Buffy Season 8 #39 comin at ya

[recognitions]

Hoo boy.



Hokay. So Buffy and Angel had crazy space sex which created a new universe, one that threatens to wipe out the old one. (Don't ask.) Demons are invading the earth in vast multitudes. Meanwhile, the universe they created has possessed Angel and is attempting to get revenge on Buffy for abandoning it. Buffy and the gang have gone to Sunnydale to protect the Seed, a mystical doohickey which can allegedly save the universe. Got all that? Programs will be handed out in the lobby.

We'll start out with something light (trust me, you'll thank me later); a little Angel/Spike shippery. Buffy saves Spike from possessed Angel, and mentions that "I liked you both better when you were kissing." Guess Buffy must have watched the Angel DVD commentaries.

Meanwhile, Willow's getting her megawicca on:



Enjoy that power shot of Willow, folks. It may be--well, you'll see.

The battle rages, with Slayers and the army fighting interdemensional demons as Buffy fights Angel. Oh yeah and the Master's there, but he doesn't do anything except get killed again.

Giles meets Faith on the battlefield:



Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I like to think there's some nice, subtle character work going on here. There've been hints of, at least, strong feelings between Faith and Giles for several issues now. My feeling is that Faith wants Giles but that Giles is too much of a gentleman and feels it would be wrong, and Faith isn't about to make the first move. Either way, her reaction in the third panel is telling. I like that we can't even see her face, but her posture and that studied "Right," say a lot. Once again, Buffy wins, and Faith comes in second. It's a measure of how much she's grown that she goes right back to work.

Xander and Giles meet outside the crypt where Buffy and Angel are fighting. They have a quick conversation. Giles is about to jump into the battle between Buffy and Angel, Xander is all, "What are you, nuts?" Giles makes the point that Buffy won't kill Angel unless she's forced to.

Get ready for it, folks.



Et vale, Rupert Giles. I knew he was done as soon as I saw him on the cover; they haven't figured out shit to do with him all series. It's an oddly unaffecting death for such a great character, but honestly he hasn't felt like the real Giles since Chosen. At least he went out a hero. Also note how perfectly Giles' death mirrors Jenny's, all those years ago.

As Giles predicted, his death causes Buffy to go nuts, and she smashes the seed they were allegedly there to protect.

The ripple effects of the seed breaking are shown. All magic instantly disappears from the Buffyverse (which takes out Warren again, for those keeping score), the demons are sucked back out of our dimension, and the world is saved. Or Is It?



I'm not sure what Willow means here; presumably, she's referring to the loss of magic, but it's unclear if there are other effects the destruction of the seed may have. Some folks may remember Willow being warned that destroying the seed would rob her of her magic, and very deliberately not telling Buffy about it. We all remember how much Willow doesn't enjoy being ordinary. Also, do my eyes spot a Crisis reference?

Gotta say, I'm sad about Willow losing her powers. Buffy always felt cooler when there were two awesomely powerful kickass girl protagonists instead of just one.

The last page shows Buffy lying on the ground, apparently stricken with grief as opposed to hurting or in pain. And Angel has another murder on his conscience, and one more wedge driven between him and Buffy.

Comments

[deepspaceartist]

Basicly, Buffy and Angel had a kid, which happened to be an alternate universe, then abandoned it to save Buffy's team. Now it's got universe sized abandonment issues and a super powered Vampire body to fuck shit up with in this universe.

[fifthie]

That's simultaneously less terrible than Angel killing Giles and also the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.

[deepspaceartist]

Really? Dumber than Spider-man selling his marriage to the devil to save his centegenarian aunt? At least this fits the theme of Buffy and Angel getting it on always ending in tears. (First time: Angel looses his soul, gets resouled just in time to spend a few centuries in hell, while Buffy is unable to deal and goes to LA for a few months alone. Second time, Angel has to undo the day so that he can actually be usful fighting evil, also to save Buffy from Caleb.)

[big_daddy_d]

..I'd go for 50/50 by this point..although I was more a Angel/Cordelia shipper. I also liked Faith more than Buffy..in fact..my love for Buffy herself kinda declined as the years went on.. I think it was the Spike thing..that never sat right with me.

Seriously though...this heel turn of Angel's as well as him crossing the line into killing one of Buffy's most trust allies..yeeeaaa...no.

[whitesycamore]

Faith far and away my favourite character on that show, so it seems odd that someone who likes Faith would start disliking Buffy just because she's fuckbuddies with Spike - because that's totally the kind of thing Faith would do.

[big_daddy_d]

Heel Faith, I can see doing it. Face Faith, not so much, then again, I might be wrong. It's been a while since I been into anything Buffy, but I do know that I developed a love for Faith with her face turn.

As for me not liking Buffy just because of her being fuckbuddies with Spike, I think you misunderstood and that's my fault because I didn't elaborate. It was merely around that time is all, not because of it. It's not a secret that I was never for the whole Spike/Buffy thing, but honestly I never cared that much for Spike period to be quite honest. I always thought of him as a good character but never just..cared enough you know? As for my love for Buffy herself..I still like her but it's more like..not as much as I use to..it's like a spark that faded, but didn't quite die if that makes sense.

[deepspaceartist]

But Angel didn't kill Giles. He's being possessed by the angry baby universe. He's no more at fault than Cordelia was for her season 4 actions. And this also isn't the first time he's pretended to be evil and killed good guys in order to achieve a bigger good. It's pretty much exactly what he did at the end of his own show too.

[liliaeth]

Really? The Spike thing is what kept me liking Buffy. It was the comic that made me start hating her.

But then I never did like Faith, ED's just never done a thing for me as an actress.

[liliaeth]

oh don't worry, before being possessed by Twilight, Angel had already been attacking Buffy for quite some time, killing hundreds of her slayers, and was in a huge way responsible for Slayers all over the world being hated....

They did plenty to villify the guy, only to then villify Buffy even worse, by having her fall into her arms, despite knowing what he'd done of his own free will, and then having sex with him.

In short, they've pretty much destroyed the characters of both Buffy and Angel

[jlbarnett]

I think he was being manipulated before that, because his plan basically amounted to him figuring if he controlled the bad guys in one group fewer slayers would die than if they were being attacked by smaller more random(but also easier to eliminate!) groups.

Basically I figure anytime Angel was demonstrating excessive powers he was at least slightly influenced by the baby universe.