The following contains significant spoilers regarding the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight issue 12. If you have any interest in the series and have yet to read it (or haven’t heard what all the fuss is about) I advise you not to click the jump.
Before I start, I should admit that I never really got into comics. Although there are a few titles that I’ve bought and enjoyed over the years, I’m more of a nerd for the kind of books that don’t have pictures. So you’ll forgive me if this bit of news is several months out of date.
When I wandered into a local shop today, I was a bit surprised to discover that Jenna Jameson, ex porn ‘Queen’, had attached her name to an upcoming comic series. A barrage of questions immediately rushed to mind: how much does Ms. Jameson know about comics? Will she have any creative control, or is she simply lending her name? What kind of story will it have? Will Republican pundits lie about it and tear it to pieces before it hits newsstands? And most importantly, does it have potential or is it destined for failure?
The book is called Shadow Hunter. It deals with an ordinary young woman named Jezzerie Jaden (who bears an uncanny likeness to… well, take a look at the first issue’s cover art) who discovers that her family is literally from hell and that her destiny is to save humanity from being destroyed by demons. It’s being published by Virgin Comics and will be written by Witchblade co-creator Christina Z. It’s also apparently a ‘non-nude’ series.
Needless to say, there are a lot of ways a project such as this can go badly. As unfair as it is, anything non-pornographic with the name “Jenna Jameson” in the title is bound to attract some undesired attention; this will inevitably be getting one-star “I ain’t buying no comic created by someone who had sex on camera” style reviews on Amazon and other such places.
I do have a couple of outstanding issues with the book, but none of them have anything to do with a former porn star being behind it (by the way, if you judge someone’s creative potential solely because of that, you’re a jackass.) My main concern is with the title. I’m sure Shadow Hunter was the name of a video game at some point, about three dozen sci-fi and horror stories, and the actual name of a hero/heroine.
The other thing is the premise. I’m aware that we live in a time where every story and every plotline has been visited to death, and Shadow Hunter may or may not have room to explore uncharted territory. That said, there’s another comic I read every month about a hot blond battling demons.
If only to prove that I’m a better man than the aforementioned haters, I’m going to give Ms. Jameson the benefit of the doubt and buy the first issue. Shadow Hunter # 1 hits newsstands on February 20.
The first issue of “Buffy: Season 8″ officially hit stores on March 14, but yours truly didn’t score a copy right away. Had I done so, I might have posted a review up here already (looking over the fact that every blogger who cares about this has published their thoughts already, and one guy even got a copy in advance). Fortunately, things that can’t be tracked locally can almost be found online. So I’ve ordered and paid, and I should be receiving the comic sometime next week.
God bless the Internet!
The last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired almost four years ago, the cartoon was axed before it ever reached television, and the last time we saw the (surviving) cast of Angel, they were two seconds away from being slaughtered by an army of monsters. But series creator Joss Whedon isn’t about to let the series die. On March 14, the first issue of a new comic book series will hit store shelves, depicting the canonical ’season 8′ of the show.
Since it’s hard to set a series at the bottom a crater, the new ‘episodes’ will take place on a global scale. The story itself is expected to be huge, easily eclipsing the smaller scope of the TV show, and characters old and new will fill the pages. And of course, an as-of-yet-unrevealed major villain will show up at one point; and he/she is going to have to be pretty powerful, because how else can you shift the balance in a world now FULL of Slayers?
Am I excited about this? Yes. Yes, I am. I hardly ever get into comics (my geek priorities lie elsewhere) but “Buffy: Season 8″ has hit the top of my list this year (right above the new issues of “The Boys”, if and when they finally get published). I have such high expectations for “Buffy” that I’m hoping its appeal will attract entirely new audiences, including those who were at times irritated by the TV show (SHUT UP, WILLOW.)
