There's an afterword by Joss Whedon where-in he suggests that Season 8 and the transfer to comics from TV was not an unqualified success. I agree and I think primarily for the same reasons - loss of focus on a small group of characters and loss of the whole fighting on the back alleys of the seedy side of town atmosphere. Well, I pretty much said that in my review of Vol. 3 of these gorgeous editions - and - dare I say it - Buffy has always had flaws and mistakes. I don't think it's possible to make 144 episodes of anything without getting some things wrong.

I'd like to read the whole set back to back and see how the whole series arc goes, but it ends in a more coherent fashion, like the final act of a film, than I remember the earlier stages doing. I was horribly disappointed to find out who Twilight was - I could never stand Angel as a character - such a hang-dog, pompous, woe-is-me arse - and a cradle snatching pervert to boot, so a final act that revolves around him shagging the heroine and causing cosmic-scale trouble was both scream inducing and, I thought, somewhat familiar. Spike also turns up - now he was a pile of self-sacrificial dust last I saw him. I suppose he got resurrected somewhere else in the Buffycomicverse? I kinda wish he'd stayed dead. Riley shows up, too! He's really boring. Why don't I like any of Buffy's boyfriends? It's not like I'm jealous - you can keep Buffy - I'd take Willow. Or at least I would have when she was a geeky straight intellectual instead of a lesbian witch...and if I'd been an appropriate age, instead of risking being a cradle snatcher like those vampires...and how come nobody notices how pro-wimmin, gays and lesbians are OK with me, I'm all about empowerment Joss Whedon has evil Willow be Dark, with black hair, black veins and black eyes and goody-goody Willow be white-haired and surrounded by super bright white light, etc?

Bring all this incoherent rambling to a close, back where we started, my favourite part of season 8 was the Buffy goes to the future bit - and I notice that that limited the number of characters. Something has gone very wrong when Whedon can kill off Giles and all I feel is mild surprise. ( )

I loves you Buffy. It's okay you messed up a little.
( )

Interesting, Buffy learns who and what Twilight is, battles some big bad stuff and damages her friendships with people.

It's an interesting follow-on from the series, some of it is a bit stretched but overall it's an interesting read. ( )