Why the heck haven’t I read these yet? Has Glory been messing with my brain? Or have I spent the last year in some alternate demon dimension? No! I’m just crazy.
Buffy Season 8 rocks. I’ve only read 1-4 so far, but I can already tell these comics are in a different league than previous Buffy comics and Whedon’s Serenity comics (which I still love). Season 8 (hence the name) takes up where Season 7 of the TV series left off.
***SPOILERS***
Buffy and her crew have awakened all of the potential slayers, and now it’s up to Buffy to train them for battle. Xander, sporting a super cool guy look (complete with eye patch), serves as Buffy’s new Watcher from a hi tech/hi magic base of operations. The first thing fans of the TV series will want to know is that Buffy is not actually dating “The Immortal” as Angel and Spike supposedly learn at the end of the Angel TV series. That Buffy was actually a decoy (set up by Andrew) to make it harder for Buffy’s enemies to find her.
Okay, volume one goes like this: While fighting some gruesome baddies, Buffy and the slayers uncover a weird mark on some of the victims and set out to investigate. Meanwhile, readers learn that the military knows about Buffy and the slayers and has plans to wipe them out (believing they want to create a master race and take over the world).
A big (literally) surprise in this volume (ignore the bad pun) is that Dawn has turned into a giant (most likely the result of some ill-advised copulation with a thricewise–which I think is a really powerful warlock). Even more surprising, Amy reappears at the end of volume 1 (dug up from the rubble of Sunnydale) and agrees to help the military find and destroy Buffy.
Andrew comes back in volume 2 (yay!), Dawn takes a giant bath and Buffy gets trapped in a dream world just as Amy returns to kill her. Thankfully, the new and improved Scoobies have set up a forcefield around Buffy, so Amy is all stabby, but no blood. Amy calls the undead to help her, but the Scoobies get a little help of their own when the awesome Willow returns!
I would have bought volume 3 just for the cover, but the story rocks, too! Ethan Rayne comes back, Buffy has a hot (and hilarious) dream scene involving a naked Angel and Spike and some viking cherabim and Willow and Amy face off. Will and the crew manage to capture Amy. Good, right? Wrong, it was all a trap. Amy sucks Willow into a vortex and she ends up trapped in a military lab at the mercy of a very old, and very flayed enemy. As if this isn’t awesome enough, Whedon also raises the possibility of a Willow/Buffy relationship in the future. (Okay, maybe it’s a longshot, but I thought I’d throw that in there).
In volume 4, Amy and her new boyfriend (a very skinless Warren) torture Willow in the military lab, while Buffy and the slayers make a plan to save her. Some uber powerful witches (or forces) also come to Will’s aid. Buffy harnesses some of Will’s mojo to take on Amy. She frees Willow, finds Ethan Rayne dead and learns about the military’s plan to destroy her (and all of the slayers).
Needless to say, I am going straight to the comic book store tomorrow morning to get the rest of the issues. These comics really capture the essence of the show, including the action, characters and humor. Everything that makes Whedon great.
I just hope he doesn’t stop at Season 8.
DweebMeter: 5/5
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May 16, 2008 at 2:31 am
I’ve read the first 5 of these and I completely love them. I should review them myself! I’m really excited to see what happens next…wondering if maybe Riley will be brought back in to deal with the military aspect of it all.