Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 - The Return of Mister Pointy

Gee, a group of self-admitted fangirls are Buffy fans? Who’dve thunk it?

All kidding aside, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 marks the return of Joss Whedon to the characters that put him on the map and made legions of geeks everywhere declare, "Joss Whedon is my Master". We loved the TV show, so now we have to tell you how much we love the comic.

Margaret O’Connell, Staff Writer

Clever scripts by Joss Whedon, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator himself. Expressive artwork by (usually) Georges Jeanty that more often than not achieves instantly recognizable likenesses of the actors who portrayed the characters in question on TV, rather than leaving it up to the reader to figure out that that generic-looking blonde is supposed to be Buffy and the dark-haired guy must be Xander (or maybe Angel), as was so often the case with earlier incarnations of the Buffy comic.

"Watcher" Xander in an eyepatch doing Nick Fury shtick, and one of his Slayer Nation subordinates actually getting it. (Xander: "Renee, I told you [to call me] ’Xander.’ Or ’Sergeant Fury.’ " Renee: "Wasn’t Nick Fury a colonel when he ran S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Xander: "I like him better in the Howlin’ Commando days. But your nerd points are accumulating impressively.") The very idea of a potential love interest for Xander who is nice, overtly likeable, and doesn’t consider herself to be slumming by so much as giving him the time of day because a) she’s the queen bee and he doesn’t even register in the high school pecking order, or b) he’s a mere human and she’s a centuries-old ex-vengeance demon with major attitude and nonexistent social skills.

Issue #5’s stand-alone story’s newbie’s-eye view of what it’s like to suddenly get hit with Slayer powers when you have no idea what’s happening, complete with fake commercial for the pseudo-support group training program for "this alarming yet fun condition." Follow-up scenes showing the unnamed newbie’s reluctantly respectful dawning comprehension that Giles’ theoretically just-more-adult-blah-blah-blah lecture on what it means to be a Slayer actually makes sense.

A fifth-issue (alternate) cover by Georges Jeanty with a concept so great that I instantly wanted to put it on posters and T-shirts—Buffy striking an iconic pointing-finger Uncle Sam recruiting-poster pose over the words "I WANT YOU To Be Strong."

What’s not to like?

Jennifer L. Bratcher, Contributing Writer

First off I am a huge fan of the TV series, and have been since I was a fourteen year old girl. I was enamored by the writing and the characterization that took place within Buffy’s world. Then Dark Horse came out with the original Buffy comic and that was a lot of fun.

However, all the stops have been pulled out for Season 8.

This is Joss Whedon at his best. These are the characters he created. The writing is so crisp and clear that I can hear the voices in my head when reading the issues. Xander is Xander, Willow is Willow, and most importantly, Buffy is Buffy.

Now, I dislike Sarah Michelle Gellar as an actress. Sometimes her Buffy seemed bitchy and grating to me. However, seeing her in comic book form is giving me a whole new love for the character that I never had in the show.

I was much more interested in Buffy’s friends or Faith or Angel (especially Angel) than I was Buffy herself. She just seemed to be the thing which everything was built upon and not much else. However, with Whedon’s writing in the series I’m seeing Buffy Summers as something much more than that.

I’m seeing her as a young woman who’s making her way awkwardly, fumbling around like everyone else does and making wrong choices, but yet coming into her own. She’s become fascinating to me in a way she probably would have never been in the show.

And that my friends is why Buffy the Vampire Slayer rocks so hard for me.

That, and the dream sequence in issue three involving Buffy in a nurse’s outfit being the meat in a vampire sandwich involving Spike and Angel with more metaphors than you could shake a stick at!

Anita Olin, Contributing Writer

The first issue begins, "The thing about changing the world...once you do it, the world’s all different." Some things are different in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8: Buffy’s got 500 Slayers working with her. She’s got better technology — even a command center run by Xander.

But as the saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Aside from these being the same core characters we last saw in 2003, changing the world, the familiarity of the relationships and their issues and histories are intact: Buffy’s still feeling the pressure and she’s still got her general on. Dawn is still a giant (pun intended) part of Buffy’s life, but still Buffy pushes her to the background. Willow’s still a powerhouse, but we’re getting to see hints of other sides to that. Xander is still a sexy nerd who doesn’t realize his appeal, surrounded by women who see that and like it. Andrew is still...Andrew. And Giles is feeling the changes. Some of the Baddies are familiar faces, even if one is sort of...faceless.

I’m loving this series even more than I thought I would. There’s an interesting arc and mysteries to solve — what is Twilight? What the heck is a Thricewise and what happened to Dawn? Who kissed Buffy out of her mystical sleep? Why was she wearing such a girly nightgown? Buffy had a dream that keeps popping up and was oh-so-funny to see, and the little bit of retconning doesn’t bother me at all because it actually makes sense.

I hope it never ends.

Lee Atchison, Webmistress / Features Editrix

When Buffy the Vampire Slayer made its first run in comics format, I wasn’t interested. Oh, there were lots of good stories, but I had the television show at the time, and frankly, the idea of seeing characters on paper always ended up dragging me out of the moment. I mean, even if the artist was using photoreference, there was no chemistry, no quirky voice, no inherent Buffy-ness or Xander-ness (you know, that quality that the actor/ess brings to the role) for me to really think that I was actually reading about some of my favorite fictional characters ever.

So when Season 8 came out, I was incredibly wary. But the difference between this and the issues that came before is that we’re now dealing with official, canon material, a continuation of the series that I loved so much. And even if Season 8 came off wrong, I reasoned to myself, at least it wouldn’t be any worse than the other one or two crappy seasons I happily sat through.

Thankfully, it was like a breath of wonderfully fresh air. Joss, having had a break from Buffy, was back — with verve, with style, with a wittiness that I didn’t realize I’d missed so much. More importantly, the Buffy I loved was back, too — with confidence, with strength, with her family around her and more ass kicking to do. This was the BtVS that I fell in love with, and Joss had magically returned it to us.

It’s only the first story arc, but it was all there. What really impressed me the most, however, was the little touches. A casually tossed off phrase from Xander would make me *believe* that was Xander. The insight that Dawn’s insecurities were making her overcompensate was subtle, taking up enough room for only a few panels. A panel or two featuring a slayer flirting with Xander by making Nick Fury references gave me a sense of life, as if there was more going on than was on the page. An army of Slayers. Andrew and Lando Calrissian. Andrew and strip poker. Giles — full of confidence, tea, and girls. Cinnamon.

And through it all, I didn’t even notice that the faces were just a little off and that they were just colored images on paper. They lived; in my mind, their world became real. Bravo to the creative team for making me believe.

Patti Martinson, Contributing Writer

I have been a long time fan of Buffy and with the airing of ’Chosen’, I thought there would be no more Buffy anywhere. I was ecstatic to learn there was going to be a "Season 8" of Buffy in comic format. I had never gotten into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic before, but I was eager to read the new series. I have not been disappointed for the most part. I like seeing Buffy and her new Army of Slayers in the first arc. I love the bantering Xander and uber-powerful Willow.

While I was slightly disappointed with issue #5, which was a standalone issue, I am particularly eager to read the upcoming Faith arc. Faith was a fantastic character on Buffy and Angel and I am dying to know what she has been up to these days.

I am definitely interested to see what happens next and will stay with the comic as long as they keep up the quality of the artwork and story.