Buffy Summers tackles one of the oldest evils -- not for the first or last time, mind you -- in The Dust Waltz, an early volume in the Dark Horse line of slayer adventures. The scoobies are still in school, Angel is still a brooding presence in Buffy's life, Willow is still heterosexual and Dawn is not even a glint in the supernatural eye of the Monks of Dagon.

Lilith, the mother of all vampires, and her sister Lamia are coming to Sunnydale with their champions to fight and open the yawning Hellmouth beneath the school. Chaos ensues. You know the drill. While a good, solid Buffy yarn, it doesn't stand out as exceptional, and there are weaknesses that lessen the overall punch.

At a glance, the art is pretty good, and if it didn't have to hold up under comparisons to the show, it'd be a lot more praiseworthy. There are, unfortunately, too many small, niggling details that fail to pass even a cursory inspection. Willow, one of the modern era's most famous TV redheads, is a brunette throughout the book. Angel and Xander, two very different characters, look remarkably alike and are hard at first glance to tell apart. Even the far-famed Hellmouth changes shape (round hole to jagged hole) from one frame to the next.

Oddly, the book introduces Giles' niece, Jane, who's in town for a visit, but her character is inconsistent, appearing both knowledgeable and ignorant about vampires and demons. I kept waiting for her to do something significant to the plot, but by story's end, I was still wondering why she was there in the first place.

Buffy fans who, like me, are still missing the TV series may find some solace in reading the Dark Horse comics. The Dust Waltz is not one of the best, but it still fills a hole in the Buffyverse. For that reason alone, it's worth reading.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
9 September 2006