This is the
worst issue of Buffy yet. If I had said that last year it wouldn’t have garnered
much attention. But the last several issues have been increasingly bad. To call
this the worst issue of Buffy yet is like saying “This is the worst gas station
hot dog I’ve ever had.” A statement like that carries weight.

            I can’t
even begin to approach knowing where to start so let’s just begin with the
writing. This is a war comic now and it feels less like war and more like a
bunch of people shouting things they overheard while playing Call of Duty. Gone
is the strategic side of Buffy and Xander and they are replaced by cardboard cutout
who only vaguely resemble them.

            Which
brings us to the art. The art is just not as dynamic as it used to be. Here we
have three giant goddesses running amuck and trashing god knows how many troops
and slayers in their wake and I never got a sense of how epic this battle
really is. This is like watching a bootleg of Reign of Fire. Sure you can tell what’s
happening, but you never get a sense of how fucking cool it is that tanks are
being picked up and crushed by giant purple women.

            Last year
at this time Buffy Season 8 was in my top five books. Now I’m only buying it to
see where it goes. Truth be told if the last page* hadn’t had that “um,…what?”
moment, I probably wouldn’t be pulling this next month. All in all this book is
lucky it hasn’t made the jump to $3.99.

            Maybe Joss
Whedon should spend less time making jokes about buying the Terminator
franchise and more time acting as a producer for his most beloved creation.

*The last page is the entire reason this book got a 3 instead of a 2 overall. It wasn’t near enough to make the book cool but it dragged it up from being awful.