Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer Special #1 is published by BOOM! Studios and written by Casey Gilly. Illustrations Joe Jaro, Maria Keane and Lea Caballero, colours are by Joana Lafuente and letters by Ed Dukeshire. Main cover art (left) is by Ario Anindito.
Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer Speecial #1 is available now, in print and on digital, where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
It’s been 4 years, and Buffy, Spike, and Thess have been living in relative peace as a dysfunctionally cozy family. But nothing can last forever… Tara might not be dead, but they’re losing hope for her staying among the living, and strange new vampires have been sighted. To get to the bottom of these unfolding horrors, our gang will have to head underground… and face the horrifying true cause of the decline in vampire activity!
Review
Last year’s Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer brought us a truly unique perspective on the future of Buffy Summers. Though it is set in a world where the events of the TV series took place, its future setting is considered outside canon. But don’t let that lessen this impact of this somewhat bleak outlook for our heroine.
The four-part series picked up with an older Buffy still struggling to find her place in the world. With the balance of power shifted, there was no place for a Slayer. Particularly a Slayer who shared her power with every potential Slayer across the globe. With the sun blocked out, vampires and humans have come to an uneasy truce which doesn’t sit well with our now 50 year-old former vampire-hunter.
This one-shot special picks up the story four years after the end of the limited-series. Buffy and Spike are once again loved up. They’re also raising Thess, the teenage daughter of Tara and Willow. Now that Thess is a little older the storytelling opportunities allow Gilly chance to give Buffy the experience her own mother had in the early days of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. What would be worse than a daughter fighting vampires? How about a daughter who is now dating!?
But the special isn’t simply a chance to check back in and see how things are. There are dangling plot threads which Gilly and artist Joe Jaro clearly felt they needed to pick back up. Most of this surrounds Thess, her burgeoning powers but also the mystery surrounding what happened to her mother, Tara. Some of that was alluded to during the limited-series, but this one-shot drives home a lot of those points and really acts as a bonus, wrap up story.
Clocking in at 46-pages, the special does quickly pick up the pace one the gang has a mission to attend to. Overall it’s a well paced adventure which takes the time needed to catch us up before getting down to the action. Towards the end it does seem to wrap itself up quite quickly, especially given the fact the gang has to travel half way across the globe to reach their ultimate goal.
Ultimately the success of the book isn’t down to its pacing though. Gilly has crafted an excellent story which feels reminiscent of the tone of the TV series. But it also has a wonderfully emotional conclusion which ties up all of the loose ends with a pretty neat bow.
It’s great that Gilly was able to re-team with Jaro for the special. The two created something special with The Last Vampire Slayer and it would have felt disingenuous to have anyone else illustrating this book. The style carries over perfectly from the series to the special with just a few tweaks to signify to time lapse between stories. Along with Keane, Caballero and colourist are by Joana Lafuente, the book is every bit as beautiful as a Buffy story should be.
Verdict
It’s a bittersweet return to The Last Vampire Slayer universe. Gilly has crafted an excellent coda that feels like a surprise bonus for fans of last year’s four-part series. Whilst there undoubtedly feels like there is more story to tell, the special feels like a fitting place to leave these characters
⭐⭐⭐⭐
