Amber Benson is best known as Tara, witchy Willow's girlfriend, partner in spellcasting and soulmate in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Amber Benson is also a writer, and when the spirit moves her, she writes about Willow and Tara. As evidence, here's Willow & Tara, a slim collection from the ongoing series of Buffy comics from Dark Horse.

It can be argued that Benson knows the characters of Willow and Tara better than anyone, with the possible exception of Alyson Hannigan (Willow) and Joss Whedon (Buffy's creator, writer and director). So she is certainly one of the top few people who should write a Willow and Tara yarn and get those happy-go-lucky lovebirds just right.

And she does, with the able assistance of co-writer Christopher Golden.

The book contains two brief stories: "WannaBlessedBe," in which a classmate yearns for the coolness that is Wicca (in the Buffyverse, anyway), and "Wilderness," in which the spirits of nature rebel against the continued encroachment of civilization. Both are set in the sweet days of season five, when all was right with the world and Willow and Tara were wildly, truly and crazy in love.

But Benson didn't set out to give our heroines a day at the park, although the first story does in fact start with a day in the park. She sets them up against some pretty heavy hitters, as such things go. The first tale finds a local Wicca group being decimated by the angry Irish goddess Morrigan, who has been summoned by an outcast with big hopes, mighty magic and very little self control. The second story finds the pair, along with Buffy's sister Dawn, off in the woods mixing it up with Jack in the Green and a bevy of angry sprites and boggarts.

Both stories have an Important Message for impressionable minds, but Benson avoids hammering readers over the head with her "respect nature and each other" ideals. Personally, I hate books that get too preachy with their morals, no matter how lofty, so I'm glad Benson knew how far to take it. Instead, the ideas are couched in a fun, lively frolic with two witches in love.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
11 November 2006