Creative Staff:
Scripts: Andrew Chambliss
Pencils: George Jeanty
Inks: Karl Story
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
“On Your Own”
The end of magic on Earth has created, among other obstacles, zompires—mindless vampires who ignore the rules laid down by Harmony that allow humans and vampires to coexist. Willow has left San Francisco, taking Buffy’s broken scythe, while Xander and Dawn strive for normalcy and keep their distance from the supernatural. Buffy was recently cleared of suspicion of murder by the SFPD—but now they want help with the zompires! The Slayer’s personal life has gotten weirder than ever, and facing her own problems is more than she can handle…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We’re moving right along in season nine with the third story in the line “On Your Own.” This marks Buffy’s beginnings with relative solitude. Xander and Dawn are trying to live a normal life, even though Dawn is being created to be a key. But she’s just a normal college girl now!
Meanwhile, Buffy is pregnant and who knows what’ll happen with that. It’s really anyone’s guess, but we get some nice intermingling flashbacks with the Slayer Spike killed, who also had a kid when she was a Slayer. As it turns out, you WERE the chosen one. You can’t back out of that and the urge to slay will always come back up. No matter what Buffy does, it’ll be a loss for her. But talking through it with Robin, the Slayer’s son, she’s convinced that she can’t do this. It’s an incredible character moment that only piles on Buffy’s vulnerabilities as a character.
But we also get a look into Spike’s troubled emotions, from the eyes of a neutral third party. The cop they saved in issue four is back again and he’s psychoanalyzing Spike. Of course he still loves Buffy and of course he can’t do anything about it. Everyone’s story is incredibly poignant and tragic and it’s only going to be fun to see what happens from here.
In Summary:
These issues were full of emotion and I don’t know if I can handle it all. Buffy’s growing into more and more of a woman (even though she’s, like, 24 or something by now) and Spike, hundreds of years old, is still trying to grasp onto what it’s like to have a soul again. I remember his hilarious poetry from the show, and maybe he’ll start writing that again. But he’s probably sooner to start biting humans. Either way, these issues provided an incredible punch in the gut emotionally and I assume it’s only going to get punch-y-er.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Dates:
Issue #06: February 8, 2012
Issue #07: March 14, 2012
