Creative Staff:
Scripts: Andrew Chambliss
Pencils: Karl Moline
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“Slayer, Interrupted”
With the destruction of the seed, the fight against Twilight was brought to an end, and magic’s connection to our earth was severed. No more Slayers will be chosen. No more Slayer army. No more gang: Buffy’s a waitress in San Francisco; Dawn and Xander are attempting normal domesticity; Willow is struggling with the loss of her powers. It’s a new(ish) world, but there are still demons and vampires to slay—even as their popularity with the masses continues to grow—and Buffy is on point to do what she has always done…
She is the Slayer.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With this interim issue, we get a lot of things. Most importantly, we get confirmation that Buffy definitely is growing. Maybe not in a bad way, but maybe not in a good way. Things with Willow are getting better, but they’re still sketchy. Through dreams, and also real life, they communicate through their issues. You see, Buffy’s having dreams that involve the First Slayer and the pixie again. Without the seed, anything remotely magical is weakened except those things that have their magic inherently in them (like Slayers and vampires).
Now, the one of the Scooby Gang is on a new mission to restore magic—to restore balance to the world. Willow Rosenberg, the girl who arguably lost the most, is gone just as things were getting better. Buffy’s realizing what’s most important to her just as she’s screwing it all up. First, she sees Xander and Dawn become vamped and killed in her dream and now Willow’s gone without so much as an in-person goodbye.
But this is all about the big picture. The big picture is that Buffy saved the world, but she messed up big time. It was a situation where she was damned if she did, damned if she didn’t and Willow was the only one that knew. Some part of Dark Willow was, at the time, hindering real Willow from saying the whole truth about the matter she learned from Aluwyn. Buffy saved the world, but threw it out of balance.
Now it’s all about getting it back into balance.
In Summary:
There was one other major event that I didn’t really expect and it solidified my theory that Buffy is growing, shown in the most obvious of ways. It’ll be interesting to see where the comic goes from here, with Willow leaving yet again. But Buffy still has Xander, Dawn, and Spike around to ease her worries. I just wonder what the world will do to her.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: January 11, 2012
