The Buffy Comic Project: "She's No Lady"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer # 17

Dark Horse (Volume 1, 1998-2003)

Creators: Andi Watson (writer), Cliff Richards (penciller), Joe Pimentel (inker)

Setting: Season Three

T.V. Character Appearances: Buffy, Oz, Willow, Cordelia, Xander, Principal Skinner, Giles, Angel,

Major Original Characters: Selke (vampire), Dr. Flitter (mad scientist), EvilBuffy (doppelganger)

Summary: The Buffy doppelganger (whom I shall cleverly refer to by the moniker EvilBuffy) is instructed by Selke and Dr. Flitter to kill Buffy and th

en kill Buffy's friends. Meanwhile, the Scoobies are instructed by a strangely drawn Principal Skinner to prepare the school's Mardi Gras float, but they have trouble deciding on a theme. Angel's busy torturing a vampire to get information on who the Big Bad in town is, so the real, honest-and-true Buffy is all by her lonesome when EvilBuffy attacks, ambuscade style. The fight rages on the streets of Sunnydale and into a beauty parlor, but EvilBuffy gets the upper hand and, thinking she's killed Buffy, dumps the "body" into the sewers. EvilBuffy, her face partially scarred during the attack, pretends to be real Buffy and arrives at school the following morning. Her suggestion for the float's theme (much to Xander's dismay) is "clowns."

Review: Another issue that, like the series so far, is amiable without ever really being excellent. Most of the plot, including the big fight scene, is by-the-numbers storytelling for genre fiction. Buffy and her sidekicks stick closely to their assigned roles on the show, and nothing particularly special or surprising happens. Content-wise, the comic seems pretty clearly aimed at an early-teens audience, even though the show started to get darker and skew older starting near the end of the second season.

Notes

* Is celebrating Mardi Gras something that usually happens in the U.S. outside of New Orleans? I'm not saying it's not, it's just that I've never heard of it happening before . . .

* Two more reminders on the letters page about t

he upcoming "Seth Green Day." O-kay.

* This issue also appeared in two different special Valentine's Day covers, one with purple foil and the other with red foil. You'd think they would have planned it better so that the interior had a Valentine's Day theme to match instead of going with Mardi Gras . . .

* I think it's fair to predict that next issue will see Buffy meet up with the failed doppelganger that was also dumped in the sewers a couple of issues ago. The artwork from the "Next Issue" page makes me think that the monster needs advice on what constitutes a "bad touch"--check out its right hand in the picture below . . .

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