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Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight #2: The Long Way Home Part II ReviewN ow that’s more like it. Whatever small qualms I had about Buffy as a comic character are now gone. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT issue number 2 (that’s a frickin’ mouthful) was even better than the first issue, and that is saying a lot. This issue is the middle of the first four-issue Season Eight story arc, called THE LONG WAY HOME. Joss is handling the writing on this arc, and Georges Jeanty is penciling it, and both are doing a phenomenal job. After this first arc, the comic will be handled much like the television series was; Joss knows what the overall story is and where everything is going, and has final say on anything and everything the characters say or do, but the actual writing will be done by others, with the illustrious Mr. Whedon only stepping in occasionally to write certain key arcs. While it is too bad that he won’t be writing the whole thing himself, I do have some great news: the other writers that he has coming in are in many cases the same ones who wrote for the Buffy television series, including Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg and Steven DeKnight. Anyone who was a fan of Buffy on the TV most likely saw some of these names attached to some of their favorite episodes. And since this is a comic book, we can expect some heavy hitters on the comic-writer end of things, including Brad Meltzer, Brian K. Vaughan, and Jeph Freakin’ Loeb (as you might be able to tell, one of my favorites). But we’re not talking about the future, we’re talking about THE LONG WAY HOME, Part II. The first issue was all about introductions and re-introductions, both of this arc’s plot and characters both new and familiar. Now that is out of the way, and we are able to dive right back into the mix. Xander has always been one of my favorite characters due to his goofy everyman smartassedness, and it is great to see that this hasn’t changed. For those who would argue that smartassedness is not a word, I would point out that Buffy and company make up and mangle words all the time, and it works for them. In this issue alone we have “formidabler”, “exponentially prefixy”, “African-Bespinian” (that was in reference to Lando Calrissian… don’t ask), “internal blah de blah”, and several other wonderfully examples of Whedonian phraseology. Ye gods, I didn’t even realize how much I missed dialogue written by Joss Whedon until it was in my life again. Anyway, not only do we get reacquainted with Buffy, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Andrew, and (ugghh) Dawn, but we are given a little more face time with some of the new cast of characters, including featured Slayers-in-training Rowena, Leah, and Satsu (who were on the mission with Buffy in the last issue), but we get to see a bit more of the possible-love-interest-for-Xander character Renee (the one who impressed him with the Nick Fury trivia in the first issue). I have a feeling we’re going to get to know and love at least these four new characters over the course of the series. As for the story itself, we get to see Giles doing the Watcher thing again, only now it is for dozens of Slayers at a time, instead of just one. We also get a glimpse of Andrew doing his own form of Watcher training, but in a way that only Andrew could (hint: this is the part in which the Lando Calrissian speech took place). Even Buffy is getting in on the Slayer training, which makes sense since she is not only the best trained out of all of them, but she is their leader and general as well. Which begs the question: where is Faith in all of this? Meanwhile Xander is trying to help Dawn deal with her “big” abandonment issues in the brotherly, wise, and fully hilarious way that only Xander can. That is the quality of Joss’s writing, that he can even make something as idiotic as Dawn’s getting herself turned into a giant into a metaphor for bigger, real-world issues. That is more or less what the whole television series was, tackling the monsters and demons of everyday life by turning them into actual monsters and demons and letting the metaphor fly. Meanwhile, a nasty from the crew’s Sunnydale past brings an army of the undead to storm their Scottish castle and tries to put a metaphysical whammy on The Buffster. Along with a dream sequence that leave fans with a lot of questions and their jaws on their chests, this issue’s twenty-four pages should pack in enough awesome to make almost anyone happy… though it being a comic book written by Joss Whedon, you should expect that the last page will have you saying both “Kick Ass!”, because of what is happening, and “Dammit”, because, well, it is the last page and he dumps all that awesome in your lap and then makes you wait for next month. Bless and curse you Mr. Whedon. You are a harsh and wonderful master. The art is also suitably awesome, and I am going to be sad when Mr. Jeanty has to hand the reins over to another artist. I’m sure the next artist that they have lined up will do a fine job, but Georges Jeanty has more or less nailed these characters while drawing them doing things and having things done to them that would never have been possible on a television budget. I almost couldn’t be more pleased (I say almost because I’m holding out hope of people like Jim Lee, Jae Lee, and Michael Zulli taking a crack at these characters… but I’m not holding my breath). The covers are also absolutely gorgeous, having been painted by Ju Chen. Seriously, those are some of the most gorgeous covers I have ever seen on a comic, book, or otherwise. Thank god they didn’t try to use photographs of the characters back in the day, like they have in the past. My only complaint now is the same one that I had last month, that only twenty-four of the comic’s thirty-six pages are actual comic. The other twelve are ads or letter column, and honestly, I could give a crap. Make all thirty-six pages comic and charge me another buck-and-a-half an issue, and if it is quality work I will happily hand over the extra cash. Maybe I’m alone in this, but I think we’re past the age of paying for advertising in comic books, especially since they are almost all ads for other Dark Horse related merchandise, rather than paid advertising space. But I severely digress. The point is, BUFFY SEASON EIGHT continues to rock the Kazbah. I could hardly recommend it more highly. Go forth and purchase, my children.
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