Xander: I see more than anybody realizes because nobody’s watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You’re not special. You’re extraordinary.

Dawn (tearily): Maybe that’s your power.

Xander: What?

Dawn: Seeing. Knowing.

Xander: Maybe it is. Maybe I should get a cape.

——-

Xander’s the perfect choice for the role Whedon’s cast him in this season, Y chromosome or no Y chromosome.

That cover, however, bothers me, and I think I’ve figured out why. She looks like a boy with boobs. Her hips are considerably smaller than her shoulders. Some women have smaller hips than others, but her body shape in that picture looks unnatural to me. Frankly, I’d rather see her drawn with an exaggerated hourglass shape - at least some women really do look like that.

What is it with the hipless women in comics (and other media), anyway? To be strong, we need to look like men?

I still want to know what the hell a “thricewise” is. In my head I’m making some kind of “makes your organs three times bigger” jokes.

As for Amy, I think Joss kind of needed to go with a villain we could identify from the getgo, rather than create a new villain along with the new medium. It’ll take a long time to create someone from scratch at the glacial pace of comics, but by bringing Amy back and pissed off (and as a witch, she is an at least plausible survivor of the Sunnydale apocalypse), people get a sense of where it’s going from the getgo. I do wonder if “I’ll help you kill her” is referring to Willow and the military doesn’t know it, though.

It’s nice to know that nobody’s a punchline forever.

—Myca

Were you saying that it sends an anti-feminist message or that it’s just not as pro-feminist as you’d like?

I think it makes sense for the character and the story. He’s experienced in comparison to the newly awakened slayers. At the same time he’s not physically going to be much of a fighter. So it makes more sense for him to be in a role that doesn’t send him toe to toe with the enemy. Some sort of leadership role makes sense. If not a tactical role than an ‘advisor’ role or whatever. The alternative is either a bit part or the old justice league rule where like fights like. (i.e. batman fights cat woman while super man fights darkseid and the flash has a foot race with whomever.) I guess what I’m saying is what would have had him do instead?

Speaking of the way that women are drawn in comics; are you familiar with stormwatch and the authority? There’s a funny scene where jenny sparks refuses to where a ‘body condom’ because she ‘hasn’t the bust for it’. If you haven’t seen it check it out. I think you’d like a lot of Warren Ellis’s work.