What do you do when there’s a job to do that you don’t want your “golden-girl” to get dirty doing? Well, that’s part of the plot of Brian K. Vaughan’s Buffy, The Vampire Slayer “No Future for You” arc. This is the first arc that’s not written by Buffy creator, Joss Whedon; however, he did plot the issue, as he will for the entire series.
"No Future for You" has a rogue Slayer (Genevieve) who is using her power for evil, hunting and killing slayers. She plans to kill Buffy, so who better to take on a rogue slayer than another rogue slayer? That’s right - it’s the return of everyone’s favorite brunette slayer, Faith. We first see Faith in Cleveland where - as Giles had mentioned in the last episode of the TV series - there was another hell mouth; she’s just dusted several children who were turned into vampires. When she gets back to her place, she finds Giles waiting for her. He has an interesting proposition for her; he needs her to go on a dangerous mission with high stakes. If she succeeds, he will give her a passport to anywhere, with a new name and an early retirement. Faith agrees and finds out Giles wants her to kill Genevieve since there’s no chance of rehabilitation.
What happens next is a “My Fair Lady” sequence where Giles has to train Faith to become sophisticated, since Genevieve is an English lady and Faith will need to infiltrate Genevieve’s 19th birthday party. Faith gains her trust, and Genevieve brings her into her home. Things are going well for awhile until Faith learns of Genevieve’s plan to kill Buffy. Faith now feels betrayed by Giles, and it gets worse once Buffy learns what’s going on and has another brawl with Faith. Faith succeeds in her mission but further alienates herself from the Scooby gang. What’s worse, since Giles kept Buffy in the dark, she no longer wants to have anything to do with him.
This arc brings Faith to in the comic series fully since she only made a handful of appearances in the previous Buffy comics. Vaughan captures the feel of the show very capably, and he’s no stranger to writing strong women, as his series Y: The Last Man has proven. Artist Georges Jeanty continues to do a great job of capturing the actors/characters' likeness without being a slave to making them look exactly like their live action counterpart.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Nice review. I really liked seeing Faith in the series. I wasn't sure that the aristocratic slayer bit worked perfectly, but the Faith stuff was so good I accepted it overall.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next volume!