PWR stands for Play, Watch, Read and if you look above you can see they are our three main sections on the site. Obviously with the wide scope of the site sometimes the things I am enjoying can be lost. 

The reason for these articles is to highlight some of these in order to let you in some of the treasures I have been consuming.

There will be times I point you towards reviews on the site from other writers. I may agree with the assessment but also I may have different views which I will put forward here.

For now though look out for the PWR list

By Paul Fiander

Even though we always endeavour not to spoil there may be unintentional spoilers for season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 or 8. It may be worth your while looking at our synopsis of the first season or better still grab a visual copy of Buffy on DVD, or through Netflix etc and have some slaying fun of course from this point I will also add from Dark Horse Comics as well.. If you don’t mind learning a little more of the comings and goings centred around Sunnydale high then read on McDuff.

At the culmination of Season 8 some odd things were afoot in the Buffyverse, thanks to the destruction of the “Seed of Wonder” magic has now been removed from the world. As usual though things are not that simple as beings infused with magic still retain their powers. This means while Buffy remains the Slayer, Willow is now completely lacking of power. This change in the world resets what we know and helps Season 9 to remove some of the larger plots that weighed down Season 8. The back to basics principle serves Buffy very well and some of the stories in this run are much more human in tone. This is led by an abortion storyline that really shook up the media and readers alike, Whedon’s lack of fear in diving into an extremely sensitive area is one of the highlights in the lore of Buffy.

Much like the previous season this one has multiple arcs and one shot’s that together form the narrative at large. We do get multiple writers throughout the season and all bring their own subtle influences on to the world. This is coupled with more than a few pencillers; the art does feel pretty high throughout the run and some of the covers like the one above by Jo Chen are really something.

The new status quo is set by the end of the season and we can look forward to the continuing Buffyverse growing along these new lines. If we take Season 8 as a bit of a learning curve then this ninth season is the proof that the lesson has been learnt. It felt that bringing Buffy back to more realistic stories (realistic is taken with a pinch of salt), made the narrative have more impact. Season 10 is perfectly set up with more than a few twists in the tail form the ninth, we also have a side running storyline in Angel and Faith add these two together and what you get is a whole heap of Whedonverse goodnes

You can find our review of Buffy Season 10 #1 here

Even though we always endeavour not to spoil there may be unintentional spoilers for season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7.It may be worth your while looking at our synopsis of the first season or better still grab a visual copy of Buffy on DVD, or through Netflix etc and have some slaying fun of course from this point I will also add from Dark Horse Comics as well.. If you don’t mind learning a little more of the comings and goings centred around Sunnydale high then read on McDuff.

Yes you did read the title correctly Buffy has a continuing story thanks to Joss Whedon and Dark Horse Comics. The end of season 7 left a promise of more adventures for the Scooby Gang but most of us expected this to be fan fiction or just imagined stories from Slayer fans. Instead we get a story that follows on from the TV show and builds on many of its key themes and ideas.

This would not be Buffy however unless a few things remained the same and aligned with the female perspective is Joss Whedons love of killing characters off and also having others make a return appearance. Thanks to a world where magic permeates everything although far-fetched most of the resurrection of characters has generally been handled pretty well. However if everyone came back then the deaths would lose meaning, thankfully Joss has not fallen into that narrative crippling device and instead kept death as an ever present feature of the universe.

The trouble with look at a very long series of comics is that there will be occasions where the art will fluctuate. In single issues this can be subtle but when you read an arc in big chunks the deviations can be more jarring. The art is generally good but there are some pretty stellar issues which make the good ones lose a measure of impact. It sounds a little greedy to also want the best but if standards are set high then dropping below that point will always cause a stir. The tone of the art feels a lot more risqué than the show and we do see quite a lot of flesh in the art, Everything is tastefully done but you do get a sense of a mature appeal to the comic. One of the art highlights comes arly in the series when a skinless enemy is back on the hunt for Buffy but accidentally captures one of the gang instead. The depiction of the musculature is great and it the representation has a haunting quality that does stand out.

Overall Season 8 is a strong showing in the Buffyverse the multiple writers led by Joss Whedon went in a few directions that led Buffy from the usual path, but without experimentation we would not know what works in this medium for the franchise. It may not be everyone's taste but I think in the comic format Buffy has found a new home.

Even though we always endeavour not to spoil there may be unintentional spoilers for season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. It may be worth your while looking at our synopsis of the first season or better still grab a visual copy of Buffy on DVD, or through Netflix etc and have some slaying fun. If you don’t mind learning a little more of the comings and goings centred around Sunnydale high then read on McDuff.

We do get an action ramp up with a new breed of enemy to face, its good to see Buffy being in danger and having to rely on her friends. Again it points back to the strength of the gang and the way they all support each other, it has been one of the best things about Buffy in its entirety and in this seventh series we really get to the know the value of a collective.

Ultimately though Buffy is the key to victory and watching her grow as a character over the seven seasons was one of the best televisual experiences in my life. Thankfully watching Buffy back now the show pretty much holds up. The CGI may be a little dated but this show was more than about the way it looked. Its odd to think that over a decade later there has not been a show quite like this. The strong female lead is something we should not need to talk about but far to often girls/women are not portrayed as the carriers of shows. Buffy was a trend setting show but unfortunately TV failed to hang on to the coat tails of the phenomenon. 

The end of Buffy was a fitting end, the final season had a lot of depth and some great performances It was a fitting end but like we have seen in the past just because something ends does not mean its finished.

Being the new kid in school can always be difficult, however when your school is located at Hellmouth then things may get a little messy. This is where we meet Buffy Summers our reluctant heroine, although she already knows her role as the slayer it does take a little time for her to warm up to the name.

In these opening episodes we are also able to meet the Scooby gang as they are affectionately titled (by Xander). Although Buffy is a great central character the team around her are every bit as important in the shows narrative. The rag tag collection of a geeky girl (willow), a Librarian (Giles), a wise cracking want to be cool guy (Xander) and the dark and mysterious Angel. Each has their place of importance to the collective and will be the main stay of this series and some of what follows.

Although Buffy is called a Vampire Slayer she does have the ability to slay pretty much any evil creature and in this first season she will have to face monsters and witches and of course our fang touting bad guys. My personal favourite battle is from the episode entitled the Puppet show, I’ll not spoil the plot for you but the title should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.

We do have a big bad in this series called the Master and as the name suggests he is the leader of the Vampires and although not in every episode he and his minions are always lurking. The Final episode is pretty epic and we really get see our lead performing at her best.

Ultimately Buffy was a great piece of pop culture. Watching the series again now, it still holds up even though the visuals are a little shaky. We will be taking a look at each season over the next few weeks but for now I’ll leave you with one of the most iconic quotes form the show from Giles

by Paul Fiander

*Obviously the title for this article was a little tongue in cheek but please be aware this is a mature read and those with a sensitive disposition may want to avoid this story.

Whether your passion is Gaming, TV or Comics or a combination of these you can have helped but hear the name The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman's along with Tony Moore (who was the original artist but he was replaced by Charlie Adlard at the 7th issue) creation has gone from strength to strength since initial comic release in 2003. Spawning books a TV show and now a hugely successful game franchise (along with a not so successful game but lets keep quiet about Survival Instinct).

I'm a fan of the three areas mostly thanks to the way they interweave with each other. Each can be appreciated on its own merits but as a whole they give a great insight into the post Zombie Apocalypse world. The varied characters are multi dimensional each with their own back story  and inner demons. This helps the narrative to flow and make something interesting come out of nearly every issue or episode. 

This kind of media is growing and thanks to the efforts of Telltale, Skybound (along with Image) and AMC it looks like the Walking Dead is destined to grow even stronger as time goes on.

We have a cunning plan in how we want to cover this type of media which we will be sharing more of in the coming weeks. So for now I leave you with this common question; who actually cuts the grass?