The Long Way Home - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Graphic Novel
56BTVS - Buffy Season Eight Graphic Novels
This is a review of the first graphic novel (or bound set of comic books) in the comic book series that is Season Eight of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For those of us who had made peace with the belief that the series had come to an end with the televised Season Seven, the very existence of a Season Eight is a pretty big deal. But if you, too, had a lot of emotion and time and heart invested in Buffy, and you’re wondering whether it’s worth getting started on the graphic novels, let me offer you a piece of advice.
Don’t hesitate. Go out and get yourself a copy of ‘The Long Way Home’ today!
What can I tell you about this first graphic novel instalment of Season Eight? It’s published by Dark Horse Books, written by Joss Whedon (of course!) and illustrated by Georges Jeanty, with assistance from Andy Owen, Dave Stewart, Richard Starkings and ‘Jimmy’, Jo Chen and Paul Lee. That’s not what you want to know, right? All you need to know about the graphics is that they’re beautiful. (Like, razor frames out, frame ‘em and put ‘em on the wall beautiful.) All you need to know about the writer is that it’s Whedon.
What Happens In Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight?
What about the story? A few pertinent facts: the story begins some time after the finale of Season Seven. The Slayer Universe has settled down a tad: but it’s a whole different universe to the one we’re used to. Instead of ‘one girl in all the world’, we have a whole heap of girls: and Buffy, ably assisted by Xander in his new role as Watcher, is charged with the job of leading a humungous troupe of them. Willow is missing in action, and Kennedy along with her.
So what are the new (and expanded) crew up to? It’s business as usual, at least initially. Buffy and Xander have based operations in a huge old Scottish castle. Dusting vamps, zapping multitudinous other monsters, training and learning the ropes are the order of the day for the new girls, getting used to being trainer rather than trainee for our old buds. But not everything runs smoothly, and there’s evidence of trouble in Paradise while we’ve been away. Dawn’s a big girl now, and her troubles are giant-sized, leading to mega-catfights with Buffy. And there are sinister hints of a new big bad, when an attack on a monster crew reveals some slaughtered human victims with an interesting line in decorative self-mutilation. Life is running no more smoothly than it ever did for Slayers, In Season Eight of Buffy...
Who Is The Buffy Season Eight Big Bad?
But an attack on the castle pushes other concerns aside. Xander’s new love interest – a newbie Slayer herself – sounds the alarm, but not quite soon enough. Not soon enough, anyway, for Buffy not to end up unconscious, enchanted and having another interesting dreamscape episode. Who’s behind all of this magic and mischief?
Who would you think? It’s not that much of a shock when our bad old friend Amy the Evil Witch of Sunnydale turns up, cool as you please. The identity of her secret boyfriend, however, is likely to get your pulse and adrenalin up. And possibly the old gag reflex too. If only Willow was here! But are they really the Big Bads of Buffy Season Eight?
The last instalment within this collection of episodes of the comic-book series concerns one of the new young Slayers, co-opted into a destiny most of them knew nothing of. How will this young woman cope when ‘volunteered’ into a difficult and dangerous role that protects the safety and identity of the Primal Slayer – Buffy herself? Will she be up to the challenge?
Go get yourself a copy of ‘The Long Way Home’: find out today!
