John-Rauch

Back in April 2014 I mentioned that Image had a new series coming out and the subject line for the press release was: “The perfect new series for wayward Buffy fans.” I’ve made my way through the first five issues and it’s a good time to see if the comparison was apt. There are quite a few ways in which it is accurate. Our main character, Rori Lane, is a high school girl who is living with her divorced mother. She just transferred to a new school and new city (technically a whole new country). Her mother has no idea what she’s up to. She’s fighting demons - Japanese demons instead of vampires. She meets up with a few other high school students and they’re working together. I can see where Image Comics marketing thought, “Hmm, I think we can see some overlap with Buffy fans.” But Wayward is not just Buffy in Japan. That could be interesting on its own, but would probably also seem a bit too derivative. So it’s great that the above paragraph is where the similarities end.

Time once again for a roundup of upcoming Images series so we can find out how Image Comics will get all our money. Wayward The subject-line for the press release for Wayward claimed, “The perfect new series for wayward Buffy fans.” I’m currently working my way through Buffy Season 9 (article forthcoming), but after the insanity of Season 8 (which did have lots of high points), there are many Buffy fans that have become disillusioned. My wife is one of these - she loved the TV show and gave Season 8 a chance, but refuses to read Season 9 after what happened last time. The fact that Buffy was on UPN/WB/The CW kept me from watching it at the time. However, I did really enjoy it on DVD, so I’m excited to see another story in the same vein. I’m not really familiar with the output of the creatives, but I definitely want to give it a chance, especially since it mentions Japanese mythological monsters. My time with manga as well as some recent Japanese sci-fi short stories has left me wanting to explore that part of Japanese culture a bit more.