Buffy : Season 8

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #32 Review

Brad Meltzer steps on board as Season 8 approaches its final months.

US, February 1, 2010 - Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s . . . Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Brad Meltzer begins his foray into the world of Buffy Season Eight with the herculean task of integrating the title character’s suddenly Supermanesque power set within the series’ landscape. No easy labor, especially considering this story arc also promises to unmask Twilight, the oft appearing but never revealing big bad of Season Eight. Fortunately Meltzer’s abilities as a writer make the transition far less painful than it may have been, as he delivers a comedic romp through the annals of fanboydom, with few setbacks along the way.

With characters like Xander and Andrew, the Buffyverse is firmly entrenched in a geek ethos and all the comedy that entails. While Meltzer makes full use of the comedy inherent to Buffy’s new condition, he’s careful to never lose sight of a concept that has always been at the core of Joss Whedon’s creation... that all actions have real consequences. As Buffy revels in her increased speed, strength, and flight, it quickly becomes evident that her new powers won’t come without a cost. It’s this notion that rescues the development of Buffy’s power enhancement from the realm of absurdity and transforms it into an event with real consequences. Consequences that will no doubt be felt throughout the remainder of this story arc and the remainder of Season Eight as it builds toward its inevitable conclusion.

Meltzer has a bevy of dangling plot threads to tie together in this arc. Obviously there’s the issue surrounding Buffy’s new abilities and where they find their origins. Plus Dawn and Xander’s budding romance. Not to mention the matter of Twilight’s abduction of Giles, Andrew and Faith, which has yet to be discovered. The writer wastes no time in addressing each of these threads, and it’s evident that his contribution to Season Eight will be stronger for it.

Meltzer’s work here isn’t entirely without fault though. The decision to include captions, which introduce the main players as they enter the story, seems ill advised and unnecessary given that this is issue #32. This is only exacerbated by the revelation that these are actually the result of another character’s narration; the choice to utilize him as an apparent narrator is also baffling given that he doesn’t appear until page 18. Needless to say the addition slows the flow of the script, and the book would have been more enjoyable had they been omitted.

As I’ve stated before, the true star of this series is Georges Jeanty. He so effectively renders these characters on the page at this point that they emote all of the idiosyncrasies that the television actors themselves established years ago. His abilities as a sequential storyteller continue to impress, and he delivers some sequences in this issue that he seems to particularly revel in.

It appears evident that the penultimate story arc of Buffy Season Eight is in capable hands. Meltzer’s first chapter goes a long way toward establishing a focus for Season Eight in a way that other story arcs have failed to. With the impending reveal of Twilight on the horizon and the revelation of the true cause of Buffy’s newfound abilities, this promises to be a story with real repercussions for the slayer.