All Monkeys are French: Graeme starts his 3/14 reviews.

You can tell that Jeff and I both have day jobs by the fact that we both post on weekdays at the very start of the day (well, unless you're not on the West Coast of the Continental United States of America, in which case, I apologize). This is my way of saying, he's got an interesting essay about essays right below this post, so if you haven't read it, go and do so. Meantime, for those of you who thought I'd be reviewing Civil War: The Confession first this week, wait until tomorrow.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT #1: As such a fan of the Buffy TV show that I kind of think that the seventh season was the second best (behind the third, which - come on - really was wonderful), to say that I was rather excited about the potential of this series is a slight understatement. Joss Whedon has more than proven his comics mettle with Astonishing X-Men (I missed his Fray series entirely, and have always meant to fix that one day), and Georges Jeanty has long been a strong storyteller who's somehow avoided his fanboy due, so it's not like there wasn't some pedigree there... And that pedigree kind of makes itself known here, but only kind of. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good things in the issue, but sadly a story isn't really one of them. It all comes down to the pacing - We definitely get the start of a plot, but literally only the start, and as a result the issue is left being somewhat underwhelming; it's the equivalent of the first act of one of the television episodes. Which, you know, is great on one hand - There're funny lines and action and a mystery being set up - but on the other hand, it lacks the oomph we've come to expect from the first issue of a new series, and relies too much on the audience's knowledge of the Buffy TV show (The last page reveal literally means nothing to anyone who's never seen the TV show, which is a shame). You get the feeling that Whedon's maybe too comfortable here, and is literally doing this for the fans as opposed to anyone else; it's just that he's so good that even his apathetic work still has a shiny surface gleam.

It's Good enough to get me back for the second issue, but not enough that I want to rant and rave and tell everyone to buy it right now. But considering I'm a pretty big Buffy fanboy, that's not the greatest sign of things to come.

Was I the only one weirdly disappointed by this?