gagglefrak - science fiction blog

“Man, you really haven’t lived until you’ve had Scottish Chinese take-out. Anybody want some more sweet and sour haggis?” - Xander

“Great. Three magic enchantments wherein my ass is huge.” - Dawn

This issue begins the four-part “Time of Your Life” arc, which features — as the cover tells us — “The Return of Fray”. In fact, the entire Fray team is back for this arc: Joss Whedon writing, Karl Moline on pencils, Andy Owens on inks, and Michelle Madsen on colors. So everything looks beautiful and reads undeniably Buffy-ful. In fact, I think I’ve re-read page 5 a few dozen times already, because I don’t think I’ve ever read something that makes me hear the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and Nicholas Brendan in my head as strongly as the dialogue on that page.

When Willow says, “Ah, quitcher grousin’,” and, “No no, you’re making up made-up things,” Joss is not only writing in the voice of a character he created, but also in the voice of the actress who portrayed her. And that’s just all kinds of awesome to me. And a little saddening too, because of course it makes me miss the TV show. Continue Reading »

“Does anyone have a car? We could get further away from Angel if we had a car.” - Spike

“Man’s career path is based on a pun, can’t be too much inner pride.” - Angel, referring to the Loan Shark Demon

So after all this time, it turns out the Loan Shark Demon is named “Bro’os”. Get it? Think Finding Nemo. Well played, Brian Lynch!

As I’d hoped, this issue brought back the cohesiveness that I felt the “First Night” issues lacked. Armed with a new artist (Nick Runge), we return to the story exactly where it left off at the end of Issue #5, in the middle of a pitched battle of Angel & Friends versus the Champions of the L.A. Demon Lords. At the last minute, Wesley (”Casper the Dapper Ghost”) has appeared on the scene, and as a result, Illyria has reverted back to being Fred again. And according to Spike, it’s not the first time. Apparently, she flips back and forth regularly, and whenever she’s Fred, he protects her.

Observation: If we’ve learned nothing else about Spike over the years, it’s that in the women department, he seems to be attracted to nothing quite so much as a fixer-upper — Crazy Drusilla, Season 6 Buffy, and now Fred-Not-Fred. And yet in each case, these women are powerful, and once fixed, they always move on. I’m guessing the same will happen with Illyria/Fred, even though technically, the two aren’t romantically involved.

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Season 1 of Angel has just been added to Hulu.com. All 22 episodes. Watch for free on your computer, with limited commercial interruptions …

http://www.hulu.com/angel

This is in addition to the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that were already there …

http://www.hulu.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer

And the entire 14-episode run of Firefly …

http://www.hulu.com/firefly

Sadly, Hulu.com is NOT Canada-friendly. Sorry Canadians — no Whedon for you!

“Seriously, we have to work on our gathering skills. Our slaughtering skills are second to none. But being late, that’s always our problem.” - Demon Mercenary

“What’s with that one word in your head, over and over … seriously, what the hell is a slayer?” - Betta George

“Well, this guy can go back to his box and pee next to where he sleeps knowing full well that he was right — and you’re all stupid!” - The End is Near Dude

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It just gets funnier and funnier …