Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Issue #3 picks up on the “yay, Willow!” vibe right from the cover, with Jo Chen drawing Willow in a hot outfit and spelling out the title of the series in smoke, making everyone who looks at it wish they were half as cool as Willow is. The story itself starts in Buffy’s “dreamspace” as Ethan Rayne begins to explain what’s happening to her, revealing some of Buffy’s more embarrassing dreams in the process.It’s a Battle of the Witches as Willow and Amy duke it out using both magic and wit. Buffy is led through her dreamscape, and Ethan explains that Amy has weakened herself, not to mention given some access into her own dreamspace, by using her powers to interfere with Buffy’s subconscious. He also mentions “there’s a memory [they] need.” Amy gets just weak enough, and Willow gets just pissed enough to buy Dawn the time she needs to get over there and stomp on Amy Jack and the Beanstalk-style with a fi-fi-fo “fucking fum!”Ethan leads Buffy to the memory they need, belonging to Amy and set in her rat cage. He makes her take note of the fact that there are three crossbeams - Triple X - saying “I’m more an antique Roman than a Dane….Just remember what you see here. Twilight is falling. You’re going to need all the help you can get. Pet.”

Back in the waking world, Willow explains the true love spell, and forces everyone in the room to close their eyes so that the person who is in love with Buffy can kiss her to wake her whilst being spared embarrassment. Buffy is awakened…and we don’t know by whom.

As Giles speaks with one of the survivors of Buffy’s attack in issue #1 about shared interests and a possible conspiracy that affects both demons and the slayers, Andrew complains to Xander over the phone about how he’s having no fun in Italy as he’s forced to entertain himself by playing strip poker with the slayers…Xander looks in on Renee, who is healing from the most recent demon army attack, and it looks as though the romantic interest isn’t entirely one-sided! Willow, Buffy, and Xander catch up as they keep Amy bound under a spell, and while we learn that Willow and Kennedy are still together (although on a break since she died - “Oh no! She’s fine! Mystical thing, only lasted a month”), we don’t learn much else about what she’s been up to since Sunnydale went ka-blewie.

Amy suddenly drags Willow through a portal she’d opened, taking her to what looks like a military installation. Suddenly, Willow is mystically strapped to a metal gurney. Amy explains that she was “contracted” to bring in Buffy, but that she was sure that Buffy would come after her. Meanwhile, “they” had a reason to bring Willow there as well. Willow is confused. Amy isn’t alone? And then, the one referred to only as “her boyfriend” up until now steps out of the shadows.

Warren. Without skin, but with a really big grudge.

REVIEW (Issue #3): Jesus Harold Tap Dancing CHRIST, was that a great issue! The momentum that had been built through the first two issues culminates in a burst of information and yet another amazing reveal. Dawn’s size is used to excellent, hilarious effect. The seeds are planted for the idea that demons and slayers may have a common enemy. The connection between Amy and the US military gets ever closer. Yet, for every question that is close to being answered, several new, exciting questions are asked that signal some interesting plot shifts to come. What had Willow been up to while she was away? What were Ethan, and her dreamscape, trying to tell Buffy? What is the slayers’ and demons’ common enemy? Who is in love with Buffy? And most importantly, how does one survive flaying? Issue #3 kicked the story arc up a notch while, again, staying true to the characters and allowing them to develop as they need to. I will give this issue the biggest compliment I can think of: it was Buffy episode-worthy.