Long, long time ago, back in the last decade of the twentieth century, current hot writer/director Joss Whedon had a movie about a young girl who has the power (and responsibility) to kill vampires and protect the world. The movie wasn’t that good, but somehow mutated into a cult show that survived for 7 seasons (and had a spinoff that lasted another 5 seasons). As the shows were wrapping up, Whedon had an idea (a wonderful, *awful* idea) to throw his beloved idea into the far future. So, he dipped his toe into the comic book world and came up with Fray. The basic idea is a slayer in the far future. So, let’s check out what happened.

Melaka Fray is a small time crook in the 23rd century with an broken family. Her older sister is a police officer who resents Melaka for her role in the death of Melaka’s twin brother Harth. The closest thing she has left to family is a young girl named Loo who idolizes Mel. Things start getting weird when a strange man starts jabbering over how excited he is to meet Mel and that she’s back right before he sets himself on fire. The a demon, Urkonn, comes and starts explaining things. 200 years earlier (the 21st Century) a slayer banished all the demons from the world and with the demons went the slayers as well. The Watchers grew into a group of unmoored crazies (exemplified by the guy who set himself on fire). Urkonn (a neutral demon) comes in to train and be Mel’s Watcher, since she is the new slayer that is needed because the demons and vampires (now called lurks) are coming back. But there is a minor catch, Mel has the physical talents of a slayer, but doesn’t have the mental connection to previous slayers.

The book moves along with a surprise twist as to who the big bad guy is. And, of course, Mel fighting off her heritage before embracing it and taking the fight to the lurks and demons. The thing to remember (for those of us reading it a decade or so after the Buffy TV show ended) is that the book tied into some of the themes of season 7 of Buffy (as well as a future Buffy comic series). So, while the book can be read as a standalone story, it really fits into a much larger mythology.

Overall, it fits right into Joss Whedon’s wheelhouse. It’s about a young girl with super powers fighting undead demons who are trying to take over the world. The story is Buffy and not Buffy at the same time, but I’d be very reluctant to go into any amount of detail about how this story fits into the overall mythology. The art is…servicable.

The backgrounds and character designs are good. But if you look at the last couple panels, where Mel is talking to a demon about vampires, there’s no movement or emotion or thought in Mel. It looks like a nice pose that Moline decided to reuse. The art is nice to look at in places and conveys enough information for us to figure out what’s happening, but it doesn’t do that much more.

Overall, as a standalone story it’s not bad. There is enough information given to make sure you know what is going on and enough mystery that you know there is a larger story that can provide more context. Whedon does a great job creating the characters and making them breathe even if the art isn’t up to the same level. Mildy recommended.