Buffy #6 & Angel: Afte the Fall Preview

Brian K. Vaughan's 4 issue Faith arc begins next Wednesday. It finds Faith assigned to the infamous Cleveland Hellmouth. She's looking to ditch, but hasn't been able to secure a fake passport. Giles offers her a generous "early retirement package" if she will take on a delicate wetwork operation. The target: a rogue slayer. (Ironic, huh?)

BTW, IDW--which holds the license for Angel comics--is prepping Angel: After the Fall, the "cannonical follow-up to the TV series." Whedon isn't as involved in this as he in the Buffy project, but hopefully it will still be worthwhile. (And where else are you gonna get your Illyria fix?)

Writer Brian Lynch:

Angel and his friends took a stand because he thought it was the right thing to do. They fought the good fight even though they were probably going to lose, even though they were facing insurmountable odds. But that's the thing about insurmountable odds...surmounting them can be quite a bitch. The series begins to tackle the fall-out of Angel's stand, and what it cost everyone near, around, and close to him.

P.S., my guess for how they resolve the "it's not a cliffhanger" cliffhanger is: Angel, Spike and Illyria all survive--but Gunn gets vamped and becomes the big bad. (J Richards has actually said that's what they were planning to do with his character in Season 6 if the series hadn't got the chop.)

Y: The Last Man Movie

Y: The Last Man: The Movie is moving forward, according to today's Hollywood Reporter.

D.J. Caruso and Carl Ellsworth, the team behind the hit thriller "Disturbia," are reteaming for "Y: The Last Man," New Line Cinema's adaptation of the acclaimed Vertigo comic book. J.C. Spink, Chris Bender and David Goyer are producing.

Caruso is developing and directing, with Ellsworth on board to write.

The comic, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, centers on Yorick, an escape artist who is the last survivor of a mysterious plague that has killed every single male mammal in the world. With his male pet monkey, he sets out to find what might have wiped out the world's male chromosomes.

I'm happy for Vaughan, who is without a doubt one of the top three or four writers in comics at the moment, though I can't help but feel Y--which is very much based on The Fugitive/X-Files model--would make a much better TV series.

They're gonna lose a lot of great stuff shoe-horning this sprawling story into two hours.

Lost 3X17: "CATCH 22" by Jeff Pinker & Brian K Vaughan

This was Brian K Vaughan's first produced work on Lost -- and, for that matter, in TV. Vaughan (whose blog is linked at right) is one of the best comic book writers working at the moment. His two creator-owned books, Y: The Last Man (which is winding down after about 5 years) and Ex Machina are particular favorites, though the Pride of Baghdad graphic novel is his best work.

Anyway, with that little bit of pimping out of the way, "Catch 22" was--I thought--quite good. The script (written with series vet Jeff Pinker) did a great job of making us feel Desmond's dilemma: he believed that in order to make his vision come true, he had to make every part of it come true... including Charlie's death.

Was he wrong? The visitor (Naomi) is alive, and clearly knows who he is, so she is connected to Penny and her search for the island. But, still, she's *not* Penny. Desmond probably thinks that if he'd let Charlie die, it would've been Penny under that visor.

The fallout from his actions should be interesting. I wouldn't blame Charlie for hating him, but if he tells Des to beat it, he loses his protector. (Charlie's flashback is the penultimate episode of the season. He is widely expected to die in that episode, though I'm sort of hoping it's a colossal misdirect meant to stop us guessing the identity of the real casualty: Jack.)

Meanwhile, though I loathe both actors, I'm starting to feel for Kate and Sawyer. I hope he realizes how badly she's gonna hurt him.

Brian K. Vaughan's Pride of Baghdad

Brian K. Vaughan's long-awaited new graphic novel has arrived. From the back cover:

In his award-winning work on Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina (one of Entertainment Weekly's 2005 Ten Best Fiction titles), writer Brian K Vaughan has displayed an understanding of both the cost of survival and the political nuances of the modern world. Now, in this provocative graphic novel, Vaughan examines life on the streets of war-torn Iraq.

In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions, Pride of Baghdad raises questions about the true meaning of freedom -- can it be given or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice?

Based on a true story, Vaughan and artist Niko Henrichon have created a unique window into the nature of life during wartime, illuminating the struggle as only the graphic novel can.

And, BTW, Marvel comics announced on Monday that Vaughan will leave Runaways, which he created (with artist Adrian Alphona). The new writer is Jsos Whedon. (Yep.)