Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 # 12 – Review

March 14th, 2008 by JP

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 # 12

Writer: Drew Goddard; Pencils: Georges Jeanty; Inks: Andy Owens; Colors: Michelle Madsen; Lettering: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy; Cover: Ju Chen

Dark Horse Comics

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 # 12 cover

The web is all abuzz about this latest issue of Buffy, but I think that folks are upset about the wrong part of the story. I’d be shocked if anyone interested hadn’t already read the issue or an online spoiler, so I feel free to write about it: Buffy gets bi-curious. We see Buffy and one of the other slayers post-coitus, and a number of other Buffyverse characters walk in on them. Creating much hilarity. Or, maybe, not so much. The comedy seemed a bit telegraphed.

So, folks went crazy over this. It’s exploitative! It’s just experimenting like so many young people do! It’s the end of the world for other gay and lesbian comic book characters! It’s the second coming for other gay and lesbian comic book characters! Buffy-sex is hawt!

Whatever.

I’m not gay, and I don’t have the right parts to be lesbian, so I’m going to take a pass on deciding what’s best for gays and lesbians. But, I will concur with Diana Kingston-Gabai that the whole thing, disappointingly, lacks any of the subtlety from the first few seasons. Other than that, I don’t care about the whole mess.

The real problem with this issue is the reappearance of Dracula. The same crappy villain from the episode I was convinced I’d missed on its first airing, but realized after viewing it on DVD that I had in fact watched it but had blocked the awfulness out of my mind for many months. Holy Jebus, I expect this arc to be the worst of the worst.

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4 comments on this post.

  1. Xian:

    March 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Hey!
    I just happened upon your review, and am glad to have finally found someone who feels the same way about this issue; i.e. the lesbian tryst was not all that mind-blowing, and that I really thought that Drac was a lousy villain whose only point in the episode was to be a weak refrain of Tara/Primitive Slayer in “Restless”.
    My review for the same issue is over at my blog at http://nakedthoughts-wenxian.blogspot.com/2008/03/buffy-season-8-12.html

  2. JP:

    March 17th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    Thanks for stopping by. I’m headed over to your blog now!

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