Guilt, Regrets, And Baby Crabs: Reviewing ‘The Vampire Slayer’ #13

Once more the world, nay the universe, was resting upon the brink of annihilation but heroes rose to stop it. Saving the day through the power of friendship, which is a power that is often said to be quite magical. While Willow has been turned back to the world of light, Buffy has retained her Slayer powers and her destiny, and the gang is (mostly) on the same page once more a new potentially even more dire threat has emerged.

I have to say, I’m quite sad that this title is now in its final arc headed toward an ending. At the same time, I’m more than happy that we were able to experience this series, which has picked up the Buffy baton and done wonderful things with the franchise. This is a series that rebooted things but in a way that started in the middle of an established story (pulling heavily from some of the canon of the television series) but with an energy, direction, and creative choices of its own. Basically, it’s what if Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show but modernized and with far more room to do things beyond the weekly episode/monster of the week type of format that the series followed often.

Beyond the basics, though there is so much more here, and this issue showcases that. Sarah Gailey deeply understands these characters and creates their voices perfectly. After such a big arc it would have been easy to go do some usual fight-a-monster story or such but instead, we get far more of the deep character exploration and development that has made this series sing. Tara showed up for an introduction at the end of the last issue and helps give us a route into dealing with Willow’s dalliance with dark magics and her guilt over what happened. There is no hand waving here, we spend time diving into Willow’s and Buffy’s feelings about what happened to them.

Oh, and we get to spend a giant chunk spending time delving into the backstory and explanation about Baby Crab. That’s not something you generally see in a comic book and I freaking love it. This issue is all character moments, plot setup, and making plans as they prepare to take on their still unseen, but easily guessed by Buffy fans, a foe who has Baby Crab in their clutches…in a very familiar space. I love the way that Gailey slips in introductions of characters and places that fans will know and love from the series because there is a lot of importance surrounding them but not in a way that overshadows the story.

Speaking of magical (all the way back in the introduction), this is a word that could be used about the variety of artistic contributions seen across the life of this series so far. As noted, before as well, the highlight of this book is how much it focuses on characters not just in action but their emotional and developmental areas. A writer can write that, and it can come through but it’s the artists that do the heavy lifting to make sure that we not only see but feel all that on the page. We have been getting that in spades within the pages of this series.

With this issue, Kath Lobo comes on board to provide the illustrations while Valentina Pinto, with assistance from Riccardo Giardina, continues to handle the color side of things.

Right away we are shown how well Lobo can showcase the characters as we get a full page of happy and cute Tara and Willow, with the subsequent pages being framed in ways that not only show us what they are doing but clearly how they feel in the moment. I love the idea of having a close-up of a character’s face split across two panels, giving us a different focus on their face in each one. Lobo hits that sweet spot where the characters are in that space where they are easily recognizable and fit what we’ve seen in the previous issues without needing to hew too close to make sure they are exact duplicates of the actors who played the roles. Right on sight, we know who these people are and not because it’s a game of “Oh yeah it’s insert actor who played the character in the other media” which can sometimes happen with adaptations (for various reasons).

This is a familiar world since it is a long-lived franchise but there is a deeper richness that has been on display in the building of this world through various artists and that is the same here with Lobo. Plenty of detail in all the panels to show the world around them but also plenty of spaces where the detail is pulled back on so that the characters and their moment takes all the weight/focus. It all also feels so smooth and kinetic, helped by the awesome choices in paneling where panels slip and slide around in different styles and shapes to make sure it always feels like things are moving. Characters popping out of a panel so that they hover over other panels while taking part in one of the panels, that’s the kind of stuff that I love to see cause comic books are a visual medium that should be taking wild swings and chances.

Colorists have their own styles and choices to be made in many cases when they take on bringing color to the work of others, but one of the best things for a colorist is when they can keep their style while being a chameleon of sorts. By that, I mean having your colors shift and change to match whatever the visual style of the artist might be (as well as the tone of the story) without losing the bits of individuality that are their own. We’ve seen that numerous times in this series from Pinto & Giardina, and it’s definitely clear between this issue and the previous one.

While the last issue had a more toned-down style in many cases with a sort of grounded vibe, the colors that weren’t vibrant being a bit harsher with the encroaching darkness, this one feels much slicker and smoother with more pops of color coming into play. It still feels the same as the work that they have done previously but also there is a lightness to it, yet the shadows are still heavily in play because while this is an emotional issue in many ways that sets up a new big bad it’s also much lighter in tone than the previous arc of them having to fight Dark Willow.

That being said, it’s neat that they pull that back just a bit in some of the panels that are clearly flashbacks/stories being told by a character, and for scenes where the light sources would inherently make things darker/less bright.

Also still doing their magical thing would be Ed Dukeshire bringing all the lettering to life through the issue. There are so many little things that Dukeshire does that make sure that the personality and energy of a moment are not only captured but are loud and clear on any given page, making sure we are ‘hearing’ everything accurately as we read through. There are also little choices that might seem like nothing but add so much to the story. A perfect example is one that we saw in previous issues of having speech bubbles of characters overlap each other to visually indicate that a character is speaking over/interrupting someone else.

Yeah, we get the same if you have one bubble end in ellipses and the other right under it speaking, but the choice to do it this way leaves no doubt what the intent is with the moment. Things like this are the types of lettering tricks that get me all giddy because it adds so much to the moment and showcases the skill involved. Lettering deserves so much more focus than it tends to get from both publishers and readers alike because there are some fantastic things being done on the pages by so many letterers and Dukeshire is for sure one of them.

The Vampire Slayer #13 is now available from BOOM! Studios.