Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #13: Wolves at the Gate Part Two (Dark Horse Comics)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #13: Wolves at the Gate Part Two (Dark Horse Comics) | Drew Goddard | Hilarious!!!

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	Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #13: Wolves at the Gate Part Two (Dark Horse Comics) Drew Goddard Dark Horse Comics, 2008 average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Drew Goddard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Lost, and the writer of Cloverfield), continues his story arc Wolves at the Gate, which has Buffy and the gang fighting a team of über vamps in Tokyo. In order to better understand their mysterious new foes, Xander must recruit an old ally to join in their cause to defeat this new danger. Joss Whedon continues as executive producer, Georges Jeanty (The American Way) as series artist, with Jon Foster on covers. Written by acclaimed television scribe Drew Goddard!

A really nice issue in the series

Warning! Littered with spoilers!

This is the more common of the two covers, but while I had the option of buying either this or the rarer cover, I went with this one for the simple reason that it was far more attractive.

I really enjoyed this issue. The A plot focuses on Xander and Renee's visit to Dracula, where we learned a great deal about Master and his Manservant. One of the ongoing jokes on BUFFY involved non-homophobic pokes at Xander's sexuality. That is taken to a new level here, where we learn that Dracula and Xander have more of a relationship than we'd have ever expected. It turns out that Xander actually spent some time with Dracula following the death of Anya and after he left the Count apparently missed his servant. There are some pretty funny moments as one realizes that the two like each other more than either would admit.

The B plot deals with the Japanese vampires who stole Buffy's sythe in the previous issue. After learning where the vampires are, Buffy and entire slayer army go off to Japan to confront the vampires and recover the sythe.

There is surprisingly little in the issue about the big event of Issue No. 12, in which Buffy and Satsu were found in bed together, after a bout of passionate lovemaking. Willow and Satsu talk a bit in a nice scene, where Willow tries to minimize any expectations on Satsu's part by explaining the Buffy is, well, straight. After explaining all this in detail, Willow comes right out and asks what Buffy was like in the sack. Despite Willow's insistance on details -- e.g., in making love does she make the same sound she makes when shrieking about shoes being on sale -- Satsu seems determined not to share any details.

All in all, this was another thoroughly enjoyable issue in a superb string of stories. Those who have been keeping up on Season 8 will definitely not be disappointed.

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Hilarious!!!

*Mild Spoilers*

I absolutely love this issue. Im telling you the writing hasn't changed much from the show. It still makes me laugh. It's definitely one of my favorite issues so far. Here are some things that made me laugh...

Andrew: "...And his very gaze holds the power to make you his slave. You must stay on guard at all times around him. For he is the lord of darkness.
Slayers: "Yeah, okay we know who Dracula is."
Andrew: "Oh, you think you know who Dracula is but I suspect your knowledge comes strictly from what you've seen in the motion pictures, little one."
Slayers: "You're the one wearing the replica George Hamilton outfit from Love At First Bite."

Lol. I can just imagine Andrew saying that.

Dracula: "You've lost weight."
Xander: "Can you tell? I've been trying to exercise more.
Dracula: "Yes, it suits you."

5/5

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Pretty Much Awesome On All Counts

Whedon and Goddard rule.

This, as I suspected, it going to be a very comedic arc. This issue is basically set-up for things to come, but it does its job very well. We've pretty much got three things going on at once:

+ Xander and Renee try to enlist Dracula's help. Not only do we get some insight into why Antique happened (as well as confirmation that it is canonical), we also get great Xander/Dracula banter, hilariously pretentious/angry Dracula moments, and even a scene where Andrew explains (with a chalk board and all!) what's the dealio with Dracula and Xander. Loved this.

+ We've also got stuff going on back at Slayer Central, though admittedly not much. Satsu is dealing with the night she spent with Buffy, but Buffy is pretty much not dealing at all. We get some emotional and hilarious stuff from Willow, and the characterization for all the leads in this section of the story is spot-on. Willow's voice has been very weak this season, but this is the issue where I felt it getting stronger.

+ Finally, a few pieces of the story deal with Toru (the main villain of this miniseries) and his vamps. Not going to reveal much, because the scheme they have cooked up is spoileriffic, but it's a really inventive idea.

The art is consistently good at this point. Jeanty seemed to struggle with Toru in Issue #12, but here things are much better. And really... this man draws Dracula perfectly. I'd almost go as far as to say that his depiction of Dracula is his best likeness so far. As far as the characters he's been drawing, I'd say he's improved most with Andrew's likeness. I mean, compare his Andrew in this issue to the almost unrecognizable Andrew from #12. Hell, compare any of this to his work in the earlier issues. Jeanty keeps getting better and better.

This issue of Buffy has me once again waiting with bated breath for the next part of the story, because each of these twenty-two pages burst with laughs and shocks. If you don't laugh at loud at a few moments in this issue, you might want to check your pulse.

9/10

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