Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 #1 by Joss Whedon | Book Review (Graphic Novel)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 #1 by Joss Whedon

Published: May 2012

Read: August 2019

Rating: 1 star

Synopsis: After the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers-—newly legion-have gotten organized, but it’s not long before new and old enemies begin popping up. Buffy, Xander, Willow, and a very different Dawn are introduced to the season’s big bad, Twilight, and are only beginning to understand the incredible reach of this mysterious threat. Meanwhile, rebel Slayer Faith teams up with Giles to handle a menace on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s a dirty job, and Faith is just the girl to do it!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a childhood favourite TV show of mine that I have watched 10 times over. So naturally, after finding out the series continues in graphic novel form, also written by the show's creator Joss Whedon, I just had to jump in. I knew it wouldn’t be the same, but I wasn’t prepared for how different it would be.

Whilst the characters' dialogue felt great and their voices came across almost exactly the same as in the show, the direction the story went in disappointed me.

I read somewhere that Whedon was excited to move Buffy to graphic novel form so the story would no longer be held down by time and money limitations, but I think the removal of those barriers allowed the story to go too far, and it lost some of its charm of being (albeit loosely) grounded in “reality”. Buffy has always been fantastical, but the graphic novel felt almost too fantastical.

Bringing back Warren felt overdone and had my eyes rolling. Also, having him coupled up with Amy—huh? I also struggled with the whole headquarters giant operation thing, I just couldn’t get used to it. Not to mention giant Dawn? This whole thing just felt so silly to me. 

Whilst it was exciting to be back in the Buffyverse and to see where Whedon decided to take it, I’m disappointed with the direction the story went in. Sadly, I don’t think I will be continuing on with the series.