Buffy Season 8: Arc 1 of 8
Buffy Season 8 was the first proper monthly comic I started reading. I had loved the show, and Angel and figured: “It’s canon, I should read it”. I also started reading Angel, Spike and the various other Buffy-verse spin-offs.
It started off quite strong but towards the end I started to get really pissed off at it. Having read it over the course of 4 years with big gaps at some points I am re-reading it again.
Arc 1 – The Long Way Home
As an introduction this was excellent. Amazingly drawn covers and written by Joss Whedon. Four issues of one story and a one-shot about a Buffy decoy slayer.
The story picks up a few months after the last television series. Buffy and a gang of slayers have relocated to a castle in the Highlands. Dawn is inexplicitly a giant. Willow is awol. The first battle is beating up big demons who had just killed people with a weird scar on their chest. Later it is revealed Giles was on the side of the demons.
Amy returns and Warren animated with no skin. It’s all very weird. You don’t know if these choices have been made because of how much more freedom for the strange and bizarre when your special effects budget is just more pencils.