5 slayer-tastic stars and a definite new favorite in the Buffyverse! ( )

Was alright. Bought it cheap, but probably hoped for a little more from Whedon. Solid enough, I suppose. ( )

Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, and Andy Owens’s Fray collects all eight issues of the Fray miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. The story focuses on Melaka Fray, the first Slayer called in a couple hundred years. She lives in the lower level of a futuristic city known as Haddyn (Manhattan), complete with flying cars, mutants, environmental degradation, and extreme class stratification. The last slayer defeated the demons, casting them into another dimension, which meant that no further slayers were called. Slowly, however, the demons have crept back in, though the passage of time means that people fail to recognize them for what they are, instead thinking them mutants. A demon named Urkonn of D’Avvrus trains Melaka due to the degredation of the Watchers Council, though she finds that her lack of dreams and slayer knowledge reveals a darker fate that she must face.

The story is a fascinating look at the far future of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer chronology, featuring many of the post-apocalyptic trappings that comics have conditioned readers to expect including futurespeak slang analogous to the Buffy speak of Buffy and Angel. Fray even crossed over with Dark Horse’s Season Eight comics. Long-time fans will find it an interesting continuation of the Buffy mythos, though Whedon’s introduction has some comments that have not aged particularly well given recent revelations. If possible, read the work in the frame of mind of mid-2000s fandom. ( )

This was alright. Enough-ish plot. Would have liked more character development. I just might not be in the Joss Whedon fandom...

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Panels Read Harder: Complete run of a series. ( )

Well paced, [a:Joss Whedon|18015|Joss Whedon|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1302721520p2/18015.jpg] intro was about this being an attempt to write a well-written far-future Slayer story story centred around a female lead that didn't fall into the same titillating tropes of most comic books with central female characters. in that sense, he succeeded.

The book is well paced, and it ties up really well at the end. It's short, so definitely worth the investment.

It requires a woman-in-refrigerator plot device to push through a central part, which feels like a trope shift of the initial intention rather than the transcend Whedon was going for. It is called out though, and becomes part of a very nice and tight denouement. ( )