Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #3

Willow arrives in Scotland just in time to drain all the life out of our geeklove for the new comic series. She's all the worst aspects of Seasons 6&7: she's distant and weird, her powers don't make any sense, and her fight with Amy is confusing and poorly structured. The artwork in this issue does a lousy job of communicating which character is which, making things particularly difficult as Whedon writes TV-style quick cuts. All the girls look the same, and the boys are barely distinguishable from one another.

Meanwhile Buffy herself has a long tedious dream sequence that ultimately doesn't tell us much. It's Whedon doing The Sandman, but Buffy is a do-er and Morpheus was a be-er, in Dramatica speak. Nothing works. Buffy doesn't accomplish things by working them out internally, for pete's sake, she goes out and kills things. She is the Slayer! (Remember how she was supposed to be learning big secrets about the slayer's origins in the show's dream sequences? Didn't work there either).

Oh and Warren is back, still skinless, and still quite possibly the worst Buffy villain ever. This "arc" ends next month, and I'm already sort of disappointed with the way they've structured the series.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8

The first two issues of Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 are already out, and so far it's been a brilliant reintroduction to the show. Picking up where the series left off, we are dropped (almost literally) back into the world of Buffy Summers and her newly formed army of vampire slayers.

They are headquartered in Scotland now. Xander has an eye-patch and pretends to be Sgt. Fury from the old Marvel comics. Dawn has big, big problems. There are lots and lots of slayers. Sunnydale is still a gigantic crater. There are crazy government scientists and military leaders hell-bent on stopping this new terrorist organization. And Amy the witch is working for them?

Cool stuff.

But where, you might ask, is everyone else? Willow? Giles? Andrew? Spike? Angel? Ah, but that would be telling, and Whedon is definitely not going to let us know everything right away.

The beauty of the story so far is that it plays just like a revived TV series might, with the same great dialog, subtle character reveals, and hints of the big bad lurking in the shadows that were the hallmarks of the original show. This time though, they have an endless special effects budget and the freedom to tell any story they want.

What I like best so far is the dialog and the actor-friendly characterizations that remind me of how much this show in particular and Whedon in general are missed on series television. You could easily see this story as a Buffy reunion mini-series or a future movie. It's just that good.

Issue #3 is out on May 2nd.