Fray

Girls & Monsters & Flying Cars

In a world long without magicks and demons, what’s a Slayer to do?

If you’re 19-year-old Melaka Fray, you put your superhuman strength, dexterity, and resilience to use as a professional thief. Or “grabber,” in future slang. That it just so happens to frustrate your estranged big sister, who was recently promoted to sergeant in “the laws,” to no end? Icing on the cake!

Set in New York City hundreds of years in the future, Fray introduces us to a world (mostly) free of vampires. Locked away in another dimension by an unnamed 21st century Slayer, they’ve gradually and inexplicably been resurfacing in Mel’s neighborhood. Seemingly harmless and commonly mistaken for drug addicts or human mutants show more (which all too common given the regrettable state of the environment), few have paid these “lurkers” any mind. That is, until they begin to plot to open a gate to hell – and the next Slayer is called. Unfortunately, all the Watchers have since been bored into madness, and Mel’s hapless Watcher sets himself on fire at their first meeting. Standing in as Mel’s trainer and mentor is Urkonn, a goat-like demon with a mean punch and a shady agenda.

Though firmly rooted in the Buffyverse, Fray easily stands on its own. (One need not have prior experience with Buffy or Angel to enjoy Fray – though it’s highly recommended!) While the story is familiar – girl meets vampire, girl kills vampire – here it gets a futuristic makeover. Witty like a certain blonde we all know and love, Mel is nonetheless her own Slayer: brash, short-tempered, sticky-fingered, always willing to throw a punch for a friend or fellow “freak.” Juxtaposed with a dreary, dilapidated city landscape, Mel practically jumps off the page in her vivid blues, purples, and greens. The artwork contained within these pages is simply stunning.

I also appreciate Joss’s care in creating Mel. His main rule: “No cheesecake. No giant silicone hooters, no standing with her butt out in that bizarrely uncomfortable soft-core pose so many artists favor. None of those outfits that casually – and constantly - reveal portions of a thong.” While Mel’s pants sometimes seem to ride a little low, I think Joss and his team mostly succeeded. Mel is lithe and sexy (I covet her biceps!), without being reduced to some cartoonish male fantasy.

Mel’s supporting cast of characters is almost as memorable as the Slayer: Urkonn makes for an imposing Watcher (the biggest “guard dog” ever); boss Gunther is ssssimply captivating; Erin, Mel’s sister, is one BAMF; Harth’s story provides an interesting twist to the Slayer mythology; and Loo. Oh, Loo.

The story ends on a vaguely unfinished note, with paths left open to multiple future storylines. Sequel please?

My only complaint is the casual use of the word rape, i.e., to describe something that most definitely does not constitute rape: “[War is] decency raped to death.” While war is inarguably brutal and destructive, one cannot “rape” an abstract, intangible idea or concept like decency. Decency can be corrupted, twisted, or misused, but “raped”? Let’s save that verb for the sexual violation of live animal bodies, mkay?

http://www.easyvegan.info/2013/04/01/fray-by-joss-whedon/ show less

I thought that Maybe comic books—sorry, graphic novels—weren’t for me after that V for Vendetta thing happened *facepalm* but let’s be serious: if it has Joss Whedon’s name on it, I’ll do it. This had his name on it, so I checked it out from the library, read it… loved it!
The artwork was AH-MAZ-ING. One of the thing’s I didn’t like about V for Vendetta was the artwork. It was so… I don’t wanna say shoddy, but I didn’t like it. On the other hand, the artwork in Fray was bright, clear, I could tell what was going on, at no point was I confused because the artwork wasn’t matching the dialogue or anything…
Speaking of clarity, that’s another thing I didn’t like about V for Vendetta. I still don’t know what show more was going on with the plot. Fray, though… well, it might just be because I’m pretty familiar with the Buffyverse, but the plot was MUCH easier to follow.
AND. THE. CHARACTERS. You should have HEARD me while I was reading this! All the characters were so good… Urkonn was probably my favorite, and Loo was so lovable, and you could really relate to Mel and Erin and, just wow. Joss Whedon is a god, and I willingly worship him.
(*note: I did know about the big plot twist concerning Urkonn at the end because I’d spoiled myself on Wikipedia. Still loved him though)
Want to know why? Here’s a quote that I really like:
Mel: But he set himself on FIRE!
Urkonn: Maybe he was cold.
Which, coincidently, brings me to my next point: When I think about comic books, I think comics. And comics are supposed to make you laugh. I didn’t laugh AT ALL while reading V for Vendetta (I was to busy being confused) but Fray? I was laughing every ten minutes. It had the funny, witty dialogue that’s Joss Whedon’s trademark, but also making with the serious…
Man. Joss Whedon.
But then… we come to the end. And I say:
“Wait. That can’t be it. There has to be more, there has to be a sequel or something. I’m still waiting for you to explain that weird and slightly disturbing thing that happened with Harth and Mel!”
So… get cracking on a sequel, Joss Whedon. show less

Summary: Melaka Fray is just a girl. Born and raised in the slums of a future Manhattan, she works as a minor thief in a city where mutants and monsters raise no more comment than the flying cars. Burdened by the secrets of her past, and with no thought of her future, Melaka is unaware that she is part of a long line of Slayers, and that it is her job - and her destiny - to fight against vampires (now so common that they're called "lurks", and mostly ignored by the authorities) and to protect humanity from a terrible demonic apocalypse.

Review: Who misses Sunnydale? Fray pulls off a seemingly impossible feat - it walks the fine tightrope of managing to be both familiar and novel, to give us something new without disrupting established show more continuity, and to be recognizable to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer while still being accessible to newcomers to the the Whedon-verse. If you haven't watched BtVS, a) get on that, but b) Fray is still understandable - she's a petit, sassy, edgy girl with a dark past who kicks some serious monster butt. If you have watched BtVS, well, Fray's a petit, sassy, edgy girl with a dark past and a long history who kicks some serious monster butt. (Personally, I think she's more like Faith than like Buffy - that'd be the tough-girl/bad-past side coming out - but regardless, she's still a Slayer, with all of the attendant issues of separateness and loneliness and loss that we watched our girls struggle with for seven seasons.)

As a story, Fray reads like the story arc of a season of Buffy, condensed down and minus the more one-off episodes. It's recognizeably a Joss Whedon story, complete with plenty of snarky humor, witty dialogue, a unique (and catchy) argot in the speech patterns of the characters, and plenty of action. Joss, as usual, also doesn't pull any punches in the drama department - even apart from all of the demons and monsters, life for his characters is not particularly pleasant. By the end, things aren't exactly resolved - like in Buffy, averting one apocalypse is no guarantee that another one isn't right around the corner - so it was a little unsatisfying... but unsatisfying in the way that means that we're left wanting more of Fray's world, and its tiny, butt-kicking heroine. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: For Buffy fans, it's practically required reading, and it would serve as a good introduction to graphic novels for those who haven't encountered them before. For other folks, it's a fun story featuring a very different kind of superhero, and because it's a one-off, it can be picked up and enjoyed without having extensive background knowledge, and without committing to a series. show less

Well paced, [a:Joss Whedon|18015|Joss Whedon|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1302721520p2/18015.jpg] intro was about this being an attempt to write a well-written far-future Slayer story story centred around a female lead that didn't fall into the same titillating tropes of most comic books with central female characters. in that sense, he succeeded.

The book is well paced, and it ties up really well at the end. It's short, so definitely worth the investment.

It requires a woman-in-refrigerator plot device to push through a central part, which feels like a trope shift of the initial intention rather than the transcend Whedon was going for. It is called out though, and becomes part of a very nice and tight denouement.

Melaka Fray is a tough chick living a life of crime in the huge cities of the future, stealing to survive and enjoying the occasional bar fight for variety. Sure, her police sister gets on her back, and yeah, she wishes she weren't haunted by the death of her twin brother a few years earlier, but for the most part Mel lives in the moment, kicking ass and taking names while pulling off a fantastic blue-and-pink hairstyle. This all changes the day Urkonn, a huge, demonic, "sarcastic goat-thing" steps in and informs Melaka that she is the latest in the line of the Slayers, and that it is her destiny to combat the vampire scourge. Her response? "What's a vampire?"
Slowly, though, pushed on by a will to avenge her brother's murder, Mel begins show more to take up the mantle she is meant to. It's not enough to pick off the hunters in the alleys, however. A war is coming, one that will test Mel's emotional fortitude even more than her physical strength as she is brought up against an enemy she never expected to have to face.
I have decided that Joss Whedon is God and that nothing he does is wrong. This may sound fanatical, but I'm basing that supposition on the fact that, to date, I have found nothing that he is done that was wrong. Fray is one of the better not-wrong things in his portfolio. If you loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you will probably enjoy this book. If you enjoy science fiction more than fantasy, you will be pleasantly surprised to find flying cars, ray guns, and sprawling, futuristic urban decay alongside the vampires and creepities. If you just want a kickass heroine who doesn't take any crap, well, you already know that Joss Whedon supplies those without the ridiculous man-contrived accoutrements such as double-D breasts and skimpy, oft-torn clothing (God bless him). Also, there's a giant snake. You just can't go wrong with that.
If you have already read Fray, heads up: Mel makes a second appearance in Time of Your Life, the fourth volume of the Season 8 comic series of Buffy. I haven't read it yet, but (see above) Joss Whedon is never wrong, and I have every confidence that it will be fantastic. show less

Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, and Andy Owens’s Fray collects all eight issues of the Fray miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. The story focuses on Melaka Fray, the first Slayer called in a couple hundred years. She lives in the lower level of a futuristic city known as Haddyn (Manhattan), complete with flying cars, mutants, environmental degradation, and extreme class stratification. The last slayer defeated the demons, casting them into another dimension, which meant that no further slayers were called. Slowly, however, the demons have crept back in, though the passage of time means that people fail to recognize them for what they are, instead thinking them mutants. A demon named Urkonn of D’Avvrus trains Melaka due to the degredation show more of the Watchers Council, though she finds that her lack of dreams and slayer knowledge reveals a darker fate that she must face.

The story is a fascinating look at the far future of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer chronology, featuring many of the post-apocalyptic trappings that comics have conditioned readers to expect including futurespeak slang analogous to the Buffy speak of Buffy and Angel. Fray even crossed over with Dark Horse’s Season Eight comics. Long-time fans will find it an interesting continuation of the Buffy mythos, though Whedon’s introduction has some comments that have not aged particularly well given recent revelations. If possible, read the work in the frame of mind of mid-2000s fandom. show less

Fray lives in a futuristic Manhattan, with vampires and mutations. She works as a runner and thief for a disreputable aquatic humanoid. Her sister has mostly disowned her and works for the cops. There's a conspiracy of vampires and she's the next slayer. When war breaks out she has to step up.
It's coloured by what I know about Joss Whedon and the slighly skeevy intro, but it was an interesting addition to the slayer world.