Comic Info
Comic Name: Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Joss Whedon/Jeph Loeb
Artist: Karl Moline/George Jeanty
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2009
Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight #18
Reprints Buffy the Vampire Slayers—Season Eight #16-20 (July 2008-December 2008). Buffy finds herself jetted into the future where she teams with a slayer called Fray and discovers her enemy in the future could be her best friend Willow. As Buffy tries to get back to the past, Xander and Dawn face an invasion at the Slayer’s base. Also, Buffy dreams of a simpler time and a high school adventure.
Written by Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb, Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight Volume 4: Time of Your Life continues the proposed “eighth season” of the popular TV series. Following Buffy the Vampire—Season Eight Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate, the series features art by Karl Moline and George Jeanty.
Buffy here meets Fray who is the Slayer of the future. Whedon created Fray as part of an eight issue comic series which ran from 2001 to 2003 and locked in the ties to the Buffy-verse with Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season 7 which had Fray’s mystical scythe. The story in this volume also sets up an interesting story in that it throws into question if Fray’s world is really tied to Buffy’s world since records of Buffy and her Slayers aren’t known in the future (and the return to the past for Buffy does not collapse the universe).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight #20
The Fray story has fun aspects, but if you didn’t read Fray, it is a bit confusing. Readers are thrown into Fray’s world with little warning although the same is true for Buffy so that at least the gives readers an identification point. The story really needed a better anchor or maybe should have been a solo mini-series instead of part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight.
I kind of enjoyed the flashback dream episode presented in Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight #20 despite not being a fan of Loeb. The story used aspects of the unproduced pilot episode of the Buffy the Animated Series that Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb pitched for Fox Kids. It is nice to see old Buffy when the characters and stories weren’t so entrenched in the backstory, and the series was more fun. It was also nice to visit old characters who haven’t been very active in Season Eight and other characters are gone. The change in art style was a nice break, and I’d like to see more of these stand alone “throwback” issues.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a fun television series, and this series is one of the earliest “What If” series that started the trend. Since the release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight, other TV series have followed suit which included Smallville—Season 11, The X-Files—Season 10, and Angel: After the Fall (aka Angel—Season 6). I don’t know that Buffy does it best, but she does set an interesting precedent. Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight 4: Time of Your Life is followed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer—Season Eight 5: Predators and Prey.
Related Links:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer–Season Eight 1: The Long Way Home
