The Avengers - How Fan Reaction Changed Black Widow's Marketing.

I admit it. I've been totally psyched about The Avengers as a movie for some time now. Firstly, because it is directed by one of my favourite writer/director/creators for some time: Mr Joss Whedon. He is pretty much geek catnip as far as I'm concerned. Anyone reading this blog knows that I've been a Whedonverse fan for many years - Buffy, Angel, Firefly, even Dollhouse. If he's involved, I'm there. Why? Because he's not just there to make things blow up for no reason (I'm looking at you Michael Bay!) - although Joss has teased in interviews that he's keen to get to blow up stuff - No.

The reason I'm excited is because Joss Whedon understands characters, he understands character development and he has the ability to mix lighthearted funny moments with intense, gut-wrenching pathos. He can make you laugh one minute, then have you sobbing your eyes out the next and you never know how things are going to play out. You just know he's going to both make and break your heart at the very same time and that's what I look for in a storyteller. A blockbuster can be a big spectacle, but if you don't care about the plot or characters, it's just one big fancy light show with no substance. I'm excited because I know Joss can deliver so much more than that and I know it's going to be great. I have faith!

Secondly, IT'S THE AVENGERS!!  Marvel comics' greatest heroes are teaming up...or dare I say it, assembling! It's a huge marketing gamble for Marvel, as we saw many films in 2011 - Thor, Captain America and 2010 - Iron Man 2 - paving the way for The Avengers. They've invested a lot in getting the audience to this point. Do I worry that there might not be anything there for the casual viewer or non-comics reader? Slightly - but I think even if you managed to see at least one or none of those movies you won't feel lost. There's going to be plenty of action and great quip-y dialog and who doesn't want to see Iron Man, Thor,  Hulk,  Hawkeye,  Black Widow and Captain America square up to each other and team-up?  I sure do!

Finally, I have to say how much I adored Thor as a movie last year, it was definitely up there as one of my faves of 2011. I'm a total comics and mythology geek and I wasn't sure how Thor would translate to the big screen, but Kenneth Brannagh did a superb job of balancing the lofty "mythic" elements of the story with a lot of fun and humour. The tone was pitched just right, the special effects for Asgard were just out of this world stunning and can I get a round of applause for Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth who were just perfectly cast as Loki and Thor. I'm so excited to see the plot threads seeded in Thor weave their way into The Avengers - and see more of Loki as a great Machiavellian villain. It's going to rock. If you don't believe me check out the teaser trailer below:

I honestly adore this teaser trailer - nothing gives this girl a shot of adrenalin more than watching epic comic book action to a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. Iron Man, Thor AND Trent Reznor singing? Awesome sauce. It definitely promises a lot of fun come 27th April when The Avengers opens in the UK. I can't wait.

So why my post? Well...I wanted to talk about the awesome female Avenger - Black Widow and how her character was treated in Iron Man 2 and how she was originally marketed for The Avengers.


The Portrayal of Black Widow In Iron Man 2:

I really wanted to like Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and I did - but it could have been so much more. On a shallow level it helps that she is played by Scarlett Johannson, an actress I admire a lot (She was amazing in Lost In Translation) and let's face it most of the male (and female) population think is damned gorgeous (and she is - but she is so much more than just a pretty face). So what didn't I like about the way Black Widow was portrayed in Iron Man 2?  She was barely in it for a start. Whilst, I realise Iron Man 2 was very much Tony Stark's movie and things were being laid in place for The Avengers - it was made very obvious in the script and in the way scenes were filmed, that she was there to be an undercover "secretary" and her role was to stand there and look pretty for most of the film. She was there to be the male eye candy and that bugged the hell out of me.

Secretary mode Black Widow.

Black Widow or Natasha Romanoff is a Marvel comics heroine, who is a Russian super-spy. She's a flame-haired martial-arts trained livewire, who can kick your ass sideways and take out a target with a sniper rifle fairly efficiently. She usually was equipped with plenty of high-tech weaponry and her trademark skin-tight black leather jumpsuit. She was originally portrayed in comics as working for the Soviet Union, but later joined S.H.I.E.L.D. (Marvel's fictional secret American defence organisation) and became a member of the Avengers. In many ways, Black Widow is much like a Russian Bond girl/femme fatale that would sooner shoot Bond than kiss him.

In many ways, the movie Black Widow doesn't stray too far from that concept, the red hair and the catsuit is there along with her proficiency at espionage, computer hacking, weaponry and martial arts. So what was missing for me? Apart from the fact we never see Scarlett speak in a Russian accent? The fact that she spent most of the film simpering around Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and having Tony perv on her slightly. She was there purely as a perceived threat to Tony and Pepper's romantic relationship and wore a dress/tiny pencil skirt and heels for the most of it. It was so annoying! Again, I realise that she's meant to be undercover, but could we please have a little dignity and subtlety in portraying the character maturely. Please? Having Stark leer at an underwear shoot photo of her, putting her in that little skirt, followed by the lingering shots of her butt is NOT IT. I think my point can be illustrated best by this clip from the film:

 

*sigh* Oh Marvel movies how you disappoint me with your unthinking sexism. I fully realise that Black Widow is meant to be a femme-fatale character, but there are ways to make a character attractive and sexy where it's clear the character has ownership of that sexuality and is not defined by it. It honestly can be done. Admittedly it probably doesn't help that Black Widow's catsuit is utterly ridiculous. It took me ages to find a comic book portrayal/image of her that didn't make her look like her boobs were about to fall out of her outfit. Pretty sure you don't want to be that exposed in a life or death fight situation Miss Romanoff!

Black Widow in her own Marvel comic. Kremlin-a'licious.

Having said that - after the film teasing us for ages - finally seeing Natalie in action as Black Widow was worth the wait and a lot of fun. Plus she uses what I'm now going to patent as her "trademark killer vagina move." What is that exactly? Well, her fighting style in the films seems to involve her jumping onto a guy's head, scissoring her legs around him and flipping the poor schlub's ass to the ground. But mostly it looks like she's taking people out with her vagina. Do I find this amusing as a style choice? Yes. Am I going to stop typing vagina? No! Because it's funny and I can. Not only that, but one of the sole clips of her in The Avengers has her doing the exact same thing. So yeah - Black Widow kills people with her vagina. You heard it here first. I don't really know how to feel about it. Is it sexist? Maybe. Does it amuse me. Yes. So I'm going to go with amusement for the time being. Feel free to judge for yourself by watching the clip below:

 See? I told you! She's a total ninja. With her vagina. A vagina ninja, if you will. I'll stop now before I completely lose the point I was trying to make. Right. Black Widow and my concerns about her portrayal. Right. Well, I had my concerns about whether the character would be just as sidelined in The Avengers. I knew Joss Whedon, champion of multi-faceted strong female characters was involved, so I had a lot more confidence that Natasha wasn't going to end up being a piece of throwaway eye candy again. Joss has even gone on record saying that he'd have liked to use more female characters in his film, namely founder Avenger "Wasp" a.k.a Janet Van Dyne, who was the original female Avenger. Someone really should have sold that idea of pro-female empowerment to the film's marketing team though.


The Marketing of Black Widow for The Avengers and The Amusing Fan Backlash:

The original teaser posters for The Avengers did not fill me - a female comics fan - with joy. Why do you ask? Because this is what they originally came up with:

Can you spot the difference? Apparently Black Widow's super-heroine power is flashing her arse, whilst her male comrades stand around looking cool and not at all flashing their bums in a derogatory fashion. Seriously what is this? 

The sheer gender difference in portrayal is so obvious that once you see it, you can't unsee it. Yes, if you are feeling particularly boorish you could say: "Well, it's Scarlett Johannson. She's an attractive woman. Why can't we show a shot of her bum?" That's all well and good, but every single male character in this promotional banner isn't being treated in the same flippant manner. They're allowed to stand there looking cool and not flashing their back-side for no apparent reason. I think sci-fi journalist Jayne Nelson said it best on the SFX website: "I can't believe the only bottom on display is Scarlett's. It's bloody sexist, is what it is! I demand pert man-bottoms to even the balance!" And she's not the only one besides me who cottoned onto this discrepancy, the Mary Sue covered it too here. 

One artist decided to reverse the trend, Kevin Bolk - who decided to portray all the Male Avengers in a rather "manly" fashion in the same pose. His reasoning was: "I couldn’t help but notice that in most of the ad material, the guys are all in heroic stances but Black Widow is almost always in an impractical, curved-spine ‘booty shot’ pose. Figured I’d flip it around for my lady friends out there. Seemed only fair.”

So yeah. I can't try to caption this without giggling. I really can't!

I admit. It's pretty funny and only serves to highlight the often ridiculous poses many women are drawn or depicted in in the media.  We're not all uber-boobed contortionists dudes. Lay off already! But personally, I loved the positive response to Bolk's artwork and the annoyed reaction of the geek community to the naff marketing the Avengers marketing team originally came up with. Many of us were annoyed by it, but dammit, we were going to have a sense of humour about it too. It was refreshing to see this reaction in a jaded internet world where casual sexism in advertising seems to be brushed off as quickly as blinking these days. So when it was time for them to unveil the UK "Avengers" promo banners I had a not-so-small amount of trepidation. Were we going to see more of the same? Thankfully someone seemed to have seen the light-hearted backlash online and this was what they changed Black Widow's UK poster to this:

Much cooler and more balanced don't you think?

 This change definitely left me feeling a lot happier and having seen a second equally gorgeous, non-gratuitous poster, also posted below, I'm doubly pleased. Here we have Black Widow being kick-ass and gorgeous and tough without flashing her bum. HURRAY! See film marketers, here's how you promote a movie without alienating and annoying your potential female audience. Bravo. Let's hope the film continues that trend!

Even more awesome is the news we Brits might be getting to see the film first for a change. The UK release date is set for April 27th , whereas the US release date has been promoted as May 4th (Star Wars Day!).

Let's be clear: I don't want my heroines to be stone-faced butt-kicking automatons, but at the same time I don't want them to be scantily-clad brainless eye candy either. Where do we draw the line? How about giving us a beautiful (or rocking the boat further - less anatomically perfect and/or physically implausible) heroine who is emotionally relatible; who is flawed; who has problems, but solves them. Who can be fragile and strong at the same time? If anyone can write and portray that it's Joss Whedon. He created Buffy Summers, who was very much all those things. So do I hope that Black Widow can be a fully realised member of the Avengers, rather than being perceived as the "token female?" Absolutely. There are so many characters being carried into this movie and screen time is precious, but I have faith that Joss and his writing/production team will be able to show Black Widow as a worthy and equally important member of The Avengers team.

 Although I'm still sad to discover the complete lack of Black Widow merchandise tie-ins announced so far. I guess they are going for the more recognisable characters, but still. Such a missed opportunity. I want there to be Black Widow action figure dammit!   

**AWESOME NEWS UPDATE**: There IS going to be a Black Widow action figure.
SFX Magazine have just posted shots of Hasbro's announced action figure range and Black Widow is included. HURRAY! Check them out here

**FURTHER AWESOME NEWS**: Marvel have also announced Black Widow will get a three issue comics mini-series tie-in with The Avengers film (recently renamed 'Avengers Assemble' in the UK to avoid being mistaken with the 60's spy franchise with the same name) called 'Black Widow Strikes.' The Black Widow comic series will see Natasha team up with fan favourite Agent Coulson in Russia. Sounds fab! Find out more here

Gorgeous new poster art for Black Widow.

But if anything positive can be gleaned from all of this, the fact that the marketing was changed to reflect fan reaction to the sexism gives me hope for humanity!  So as an additional thank you to all of you who have read this far, here's the all-new Avengers Super Bowl Trailer than premiered yesterday. Apparently they have a Hulk:

Weekly Comic Reviews - Angel and Faith Issue 1

I have a confession. I never used to regularly read comics until about four years ago. Being the literature geek that I am, I always thought having art alongside the words lacked imagination. BOY, was I dead wrong and I apologise to my future/current comic loving self profusely and to one of my exes whom I teased as a teenager by saying graphic novel was just a pretentious way of saying comic book. I WAS WRONG!

Believe me, I'm making up for it now - grabbing hold of everything from Sandman to Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, Batwoman, Ultimate AND Amazing Spiderman, old Batgirl comics and Claremont era X-Men.

Don't get me wrong - I loved super-heroes as a kid. I was lucky to grow up in the Nineties when we had the likes of Batman Animated, X-Men, Spiderman and the Marvel Action Hour to keep us entertained. So I knew all the main characters and tropes from Marvel and DC pretty well when the comic book movie explosion of the Noughties (and still counting) happened. I was happily on board for the ride as   X Men (2000), Spiderman (2002) and many others were released. But it wasn't the same as reading the stories on inked pages.

One thing in March 2007 changed everything for me - turning me into someone that would search Ebay every month for first printings and variant art covers and show me the wonder of great artwork mixed with serial story-telling. That thing was Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. 

Buffy: Season Eight - 40 issues. 4 years. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

 Anyone who knows me knows Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my all-time favourite show, so to see my favourite characters continue their journey in comic book form was far too much of a temptation.

I had to get hold of every issue and sure-fire I did. All 40 issues every month on and off over 2007-2011. The story had a lot of ups and downs - there were many things they did with certain characters I wasn't keen on, but there were a lot of things to love. Especially Jo Chen's gorgeous artwork.

Why am I mentioning this? Because September 2011 is the month where everything changes. Dark Horse Comics are launching two new Buffy/Angelverse titles - Angel & Faith, set in London following our favourite brooding vampire and tough Boston slayer and Buffy Season Nine, in which Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Spike have relocated to San Francisco and Buffy is a waitress - and the only Slayer - again.

Pretty sure I left my heart here somewhere...

Both titles will run for at least 20 issues alongside each other as the characters all come to terms with what happened in the climactic ending of Season 8: 

 HIGHLIGHT TO READ THE SEASON 8 SPOILERS: Angel was revealed as the villainous Twilight.Working at the will of an entity from another reality, Angel manipulated Buffy in order to create a reality in which they both could live happily ever after, but she could never see her friends again.  Refusing his offer, Buffy returned, but the walls of reality thinned, bringing demons pouring into our world. A trip to Sunnydale and a quest to protect the source of all magic lead to an epic battle and tragedy as a Twilight-possessed Angel killed Rupert Giles, Buffy's beloved Watcher. Acting in shock, Buffy destroyed the seed - the source of all magic - shattering the Slayer Scythe in the process. No more Slayers can be called beyond the girls who have already been called as Slayers and Willow has lost her access to the magical realms completely. No more magic, but still vestiges of demons and vampires out there that need to be dealt with. At the reading of Giles' will he hands over all his possessions, including his London flat to Faith, who has vowed to help a shell-shocked Angel deal with his inadvertent act of murder. Buffy can't even look at him, but has been handed down one last gift from Giles: the VAMPYR book he first handed to her when they first met - meaning that she is still the Slayer - and there is still work to be done.  END SPOILERS.

In every generation there is a chosen chick who has to read this book.

The reason I'm throwing all this "Buffyverse" exposition out there is because I've decided to do weekly/monthly comics reviews on my blog. Whilst I'd really love to be as comprehensive as possible in covering every comic readers want me too - at the moment I'll be reviewing the ones I'm following at the moment.

This will also include some iconic super-heroines such as Supergirl Kara Zor-El, the controversially rebooted Batgirl Barbara Gordon and our two favourite Slayers Buffy and Faith as well as a few other Whedonverse goodies. I'm also up for reviewing any reader's recommendations - if the comics titles have the female reader firmly in mind!

On with the reviews....

Angel & Faith Issue 1 - Live Through This Part 1

Dark Horse Comics.

Written by Christos Gage & Joss Whedon.

Art by Rebekah Isaacs & Steve Morris (Cover), 

Jo Chen (Variant Cover) and Georges Jeanty (25th Anniversary Cover).

Characters: Faith Lehane, Angel, Rupert Giles, Hannah,* Anne,* Plagiarus Demon,* Jenny Calendar, Nadira* (A British Slayer), Whistler, Nash* and Pearl.   * = New characters.

The Plot: The story opens a few months on from the devastating events of Buffy Season Eight where Angel was left catatonic after his horrific actions. Faith and Angel are living in Giles' apartment in London. They're solving unresolved demonic disturbances using Giles' old Watcher Diaries as a guide. Angel "seems" to be coping, but Faith sees right through his smokescreen. They both go to the aid of a woman named Anne, whose daughter Hannah is being used as a host by a Plagiarus demon. We learn in flashback that Giles had bound the demon in the girl many years before to save the mother and child. However, the spell required a sacrifice from his own life: the loss of experiencing the best day of his life and the memory of it wiped out of existence. Unsure how Angel will react, but having faith in him, Faith watches as Angel feigns biting the girl, releasing the demon from its host and allowing them to kill it. As they do, Angel experiences a vision of the day Giles lost: happiness with Jenny Calendar. The day that would've occurred if Angelus had never killed Jenny. Angel is overwhelmed with guilt at the deaths he has caused.  

As Faith and Angel leave, Anne and Hannah now safe, Angel decides to head home alone. Meanwhile Faith heads into Brixton and ambushes Nadira, another Slayer out on patrol. It seems Faith hasn't totally neglected her Slayer squad duties and is looking out for other remaining Slayers in the aftermath of the war against Twilight. They both head to a club for dancing and to compare notes. Nadira tells Faith what happened to the slayer training squad she belonged to in Azores. They were ambushed by Twilight (who was in fact, Angel) and two of his cronies: Pearl and Nash, who murdered the entire squad while Twilight watched. Willow found and healed Nadira and got her to safety. Now Nadira has vowed vengeance against Twilight and anyone who aided him in killing Slayers. Faith feels incredibly conflicted as very few know she is harbouring Angel at the flat. She choses to remain silent. You can bet this will have consequences....

Octo-demon babysitting is nobody's favourite past-time.

 We cut to an old friend in a pub. No, not our favourite blonde vamp, sadly. It's Whistler - and it seems he might not be as neutral an advice giver as BtVS fans first thought. Having convinced Angel to take up Twilight's aims and seen him fail, Whistler is determined to finished what was started to restore the cosmic balance and he's got Pearl and Nash willing to help him do it. *gasp!* Also Pearl and Nash have brutally slaughtered everyone in the pub. Eeek. Angel better watch his back!   :O

Back at the flat, Faith pleads with Angel to tell him that his actions in the Azores weren't him. He can't. He explains that he tried to manipulate Pearl and Nash into his plans, but they were unpredictable. The guilt of all the actions he took for what he believed was the greater good weigh down on him. Faith says she's fine about helping the Slayer girls and using Giles' diaries to right wrongs, but Angel needs to stop obsessing over his recent actions. Angel has a plan though....to resurrect the one person he believes they truly need...the man he killed.

 Best Lines:     
 "I killed the woman he loved. He forgave me. He paid the price." - Angel   
This sums up the whole dramatic crux of the next few issues. Beautifully delivered and Issacs' artwork makes it a heartbreaking callback.

"The parents I know -- well, that is to say, the good ones--would do anything for their children. They place them first, no matter how difficult that may be. I must place the greater good above all. Regardless of how difficult that may be." - Giles
 This line sums up Giles' character perfectly. He's the gang's father figure and always has been. He's always done the hard thing to protect the world. He would do anything for Buffy and he did.

"The fabric holding the spell together was my life. Specifically one of the best days of life. I'm not certain which one. That day is gone from my memory now. I don't know precisely what I've lost. But it's absence leaves an ache I believe I shall carry with me forever." 
- Giles   One of the best lines in the comic. Poignant and poetic and so sad!

"Nothing to worry about, the street's lit up like daytime. Maybe if chavs hadn't smashed out half the lamps. And not a copper in sight, of course...bloody austerity...measures..." - Nadira 
American writers don't always get British turns of phrase quite right, but this was hilarious. I'm British and the use of chav made me laugh a lot as did the dig against the coalition's recent cuts policy and the very subtle reference to the August London riots. Gage knows his setting and it shows. We don't always call them coppers these days though...  ;)

"Your whole Twilight phase makes about as much sense as a David Lynch movie." - Faith to Angel.

Faith says what we've all been thinking and she's right!

 "Earth's cut off from the mystic dimensions. The only magical crap that works is stuff that's self-powered. I can't contact my bosses at Powers That Be LLC and my precognitions all outta whack. Like trying to watch scrambled porn." - Whistler's unique take on the situation.

The Artwork: Okay, I'll own up, I was absolutely thrilled when I heard Angel & Faith was going to be set in London. As a Brit myself, the idea of the Buffyverse inhabiting my home country fully filled me with inner squeeage. I bought all three available covers for this first issue. All are gorgeous in different ways. Steve Morris' cover artwork is fantastic. His image of a fog covered autumnal London is spookily atmospheric and just right for this time of year. It captures  "supernatural" London very well. It's gothic and dark as a Buffyverse cover should be and having Angel and Faith in the graveyard is very symbolic. I love the little details such as the goblin, stone angel and epitaph. I think I'm going to enjoy seeing the rest of his cover artwork and I love his depiction of Faith sat on the gravestone. Whilst his colour palate is mainly earthy and dark, this seems to suit these two characters down to the ground.

I can say nothing wrong about Jo Chen's artwork. Her covers for Buffy Season Eight were beautiful and extraordinary in capturing the likenesses of these well-known characters. Her Angel & Faith cover is no different. Angel and Faith are shown, again, in a fog shrouded London with a wonderfully drawn Big Ben looming in the fog behind them. Her painted likenesses are gorgeous to behold and almost photo-real. As I said, no bad words to say.  ;)

Jo Chen's gorgeous variant cover

Georges Jeanty is an artist I'm a bit hit and miss with. I find his Buffy artwork too cartoonish. He depicts many of the Buffyverse's characters as far too "young" to me and I find I like other artist's illustrations better. However, he does draw certain parts rather well. His cover is less exciting composition wise. We again get another drawing of Angel, Faith and Big Ben, but what I really liked about this one is how the rain blurs the logo and the image down the cover. As well as the way the rain flows down the pavement to the drain. Lovely visual stuff and it's definitely one of his better covers, but not in the same league as Morris and Chen.

Add captGeorges Jeanty's variant cover with added London rain.i

I am really loving Rebekah Issacs' interior artwork. She draws Faith and Angel's likenesses wonderfully and very expressively.  You can clearly tell who each character is, though her rendering of Giles is a bit hit and miss and better in close-up. All in all her art is gritty, expressive and fluid, without the overly cartoonish style that bugs me occasionally in Jeanty's work. She can draw movement well and the female characters are drawn proportionally and respectfully (something you don't always see in the comics industry). She's a great choice for the book and some of her designs - the tentacles of the demon and the Giles/Jenny panels are wonderful. She gets bonus points for adding a Chelsea FC poster on a bus stop in one of her panels too. It's a great cultural touch.

Reflections & Verdict: I'll be honest. I was devastated by one particular death at the end of Buffy Season Eight. I think I'm still getting my head around it - as are the fans; as are the characters and that's one of the reasons this new Angel & Faith comic works so brilliantly. It doesn't shy away from it. The presence of that character and their legacy is felt on every page of this issue. Including an incredibly poignant moment where we discover what might have been between Giles and Jenny. It's incredibly bittersweet. Made even more so by the fact that Angel - Jenny's killer- is the only one to see it. Equally, we see more aspects of Giles - revealing that he has always been prepared to do what others will not to protect the greater good. It's such an important facet of his character and Gage's writing really shines in these sequences. Normally I'm not a big fan of narrative ret-cons, mainly because they screw with what has been established and accepted - sometimes unnecessarily so (I'm looking at you Warren Mears. Grrr.) - but the motive behind Giles' sacrifice and the loss of Jenny is so poignant that I adored it. It totally works for me and in turn gives their "what could've been" romance even deeper significance.

Saddest comics panel ever. Jenny and Giles we hardly knew you. *sniff*.

I was anxious to see how Dark Horse would approach Angel as a character in the aftermath of the "Twilight" reveal debacle in the last few arcs of Buffy:Season Eight. I never felt we understood his motivations for doing what he did. Like this sudden change of character happened behind the scenes and we were left to "facepalm" ourselves into oblivion as the narrative jumble at the end of Season Eight came to a close. This wasn't the Angel I knew from his own show, where no matter the costs, he still kept a moral heart at the centre of his actions. He was ruthless, but he wasn't amoral. That was Angelus. And then that all got thrown out of the window in one comic last December that changed the 'verse. There was one particular line in this current issue that made me shudder and wince as I read it.  I won't say which one until you read it for yourselves...but yeah, I'm emotionally entangled in these characters and those lines were horrible to hear. Even if Angel was faking it. Do I still like Angel as a character? I'm finding it hard at the moment and his plan seems incredibly misguided. If anything he will have to fight greater for redemption than he ever has had to in the past.

I loved Nadira and Faith's interactions and I'm glad that the "helping wayward slayers" plotline for Faith hasn't been dropped entirely. I like the maturity her experiences have gained her and I completely understand her motives for believing in Angel's right to earn redemption. These two characters understand each other in ways the other characters in the Buffyverse can't fathom. They've  both killed unreservedly, they've walked back from that edge time and time again and they want to believe they are better than their mistakes. Angel believed in her when she hit rock bottom and now she's returning the favour. It's almost as if the two of them are coming full circle and it's a testament to Faith's character development over the course of both Buffy and Angel and the comics that I can believe in her as a steadying influence and have even grown to like her. She was definitely not on my faves list when she first appeared on the TV show. Now, I find her fascinating.

New villains Pearl and Nash and their unique take on "decorating".

 Gages has captured the character's voices and personalities very well and nothing feels out of place. Even the secondary characters like Nadira feel like they belong in the Buffyverse. I can't get enough of Pearl and Nash as the series' new villains. They appear almost elvishly Aryan and their back story and unique powers are awesome. They reminded me a little bit of early Season 2 Spike and Dru so I have high hopes. The Whistler reveal was quite shocking initially, but had a great pay-off for long-time fans and a lovely callback to the classic episode "Becoming" in the dialogue. With a strong emotional cliffhanger and a story that gets right to the heart of the things I love about the Buffyverse: character development and emotional moments; I'm totally along for the ride with this one and can highly recommend Angel & Faith to Buffy fans.

Score: 5/5 - Excellent story-telling and a great opening issue.

Speculation: I don't think I'll win any awards for predicting that Angel's plan will go horribly, horribly wrong. Any Buffy fan who has seen "Forever" knows that resurrection spells are very bad news. His plan is entirely fueled by what has always been his motivation: guilt and a need to atone, but this - blended with his grief- might not be the best course. I'm interested to see what Pearl, Nash and Whistler have planned for Angel. I'd love to see confrontations between them and Angel and I think we're going to get them. I can't wait to see Nadira's reaction to the knowledge Faith is helping Angel and I'm hoping that while Faith might support Angel initially, that as the plan gets further out of control, she'll know when to draw the line. All in all the new series kicks ass!    
Spec

But, you're a Girl!

Yes, I own that t-shirt and no, I'm not going to apologise for it. I'm a Whedon Girl until the end! Also, I really wish I could afford a Force FX lightsaber, but my student loan probably wouldn't cover it.

Okay, let’s get this straight out in the open: I’m a geek. I think I’ve always been a geek. In fact, I’m pretty sure if I’d had it my way, I would’ve emerged from the womb clutching my lightsaber and demanding to know the location of the nearest star ship. Normally, this kind of declaration would label me the epitome of loser, but nowadays, people get geeky about all sorts of things, sometimes even relatively mainstream interests like cars, computers and obscure works of literature – hell, even collecting stamps; the point is everyone needs a hobby.

But, somehow, science fiction and fantasy fans seem to take things far beyond that, we take our passions and make them our obsessions, (believe me that’s the only way I can explain half the Star Wars stuff I own); I think that’s why many people outside the fan community are politely bemused by us. Of course, there are many casual viewers of science fiction and fantasy programming; we only have to look at the overwhelming success of Heroes, Lost and the British tea-time staple Doctor Who over the past three years to see that. Phillip Pullman and J.K. Rowling have both made their names in recent times, for writing fantastic fiction. But, for those of us who post on-line after every episode, who read the classic SF and Fantasy novels, who collect action figures, comic books and collectors items and who love getting involved in passionate debates with fellow fans; in many ways we’re in a league of our own.

So how do I fit into this equation?

Well, like I said, I’ve always been a geek. This fact has always been made harder by the additional fact that I’m a girl, usually for reasons made unknown to me. I grew up in the late 1980’s (yes, I am quite the youngling) and the first thing I remember being really obsessed with was the cartoon ‘Thundercats’. I was four years old and I insisted that my parents bought me all the action figures, which I still have. I used to hide behind the sofa every time Mumm-Ra showed up. I wanted to be Cheetara, so I could run really fast. I even tried to run up and down the garden several times pretending to be her, until I got a stitch. That’s dedication for you. I used to prefer to take my Lion-O figure to bed with me, instead of my teddy bear, I had to be forcibly pried away from it; figure that one out Freud!

I was often bribed into going to my ballet classes by promises to tape “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles” off ‘Going Live’ for when I got back. I wanted to be April O’Neal, which probably influenced my choice of a career in journalism, or maybe not. Those yellow jumpsuits were criminal. I quit ballet, but my passion for cartoons and SF remained. In fact, Mum insisted it was the only way she could get me to eat pizza. I used to sneak downstairs and watch repeats of Ulysses 3000 at 6 am, before I went to school. I really loved the Ewoks cartoon as well, but this was before I knew what Star Wars was. God, I was truly deprived.

The one thing I remember clearly about mealtimes was my Dad insisting we watched the BBC repeats of Classic Star Trek, in which I did my own distinct tone-deaf version of the wailing theme tune, complete with a dance I made up myself. I was an odd child, but Star Trek was always our father-daughter bonding time. I was left distraught by the end of "Wrath of Kahn", but Dad assured me Spock would be just fine. We reveled in Picard and Kirk's adventures and as I got older, I was sitting down excitedly to watch the pilots of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. It was so good to finally see a female Starfleet Captain.

I was the first person to get really into “Power Rangers” when it first came out. Call me a slave to cynical marketing ploys, but I really loved it. My parents bought me all the toys for my 9th birthday and every time we played it in the playground I had to be the Yellow Ranger. Screw all this Pink nonsense. Usually this game would quickly descend into ninja based chaos. I distinctly remember being sent to the head teacher for karate kicking someone in the face, so anyone who said cartoons don’t encourage gratuitous violence was clearly lying. I now prefer to take my anger at the world out on Halo, it’s just a pity I can’t shoot or take aim for toffee.

"But, you're a Girl!"

The increasingly common cry of my childhood became “But, you’re a girl!” or “Isn’t that boy’s stuff?” It drove me crazy. It wasn’t that I just wanted to be ‘one of the lads’, I was trying to keep up, sure, but I guess, what I really wanted to prove was that I could do everything just as well as they did. I spent my youth jumping around barns and running through the mud in the woods with army camouflage on, war-paint on my face, toy gun and walkie-talkie in my hands; I also played with my Barbie and sang along to Disney films. I never saw anything wrong in that. Although once, my 70 year old grandmother bewildered by my thirtieth viewing of The Empire Strikes Back asked loudly: “What on earth are you watching that for? That’s a boy’s film!" I replied simply: "But, that's what I like Nan!" She shook her head, like I was a lost cause.

In 1997, I was eleven and reading Tolkien alongside Dickens and Jane Austen. I discovered Star Wars for the first time that year, I saw a documentary and begged my mother to take me to see the Special Edition in the cinema. Seeing it for the first time on the big screen was a rush. That opening sweep of the Star Destroyer never gets old. I fell in love with the characters and I rapidly devoured every Expanded Universe Star Wars novel I could find. Mara Jade became my heroine! She kicked bum, wielded a lightsaber, made tough smart-ass remarks and even Luke Skywalker loved and respected her. That was my kind of SF girl. I still find it embarrassing to this day, that my first ever crush was on Mark Hamill. I was young, okay? No-one has any real taste at that age! Now, at the semi-mature age of twenty-two, I can safely say I see exactly what Leia saw in Han Solo. Harrison Ford, back in the day = Yummy!

Having overloaded on Star Wars in every possible way from buying all the tie-in books, encylopedias, character guides, video games and novels – you name it, I still have it. I sought out new fantastical worlds to immerse myself in. I watched old BBC repeats of the original 1970’s Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century, just because I loved the Seventies kitsch of it all. They were both undeniably cheesy, but provided great evening escapism. I got hooked on Quantum Leap, mainly because it was undeniably hilarious seeing Scott Bakula in drag. I also still maintain that Sliders was great fun. John Rhys Davies (Gimli from Lord of the Rings) was in it , so it can't have been all that bad.

Finding My Inner Super-Heroine:

I also immersed myself in Marvel and DC cartoons. I was lucky to be growing up in the 1990’s, when superhero cartoons were having a new revival. I watched X-Men, Spiderman, Superman, Batman:The Animated Series and the Marvel Action Hour, which featured The Hulk, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four. I immersed myself in comic book culture, even though I had never picked up a comic book, so that when this decade’s comic-book film explosion happened, I already knew most of the character’s back stories. I thought Jean Grey, Storm and Rogue were beyond cool – and having gone back and started reading the original graphic novels – I still do.

But the thing I lamented most was that there were no girl’s superhero costumes. I could pretend to be a fairy princess to my heart’s content, but if I wanted to live out my childhood fantasies of being Bat Girl or Super Girl, I had to dress up in my brother’s costumes, which were a tad small on an eight year-old me. At school we had a “Heroes and Villains” fancy-dress day. I decided to go at Super Girl as I had just seen the 1984 Helen Slater film over Christmas and adored it. I had tiny red boots, the cape and even the Super-sign drawn by my cousin to pin on my chest. I like to think I looked rather cute, even if I did spend break-time zooming around the playground attacking bad guys and saving people. The only thing that annoyed me was when a teacher asked me quite innocently: "Oh, are you Superman?" To which I replied rather angrily, "No way! I'm Kara! I'm Super GIRL!" Call me a prepubescent feminist, but I was insanely cross that no-one knew who I was. It was the first time I fully realised how invisible and secondary many female heroines are in our popular culture.

My angry feminist expression was not unlike this, except smaller and cuter.

I still have the same costume problem today. I wanted to be a super-heroine last year for Halloween. I had the very narrow choice of some very slutty Wonder Woman or Bat Girl costumes. Absolutely nothing anyone sold was above a maximum 12 UK dress size, which I, most definitely, am not. I was a little infuriated to say the least. Why can’t bigger women wear those costumes and who makes these stupid rules? In the end, I had to buy a men’s Jedi costume, which was highly baggy on me and roll with it. Apparently, female Jedi don’t exist either. Although, tell that to Aayla Secura!


Vampire Slaying and Alien Conspiracies:

Going back to my childhood geek roots, it was 1999 when I got seriously obsessed with The X-Files. I was hiding behind the sofa a lot, but what hooked me was the building sense of paranoia and conspiracy, I loved trying to work out the mysteries and the adrenalin rush of unbearable suspense that held each episode together. Dana Scully was a fantastic female role-model and I had an immense crush on David Duchnovny (didn't we all?). I managed to get my English teacher to agree to let me write an X-Files short story for an assignment (this was before I even knew what fan fiction was) and he said it was one of the best pieces of writing he'd seen in ages. I even hand drew a cover for it. I still have it at home somewhere and I'm damned proud of it.

Naturally, having grown up in a post-feminist era, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit UK screens, I was the perfect audience for it. I’ve never fallen in love with a television show, the way I fell in love with Buffy. Here was a show that never underestimated a woman’s power and emotional complexities. Buffy may have been able to knock the stuffing out of any demonic foe, but she still doubted her self and still had to struggle through all the pain and the hard lessons of growing up, often with the fate of the world on her weary shoulders. I was drawn to the character Willow Rosenberg and it was through her struggles to find herself, that I found the courage to believe in my own self-worth and strength. I loved the show’s effortlessly funny dialogue, the knowing pop culture references and the way Buffy and her closest friends were allowed to change, learn and grow up before our eyes. Ultimately, Joss Whedon taught me that switching on a TV didn’t have to mean switching off your brain; that it could function and transcend itself as a true art form. Some might say it’s just a show about some hot blonde girl killing vampires; I say look a little closer and you’ll be surprised how deep it actually goes.

Willow Rosenberg - coolest TV character. Pretty much ever.

Geekdom is the world's best ice-breaker:

For my final day of secondary school, I dressed up as Princess Leia. My Mum used an inordinate amount of hairspray, but I managed to put my real hair into the trademark buns. Running down the corridors zapping my friends with a plastic ray-gun was pretty funny, as was climbing over an insanely tall fence to get to the pub in that gown. At University, desperate to bond and make new friends during Fresher’s Week that weren’t purely interested in getting smashed on whatever was available every night, I introduced some new friends to the short lived, but much loved space western Firefly. Pretty soon we were having Firefly marathons every other night and holding ‘Lost Night’, where we gathered around my TV in halls and tried to work out what the hell was going on that island. Answers on the back of a postcard, please, as we’re still waiting! By then, I had a small crowd of friends to go and see the big-screen film Serenity with. It was great to share the experience of watching it on the big screen for the first time and our shrieks of horror as one beloved character met a fateful end deafened at least two rows in front of us. Some of us even considered forming a grief support group. Whedon really knows how to break a fan girl's heart. The fact remains, that I've always used my love of science-fiction and cinema to break the ice and start a conversation and some of my closest friends have been made by using the "geek offensive". Sometimes trivial knowledge can be a beautiful thing.

Passionate and Damn Proud:

Several years and a lot less cash later (thanks a lot Ebay!) and little has changed, I still indulge my obsessions: I’m addicted to Battlestar Galactica at the moment, Kara Thrace is my ultimate troubled heroine; I collect Buffy action figures and all the Buffy Season Eight comic books as they are released; the moment a new SF film comes out I’m rounding the troops to go stake out the cinema and any new project by Joss Whedon tends to bring out a severe attack of the fan girl squeals in me. I post online and inevitably get sucked into arguments and debates. It’s just too much fun not to join in. I've even been known to play the odd Dungeons and Dragons campaign with shiny nine-sided dice.

Kara Thrace a.k.a."Starbuck" - kicking ass for SF women everywhere.

Yes, sometimes the fact that I'm a girl still comes up in conversation; but for the most part, my male SF-loving friends find it refreshing to have a woman in the mix. Although, I still maintain there is a very small minority of male fans that still feel threatened by the growing female presence in the wider SF fan community. It's like they think we're gate-crashing their exclusive clubhouse - well, I'm sorry to break it to you boys, but women have always enjoyed science fiction and we're not going away anytime soon. This occasionally exclusivist attitude often frustrates me as I've always believed that gender is irrelevant when it comes to the things you love and following your passions. I'll never be a lipstick loving Gucci girl - but so what? It doesn't deny me the right to be both feminine and sociable as the mood takes me. The world's big enough for all sorts and just because my tastes might not be quite as mainstream, doesn't mean I can't still have a voice.

The SF geek stereotype for most outside observers is still a slightly overweight spotty male with zero social skills, who still lives with his parents and obsesses about space babes, video games and spaceship specifications. Let's face it - this image doesn't help or serve any of us and it's about time it changed. I determined to challenge the deceptive myth that female SF fans are a silent minority and prove they are worthy of equal acknowledgment.

Ultimately, putting gender issues aside, what I love about being a SF fan is the passion and devotion fellow fans always bring to the party, from a painstakingly intricate convention costume to an encyclopedic knowledge of vast fictional worlds to the numerous fanzines, websites and campaigns that have sprung up over the years. When the SF community falls in love with something, they fall in love hard. Plus, most of them have the strangest sense of humour known to man or fish. Who else would consider writing parody songs about Vulcans, Hobbits or Jedi Knights or think building their own life-size Dalek called Tarquin is the definition of comic genius? It’s our eccentricities and penchant for irreverence than make SF fans so much fun to be around, no matter what our backgrounds or genders.

The fact is I’m a SF Girl and a geek and I always will be. It’s in the blood. I love getting passionate and excited about a new show or movie that is coming out or buying the latest novel and spending a day getting lost in another fantastic world where the stakes are high and nothing is as it appears.I love arguing about which superheroes would win in fight or whether the Enterprise could blast the Millennium Falcon’s backside into oblivion. (No way! – is the answer to that one). Pointless obsession to some, it may be. An endless source of gloriously good fun and thought provoking debate? Always.