Product Description

Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers - newly legion - have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the "Buffy" decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own. Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues #1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1065 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Comic
• 136 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The newest incarnation of the Buffy comic, written by series creator Whedon, is effectively the new season of the TV series. It plunges right into the show's dense cosmology and doesn't bother to explain anything to neophytes. Regulars will love it, however. The Long Way Home establishes the season 8 status quo: demon-killing heroine Buffy Summers is now commanding an army of hundreds of Slayers (and her little sister, Dawn, has been turned into a giant by Whedon's favorite transformative force, sex). Still, there's some creepy unfinished business from the TV show to deal with, and the U.S. Army is coming after her, too. A shorter story, The Chain, concerns the bittersweet, truncated life of a Buffy look-alike sent underground as a decoy for the forces of evil. Jeanty, Owens and Lee's artwork, understandably, is in a very straightforward mainstream-comics style—the characters look as much as possible like the TV actors—although they manage a few interpretive flourishes, like a Cubist witch seen by one character in a fantasy sequence. The real draw, of course, is Whedon's writing. His dialogue is as snappy as ever, and his plots are hypercompressed and telegraphic. (Nov.)
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Customer Reviews

A void filled
Being a buffy and angel fan, I was hestitant to actually start reading these. I read the other reviews, and noticed that the comics were written by the man himself. I also read the astonishing X-Men, written by Whedon, and knew he had a voice for comics. The only problem with this is it's too short. I was hoping for both volumes 1 & 2, to be combined into one for this. The stories are good and the quick quips that Whedon is known for continue. The line about Sergant Fury just made me put the book down and laugh. It's those little moments that make his work good.

Pretty average fair
This book is written/produced by Joss Whedon and like everything Joss touches some people will think it is wonderful, however, I can't find much good to say about this graphic novel.

Joss's work in comics has been very varaible. At points, he hits on the stellar characterization and emotional warmth that has drawn many to his tv works, however, at other times the work is pretty much drivel and poor pulp fan fare. His best works to date in comics IMHO are probably the first 12 issues of Amazing X-men and the Giant Size finale of his Amazing X-men run (all the rest of the comics in this series fail to fit well in the universe or produce truly enjoyable stories). Many people have blamed the lack of quality on Joss being over-worked.

Buffy Season 8 starts out as a very weak poorly characterized pulp fan service comic with little or no redeeming value. It does get better and the comics further into the series are decent and somewhat above average in writing and it is continually improving. However, the series is still far from the best thing out there.

Take this piece as an weak introductory piece to a better series and ask yourself how much you like Buffy and the tv show. If you really liked the show, you probably should by this book, however, do not expect to get the quality you have grown to expect until you get further into the series.

Joss's other current productions most notably Angel: After the Fall are a little more solid (which starts out weak.. again). His work at Marvel started out good but ended on a lower note than this series acheives. Serenity: Better Days is so far ok but not great.

FANTASTIC!
While this wasn't what I wanted to see for a next season type of thing, it's still Joss Whedon and his vision how he would have like to continue it, with no budget to worry about.

There are ups and downs in the storytelling, as there were when the TV series began, but just like that series, one is rewarded for their patience.

The art is more realistic than I had expected, but still stylish as all get out. The writing is very good as one would think, and the appearance of one of the Slayer's oldest enemies is cool, and I was left wanting more, and I was glad!