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Meet Melaka Fray - street thief and hustler. Born hundreds
of years after Buffy Summers, Fray must take on the mantle
of the Slayer and, guided by her demon ally, Urkon, face a
threat for which she is totally unprepared. The monstrous
undead - long thought destroyed - have come back to prey on
mankind once more...
When
your empire is crashing down around your ears... when only
one of your TV shows is still going, and not that strong...
then it's time to cash in on what you know sells. Buffy
the Vampire Slayer was Joss Whedon's strongest show -
Angel keeps trying to reinvent itself every year and
Firefly disappeared with a whimper.
So,
for Whedon's first graphic novel he embarks on familiar territory...
that of the Slayer. Fray is a Buffy of the future... a future
in which the "V" word is unknown - they just don't
exist. Instead, the local population and the police force
call them "lurks", but they are unaware of their
blood drinking antics.
This
first collection sees Melaka Fray discovering her destiny
to save mankind from the horrors of the latest big bad and
his attempts to bring Hell to earth (although some would argue
it is already here).
I
was expecting a Buffy remake, set in the distant future.
But thankfully Whedon surprised me by reinventing his own
universe to the point where it is unrecognisable. Sure, it's
still Buffy in the future, but it also works as a stand
alone project.
The
trademark Whedon humour is present and correct, thankfully,
as is the knack of constantly surprising the reader. This
vampire universe is soooo old hat now that you'd think there
would be few shocks and surprises you could throw at your
audience. Yet, I was genuinely surprised by no less than three
revelations in this collection - things I should have spotted
coming a mile off.
The
artwork is also worthy of note. There is a real dark and claustrophobic
feel to Fray's environment - not quite as depressing and gothic
as Batman's - which gives it an edge.
Joss
Whedon's first real attempt at comicbook writing is a resounding
success. To all of those who still think he is a one trick
pony... well... er... that argument has still to be disproved,
but this is still a mighty fine collection.
Darren
Rea
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