Wolves At the Gate - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Buffy! There’s nothing else quite like Buffy, the vampire-slaying genius creation of American auteur Joss Whedon, even in her comic-book incarnation for season Eight of this classic series. ‘Wolves At The Gate’ is the third instalment (in graphic novel form, collecting together several comics) of Buffy Season Eight. It's written by Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, and drawn by Georges Jeanty amongst others.

Who's The Buffy Big Bad?

Potential Big Bads have already been set up in previous instalments: the mysterious, quasi-military 'Twilight' organisation, and old adversaries Amy the Witch and Warren the – well, the mysogynistic scumbag, if we're going to be accurate in our epithets. But they seem to have competition in the race to crush the Slayer army in the third episode of the season.

Buffy's New Big Bad: What - Or Who - Is Twilight?

In the first instalment of Season Eight, 'The Long Way Home', a magical spell was placed on our heroine – one that could only be resolved by a kiss from someone truly in love with her. The identity of that person is only revealed now – and it's going to come as a surprise! One shock is followed by another, though: this revelation is almost outdone by an unheralded intrusion in the form of the leader of the Twilight organisation. This mysterious, masked figure is clearly powerful beyond any opponent Buffy has yet faced. And his malevolence is balanced by a thoughtful critique of her own moral justification for her actions, that puts the Slayer off-balance to an uncomfortable degree.

Buffy Meets Dracula: The Showdown

The drama doesn't end there. The Slayer base – a Scottish castle – is put under siege again. This time it's a gang of Japanese vampires, first spotted by Xander and his new love, one of the newbie Slayers. But these vampires aren't the usual breed: they can take the form of wolves, bats, bees or even fog... rather like Buffy's old adversary Dracula. So like him, in fact, that Xander speeds to consult with his old 'master', for advice on dealing with them: and recruits him in the process.

Buffy's new love is revealed in the attack of the renegade vamps: but there's no time for everyone – including Buffy and her new pal – to deal with the shock and awe of the revelation. The Japanese contingent have stolen Buffy's powerful scythe, discovered in Season Seven. Time's a wastin', and the Slayers track their new enemy down to Tokyo to retrieve their property.

But it's a trap: Slayer powers are stolen, and a Slayer is attacked by the enemy. It takes the combined power of Dracula, Willow and a super-sized Dawn to withstand the enemy's onslaught and make a comeback. Does everyone survive? Is the scythe regained? Buy 'Wolves At The Gate', and find out!