- Script by Christos Gage
- Pencils by Karl Moline, Cliff Richards
- Inks by Andy Owens
- Colours by Dan Jackson
- Letters by Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt
- Variant cover by Rebekah Isaacs & Dan Jackson
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This month ‘BtVS‘ takes some time to reflect on times past by taking our characters back to a time when life was, almost, simpler. Moving on from the recent Dracula theme arc (reviewed in issues #4 and #5) the series is dialling back on the big-scale drama and dialling up the emotional content.
Season 10 continues to prove that it’s digging back to the emotional core of the franchise by wrapping all of the fantastical drama in genuine emotional turmoil for the Buffy and the Scoobies. In fact you could be forgiven for even remember that there was a demon to fight in this issue as it only fully appears in one panel.
Issue #6 – ‘I Wish’ pt. 1 – is centred around the changing living arrangements and financial situations that each member of the gang finds themselves in. Buffy needs to move out of her faux-student house, Willow needs a new job, Xander and Dawn are going their separate ways and teenage Giles can’t access his own accounts due to his recent death. Each member of the team, bar Andrew, is in need of a change in circumstance and the opportunity arises when they are called in to solve a simple haunting.
Of course the haunting is not as simple as it first seems but in the grand scheme of things this issue is incredibly low key for any of the recent comic book seasons. Gage crafts an excellent story which allows for cameos from several characters not seen since the show itself was on the air.
The main plot thread of course follows Buffy as she, comically at times, struggles with the idea of finding a new home whilst also struggling with her friends uncontrollable issues but there’s a great sub-plot burning underneath the surface with Giles as he comes to terms with his new existence.
There’s a brief segue in this issue in which Willow and Giles discuss the potential for her to use magic to bring him back to his natural age. Concerned that she may in fact kill him again Giles shrugs off the issue as if he’s happy to maintain the status quo. One final panel in the sequence clearly shows his dismay at the situation before ramping up the comedy aspects again. This story will hopefully be a slow burn and if the variant cover of this issue is anything to go by there may be some consequences if Willow continues to try and return him to normal.
Speaking of the variant cover it looks pretty cool but is sadly a little misleading as to the state of the characters in this story, there’s no sign of Dark Willow at this stage but that’s not to say that she won’t make an appearance later on.
Isaacs maintains the awesome status quo of the art in this season and the hallucination sequences brought on by the demon are an excellent throwback to early seasons of the TVs series.
The art may be stellar month-on-month but it’s really the emotional story that is the standout this month.
4 stars
