Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles #1

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles

by Erika Alexander

Joss Whedon! Erika Alexander!

From Joss Whedon and Erika Alexander comes a series that returns Buffy's Rupert Giles to high school! But this time--as a grown man living in a teenage body--Giles will be a student instead of a teacher. At an inner-city LA-area school, when a mystical influence is detected and teachers start to go missing, Giles enrolls to investigate. What he finds is more than vampires and demons; something unusual and frightening is happening here. If Giles can get through one day as a student, he'll have a chance to find out who, what, and where--but high school is still hell, y'all.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Graphic Novels Comics, Vampires

28 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2018

Reviews

[Luly Ceballos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little confusing, not your usual Buffy fix. I know our beloved Giles is attracted to black women but has he to be attracted to every black woman he meet? Come on Joss, you know better than this. I hope this is going somewhere in the future since what we learnt about Girl Blue was zero.

[b · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t really tell if this is as bad as I think it is. The art is good, but the senior Giles experience seems absent, and the young Giles doesn’t seem to reflect what we know of him from his ‘Ripper’ days, and I’m not sure “white savior in an inner-city school” is ever really the kind of story that ever needs to be told. I guess we’ll see how it unfolds moving forward?

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars is generous. I find it very hard to believe Joss had a hand in this. The dialogue made no sense half the time and Giles didn’t sound like himself. Roux seemed to have three distinct personalities and I’m a little unclear who exactly Blue is and why I should care. With the few (6‽)issues BTVS has left, I hope we can just forget this random tangent story didn’t happen.

[Garan · Rating 5 out of 5]

obsessed already

I have loved the journey of Giles being returned to life as a teenager and this story is excellent so far. Very into the idea of listening to a mixtape to help highlight the story as we read along and I can't wait for the next installment.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is really attached to this character and who LOVED the kid!Giles arc in the Buffy comics, I was overjoyed to hear about this miniseries and had very high expectations. I found myself a little disappointed. The characterization felt off and the story was disjointed, not enthralling enough for me to care about it on a month to month basis.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, comic book teenage Giles sure is a hottie, but that’s the best thing I have to say about this. The writing fell flat, the romance was rushed, and the plot was only OK.

[Joseph Bateman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. I can't believe Joss had part in this crap. The dialogue makes no sense and Giles is not Giles at all in this. Don't talk like him and his reactions is not him. He wouldn't say and think how he dose in this. Oh and " thanks for action like a white man about it". Going. The comics have been so amazing I can't believe how bad this is. I can't even say what the story is about as even though I read it, it made no sense I have no understanding of what I read. I've ripped it up and thrown it in the bin

[Dan Shepherd · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's enough here to chew on, but without the introduction I'm unsure whether the story would be easy to follow. In addition, I wonder whether the role of the reader is to see Giles with the baggage of the television series or to see the character anew. I say this because the voice of Giles is unrecognisable. I'm intrigued as to where they'll take it, but it's a wobbly start.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars is generous. I've read dozens of Buffy and Firefly comics, and this was the first one that was so badly written I couldn't understand what was happening a lot of the time. The dialogue could be hard to follow and inconsistent per character as well. The soundtrack idea was neat, though I admit I didn't take the time to look up and play the suggested songs, as that would have drastically slowed down my reading speed (there's a new song suggestions as a soundtrack accompaniment every other page or so).

Also, so much is made of Blue Girl being special but we are literally not given a single reason why she is so or needs extra attention. Is she a potential slayer? No clue.

Lastly, although it is interesting that Whedon has finally decided to tackle the question of vampires during American slavery, I didn't feel they quite got it right in this. It felt a bit of a missed opportunity not handled with all due tact... I'm not feeling well so I don't know what to suggest they do differently, but it feels exploitative to have the black woman vampire have a soul--maybe, it's not confirmed--because she's suffered so much as a slave and then through Reconstruction, segregation, etc. Her two black ex-slave henchmen (who are shown still alive at the end? huh? their situation and what sort of demon they are was never explained) don't have souls, so the story wasn't even consistent that black suffering is soulful. Which is a very icky concept. There have been other victims in Buffy who suffered greatly before being turned into vampires and they lost their souls when they were turned, so as much as I want people to confront our country's ugly history, I don't think we should perpetuate the trope in fiction that suffering ennobles people.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just... It's not often that I truly dislike a graphic novel (A Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel! A graphic novel about GILES, my true love and hero! A graphic novel by Joss Whedon!), but this is one of those times. The art was delightful, and the coloring was phantasmagorical and modern, but the writing. Eish.

I don't know if it's just been too long since I've watched an episode of Buffy or read a comic, but Giles did *not* seem like Giles at all. The "teen-speak" floundered on multiple levels, and something about the dialogue left me consistently confused. I'm willing to admit part of that could have just been that I should have been reading more closely, or paying attention to the panel setup, but to some extent reading a graphic novel should be natural enough that I'm not lost two sentences into "witty" repartee.

It gets two stars for art and nostalgia, but I wouldn't recommend this addition to the Giles-ean narrative.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read comics by Joss Whedon before & really loved them...and expected to love this, too. Look, this is a short book. With pictures. I've started it twice & just can't manage to get through it. I have no idea what's going on, and the story does a poor job of getting you up to speed on why Giles is a teenager, why he's at this school, what he's trying to do, and what's going on with basically anyone else in the story. I just couldn't follow what was going on at all. The whole thing seems really disjointed.

[Jinni Pike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confusing. Lacking any of “Giles’ voice.” Choppy.

Who is Blue?
Isn’t Giles supposed to be hiding out to avoid the Internment camps?
Then why is he in a school known for weird things happening and never mentions what’s happening to his friends?
And Giles falling for a vampire before he knows her story and without knowing if she has a soul? No.

I’m so disappointed that this was the last Buffy continuation comic I’ll ever read.

[kaitlphere · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is definitely some backstory and references in here that I have missed by not following the main story. I like young Giles and feel like he's largely true to character as I know it. I like the new friend he makes in this issue and am excited to see where this goes.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept of young Giles, I don’t think I’m going to like this comic with his weird sexual aggression. But I’m coming into this very little context after the tv seasons so maybe idk it works??

Love the idea of the Mixtape!

[Jade · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one-off side adventure significantly missed the mark. Giles does not sounds like himself, his relationships with the other characters are unbelievable and the dialogue confusing. This was an excellent opportunity but has clearly been rushed out.

[Ayeshah · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the what?!?

I find myself getting lost in the dialogue at times. The plot is hard to follow initially. I'll read the second episode before I decide if I hate it or not.

[Aneez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Relies too heavily on contrivances and the relationship between Giles and Girl Blue borders on the incomprehensible.

[pianogal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like Young Giles, but I didn't buy his infatuation with Roux. She was not my favorite character. Interested to see what happens with this series, but not enthralled with it.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I wish it was a little more... high schooly? If that makes sense. Maybe I don't love Giles as much without the rest of the group. :/

[Tara Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This got not so good reviews but I thought it was fun.

[Tiffany Gallant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't understand anything that was going on. The only thing I liked was the cool pictures. Is blue and the vamp girl the same? I don't know how to spell her name. Rioux?

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped. I would have enjoyed an exploration of Giles' past.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

Nice to seen Giles back in action and him being undercover in high school no less. Great first issue. Looking forward to the rest of the series

[Danica Midlil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt really all over the place plotwise...