Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home | Joss Whedon, Andy Owens | Buffy lives

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	Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 1: The Long Way Home Joss Whedon, Andy Owens Dark Horse Comics, 2007 - 136 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Like the sweetest hit for an ex-smoker

I must admit that as a Buffy fan who hasn't read a comic since age 7 I was a skeptic...but a skeptic in serious withdrawal willing to slurp down just about any Buffy chum Joss flung my way (sorry fan-fictors but there's Payless and then there's Prada). This volume seriously delivers. I read it twice in 24 hours, once quickly to get the major points (who's back, who's bad, who's bedding who), and then again slowly to savor the dialogue and story line. It comes off as basically a two-hour, two-dimensional Buffy movie in what would naturally be a trilogy of films (ahh, only in my and James Marster's dreams I'm afraid). Artwork really pops, transitions are smooth and cinematic, and the trademark Buffy-speech humor is dead-on. Sure there are a few small holes in the storyline (like where a certain character mysteriously recovers from grotesque disfiguring brain surgery w/out a single panel's explanation). Ok, that's a big hole. And yes there are baby slayers with bad Euro trash accents to ignore. But let's chock it up to suspension of disbelief and ooh! look at Buffy she still has her shiny red axe thingy! This volume probably would be meaningless to anyone who had not watched all 7 seasons and memorized the lyrics to Once More with Feeling when they couldn't get a date to the prom, but who cares about them! Losers!

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Buffy lives

It's no secret that every Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan on the planet has been missing the snappy brilliance of Joss Whedon's critically acclaimed series, but fear not. Whedon, who has crafted the best X-Men stories in quite some time for Marvel with Astonishing X-Men, returns to his most popular creation with Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight; a canon comic continuation of the series that picks up where the show left off. Buffy is in Scotland training and leading groups of newly cristened Slayers in the battle against evil demons and vamps, but soon finds that a sinister plot is at hand which involves a cult and the government. Soon enough, some surprising old foes re-appear to wreak havoc on Buffy, Xander, Willow, and the rest of the old crew. What makes Long Way Home so good is that Whedon is relishing in crafting a Buffy flavored comic, while he also ties up some loose ends and adds a nice deal of in-jokes to boot. The dialogue is poppy and snappy, the action is fierce, the twists and surprises are great, and by the book's end, you'll be begging for more. The TPB concludes with a stand alone segment entitled "The Chain" (featuring guest art from Paul Lee), in which a newly powered Slayer is given a very special mission. The rest of the artwork by Georges Jeanty and Whedon's Fray inker Andy Owens is great as well, and rounds out this excellent package. Needless to say, The Long Way Home is a must own for any and every Buffy afficiondo, regardless of whether or not you're into comics in the least.

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Joss Couldn't Stay Away From 'Buffy' And We Can't Either

Joss Whedon (creator of cult classics Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) certainly didn't need to continue "Buffy" in the comics medium. He's got two feature films in the script-writing stage, has recently made a deal for a new weekly television series starring Eliza Dushky, and he's also in talks with the BBC to write/direct a made-for-television movie starring Anthony Stewart Head as Giles. Not to mention, he's currently writing "Astonishing X-Men" and "Runaways." So, with or without this comic, we fans would have been satisfied with a very Jossy year.

But Joss couldn't stay away from Buffy, his dream story, and we--the fans who found themselves helpless captivated by the seven seasons we caught on television--couldn't be happy to have the continuation to the series coming our way, written by the only man who could have done it justice: Joss Whedon himself.

Season Eight, though it is a comic series, is very much like a season of television. We're meant to think of this volume (collecting "The Long Way Home" arc, issues #1-4, and #5 "The Chain", which is an unrelated one-shot) as the first episode of a season. And everyone who loved Joss' work enough to be disappointed by the flaws (as uncommon as they are) know that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was never good with season premieres. The first episodes of Season Two, Three, Four (in some circles), Five, Six (though it wasn't as bad as the rest), and Seven (again, in some circles) failed to kick off the seasons with a bang. That was always reserved for the later episodes. Not since Season One's "Welcome to the Hellmouth" did we have a season opener that completely delivered.

Well now, we do.

"The Long Way Home" takes the time to reintroduce us to the characters, set up the season, and bring up points that will have us asking questions for issues to come. Unlike the aforementioned season premieres, we have a solid story about Buffy and the gang battling both new and old foes, delivering a story that begins and ends within the four issues given here, but also introduces a few mysteries that will no doubt play throughout the entire season. "The Chain", the standalone one-shot issue (in television terms, think of it as sort of a one-act bonus story), isn't nearly as good as "The Long Way Home", but it certainly isn't bad. Further comments on the artwork and stories of the individual five issues can be found here: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 3, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 4, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Issue 5.

This trade paperback itself is well-made, as with all Dark Horse volumes. The beautiful Jo Chen cover is thing that will attract all those who have already bought the individual five issues but, to those who haven't, you can rejoice. All the covers and the variant covers are reprinted here. The color leaps off the pages just like Joss' snappy dialogue. What I did expect, however, and didn't get were a few extras. The layout of the comic (red pages with the Twilight sign between issues) is beautiful, but since this series is the biggest thing Dark Horse has ever put out, I expected a little extra tidbits. But that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of this volume.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is true to its form in Season Eight, proving that is was, is, and always will be Joss' most important work. Let's just hope that he keeps it coming for a long, long time.

9/10

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Phenomenal

I came to the Buffy bandwagon a little late, I'll admit - I didn't start watching the show with any sort of regularity until after it had gotten cancelled, but it didn't take me long to realize that what was there on my television screen was genius. And so, after getting the boxed set and watching the whole series through, I was amazed at Joss Whedon's vision, and at the family of characters he'd created.

Thank God for Joss Whedon's devotion to his fans - deciding to continue Buffy as a comic series was a brilliant idea. "The Long Way Home," the first volume collecting the Buffy Season 8 Series, is a fine continuation of the TV show, and die-hard Buffy fans will be thrilled.

Picking up about a year after the end of the TV show, we find Buffy and her crew - Xander and Dawn (who was mysteriously turned into a giant) - as well as an army-in training of newly-minted slayers, holed up in a castle in Scotland, while Giles is out in the world doing recon. However, things heat up after a military organization with magical ties, and a pair of old enemies, show up to try and remove the chief slayer from existence. And "Twilight" is coming...

First, the good: Whedon's writing is as snappy as ever, with the quips and the wacky grammar coming fast and furious - as do the wild pop culture references. Fans will feel a weird sweep of nostalgia reading it - this is almost like watching the show itself. Georges Jeanty's artwork is also very good.

Now, the bad: Unfortunately, as good as Joss's dialogue is, I have to admit that there are places where the pacing of the comics don't quite work - you'll find yourself not quite sure just what the heck is going on in at least three points in the book, and some of the motivations are a little muddy. This, however, is a quibble, not enough to outright disregard this book.

A word to the wise, however - this book is certainly only meant for hardcore Buffy fans; you'll have to be familiar with the series entire to be able to get into it. Enjoy!

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8

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