In a sort of Blade-Runner meets Mad Max future, Manhattan is an industrial slum peopled by everyone from regular old fashioned humans to genetically engineered mutants. In one of the seediest of the seedy neighborhoods, known as Versi, lives a full-time petty thief named Melaka Fray. Despite the fact that she can fall 50 stories and not break so much as a fingernail, Mel doesn’t think of herself as special in any way. Until a centuries old demon named Urkonn shows up one day and informs her otherwise. Turns out that Mel is a Slayer, born to kick vampire butt all the way back to hell. That’s why she heals so quickly and has an inbred hatred of the “lurks,” what the humans of her day call the sewer dwelling junkies that are actually vampires. Sound slightly familiar? That’s because the author of this GN is none other than Joss Whedon, creator of the immortal Buffy series. But with Fray, he kicks it up a notch, delivering a high impact heroine in a cool new format. Just as Buffy had her temptation in Angel, Mel’s Achilles’ heel is that her twin brother Harth, is a lurk bent on her destruction. Can she kill the only person she’s ever loved, even though technically he’s already dead? Now that Buffy lives on only in re-runs, you Slayer addicts are going to be looking for a new drug, and Mel Fray more than fits the bill. Plus, Buffy was just so model-perfect. In high contrast, Melaka looks like Tank Girl’s cousin, with purple-pink hair, blue lipstick, baggy cargo pants, and thick heeled Doc Martens. Fray is fantastic, and I can’t wait for the next installment.