Exclusive: First Look at Buffy Season 8!

Paul "Nomad" Nicholasi |

Feb 27, 2007

Scroll down for some exclusive panels from the comic!

Allow me a brief flashback. When “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The TV Series” began to surface, the commercials did their very best to keep me from watching, but I was always amazed at how great each episode turned out. You’d see a commercial where it looked like a ventriloquist dummy is murdering people, and what you got was a doll demon hunter fighting alongside Buffy as they chased an organ harvesting fiend. After 5 more horrible commercials and 5 episodes I couldn’t help talking about after, I was hooked. Joss Whedon has a way of spinning action with human drama all splashed with just enough geekiness to make me laugh out loud on many an occasion. His worlds, no matter how fantastical, seem a little more real than other like TV and movie fare.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” played for 7 seasons. Even a brief stint of death couldn’t stop this tale of a reluctant girl chosen to save the world from creatures out for the blood of innocents. As Buffy grows in power and experience, her seemingly powerless friends develop “assets” of their own which they begin to bring to every fight. Many an evil entity descended on the happy little town of Sunnydale (a fact not unnoticed by its citizens) and no matter what their goals were, things always seemed to refocus on “The Hellmouth”, a hole in the center of town leading straight to hell. Season 7 ended with an epic battle featuring characters dropping like flies, uber-vamps spilling out of the Hellmouth like roaches and a spell that awakened the Slayer power in all potentials across the planet. With this added power, Buffy and her crew fought back the evil and made it out of Dodge just as the entire town was swallowed up by the Earth. Not a bad ending, eh?

Now Dark Horse picks things up right where we left off with Joss Whedon himself writing the whole deal; seriously a “Buffy” geek’s dream come true. If you were watching the last seasons of “Angel”, you know that Buffy and company set out to find all the new Slayers around the world in the hopes to train them the way she had been trained by her Watcher Giles. We had no idea how big that operation would get … until now. “Buffy Season 8” throws you right back into the action with Buffy now a somewhat reluctant leader of an army of young Slayers. The scope may be grander, but the tone of the old show is still the same. If you were a fan of the show, you’ll be grinning from ear to ear all through this book as each of your favorite cast members surface to catch you up on what their role in this Brave New Buffyverse might be. Leave it to Whedon to not give it all to you at once! Issue One sets a perfect tone and left me chomping at the bit for more, which will no doubt be a shared sentiment.

Now you may be saying, “So, Sunnydale fell into the Earth … a whole town in America, and no one noticed?!” Oh yeah, someone noticed. A whole lot of someones. Be sure to sprint to your nearest comic shop and reserve yourself a copy of Dark Horse’s “Buffy: Season 8”, which is due to hit stores March 7th. Don’t miss out!!

For info on all Dark Horse has to offer (including past Buffy and Angel books), hit up the official Dark Horse site!

For a taste of what you’re in for, check out these exclusive panels!