Freefall #2 Summary
Dark Horse Comics, October 2011
Freefall #2 begins with another dead body–no marks, no obvious cause of death. Immediately, the story continues where #1 left off: The debt collector demon confronts Buffy, Willow, and Spike. Buffy tries to kick his ass, but Willow and Spike stop her. The demon confesses that being a debt collector is his day job, and since Buffy destroyed the seed, he’s stuck in this realm.
Buffy begrudgingly empties out her bank account, and Willow and Buffy are unable to resolve their dispute over the importance of Buffy destroying the seed. Willow leaves.
Meanwhile, creepy demon breaks into Buffy’s house while she’s away, and the police examine more of the mysterious dead bodies. The bodies are traced back decades, without having aged a bit. Hey, maybe they’re vampires?!
Buffy goes on patrol, finds a bunch of vampires attacking a guy, and she’s arrested and charged with the mysterious vampire deaths. Buffy escapes from the police station and seeks refuge at Dawn and Xander’s apartment, but the couple–in the midst of a domestic squabble–tell her she has to leave.
Again, Buffy sees the same guy as being attacked, and before she can try to save him she watches as he sucks the life (or is it death?) out of the vampires.
Thoughts on Buffy Season 9, #2
I liked it. It had the same pace and feel as some of the older Buffy episodes. Like season 6, season 9 has a darkness to it: Buffy feels alone, she’s struggling to connect and find her place, and her friends (aside from ever-faithful Spike) and family won’t provide her the support she needs.
However, in addition to the dark tone, there’s also some hope. This vampire-life-sucker could either be an ally or an enemy; we have yet to see. While I’m leaning toward enemy, it’s possible that he could become a friend or a new love interest, which she hasn’t seriously had in awhile.
SIDE NOTE: Speaking of which, the writers seemed to have abruptly abandoned Buffy’s bi-curiosity in season 8. While I’m all about flexible sexual identity, it seemed like the entire situation was awkwardly introduced and awkwardly discarded. END OF SIDE NOTE.
This isn’t to say that Buffy needs a love interest, but it seems like everybody else is getting some action. However, as I mentioned above, I do think that this guy will end up being evil, even though season 9 already seems to have more than one Big Bad.
Buffy continues to be a strong and complex hero, not without her faults, and not relegated to one end or another of a gender-role dichotomy.
Also, my two-year-old daughter just picked up the comic, looked at Buffy on the cover, and said “She’s superwoman! She’s supergirl!” Awesome.
