Dawn and Hoopy the Bear (One-Shot)
By: Paul Lee
The story takes place before Buffy the Vampire
Slayer's first season
Jeremy's Brief Synopsis:
Dawn receives a mysterious
package in the mail -- a teddy bear named Hoopy --
which she mistakenly assumes is from Buffy. In
reality, it is actually the host of ma wish
granting demon that will attack anyone it perceives
as a threat to Dawn. After several disastrous
wishes occur leading to several grizzly attacks,
Dawn is grounded by her parents for leaving the
house unattended, Hoopy chooses them as one of its
many victims, but before a scratch can be laid on
Hank or Joyce Summers, Dawn makes her final wish.
In a blur, Hoopy attacks himself and then runs away
in fear, realizing that dawn knows how to defeat
him.
Zinna's Review:
Last time around I said it
wouldn't be too long before Dark Horse through us
for loop, I was wrong. It's going to be a little
longer than I expected. There are no loops to be in
had in this issue. It's very straightforward. In
fact, you know exactly what it's about after
reading the title. That's right, it's all about
Dawn and her bear, no Buffy, no Pike, no Angel,
just Dawn.
Frankly, I haven't really been
one of Dawn's biggest fans. When she first appeared
in the Summers household in Season 5, I wanted
nothing more than for her to disappear. For first
time since I started watching the show, I wanted
the villain to win. I wanted Dawn gone, returned to
her key state, even if that meant that Buffy would
be defeated. Why? I just couldn't handle Dawn's
incessant whining and infallible ability to get in
the most ridiculous of situations. Furthermore, I
couldn't understand why none of Scoobies understood
why Buffy was always so frustrated with Dawn. I
mean, they were always telling Buffy to lighten up
at times when I felt Buffy was justifiably pissed.
Dawn did some incredibility stupid things like the
time she invited Harmony (a vampire that had come
to kill Buffy) into the house, or the time when she
ran off and told Ben (who just happened to be
sharing a body with a hell god -- Glory) that she
was the key.
So, you'd probably guess that I
wasn't all that thrilled to pick-up this issue and
find the entire story revolved around Dawn. Well,
here's where your guess would be wrong. First off,
Paul Lee is an amazing talent. This issues stands
out by the sheer excellence of the art alone and
this is saying a lot. To be really honest with you,
I didn't start reading the comics until the creator
of this site asked me to write these reviews. It's
not that I wasn't into comics. I have a comic book
collection that would impress many a hardcore comic
book enthusiast. It's not that I wasn't into Buffy.
Buffy is my favorite show of all time. I've seen
every single episode at least once and I own 3
seasons on DVD and the 4 remaining season on
VHS.
So, why wouldn't I be into Buffy
comics? I'll tell you why. A long time ago, I
picked up a Buffy comic and saw that the art was
just shabby. Shabby inking has no place in comic
especially when I, the audience, could get our fill
of clever Buffy plot twists just by watching the
show. So, I put back that comic that I was flipping
through and never picked another until I began
reviewing them for this site. Luckily, the first
issue that I reviewed for this site was excellent
plot wise, which more than made up for its less
than stellar art. The opposite can be said for this
particular issue.
Let's just say if this issue was
the one I picked up when I first started to peruse
Buffy comics, then I instead of putting it back I
would have purchased it, took it home, and starred
at the pretty pictures for awhile.
The irony is this issue's plot
is fairly simple and it's what I'd call a
stand-alone. Meaning that if you decided to skip
this one you wouldn't have any trouble following
the plot of the next issue. This is primarily due
to the fact that Buffy is nowhere to be seen within
the entire issue, though she is the reason that
Dawn mysteriously receives Hoopy the Bear. Hoopy is
seemingly an average stuff bear that kind of
resembles a Winnie the Pooh bear. Hoopy even has a
red shirt like Winnie's. Unlike your average Winne
the Pooh bear, Hoopy is cursed. Some random demon
and his human minion have decided to give a cursed
bear to the slayer. Only problem is the slayer
isn't home. She ran away remember? In Buffy's place
is a spunky Dawn. Doofus minion can't tell a slayer
from her little sister so he leaves the bear with
little Dawn. Dawn assumes that the bear is from
Buffy, sent to keep Mr. Gordo (Buffy's beloved
stuff pig) company. Now you can guess what would
happen, if you mixed one cursed bear (with the
ability to come to life and kill people if it's
master desires it) with one lonely little girl and
stirred. You got it -- dead people. Well, don't
worry it's nothing that Dawnie can't handle and as
an added bonus Dawn is not the annoying, whining,
angst-filled pre-teen she appears to be in season
5. She's a cute, 10ish year old that reminds me of
Punky Brewster. Punky Brewster was my favorite show
when I was 10ish
Another great thing about this
issue is that Joyce Summers makes a number of
appearances. I don't know about you, but when she
passed away at the end of Season 5, I was really
sad. I had no idea how much we, the audience and
Buffy took her presence for granted. So, now
whenever I'm watching an older episode or I see her
in a flashback or something I get a little choked
up because Joyce was really endearing. She may not
have always known the best way to handle things,
but you can tell she was always trying to do her
very best. Luckily for me, Paul Lee did very well
with capturing her likeness. So, even her brief
appearances in this comic bring about a rather
satisfying emotional charge.
And just so you know, I don't
find Dawn's character in season 6 or 7 to be all
that annoying. Instead think the adversity she's
had to endure over the past few seasons has made
her into quite intriguing young woman. Having said
that, I hope next month's issue goes back to the
business of the Buffy. That's all. Good night.
