“Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight” #36
Season Finale part 1 of 5
Writer: Joss Whedon
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Andy Owens
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Cover: Jo Chen
On sale: September 1, 2010
Price: $2.99The Big Bad finally stands revealed–Angel is Twilight, and it’s tearing the Scoobies apart, testing the limits of their friendship.
Seems like a perfect time for Spike to come back.
Joss Whedon writes the final five issues of Buffy Season 8, taking his greatest characters to places only he can take them! Teamed with series artist Georges Jeanty, Joss counts down to the biggest Buffy final ever–and it starts right here!
It’s the beginning of the end, as the final arc of Season 8 hits stands today. Joss Whedon, who has somehow taken the time out of his extremely busy schedule to write the end of the “season” for his baby, promises some sort of closure to this season and hopefully a teaser for the next. But forgetting all that, how did this book do? Well, you’ll just have to see wont you?
Well for starters, it’s really great to see Joss back at the helm of the book. He hasn’t been on a book of any kind in a while now, but who can blame him? He’s been really busy working on Dollhouse, the upcoming Avengers movie, and whatever else he has to do. The man is busy!
The sad thing is you can kind of tell he’s busy. There’s a half explanation for why Angel was Twilight (still a hilarious name for a vampire in this day and age.) and an even lesser explanation as to why Spike has an airship with bugs as his underlings. Sure it’s amusing to see Spike (who happens to be one of my favorite characters of all time) get to act snarky and just so brilliantly “Spike-y,” but when he comes over with all the information we seem to need JUST AT THE RIGHT MOMENT, it felt just a little too convenient. It’s superbly convenient.
But that’s just what I didn’t like. There were quite a few things I DID like, like Jeanty’s art. People give him quite a bit of crap, talking about how his art wasn’t suited for the Return of Bruce Wayne or anything for that matter, but I find his pencils to be quite beautiful. Every issue of this book has been a gorgeous thing to look at.
And LOST FANS, I know there are quite a few of you out there! There is a very welcome LOST Easter Egg that really jumped out at me the second time I read the book.
And then there’s Spike. Despite the all too convenience of his arrival, he was portrayed rather well by the person who created him. Over on the Angel series, Spike was a bit of a nuisance, but not so here. He’s actually charming and wouldn’t you know it! He’s funny too!
Oh, and there’s the ending too! The very last page gives us a brilliant cliffhanger, with one of the return of a very big bad from years gone by. The last page had me gasping for the next issue, and you should too. If you’re a fan of the Buffyverse, you’ll probably pick this up regardless, but I think other than the problems I had with it, you’ll enjoy it just fine.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy
