Ah, Buffy. Just as into every generation, a chosen one is born, into every generation is also born a TV show that epitomizes all that we love about geekdom, that encapsulates the geek zeitgeist, and that just plain rocks all of our collective geek socks off (does that make it sound like we're all sharing the same socks? That would be weird). Buffy the Vampire Slayer was just such a show. You only need to peruse our Geek Speak staff pages to see how many of us here revere the show; or read the various articles on it; or, well, have paid any attention whatsoever to anything geek-related in the past fifteen years to see the impact that Buffy has had on geek culture. When the show ended with a city-destroying-and-world-altering bang after seven glorious years in 2003, there was much sadness, but also understanding -- we have learned that all good things must come to an end.

Ah, but do they?! <Insert mysterious dramatic music here>

Enter early 2007, nearly four years since the end of the TV show. It was announced that the adventures of Buffy and the Scoobies can and must continue! And not just random stories scattered throughout the show history, but an actual follow-up to the nominal series finale: a full-on Season 8. In comic book form, from Dark Horse (also publishers of the regular Buffy comics). On March 14, 2007, the first issue came out, and after nearly four more years, we finally come to the end this month with #40 -- the season finale, if you will -- released January 19. So has it been a good ride? Was the continuation of the TV show in comic form successful? Was it truly Buffy as we knew it?

Come with me as we take a look back at the issues (in more than one sense of the world) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8…

---

The Long Way Home (issues #1-4)
Written by Joss Whedon
Penciled by Georges Jeanty
Collected as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1 (with issue #5)

PLOT: The introduction to the world after the Slayerization of all potential Slayers and the destruction of Sunnydale (that had the side benefit of saving the world). Buffy has grouped the new Slayers into squads (well, what do you call a group of Slayers?!), which are considered terrorist cells by the US Military. Having decided that the Slayers represent a threat to the world, the military decides to send newly-recovered witch Amy to take Buffy out. Mystical hijinks and violence ensue. And we get hints at a big bad with multiple references to "Twilight" (I could make a joke here about having "Twilight" and "big bad" in the same sentence... but that's just too easy), complete with a frown-turned-upside-down-turned-upside-down-again symbol ("So it's a frown?").

FAMILIAR FACES: Ethan Rayne, Witch Amy, Skinless Warren

WHAT WORKED: Specifically, mention of it being a fake Buffy with “The Immortal” in Rome [Angel, “The Girl in Question”, 05.20 – Ed.]. I never thought that particular episode of Angel worked at all with Angel and Spike chasing after Buffy upon hearing she was seeing their arch-nemesis. So learning that that was all a fake and a big joke facilitated by Andrew redeemed everything. But, in general, the interplay between the characters was well done and the plot seemed Buffy-esque, but on a grander scale (handily available due to the new comic-centric format without the whole pesky TV budget thing to worry about. And while I can't claim to have needed the visual, I'm guessing that the image of a naked Angel and Spike chained up with Buffy between them (alas, not naked, though in a nurse outfit, so not bad) definitely worked for 'shippers and slash fans alike.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Nothing dramatic, but a few gripes. One, no explanation is given as to why and how Buffy and the Slayer army have access to lots o' technology and funding (will there be an explanation later? Oooh... foreshadowing!). Two, Willow seems really powerful. I suppose the argument could be made that with her attempting to destroy the world in Season 6 and then effectively Slayerizing everyone in Season 7 showcases massive amounts of magical ability, but what we see in these issues did seem to be not quite in line with the character.

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Dawn's a giant! Warren's alive! With no skin! Someone is in love with Buffy (who isn't me)!

BEST LINE: Slayer 1: "...I feel a little weird about using a crucifix to kill someone."/Slayer 2: "Yeh dinno much about religion, do yeh?"

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: Mega, Mondo, Super, Hyper, Beaucoup d', Crazy, Stupid High. This IS Buffy, just in comic format.

The Chain (Issue #5)
Written by Joss Whedon
Penciled by Paul Lee
Collected in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1

PLOT: A one-off look into the life (and death) of an unnamed Buffy stand-in, briefly mentioned in the last series (as it was a faux-Buffy hangin' with the Immortal), though this one is sent underground (literally). Glimpses into her calling as a Slayer, her training, her recruitment to be a faux-Buffy, and the importance of the role.

FAMILIAR FACES: Andrew, Vi.

WHAT WORKED: This is poignant Joss at his best. Dedicated to Janie Kleinman, a woman who played an important-but-unnoticed-to-most role behind the scenes at BtVS, Joss shows how important the Unnamed Soldier can be, and how touching and moving comics can be.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: I suppose one could complain about the lack o' the funny for this issue, but if anyone did, they should immediately be slapped upside the head.

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Pink-mohawk'd slayer Simone might have issues! (oooh, foreshadowing); Felicia Day in comic form is still hot! [Which has been subsequently borne out in The Guild comics, of course. – Ed.]

BEST LINE: Andrew, via cheesy TV commercial: "Just dial 1-800-chosen-1 to meet girls who have this alarming yet fun condition."

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: High, despite the lack of actual appearance of Buffy herself. Just don't expect a lot of wit -- think "The Body"-esque. [AKA: “The one where Buffy’s Mom dies and there’s no music.” – Ed.]

No Future For You (issues #6-9)
Written by Brian K. Vaughn
Penciled by Georges Jeanty
Collected as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 2 (with issue #10)

PLOT: Giles recruits Faith to go undercover as a British debutante to assassinate an apparently very-well-magically-protected rogue Slayer who supposedly will lead to the end of the world if left alive. Faith is promised retirement from the whole Slayer thing upon mission completion. Meanwhile, back at the not-terribly-secret-hideout-of-a-giant-Scottish-castle, various angst occurs as a way to give the other characters screen(?) time.

FAMILIAR FACES: Faith, Giles, Robin Wood (briefly)

WHAT WORKED: Faith has always been my favorite Buffy character (next to Jonathan, at least...no one surpasses the Superstar!), so a great Faith-based story line was quite satisfying. Despite the writer (mostly known for comics, but also wrote several episodes of Lost) never having worked on Buffy before, everyone felt rather in character (with one possible exception... see below), and included within are some nice moments of character and overarching plot development, such as an attempt to dig deeper into why Dawn is a giant, and Buffy's concerns over the whole Twilight [remember, the burgeoning Big Bad? – Ed.] thing. And finally someone wonders how they are able to afford all this cool stuff!

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: While I can understand the approach, I'm not sure I really buy that Faith would be the go-to wetworks woman within the Slayership. In fact, I think in many ways she would be the least likely choice. It made for a good story, as long as one nodded and smiled with that, but it seems to me that with all these new Slayers around, and only two with actual Slayer experience, that there would be many other things that Faith would be involved with instead of being ostracized as she apparently was until something nasty came up.

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Faith and Robin broke up! Faith has become a covert assassin Slayer! Buffy doesn't trust Faith (that's probably not much of a revelation, is it?)! Twilight likes to walk on air and wear a mask!

BEST LINE: Giles: "Maybe I could be the Steed to your Peel?"/Faith: "God, I hope that's not as gross as it sounds."

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: Pretty High. The characters had the right feel, the inner turmoil was very Buffy-like, but there was a lack of wit and charm in the dialogue.

Anywhere But Here (issue #10)
Written by Joss Whedon
Penciled by Cliff Richards
Collected in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 2

PLOT: An exposition-and-dialogue-in-a-good-way filled one-off issue, with Willow and Buffy off to talk with an old demon -- for whom reality isn't quite as straight-forward as it might be for others -- in order to try to find out what they can about Twilight, while Xander and Dawn have a nice heart-to-heart about how she ended up a giant: everyone assumes she slept with something called a Thricewise... but did she?!. And in their visit to the demon, Buffy and Willow must face secrets they have kept from each other.

FAMILIAR FACES: Kennedy (sigh). Also, Daniel Craig, Tina Fey, and multiple Christian Bales (just go with it).

WHAT WORKED: This kind of issue is rather important to have on occasion -- a simple and straight-forward issue that reveals some information and sets the stage to move plots along. We learn why Dawn was cursed to be a giant, we learn why Willow isn't around Buffy and the main crew all the time, we learn where the funding for all the cool things the crew has comes from, and we learn the supposed result of the upcoming war with Twilight ("The Death of Magic", according to the old demon thingy).

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Not much, other than the irritation I feel at how deeply Willow apparently cares for Kennedy, when she is probably the only person within the Buffyverse and within Buffy fandom who feels that way (I don't care for Kennedy).

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Dawn's a teenage girl! Buffy's an international jewel thief!

BEST LINE: Buffy: "My grip on reality is not that grippy. I'm protective of it."

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: Pretty High. Good dialogue and interaction between characters, and I could actually picture this being an episode, but there have been better issues/episodes as well.

A Beautiful Sunset (issue #11)
Written by Joss Whedon
Penciled by Georges Jeanty
Collected in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 3

PLOT: Buffy takes slayer Sansu with her to take out a vampire nest and to have a heart-to-heart about how Sansu is in love with Buffy, which may potentially cause issues in the future. Twilight himself intervenes, beats Buffy up whilst telling her how sharing her Slayer power was a mistake and the whole world will suffer because of it (a real downer, he is).

FAMILIAR FACES: No one new.

WHAT WORKED: Ah, the first actual meeting between our heroine and the masked Big Bad. He's big. He's bad. He's tough. He can fly. Ooooh....scary. But such a meeting was both inevitable and necessary, so worked well. But the brief moment where it appeared he was removing his mask only to find out that his neck itched? Awesome.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Nothing, really -- a rather inoffensive one-off issue.

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Pink-mohawk'd Simone does have issues! Buffy isn't gay!

BEST LINE: Twilight Minion: "You didn't kill her." /Twilight: "That's been done. To little effect."

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: Decent. Good moments and dialogue that have that Buffy feel, but other than those, was more random-plot-moving comic and less Buffy comic.

Wolves at the Gate (issues #12-15)
Written by Drew Goddard
Penciled by Georges Jeanty
Collected as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 3 (with issue #11)

PLOT: The Scottish castle is infiltrated by vampires with the ability to turn into wolves and cats and fog and they steal Buffy's scythe (not the scythe! Not the one that looks much more like a fancy ax than a scythe!) before hightailing it back to their headquarters in Tokyo. Buffy is unhappy with this development and rallies the troops to get it back. Meanwhile, Xander takes his new potential sweetie (slayer Renee) on a trip to meet up with Dracula in order to determine how this vampire gang seems to have his special non-standard vamp powers (turns out he gave them up whilst gambling). A big battle (in more than one way) ensues as Buffy and Co. attempt to stop the vamps from using the Scythe to reverse the Slayer-making spell and removing all Slayer powers from the girls. Oh, and Buffy has sex with a girl.

FAMILIAR FACES: Dracula.

WHAT WORKED: In many ways, this story line is typical (in a good way) Buffy, with action mixed in with a lot of humor, but in the middle of all that: *BAM* death and mayhem occur which will affect certain characters for a long time. Drew Goddard has written for both Buffy and Angel in the past (and Alias, and Lost) so does quite well with the characters and dialogue. Having Andrew give a lecture on Dracula (while dressed as George Hamilton from Love at First Bite) is the kind of Buffy-fun we've come to love. Also having the apparent impossibility for main Buffy characters to have a nice, normal relationship of any sort fits as well.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Okay, it has to be said that I'm pretty certain that this entire plotline was just an excuse to have Dawn-the-giant fight Mecha-Dawn in the streets of Tokyo. Highly amusing, yes, but also highly absurd -- too much so. Throw in Dracula, who I thought was a mistake to introduce to the Buffy-verse to begin with (really, the Season 5 opener “Buffy vs. Dracula” had definite good moments, but was way too silly and didn't fit well with the show, in my opinion), and there are several things about this series that go 'round the bend. Why would Xander hang out with Dracula and why would everyone else be okay with this?! Also, no real over-arching plot line development with nary a Twilight reference to be seen. That would be okay for a one-off issue, but for a 4-issue section there should be plot advancements and not just some character development along with silliness.

REVELATIONS WITHIN: Dracula is alive! He and Xander are pals (sort of)! Buffy is experimenting (of sorts)! And everyone knows!

BEST LINE: Andrew: "My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanized version of herself on the streets of downtown Tokyo... I've been preparing for this day my entire life!"

BUFFY-NESS FACTOR: Mostly High. The dialogue and the humor mixed with poignancy is very Buffy-like, but it moves too far into absurdity which knocks it down a bit.