Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Twilight

Hmmm... Well, that's a little anticlimactic. After all this time, Angel is the Big Bad. And he and Buffy are getting superpowers as some kind of reward. Maybe if I read Angel as well it would make some sense but not so much right now. I'm a little disappointed. Oh well, Spike's crashing the party that should make things interesting (and I'm an Angel girl).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Retreat

Interesting idea. So far Buffy and the gang have been building up the magic. Now, they're stripping it all away. I don't know how I feel about this turn of events. Buffy without the superpowers just doesn't seem the same.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate

Buffy Season Eight continues. Wolves at the Gate one had an interesting idea: vampires in Japan have taken Dracula's powers and use them to steal the Slayer scythe. Interesting, but it didn't really live up to the potential. The bits with Xander and Dracula were awesome but the bits with Buffy "experimenting" felt out of place. I could have done with more of one and less of the other. The one story that Josh Wheadon contributed was the way I expected Buffy to handle situation.

I'll give it a 3.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future for You

I like Faith. I always felt she was a really interesting character that had more to her than just being the bad girl. The second volume of "Buffy Season 8", No Future for You is a Faith arc written by Brian K. Vaughan, with art by Georges Jeanty and Andy Owens. It lets out a little more of Faith's past and why she feels she needs to act as tough as she does and it catches up with what Giles is doing as, essentially, the last Watcher.

While it requires a little faith that the reader can hear a passable English accent coming from Faith I felt it was a really good story. I liked seeing more of Faith through her own eyes. I liked seeing Giles through her eyes and acting in ways that he wouldn't if Buffy could see him. I also liked the idea that Buffy is never really going to totally trust Faith. I'm curious to see how Faith is going to change from loner Slayer to outreach Slayer. I think she's uniquely suited to that role and I think she and Giles work well together but I doubt it will be something that Buffy will like.

The final story was a little one-off written by Joss Whedon with art by Cliff Richards called, "Anywhere but Here". It continues, in the fine tradition of Buffy, the pattern of something being resolved for the better (Faith and Giles teaming up) with something being broken down. In this case it breaks down the lies the gang all tell one another. Granted, they lie because they think they're protecting someone or something but they're still lying. While the story focuses on Buffy, Willow and Dawn it does come right after a story where Giles goes behind Buffy's back to work with Faith.

The volume didn't exactly advance the plot of Twilight introduced in the first volume but I really didn't expect it to. Buffy was never a show where each and every episode was about the Big Bad but most episodes did advance the plot in some way. No Future for You is the same. The plot moves even if it isn't the main focus of the story. I thought these stories were great, I just devoured the colume, so I'm giving it a 5.