Buffy: Season 8

Issue 6

“No Future For You, Part I”

Script: Brian K. Vaughan, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens, Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy, Executive Producer: Joss Whedon

The Blurb: “The Slayer population of the world has gone from two to nearly two thousand. Almost five hundred are working with Buffy’s European-based organization in squads- or ‘terrorist cells’, according to various military forces. Enter Faith, the pioneer of Slayer-related dirty work, whose talents as a fierce fighter continue to garner the attention of her former Sunnydale compatriots.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8

Issue #5

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Paul Lee, Inks: Andy Owens, Colors: Dave Stewart

Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover By: Jo Chen

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My score is 3.75 out of 5 Stars.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8

Issue #5

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Paul Lee, Inks: Andy Owens, Colors: Dave Stewart

Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover By: Jo Chen

Where We Are: Following the end of Season 7’s ‘Chosen’, Buffy has gathered together five hundred of the approximately two thousand newly activated Slayers. They have bases all over the world and continue to fight the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, some forces, such as the U.S. military consider them as little more than terrorist cells being organized. Following the destruction of Sunnydale, it became obvious that Buffy Summers was a now well recognized target and that she’d never be safe. To try to combat this, two other Slayers were disguised to act as decoys for her. One lives and parties in Rome and is allegedly dating someone called ‘The Immortal’ (taken from both the Angel episode, “The Girl in Question” as well as the book, “Queen of the Slayers” – though the book is obviously not canon). The other Slayer – which this story, The Chain, revolves around – is underground… literally.

BTVS: Season 8

Issue #4

“The Long Way Home” conclusion

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens,

Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richards Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover: Jo Chen

Where We Are: Buffy has left Sunnydale for Scotland with Xander and a dedicated group of Slayer-followers. They’ve gotten serious funding as Spike feared when he was first captured by the Initiative in BTVS: S4. But things aren’t all rosy – Dawn has gotten herself changed into a giantess. Willow and Kennedy were off on their own, not keeping in touch with her friends. Giles and Buffy’s relationship remains very strained. And, Willow has just been mystically abducted by Amy Madison who’s turned into an uber-witch….

Page 01: Flashback – Warren – “Bored now.”

Page 02: Warren has Willow where he wants her and he explains to Wills how he survived his skinning. And… this is where things fall apart because Joss “forgot” about the First Evil’s ability to take Warren’s form. Let me explain this using Warren’s words….

Commentary: Warren tells Willow, “Do you know she had maybe a four-second window after my skin came off before I died of shock alone?” and, “That flash-paper disappearing trick was pretty hokey, we kid about that, but thinking on your feet? This is the girl.”

Okay – Let’s take a look at Warren’s explanation here: (1) He had to have died because the First Evil could only use the forms of those who’d been really dead. (2) The “flash-paper” trick is supposedly a watching Amy’s spell instead of Willow destroying his body? And Willow didn’t bother reacting at all to a spell she didn’t cast? (3) Let’s say that Willow did go to vaporize him and Amy just snuck a teleport spell in there… how would she keep Warren from dying anyway? She just happened to have a “save someone who’s been skinned alive” spell on hand?

A mess. That is what this was. All that had to be said was that Amy teleported him at the instant that Willow was trying to flash-incinerate him… stretching things, yes, but we’re dealing with magic so I could swallow disbelief. And then, Amy tried a resurrection ritual later which resulted in his current state. In order to protect his sanity, she fed him a line of B.S. about how he wasn’t quite dead so she could save him with her magic….

There. I hate it when readers have to explain away such obvious screw-ups.

I’ll also tell you that Warren helped Amy come up with the “Willow changes into Warren so she can shoot Kennedy” spell, which makes it a bit more palatable in retrospect than at the time of BTVS: The Killer in Me.

Page 03: Warren has a scalpel over Willow’s eye – “Are you bored now?”

Elsewhere, Dawn is using her giant fist to work out some frustration by punching out an (hopefully unused) granite wall.

Buffy let’s us know that Dawn’s strength hasn’t increased proportionally to her new size, which keeps Dawnie from simply defeating everyone in 5 seconds, I guess. And allows her to still get hurt.

Commentary: Okay, that scalpel hovering over Will’s eye is art panel of the month, hands down. And, ick.

Page 04: Dawn lets Buffy know that she trusts her to get Willow back, but that doesn’t stop her from being afraid over what is happening.

And then, she sticks a dagger in Buffy’s heart, “Will is like a mom to me.”

Page 05: Buffy and Xander are awaiting their mystics to re-open the portal Amy used for the abduction. Xan lets her know that there will only be enough energy to transport one, perhaps two people.

Elsewhere, Willow is informed by Warren during her (off screen) torture that the mystic bands holding her are reflecting her strength back into the bands. The fact that she’s so strong is only making her bonds that much more powerful.

Commentary: Now, that is a cool idea. And leave it to Warren to have come up with those spells. It’s also interesting that Warren wants Willow to go dark here. He’s not happy to torture Willow as she is, he feels a need to defeat Dark Willow, for Dark Willow to be the object of his fury (and I suspect, madness).

Page 06: Warren stabs Willow in the eye with the scalpel.

Buffy chooses Satsu to go with her (she’s the Slayer with the cinnamon lip gloss and the cat-mask).

In Else-space, five beings are standing together and one of them says aloud, “For goodness sake, yes. Grant her access.”

Commentary: First, yes – We do see Willow and Warren and the scalpel and drops of blood flying up from her face where her eye has been impaled. And the General and the Suit that we’ve met before are looking shocked at the sound of Willow’s scream.

But what I want to do here is talk about these other-beings that step in to whisk Willow away from her suffering. There’s been some commentary that I’ve read where people are trying to figure out what the hell these things are supposed to be, so I’d like to take my shot at it:

The Wood/Tree Woman: Obviously, this must be a spirit representing Wood. There hasn’t been much question about this.

The Blue Woman: This could be either Water or Air, but I lean toward water because of the ‘bubbles’ above her head. They could be large water droplets.

The Wild Beast Woman: I’d say this represents basic nature. It’s the primitive nature of magic, its roots. It could even be a representation of Earth – it’s lifeforce, rather than the soil which would be an interesting choice if deliberate rather than going with a rock-being.

The Irregularly Drawn Woman: This is the woman standing in the middle of the group of five. She’s a hard one to figure out, because she doesn’t have any sort of strong features. In keeping with the ‘natural forces’ tone of the others, I’d have to conclude that she’s either Air or Fire. I lean toward Air here because I’m hypothesizing the blue woman is Water.

So, so far we have Wood, Earth, Air and Water… the four elements. There’s another, Fire, that’s usually included … Fire… which may be encompassed by the small brazier with the flame that the others are surrounding. Which leaves us with an intriguing fifth member of our group…

Mathematical Formula Woman: It could easily be concluded that this is a representation of Math, or Logic, or Analytical Ability. I gave this some real thought and I believe it is a representation of Spirit, encompassed by Imagination. It takes leaps in logic via imagining that allows us to come up with these sorts of complex formulas.

Page 07: The General and Suit tell Amy that she’s disabled their security cameras in the lab. Amy tells the General that he just needs to be ready for Buffy, but not worry about the Witch.

The Witch belongs to Warren, “They have a history. She’s kind of a history major.”

Commentary: Amy, dear? That was the WORST pun, ever. EVER. You are lame. What isn’t lame, however, is Buffy’s getting the Slayer Scythe to go after Wills.

Page 08: Satsu is feeling a little overwhelmed by the mission to get Willow back. She feels like one of the other Slayers, particularly Leah or the German Ballcap gal who’s name I don’t recall right now.

But she’s going to get more self conscious when Buffy asks her for some lip balm before they head out and realizes it’s cinnamon… the same flavor she tasted on her mouth after the Awakening Kiss.

This would seem to confirm that it WAS Satsu who gave Buffy the ‘true love’ kiss to counter Amy’s spell.

Page 09: Willow tumbles into the plane (only psychically) where the five representations are gathered. They explain that they’re hiding her suffering from her, but show her a representation of what is happening on the physical plane. And, it’s gruesome, so I’m just going to quote the Blue Woman:

“What you’re seeing is possibility. Thoughts, courses of actions, pieces of what you could be. Ending. He’s lobotomizing you. Do you have a plan?”

Commentary: This is some dark and scary stuff. S6 kind of stuff – but while reading it, I was really worried about how they were going to get Willow out of this. I just never believed they were going to kill her in the first arc of the new comic book – and that started to make my stomach drop a little – I’m worried about how they can use the Willow character without instant healing, which would be the deus ex machina magic I worried about in the earlier reviews.

But I also have to admit that this passage is really powerfully chilling. And I do find myself smiling at the darkly humorous, “Do you have a plan?”

Uh – a plan?! To stop being lobotomized? I don’t know, it just struck me as darkly funny.

Page 10: In the ‘real world’ or the physical world, the military sense that the portal is opening.

Page 11: The General orders the firing of a giant, energy projecting beam into the portal to wipe out the Slayer contingent opening the portal.

But again, Xander is way ahead of them. He’s situated a giant parabolic mirror where the beam comes through – reflecting it back into the portal.

Commentary: Now, you could argue there is no way that Xander could know there was going to be a beam able to be reflected by a mirror so this doesn’t make sense. I don’t see it that way – he knows magic is involved. And, it makes sense to prepare for something to come through the portal in a pre-emptive attack on them. Further, there are a roomful of Slayers present for any sort of physical attack. This seems right to me.

Page 12: With the power beam spitter blowing up, Buffy and Satsu jump through the portal.

The General is trying to find out how many losses he’s suffered in this first salvo and yells for his men to “stay calm, dammit!”

But, Buffy counters that, “No. Panic.” Heh-heh.

Commentary: Xander gets a really great line here, too, that I loved: “Magic. It’s all done with mirrors.” Heh-heh-heh.

And, it just adds to my love of Xander Harris in this comic series.

Page 13: Satsu is using a katana. Buffy is using gymnastics and the Scythe. It’s a beautiful thing. And of course, the throng of grunts are totally outclassed.

Page 14: Buffy has the General knocked down and informs him that there are men dying and there’s only one person in the complex with enough power to save all of them….

Commentary: And, we need to talk about Buffy here. Since S5, we’ve seen Buffy struggle with her ability to not be ‘closed off’ or to stay connected to her responsibilities to humanity. In S6, she couldn’t connect to anyone, including her closest, dearest loved ones because of the trauma of being brought back from ‘Heaven’. (And I put it in quotes because I’m uncomfortable with the thought that the true HEAVEN could be accessed by magic… I know, it’s silly. I’m not even religious – but nonetheless, it’s a fact.)

Anyway, in S7, Buffy had trouble connecting to the Slayers-in-Training as individuals, seeing them as an army that she’d use in the fight against evil because she felt she had nothing else she could do. Despite Xander’s heartfelt speech about how Buffy cared about their lives more than they’d ever know – I’m not sure that was so throughout the whole season. Again, I think Buffy withdrew from her human-ness in her desperation to win.

I think we’re beginning to see that here, as well. First, she couldn’t connect to Dawn… (S5) and then she did near the end. Then she couldn’t connect to her friends (S6) and then she did near the end. Then she could connect to her friends, but strangers was another matter entirely (S7). But, she was able to finally connect to the S.i.T’s near the end. And now, (S8) it looks like she’s connecting with her friends, with her sister, with her fellow Slayers… but, possibly, not with the general crowd of humanity beyond her circle. And that could have some real problems if this callous attitude spreads to an entire army of super-powered Slayers, following her example.

Page 15: The page where we get a shout out to the arc title, “The Long Way Home”. Xander informs Buffy that according to GPS (another ability of the sound/camera unit wore by the Slayers) she’s a few miles south of the former Sunnydale.

“Sunnydale. Well. I’m the one who wanted to go home,” she thinks.

And, she runs into Amy levitating and waiting for her.

Page 16: I LOVE this whole page....

We start with Blue Woman talking to Willow, telling her that she’s almost dead and if that doesn’t scare her, at all.

Willow’s response is fantastic – she gives her a smile, “Did I ever tell you about my best friend?”

Beyond the terrific response, it also shows that Willow’s been in contact with this spirit before. I’m not sure if that means anything in particular or not.

Here’s the interesting thing… Buffy continues Willow’s words, “I like to think, in a way, that she’s a part of me. That even when she’s gone, a part of her is with me.”

And then, Buffy throws up a mystical shield to block a blast from Amy and then punches out some sort of mystic rock beasts that Amy had on hand.

Commentary: Now, this is a great idea to introduce. That after all of Willow and Buffy’s contact mystically throughout the series, that now Wills can merge with Buffy somehow and give her the magical abilities to use is such a clever idea. And, yet, Buffy is still there and in control, because after the part above where she continues Willow’s thought, she continues with what sounds like her own addition, “’Cause it is.”

Page 17: Amy tries to act tough, but Buffy throws her off her game by summoning an illusory image of Catherine Madison – prior to her becoming a cheerleader trophy. In the meanwhile, Satsu throws a grenade.

Page 18: Alas, Amy is still magically powerful enough to teleport away from the blast. Buffy and Satsu bust into the lab where Willow is just in time for Amy to appear behind Warren and teleport them both out.

Buffy looks panic-stricken at seeing what is left of Willow’s face….

Page 19: And we see Willow, looking perfectly fine and grinning widely. She asks Buffy if there’s a problem. SIGH, dammit.

Also, Buffy sees a cell door with “30” on it and remembers the images she saw in her dreamscape. Remember, Ethan was standing behind three X’s? And he made the comment that he was a Roman Numerals kind of guy (instead of a Vin Diesel or Porn sort)?

Right. It was a clue that he was being held behind Room 30’s door.

Comment: Okay, first – I KNEW IT! I knew that this magic throwing around was going to turn into a “you can do anything with magic/insta-heal/teleporting everywhere in contravention of what we were told at the end of S6”.

It’s convenience without rules except what the story calls for.

But, I do really like we get a follow up on Ethan’s visit.

Page 20: Alas, when Buffy breaks in, she finds ETHAN IS DEAD!

He’s got a bullet hole through his forehead. The General who just murdered him is still there and almost shoots Buffy.

She throws him against a wall, and his uniform coat and shirt are torn open revealing the ‘Twilight’ scar we’ve seen before.

Commentary: I’m sad to see the end of Ethan here. He was a funny and exasperating character and I really wanted to see more of his and Giles’ interactions in this series. Hopefully, we’ll get him in flashbacks though in future stories.

Page 21: The General gets to mouth off to Buffy about how Twilight is coming and she’s against the U.S. Army now and she’s a terrorist and blah-blah-blah.

What’s interesting here is that the General knows that Buffy’s (and by extension all of the Slayers’) powers come from a demon spirit. Now, how does he know this? It points to someone who knows what Buffy found out, or possibly someone who used to be in the Council but has survived feeding information to Twilight.

Commentary: I should also mention that this page has been used to hypothesize that Riley Finn is Twilight. I REALLY hope that doesn’t happen. Evil!Riley is a fan-fic staple for everyone that’s ever hated his character. I didn’t. I don’t want to see him as the villain turning on Buffy.

Page 22: The news that Buffy is now fighting the entire human race (I think a bit of overstatement by General Voll) results in a great page:

Panel One: Buffy looks shocked, “Oh.”

Panel Two: Buffy looks to the side in thought.

Panel Three: Buffy looks down, eyes closed, a frown on her face.

Panel Four: Buffy looks at General Voll. She appears determined, “Kay.”

Commentary: Perfect end.

The Good: The Warren/Amy team up against Willow and her torture was intense and awful.

Buffy’s realizing that Satsu must have kissed her due to lip gloss of all things.

Xander Harris kicks ass and I adore him.

The awesome fight panels with Satsu and Buffy against the Army guys.

Buffy and Willow being able to merge and allowing Buffy to tap her magicks. I really can’t believe I’ve never seen this one in a fanfic story (doesn’t mean someone hasn’t done it), but I love this whole plot point!

Buffy’s reaction to General Voll.

The Bad: There’s only two, but they're both whoppers: 1) The explanation for Warren’s survival was all sorts of continuity-destroying retconning, which I don’t at all like.

The Magic. Amy is teleporting all over the place like it’s no big deal (remember Anya telling Buffy that a witch of Willow’s level could only go airborne, not teleport – now it appears no harder than catching the bus). Willow is instantly healing from nearly fatal brain injuries and mutilation in literally a heartbeat’s time with no signs of ANY aftermath trauma. It’s ridiculous and sets a very poor precedent for how magic will now work in the Buffyverse. I really, really do not like the way magic has been used.

Concerns: Ethan’s death was shocking, which is a good, but I think it’s a waste of a great character. I can only hope we’ll get some Giles/Ethan flashback stories – or maybe he’ll show up again to haunt Giles as a pest of a ghost… that could be funny.

The Score: What to do, what to do? I mean, I loved the character writing and the Twilight plot. I loved the hideous punishment that Warren visits on Willow and her being plane-shifted… it’s obvious she’s made friends in the past year with other-dimensional powers. But Warren’s explanation for his being alive (sort of) is just screwed up… and the abuse of magic as a plot device is awful.

I give it Buffy Number Four: 3.75 out of 5.0 stars.

Buffy, Season 8

Issue 3

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens,

Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover By: Georges Jeanty, Andy Owens, & Dave Stewart

Where We Are: In the last issue, we found out that the American military is working with Amy Madison in order to bring down Buffy Summers – who, along with the Slayers – are considered terrorist cells. Amy had placed Buffy into a mystical sleep in which she remains trapped until a ‘true love’ gives her a kiss. In the meanwhile, zombies are attacking Slayer Central and Willow has just arrived to confront Amy. And, Dawn is still a giant.

Page 1: Also last issue, a person whose face we didn’t see, came to Buffy in her dream warning her that there were things she needed to know. This person called her “my love”, but wasn’t stocky enough to be Angel or Riley. With the long, leather coat we are meant to think it’s Spike… however, last issue was full of fake-outs, leading me to think this isn’t Spike.

We now see the same figure (from the neck down) reaching a hand out to Buffy. She reiterates in her thoughts that he called her “My love.”

Page 2: Buffy’s monologue: “And then I threw up in my mouth a little.”

It is not Spike.

It turns out that Buffy’s visitor is a long lost face from Season 4: Ethan Rayne! Uh-huh… I was shocked to see him too… the last time we heard from him was when he was being led away by the Initiative, where we were promised he would spend a good long while.

He explains to Buffy that he hitched a ride to her “dreamspace” in order to warn her that there is big trouble a-brewin’… including the factoid that she’s trapped in her sleep.

Page 3: In order to show Buffy what he means by her “dreamspace”, he chooses to reveal a dream image to her that is the most embarrassing he could find… of course.

Buffy is in a sexy nurse’s outfit. Angel is in front of her, completely nude. Spike is behind her… same state of undress. The threesome is wrapped together in chains. There’s a volcano in the background erupting. There’s a train headed into a tunnel. There’s little cupid-angels.

Yes, it’s all sex when thoughts turn to Angel and Spike… and apparently its sex together with Angel AND Spike.

Page 4 & 5: In the ‘real world’, outside of Buffy’s dreamspace, Willow and Amy are involved in a magical dual. Amy disparages Willow’s “weak craft”.

Page 6: But it is a fake-out by Wills. She tells Amy that she’s, essentially, clueless but I’ll give you her words:

“I saw the big picture. But, you, Amy… you’re as self-involved as your mom was. You think I’m fighting you. I’m just absorbing your mojo. So I can decode it.”

Willow lets loose with the magical burst.

Page 7: On the ground, the zombies stop with the attacking and instead start asking Slayers for a dance.

Willow tells Amy that the army was the pressing problem and she’s taken care of it. The light show she’d cast in Amy’s direction was just a smokescreen.

Amy counters with the fact that the zombie army was as well.

Page 8: While Amy uses some sort of pixelating magic against Wills, Buffy and Ethan are falling through her dreamspace. He’s looking for the interface between Buffy and ‘her enemy’ so that she can see some of her attacker’s daydreams and figure out who it is.

Although we know that Amy is the problem, Buffy doesn’t yet.

If you look really close at the ‘memory cubes’ of Buffy, you’ll see a portrait of Joss.

Page 9: Willow gets pissed and turns momentarily Dark. She fires a mystic burst directly at Amy, who is able to shield herself. She asks what else Wills has got.

In the control room, Xander says over the open mic, “Say it with me now: Fe fi fo…”

Page 10: Dawn continues, “… F%$#ing Fum.”

And then steps on Amy! (Despite the big ‘SHOOOOSH’ blurb, though, she’s not squished and Willow quickly engulfs her in a magical trap.)

Willow asks why Dawn is a giant, while Dawn asks if she’s gone evil again…, Will tells her it’ll be fine: Amy just pissed her off.

In the meantime, Buffy is seeing red bars across a black background.

Page 11: In Buffy’s dreamspace, she sees a giant habi-wheel and realizes that Amy is responsible for whatever is happening in the real world, and for trapping her in her dreams.

Rayne gives Buffy a valuable clue, three Roman numerals for ten… ‘thirty’.

Page 12: Buffy and I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. Ethan insists that what she sees needs to be remembered, however. That it is important because twilight is falling… which is the name of the organization of the guys with the symbol carved into their chests – which include the general leading the military against the Slayers.

In the meanwhile, with Amy secured again, Willow recognizes that Buffy is under a ‘true love’ spell.

Page 13: Willow has everyone shut their eyes so that the person in love with Buffy can kiss her with some anonymity. We’re led to believe it will be Xander, but I’ll spoil it now and say it’s another fake-out. You see, when Buffy awakes, she yells, “Cinnamon Buns!”

And it just so happens that Satsu, the Slayer who likes cat-masks, also likes Cinnamon lip gloss. Uh-huh.

Page 14: We join Giles, where he is meeting a demonic representative. The demon is pissed off because the Slayers killed three of their race’s children.

Giles points out they had broken protocol by being out there causing havoc.

The demon insists that they were lured to that spot and set up. He gives Giles a piece of paper with the symbol that we’ve come to recognize as Twilight’s.

Page 15: Xander has called Andrew to report the attack on HQ. But, Andrew is complaining that all is quiet in Italy. He’s says its Dullsville… even though he is playing strip poker with some buxom Slayers… one of which is even now taking off her bra. Poor Andy… does nothing for him.

Page 16: Xander checks in on their injured troops, including the flirtatious Renee. He gives her some razzing:

“Well this is really unimpressive. One attack by the undead and Renee has to take a nap, ‘oh I’m all run through with a broadsword, I have to lie around and heal…’

“Back in my day, which was about a week and a half ago, we took our lumps and we got back up and we cried like babies and quit and then put on weight.”

Xander tells her to stop feeling down about the zombie attack.

Page 17: While Xander is checking in on the troops, Buffy and Willow are bonding. They have Amy mystically held and Wills is running a scan. She says that Amy’s magic-works “reeked of tech. She’s working with someone.”

They have a few moments to try to get caught up. We do find out that Kennedy died!

But, it was one of those mystic things and only lasted a month. She’s currently dealing with that so Willow has been respecting her space.

I have to say at this point, too, that everyone seems to be awfully cavalier about Dawn having had sex with a demon….

Page 18: Xander joins them. They joke about his and Buffy’s current lack of a sex life. Buffy just begins to wonder who kissed her (with the Cinnamon Buns flavor), but the question is interrupted by Willow saying she’s getting a reaction from a mystic scan she’s performing while she talks to them.

Wow – remember when magic used to take some effort?

Page 19: Willow gets information from her trace that Amy has been hanging out with the Initiative sort. Unfortunately, she also gets caught in a mystic trap – Amy was two steps ahead of her and arranged for her scan to trigger a portal.

Amy, evil smile on her face, yanks Willow into the portal and vanishes.

Page 20: While Xander is barking orders for a team of Slayers to suit up and a team of mystics to get to portal-reopening duty, Buffy is stewing – pissed off at being played.

Page 21: Willow is the one restrained this time: she’s mystically tied down to a metal table. While she lies temporarily helpless, a rough voice speaks from off-screen. We’re finally going to meet the “thing” that Amy has been calling boyfriend.

Page 22: And somehow, someway it’s…

Warren!

And he’s holding a bone saw….

The Good: The interesting return of Ethan Rayne is a plus.

The toe-to-toe mystic battle between Willow and Amy is really good. Especially since Amy shows herself to be always thinking ahead and Willow seems far too complacent about assuming that she’s the stronger and better witch – which bites her in the end.

Giant Dawn putting her giant foot to good use!

Xander Harris… *sigh* … love the way his character is handled throughout.

Amy’s spring-trap and what’s waiting for Willow on the other side.

The Bad: Warren?!  How?! Why?! (future self – they really screw up the explanation next issue – but that’s a bitch for then).

Buffy’s cavalier attitude to Dawn’s having had sex with a demon and being turned into a giantess… and Willow’s joining in not being very concerned about all this.

  One of Buffy's daydreams. Uh, maybe one of mine, too. 

  Dawn helps out Willow against Amy.

    The not-much-improved Warren.

The Score: Willow is put to good use in this issue, as is Xander. Dawnie gets to use her new status for some good, which was nice. The next issue closes out the “first episode” of Season 8, so this one is a typical ‘move things along’ issue and there’s nothing really wrong with that. I do have to wonder why Buffy’s eye color seems to keep changing… and then there’s the problem inherent in yet another dead guy coming back… a weakness of comic-storytelling in general: that plot is extremely overused.

3.75 out of 5 stars.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 #2

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens,

Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy

Cover By: Jo Chen

Where We Are: This story takes place after the end of BTVS, S7… The Slayer population of the world has gone from two to nearly two thousand. Almost five hundred are working around the world with Buffy’s organization in squads – or “terrorist cells”, according to the American military. Buffy, Xander, Dawn and a passel of Slayers are currently bunked out in a Scottish castle, where the latest mission revealed a strange symbol carved into human bodies.

Also, Dawn’s a giant.

Page 1: A cup of steaming coffee (or tea with cream) is sitting on a table. In a ‘narrator blurb’ we read, “I used to be a Watcher.”

Page 2 & 3: It’s Giles! Of course. Oh, how he was missed in Issue 1 – he’s not in Scotland.

His narration continues, “The organization existed since before there were cities. The Watchers’ Council, always moving, always secret, but very much alive. There were hundreds of Watchers. And one Slayer.

“Scales have tipped of late.”

Giles is overseeing a large group of those 500 mentioned in the ‘Where We Are’ section. Giles calls a halt to the fighting exercise he is overseeing. He compliments the Slayers on their fighting skills, but then informs them that despite their excellent form, it is all useless. They, you see, are fighting alone and not as a team. They get in each other’s way, they’re not protecting one another’s back and failing to use their single most valuable asset….

Page 4 & 5: We shift to Buffy and her trainees. She finishes Giles’ lesson “… each other.” Buffy calls on three of her Slayers, Leah (the red headed Scottish lass), Satsu (Asian, and who wore a cat mask last issue) and Rowena (blonde and favors baseball caps):

“Would the three of you please kick my ass?”

Buffy, naturally defeats her three teammates… and quite easily:

“Three perfectly valid avenues of attack, good form – on three seasoned, well-trained corpses, one of whom, sidebar: has her best hair ever; Satsu, you’re making me think I need a new look. See me after. So. Let’s break this down. The first clue this was going downhill? Clearly….”

Page 6 & 7: We skip over to Andrew’s team around a camp fire. His lesson is less instructive, as he probably isn’t completing Buffy’s pointers:

“… Lando Calrissian’s outfit. And I know a lot of you were going to say Ewoks, but that’s too easy.”

One of his Slayer’s, a punk-rocky, pink-haired, Mohawk sort has to repeat the question which Andy was supposed to have been answering before obviously getting off on his Star Wars tangent. It’s a question that, no doubt, every single fan has asked – “Why don’t we get a gun?”

Andrew’s response is less than satisfactory and he quickly moves on to headbutts. I do believe that Ms. I-Want-A-Gun will be named Simone. (I just jumped to the future of Issue 23 – and yes, it’s Simone… and yes, she will be a problem.)

Page 8 & 9: Xander is commiserating with Dawn re: Buffy’s continual lack of attention to her sister in order to spend all her time with her fellow Slayer “sisters”.

Xan starts to suspect that perhaps Dawnie made herself a giantess on purpose in order to gain some of Buffy’s attention. Dawn is also using a lake as a bathtub.

Page 10: Xan gets a giant wave of water in answer.

Elsewhere, at “Drextalcorp Recycling Technologies”, which ‘natch is a fake, General “Slayers-Are-Terrorists” is talking to a suit, for which, he has little respect. The skinny – an ‘op’ is taking place that night against Buffy.

Page 11: While suit-guy is trying to convince the General to let Amy and her magic handle the ‘op’, but General clearly would rather find Buffy’s site and nuke her.

Page 12: A mention is made of the “monstrosity that [Amy] calls a boyfriend”. But the main point of this page is to show that the General has a scar carved into his manly chest… a scar matching the corpses that Buffy found last issue. “Twilight”.

Page 13: Xander and Buffy are talking in the hallway of her castle fortress. Again, it’s about Dawn’s current giantess issue, her Thricewise demon dating and Buffy’s continuing ‘guilt’ complex.

There’s also a HUGE shock – Buffy:

“I’m sorry. I’m tired. Just tell me now, so we don’t have to do a whole awkward-dance… are you coming to bed?”

SAY WHA!?!

Page 14: Xander tries to tell Buffy that it would be a horrible mistake, but Buffy’s not hearing it… she swears that this time she can be gentle!

She lip-locks Xan in a way that he has been dreaming of since S1…

… and his head pops off: “So, gentle.”, says he.

“Oh, balls.” says Buffy.

OH – BALLS, is right! A big dream-tease! Joss, you are evil and must be punished! Possibly with a harness, ball-gag and whip of some sort.

Xander’s disembodied head also shares that Buffy’s floor lint is “so Scottish”. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s very funny.

Page 15: Buffy’s dream gets more disturbing as she’s pulled out of a window and then skewered through her hands and feet by a giant demon’s claws. He adds fire and begs her to keep screaming for his delight.

Page 16: In the real world, Amy is standing over Buffy with a sacrificial dagger. The door bursts open with Xander (in cute PJs) and a Slayer Squad. Buffy is still unconscious and her wrists and ankles are being held tightly by magical shackles.

Page 17: Amy’s dagger plunges down into Buffy before Xan can intervene and she screams. Amy gets a crossbow bolt through the shoulder, but she’s already delivered the dagger!

“Oh my God.” Xander says.

Page 18: Xander continues… picking up a dagger that has been ruined, “This is the crappiest sacrificial dagger I’ve ever seen.” HAH – Another Fake-out.

He continues, “You really think we let Buffy sleep without mystical protection? This isn’t open-wand night in Sunnydale, Sweetcheeks. You’re dealing with pros.”

“Open-wand night”… lol… I’m in love with Xander Harris. And, possibly Joss a little bit.

But, Amy isn’t finished by a long shot. As she points out, Buffy is still asleep – she’s been placed in a mystic nightmare that can only be broken by a kiss of true love.

Amy has a big mouth, on top of her amateur-magic hour.

Page 19: On a parapet, a pair of Slayer guards gab. One of these is Renee… Ms. Flirty to Xander from Issue 1 (she of the “nerd points are accumulating nicely”). The discussion of Xan is interrupted by sounds of ‘clawing’.

Page 20: Looking over the parapet, we see a large amount of grody-looking zombies climbing up the walls of the Slayer castle.

In the meantime, back in Buff’s bedroom, Xan is interrogating Amy on this whole mystic nightmare spell… he double checks that a sister’s kiss wouldn’t do the trick –

“Well, a twisted sister…” is Amy’s response.

“Ha! But no, I hate you.”

Page 21: Xander musters the troops when he finds out that zombies have breached security. In addition, he points out to Amy that she can’t go anywhere. She needles him about trying a ‘true love’ kiss to wake Buffy….

Page 22: Slayers vs. Zombies. In Buffy’s nightmare, she’s suffering pain and is curled into a ball of suffering.

An off-panel voice tells her that she can’t give up quite yet, however.

Page 23: “I have so much I need to show you,” says a mystery man whose face we don’t see. He’s dressed in a long leather coat and a red T-Shirt. First impression – Spike!

But this is Buffy dreaming, so it could be another humorous fake-out.

Elsewhere – Satsu informs Xander via com-link that headshots aren’t killing the zombies as expected (Romero-shout out!)

Back in Buffy’s bedroom – Amy is gloating that with all of the Slayers present, there’s no one who can take her on…

“As a friend of mine once said…” another off-panel voice states…

Page 24: “… I’d like to test that theory.”

Yes! And a perfect entrance line, too!

The Good: Oh, my goodness… the dialog! Xander is perfect throughout (well, this is Joss scripting after all).

I’ve warmed up to the idea of Amy as main villainess for this first arc… with one reservation, see below.

The artwork, with reservations (see below).

The twists… especially the Xan/Buffy pairing fake-out.

The fake-out with Amy’s dagger of doom – and I LOVE that the Scoobies are way ahead of her before she even starts.

Willow’s entrance… perfection.

The Bad: I really don’t want to give any ‘bads’ because I loved this issue… but… Giles and Andrew present artwork problems. Now, it’s hard to say if it’s the artist, or the issues one runs into with using actors’ likenesses from the legal perspective, but Andrew, especially, does not look Andrew-like.

Again, poor Dawn is getting short-shrifted as a character … how much more “Buffy doesn’t pay attention to me” do we have to hear from her. Give her something Scooby-ish to do (remember S7 and her researching) or send her back to Berkeley and have her show up only occasionally as a guest-star.

Concerns: I have some concerns about Giles’ and Buffy’s looks this time out (but again, is it the artist or just legal issues with actors’ likenesses?). I can’t name exactly what bothers me about Buffy this time, since I didn’t have an issue with her not being SMG-like in issue 1 – maybe because I was just so excited still that Buffy’s tale continues.

Amy still concerns me with the amount of raw power she’s showing (teleporting? Remember when Willow could only do that as Uber-Wills?) If magic isn’t treated carefully, it could easily become deux ex machina with no internal consistency.

Willow’s hideous dress – very Renaissance Faire.

The Score: Wow, what a terrifically written issue full to bursting with the Xan-Humor I love so dearly. There’s also quite a bit going on, so the issue is always moving forward. We get to see two of our missing and the coming Willow vs. Amy has me tingling. The only downside is Dawn’s continued whining about her problems with Buffy – we did this for a whole season, already. But, I still love nearly everything about Issue #2 of Buffy. It’s better than Angel: After the Fall and miles above Spike: After the Fall #2.

The Xander-Buffy not-pairing.

4.75 out of 5-stars.

One last note – during the Buffy run, I wasn’t a Buffy/Xan shipper. I liked them strictly as friends… best friends. But with time and distance from the series, I think I’m ready for them to get a heck of a lot closer now, if Joss intended to pursue Buffy’s attraction outside of her dreams.

And, a small off-topic note: For those Spandeverse-interested, I’ve written the first chapter in the new story – The Coming of the Scooby Army.

Buffy Season 8 Review, Issue #1

The Long Way Home, Part I

Script: Joss Whedon, Pencils: Georges Jeanty, Inks: Andy Owens, Colors: Dave Stewart, Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy  (uh, yea, Jimmy?)

Cover By: Ju Chen, Designed By: Heidi Fuinzu

Note: Page numbers may vary with individual reader. I skipped counting the ‘ad pages’ in the ‘page descriptor’ in the review.

Inside Cover Blurb: “This story takes place after the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Seven.

Page 1: We open Season 8 of Buffy with a view of the planet Earth, sun rising over the horizon as seen from an orbital perspective. Our narrator for the opening passage is Buffy, herself:

The thing about changing the world… Once you do it, the world’s all different.

Pages 2 & 3: Everybody calls me “ma’am” these days.

Buffy and three other young women (presumably Slayers) are rappelling from a ‘copter hovering.


  Comic book Buffy.

Page 4: As the group of Slayers descends toward a boarded up building, Buffy fires a ‘gun’ at the roof. This fires some sort of magical blasts, which open a rift in a mystical field surrounding the place. The girls land on the rooftop. But with Buffy’s continued narration, we’re reminded that “There used to be one Slayer in all the world.”

Now, there are at least (by the last count) 1800. Of these, Buffy and her allies have managed to recruit five hundred of them which is spread around the world. She has ten separate squads around the world. We’re also told there are “even three of me”.

Page 5: As the group begins to recon the roof, storming toward an entrance, Buffy’s narration continues. We discover that everyone figured that Buffy might be an especial target. To thwart any attempts to find where she is exactly, they have two blondes playing “Buffy Summers”. One of these is “underground. Literally.”

The ‘third Buffy’ is currently living it up in Rome (in a very clever nod to AtS: The Girl in Question) which basically sucked because they had a stand in for SMG, and ergo, managed to never show her face. Now, retroactively, we find out why! She also specifically mentions that the faux-Buffy is supposedly dating someone called “The Immortal”, again a shout out and way to make fun of the Angel episode.

We further, amusingly, find out that this Rome-Buffy was all Andrew’s idea. He thought it would be really funny after researching him… and obviously finding out his past run-ins with both Angel and Spike. Buffy hasn’t a clue as to why Andy thought it was so amusing.

Page 6: We’re now introduced to the comic book version of Xander Harris. He’s at ‘Central Command’, playing the part of coordinator to Buffy’s efforts. You might have expected Giles to take that role… at least I certainly did, hmmm?

Anyway, the place is full of Slayers. They also have a team of psychics. As Xan is giving information via radio feed to Buffy, one of the other Slayers mentions a situation in Barcelona with a squad. There’s an interesting bit here in which Xan refers to “Rowena”… a WaTchers shout out?

Page 7: We find out that the Barcelona squad has only seven Slayers and they’ve run into a vamp nest that is larger than they thought. The reason this is of interest is one, we get a quick idea of how organized Buffy’s Slayers are (and wasn’t Spike, back in bad guy days, always afraid of what Buffy would do if she got any real funding?) and also, because we find out that Andrew has a team of Slayers himself and is still in Italy (again, callback to Angel).

As Xander is dealing with the Barcelona situation, he seems to have very good rapport with the Slayer, Renee.

(Xander, re: Andrew’s orders to take a squad of Slayers to Barcelona to help out): Tell him ten best. Not ten best dressed.

(Slayer Renee): Yes, Mr. Harris.

(Xander): “Xander.” Renee, I told you, it’s “Xander” or “Sergeant Fury”.

(Slayer Renee): Wasn’t Nick Fury a Colonel when he ran S.H.I.E.L.D.?

(Xander): I like him better in the Howling Commando days. But, your nerd points are accumulating impressively.

Anybody else thinks that sounds a bit flirtatious? Which, naturally, makes me think Renee is dead meat walking but we’ll see.

Page 8: Back with Buffy’s squad, she’s busted into the abandoned building (turns out it’s a church) in order to engage a gaggle of demons. They’re big, they’re brutish, and they’re perfect for a comic book. Alas, they’ve also already managed to take out a few victims, which Buffy isn’t at all happy about.

Page 9: The Slayers go on the attack and we follow Buffy as she puts in a few good moves, before getting knocked into the disused, large cross. It appears two of our other Slayers may be in trouble… one with a cat-mask on her head and another with long, flowing red hair. No names for these Slayers, yet.

Page 10: The two Slayers in trouble (cat-mask is Satsu, red-head is Leah [I think]) is saved by another of the paratrooper Slayers. There are also two late comers to the party who must have jumped after our ‘splash-page’. Anyway, no Slayers get killed in the making of this page. But, Buffy sure puts that large cross to good use!


  Buffy kicks. And our mystery starts.

Page 11: With the demons killed, the Slayers begin to make some discoveries that are a bit unsettling. One, the bodies have an image carved into them. Two, the skin carving isn’t fresh… in fact, it may have been self-inflicted. And three: the ‘random victims’ were heavily armed with automatic rifles… not really ‘civilian-victim’ issue. It looks like somebody came looking for a fight and they lost. Buffy orders Xander to get a good image of the symbol (the Slayers aren’t just wearing mics, but cameras as well) and to “copy Giles on it”. Interesting… why isn’t Giles with Buffy?


  Symbols carved on chests:  never a positive sign.

Page 12: The baseball capped Slayer also surmises that the forcefield they had to break through was also with the victim-guys. They wanted to be alone with the demons. Buffy doesn’t like the math on this caper, but hopes the symbol they found will clear up the matter. In the meantime, a pair of boots is high above the wrecked, abandoned church. Someone is keeping an eye on our girls.

Page 13: We jump to another ‘copter. This one is Army. Within, berating some suit is a four star general, who is obviously extremely hostile to our Slayers. In fact, according to him, Buffy and her girls “got a hard-line ideology that does not jibe with American interests”. He further describes Buffy as “charismatic, uncompromising, and completely destructive”. It’s more than obvious that he considers Buffy’s ‘squads’ as just another word for ‘cells’… as in, terrorist cells.

Page 14 & 15: Still with General Hard-ass. He offers the suit further proof of his assertions that the Slayers are, in point of fact, terrorists: “… Look what she did to her hometown.”

The helicopter is flying over the Sunnydale crater. What’s more, there is a government presence on the ground as well. Things get a bit interesting here… there are some scientist bio-hazard suit sorts wandering under the crater (60 feet under) and they report “no mystical readings”.

It appears they’ve come a long way in the four years since the Initiative chose to treat the demons as nothing more than exotic animals. Now, we have the resources to pick up mystical energy on hand held scanners. And, they’re looking for something specific….

Page 16: Just like in a horror-movie, right after the guy reports that he’s all alone down there, he’s screaming. We see a man’s face distorted in his visor, but we can’t make out who it is. And, why in the hell there’s anyone down there at all.

Page 17: Back at Slayer central, Xander and Buffy are discussing the symbol. Xan thinks maybe it’s a monocle-wearing guy who is frowning. Far more interesting than the symbol discussion though, is when Buffy jokingly tells Xan that he’s a terrible Watcher. His response seems awfully forceful to me as he responds, “I’m not a Watcher… Don’t call me a Watcher”. When you add the fact that Giles has been nowhere to be seen throughout this entire issue (nor has Willow, but I’ll get to her in a second), you start to wonder if the bad stuff between Rupert and Buffy during S7 hasn’t been put behind them. I started wondering if, maybe, they’re on the outs with one another.

Now, as to Willow – we find out here that Willow hasn’t been in touch either, lately. She’s missing in action, though there’s no hint here that the two Scoobies we’ve seen think there is any foul play involved.

Xander also tells Buffy that she needs to talk to Dawn. Buffy complains that she’s only going to whine. So, one, Buffy and Dawn aren’t on the best of terms either… again! And two, we have a shout back to the fans’ complaints that all Dawn did during S6 was bitch and moan. Xander reminds Buffy that she has a lot to whine about these days….

Page 18 & 19: Buffy relents under Xan’s pressure and goes to speak with Dawnie. And, we find out that Dawn is a friggin’ giant!

Buffy tries to find out what exactly happened to cause ‘Kenny the Thrisewise” to make Dawnie a giantess, but she won’t speak to anyone but Willow. And, here (unless I missed a line earlier) we find out that Buffy’s homebase is in Scotland and her group hangs out in a huge castle.


  Dawn has grown up... and up... and up....

Page 20: The convo between Buff and Dawn goes about as well as it always seems to. Buffy finally decides to walk away… again.

(Dawn, glaring after Buffy): I could swat you like a flea.

(Buffy): Your butt looks big in those giant pants.

Page 21: Buffy goes out on a parapet for some air. And we get into her head a bit about what has happened in the last year: I miss my mom. I miss the gang. And churros. And sex. Great muppety Odin, I miss that sex. Ooh! I just know Dawn had sex with that Kenny and won’t say anything to me -- But, she’ll tell Willow, fine, her first time and it all goes wrong which I’m totally well versed in and anyhow Willow’s the expert on boys since when now?

Outstanding. I can’t even feel sorry for myself in a linear fashion. Suck it up, Summers. You’re a big girl now.

This scene actually seems like a good place to leave the issue, but we’ve got a surprise awaiting us…

Page 22: We rejoin General Ass-hat in a large laboratory type facility (Initiative-like?). He looks into a room through one of those sliding panels and reacts with revulsion and shock:

How is that thing alive?

We don’t know what ‘thing’ he is speaking of at this time, but it appears that it’s whoever they took into custody under Sunnydale. Remember the distorted male’s face in the visor?

A scientist responds that it’s obvious that magic is keeping ‘him’ alive. And, it is their belief that ‘Subject One’ was who was keeping ‘him’ alive. Meaning, there were two ‘subjects’ under Sunnydale… staying alive by, probably, eating whoever got buried with them and didn’t survive.

Page 23: The scientist reports that ‘Subject One’ is more vocal than ‘it/him’ in the other room. Further, he explains that “her” first words were, “I’m gonna help you kill her.”

There are several tidbits, here. Subject One considers Subject Two her ‘boyfriend’, even though the General wasn’t sure how Subject Two could possibly be alive, suggesting that the second subject is in a world of ugly.

Subject One is also interested in their magical hardware and having a lab for said ‘world of ugly boyfriend’. ‘She’ also wants release from and immunity for any crimes her and said ‘boyfriend’ have committed, if she succeeds in taking Buffy Summers down. And, here’s the real kicker… she wants “a lot of cheese”. Any guesses who Subject One is?

Page 24: Amy. She says her name is Amy.


 Psychotic, like her mother.

The Good: First and foremost, I have to give a hand to the artists. Both the fabulous cover, and the excellent artwork within the issue. Outstanding work.

I also loved how we get caught up on Xander, Buffy, Dawn and Andrew. We don’t get any hints on Faith, the S.i.Ts., or Robin, but we do get some mysteries surrounding Willow and Rupert.

The church-demons… they were great looking! And, I loved Buffy’s takedown of them. I also liked the mystery re: the symbol and the fact that Buffy quickly realized that the ‘victims’ weren’t just a random tragedy. The floating figure was mysterious and is obviously tied to this plotline.

The view of Sunnydale (now just a crater). Though, of course, it is located so far from the ocean (see S2, S3 and S5) that it isn’t even on the page. I swear the entire town teleported around for 7 years.

Giant Dawn.

The dialog throughout was great, especially among Buffy, Xander and even Dawn.

The Bad: More Amy Madison… really? Her character didn’t make a whole lot of sense in S7 and they continue the psycho-witch routine here.

Again… no ocean near Sunnydale… bad continuity (but consistent with the bad continuity in the series ender of BTVS).

Psycho military… cliché anyone?

Concerning: I don’t have strong feelings, either good nor bad, but I do have to wonder how anyone could have survived an entire city imploding and sinking into the ground. Amy Madison just shouldn’t have that type of power, unless she’s suddenly gotten far, far more powerful since she was returned from rat-hood.

I’m concerned about how Willow has apparently not kept in touch with the rest of the gang. I could see this in S6, but by the end of S7, didn’t the gang come back together as close as they ever were? Same concerns, but to a lesser extent, re: Giles and his situation.

Rating: A strong first issue for Buffy: Season 8 comic series and strong for a “Season Premiere”. I like the mysteries set up, similar to setting up a season’s big bad if it’s seen through (i.e., not wrapped up right after “The Long Way Home” wraps). The ‘bad’ is utterly minor and two of them are just a personal preference (evil military may not bother anyone else, and some may really dig Amy’s character as evil witch). I say, “4.25 out of 5 stars”.