Best Conclusion to an Arc Easily the best conclusion to an arc so far, which alone justifies the rating I'm going to give it. But there is so much more at work in this book that just makes it a really stellar end to a good story.
We get an inside look at a dying Renee's final thoughts with the first few pages. The tragedy of the thing really hits home for those pages, but we're only given a moment to digest it. It's such an amazing writing technique, and it worked to a T here, giving the whole thing a very surreal feel. What I thought was admirable, and very true to the nature of the show, was that the book didn't lose the comedy in the midst of all the tragedy and intensity. There was a particularly funny moment with Giant Dawn battling a huge "Mecha" Dawn robot, which could have been the biggest flop of all time. I mean, a freaking Giant vs. Robot fight? But seeing the robot imitate Dawn ("I like blue jeans. And irony.") was quite possibly the funniest moment of Season Eight. And Andrew, knowledgeable as he is in the field, coached Dawn through the entire thing. Gold.
And speaking of ______est moments, Dracula fighting Toru was such a great moment, and totally sells Dracula as a character I'd be glad to see recurring. Talk about taking an arc to the next level at the eleventh hour. There's a lot more too. I'm purposely not really delving into much of what happens in the issue, because that's something you'll need to see on your own. Just some stuff to look forward to:
+ We finally find out a little about the Snake Lady from #10
+ A very Buffy-like end, that definitely would have a song playing over it (think the end of "Seeing Red")
+ Xander growing as a character
+ Vampire slayage
At least as good as "Anywhere But Here," maybe as good as "A Beautiful Sunset." As near to perfect writing as we've seen. Great, great issue.
10/10 Classic.
Wow! Best Buffy comic so far Warning! Multiple spoilers and explicit plot reveals!
The was not merely a terrific wrap up for Drew Goddard's splendid "Wolves at the Gate" sequence in BUFFY SEASON 8, but the best comic so far in the series. Previous episodes had set up multiple plot lines -- Buffy and Satsu's lesbian tryst, the unexpected friendship and connection between Xander and Dracula, the growing attraction between Xander and the slayer Renee, and the main story of the Japanese vampire gang that intended to use the slayer Scythe to strip all of the slayers of their powers -- and this issue resolved them all in amazingly compelling fashion. When the four episodes are collected under one cover as WOLVES AT THE GATE, it will definitely be THE Buffy graphic novel to get, the one closest to a "must own."
There were great scenes on nearly every page of this issue. The first couple of pages where Renee, who had been stabbed through the heart at the end of the previous issue, gradually loses consciousness and then life were compelling, as was Buffy's bracing herself for a long leap through the air onto the back of a witch vampire endangering Willow. And a wonderfully funny sequence where Dawn finds herself confronted by a giant Mecha-Dawn, which spouts things that parody Dawn like, "I cry a lot" follows. Luckily, Dawn is aided by the über nerd of all über nerds, Andrew, who impossibly understands precisely what needs to be done to defeat it.
Not all comic issues can be this good. Previous issues have to engage in set up and scene setting to allow this kind of resolution. But even if the earlier issues did load the bases, this one did deliver the home run that brought them all home. This was not just the best issue in the Buffy series so far; it was the best issue of any comic series that I have read in the past couple of years. Drew Goddard has not, to my knowledge, written for comics before, but I hope to god that this is not his last venture. Since starting off in BUFFY Season 7, in which he wrote or co-wrote many of the best episodes of that season (including "Conversations with Dead People," "Lies My Mother Told Me," and "Dirty Girls"), he has gone on to establish a reputation as one of the great writers on television on ANGEL, ALIAS, and LOST. Ironically, his weakest script to date, filmed by J. J. Abrams as CLOVERFIELD, has brought him the most attention. But the writing here is up there with the best he has done, which is saying a lot. If I were a television executive producer, I'd be putting myself in a position to hire Goddard in two years when LOST comes to an end. (Parenthetically, with Goddard's newfound success as a comics writer and with Brian K. Vaughan as executive story editor, LOST definitely has the most impressive group of comics writers on staff of any show on television.)
And for the answer to the $50 million question, what of Buffy and Satsu? Well, Satsu understands that Buffy is not a lesbian. She stays in Tokyo to work with the slayers there. But not before the two spend a night saying good-bye.
This issue didn't just have a great story. It also had a great promo for Issue No. 16. Somehow, some way Buffy is going to encounter Joss Whedon's first great comics slayer, Fray. Will Buffy travel forward in time? Will Fray travel back? I don't know, but I can hardly wait.
I'll end by saying that Goddard's WOLVES AT THE GATE has completely rekindled my interest in and excitement over this series. I liked the first sequence a good deal and then really, really liked the Faith arc that followed, but this was on a completely different plane. Fans of BUFFY should definitely check WOLVES AT THE GATE out. It will make you miss the television series more than ever.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
