From the Stacks: Fray

In honor of the new FOX series, Drive, which premiered this month and features Nathan Fillion (Captain sexy-droolworthy-fangirl-eyecandy—I mean Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly) and Tim Minear (Firefly/Angel writer extraordinaire), and also in honor of the new Buffy Season 8 comic book that has recently been published, I decided it was only right to do a review of my favorite Joss Whedon comic, Fray. If you’re a Buffy fan, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. If you are not currently a Buffy fan, you might just become one if you pick up Fray.

Fray is a Slayer story, but one set in the future. Why? Whedon said it’s because he has a thing for flying cars. Who can blame him, really? The Slayer in question is Melaka Fray, the latest in the ass-kicking Slayer line to question the whole Slayer gig from the get-go. For those not familiar with the series, imagine if some weird yahoo strolled into your life and told you it was your destiny to kill vampires and maybe, occasionally, save the world. You’d think that person was off his meds, right? Melaka thinks so too, at first. She’s got enough on her plate just trying to survive in her world.

It’s pretty obvious right away that Joss is having fun with his own “Buffyverse” by tweaking the mythology here and there (and occasionally adding a flying car.) The normally rational and stable Watchers Council has literally gone insane. Vampires are commonplace and referred to as “lurks.” When a demon confronts Fray with her destiny, she barely bats an eyelash at his appearance. To her, mutants and lurks are old news. Whedon gives enough nods to Sunnydale to keep his established Buffy fans happy, but Fray is so set apart from the established Buffyverse that it holds its own as a solid, self-contained story. Add to that Karl Moline’s gorgeous art and Andy Owen’s amazing inks, and the Slayer never looked so good. If I had a television genie who granted fangirl wishes, I’d ask him to make Fray into a TV series with a run as long as Buffy’s, with the same creative team, and I’d ask the genie to make it look just as fantastic as these artists did.

Why it’s Worth a Shot (From a Pink Raygun)Two reasons: Joss Whedon and Melaka Fray. It’s no surprise to anyone who’s spent five minutes at a geek con that Joss Whedon has a whole cult of rabid fans. He has a gift for witty dialogue and writing stories filled with loveable underdogs you can’t help but fall for. Yet what sets Whedon apart from other authors in science fiction and horror today is his incredibly strong female characters. Whether writing for television, movies, or comic books, Whedon likes to put women in the spotlight. Not just women, but badass butt-kickers that are just as intelligent and sexy as they are powerful. He refuses to put his characters in a box, no matter how small a role they play. With Whedon writing, fangirls can have a character they can identify with that won’t get stuffed in a refrigerator by page 5.

Fray herself is the biggest treat for me. As a long time Buffy fan, I was a little skeptical in taking the Slayer out of Sunnydale. Yet, I couldn’t help but enjoy myself with this peek into a possible future for the Buffyverse. Where Buffy Summers was a polished, fun-loving California girl, Fray is meaner, darker, and a hell of a lot more street smart. Whedon is such a skillful writer that he stops just short of making her a full-blown anti-hero. Somehow, she still has enough Slayeresque protectiveness that makes us all root for her until the very end.

So for any Buffy fan who secretly (or not so secretly) thought Faith was way cooler than Buffy, “Dark Willow” was more fun than sweet, loveable Willow, or that Spike could kick Angel’s ass any day of the week, you really need hop into your flying car right now and find your way into the “Frayverse.”

About Trickster: “I am a librarian. I like being a librarian. It goes beyond my natural tendency to hide from the light and bury myself in a stack of dust covers and dog-eared pages for a few hours. Being a librarian gives me a chance to talk about books with other people. Sadly, since I am a busy librarian, I can’t always afford the time to read all of the latest titles as soon as they hit the stands. Hell, I can’t even afford to buy them, much less read them. This is why I like to tell folks about the books they may have overlooked while still on whatever bestseller’s list, talk show, or celebrity book club rotation they were on when originally published. That way frugal book lovers can check some gems out from the library (which gives me job security), or buy them in paperback at a fraction of the cost. “