And so we come to the action-packed half of the season eight finale, soon to be followed by the turbulent and emotional final issue. This was a packed instalment; we get the final battle between Buffy and Angel, the epic war to save the world, and a major character death. Plus, there’s a game changer at the end which creates more questions than it answers. Joss Whedon’s Season Eight started out as a fun experiment, and is coming to its close as a mixture of failure and brilliance. This final arc has been spectacular, but so overly crammed with information that its turned many people off; as a Buffy fan, though, this was nothing short of spectacular as a finale. The only problem, other than the cramming, was the co-writing by Scott Allie, which was obvious here; some of the dialogue felt off, and that seems to be less down to Whedon and more down to his editor. The art by Georges Jeanty, too, has never been my favourite, and here it’s no different; sometimes it’s fantastic, but at other times it’s messy and confused – possibly a reflection on the chaos of battle. Regardless, unless the final issue is awful, I’ve enjoyed the ride of Season 8, and look forward to Season 9 – although, hopefully, it’s a bit shorter.