Creative Staff:
Scripts: Joss Whedon, Brad Meltzer, Scott Allie, and Jane Espenson
Pencils: George Jeanty and Karl Moline
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
Season 8’s Big Bad is revealed in Buffy and Twilight’s second major encounter. Buffy realizes she is in a fight to save all of humanity. The Slayer reunites with Angel and Spike, searching for the one thing that can save the world, while the Slayer army crumbles and one in their ranks is lost. Collects Season 8 #31–#40 and the Riley one-shot in one value package.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As expected, Buffy only gets better as the story moves along. Frustratingly, the end of the season doesn’t spell the end of the season, so to speak. It was a problem I had with season four, when it ended with the movie night and the visions of the first Slayer. Seasons should have finality and, so often in anime and in way fewer Buffy seasons (as in, anime does it all too often and Buffy only did it that one season), finality didn’t come.
There are two sides to this coin, though. On one side, I want closure out of my season arcs. On the other side, I know this has more seasons and it’ll likely reach a close in those seasons. However, the problem still exists and, while we get some closure, it isn’t the kind we’re used to from a season of 90s television.
The goods, however, far outweigh the bads in this Buffy season. By the end of the season, you still don’t know whether Buffy really did good or not. She became the bad guy for the world to glare at, and she didn’t blink an eye. She just cried into Spike’s arms, or I assume she did at least once. The girls she was helping have turned against her and she stopped a new Slayer from ever being born again. She stopped magic from ever being used. But she saved the world. So often in Buffy are sacrifices needed to save the world, but this is arguably the biggest. Not only is magic gone, but she lost her mentor. Giles, the totem to Buffy’s madness, was killed.
This is a huge blow to the morale of the Scooby Gang, which, by the way, seems to be no more. Even when Giles left, he was still available. He was a phone call to England away. They tried to get things done on their own, and they did well enough, but there was comfort in the idea of Giles. They fought on because they wanted to prove they were ok. They’re no one there anymore. No Giles. No watchers. Just Buffy, Xander, and Dawn.
The closure we do receive in this season comes from the Twilight plot. Twilight was brought up as the Big Bad of the season, but ended up as so much more. The true Big Bad was the imbalance in the universe Buffy created by making thousands of Slayers. The universe is literally trying to create a new dimension so balance can be restored. Buffy and Angel do the nasty to create it. Oh and Angel is the man behind the mask in Twilight, five by five. Now, this is an interesting concept to touch upon. Throughout the Buffy canon, Buffy has been the Girl of Destiny, and the girl who defies destiny. She became a Slayer, but denied that life. She rebelled against Giles and did everything to make the Watcher’s Council angry. They allude to this in the comic, and it’s continuously true. The interesting fact is that, by defying what she should do, she makes true the very future she experienced. The future that’ll go bad as Willow predicts and the future that birthed the first Slayer in over 200 years. The comic, and the show, is trying to say that destiny can be fought, but what is inevitable is inevitable. It’s a bit of a sad message, but one that can ring so true to so many.
I heard that events from the Angel TV series come into play in these Buffy comics, and they haven’t quite yet. However, the events of the Angel comic do. They allude to a fallen Los Angeles and Angel’s own failed war there. He becomes the harbinger for the end of the world, as he is literally the body for the “son” that Buffy and Angel birth by creating the other dimension. Its Angel’s hands that kill Giles and that’s what takes Buffy over the edge. Like it is so often in our lives and in this franchise, it’s the one we most love that betrays us in the biggest way. Buffy and Angel are fated to be together, yet never can for the sake of the universe. It’s kind of the ultimate Romeo and Juliet story.
In Summary:
As always, Joss Whedon has created an amazing world where relationships are formed, broken, formed again, and broken again. We still don’t know what a lot of the outcomes of these stories are, but we sure will learn them and Whedon is sure to have had something in mind when he wrote this.
After experiencing the whole season eight comic, I definitely can’t say I regret it. In fact, I liked it as much as I liked the TV series. My favorite seasons remain my favorite seasons (five, six, and seven, by the way, in no particular order), but this is a brilliant addition to the already created Buffyverse. With season eight’s conclusion, I’m most excited to jump into season nine, but I feel like I should be more excited about the events of season eight. I liked it well enough, but I feel like it’s more setting up for more cool things than being complete in itself. BUT, I am really excited for more cool things.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B+
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: March 13, 2013
MSRP: $29.99
