Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer #4 is written by Casey Gilly and published by BOOM! Studios. Illustration is by Oriol Roig and Nicola Izzo, colours by Gloria Martinelli and letters by Ed Dukeshire. Main cover art (left) is by Ario Anindito.
Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer #4 is available now, in print and on digital where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
Cora comes clean after a night spent together with Thess; her past is tied to the enemy in ways filled with the demonic and arcane, and it’s too much for Thess to bear.
Thess’s destructive power is dangerously out of control, with not much left of the boardwalk as Soren’s gang approaches…
And with Thess keeping the mantle of the Slayer, what steps will Buffy take to heal her trauma and start a new chapter?
Review
An inevitable part about growing up is the realisation that not everyone lives up to our expectations. An inevitable part of growing older is grieving the life we leave behind. Those have been the key themes of this latest chapter of Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer and this month’s issue sees much of that coming to fruition.
When I reviewed issue #2 (read that here) I praised writer Casey Gilly for her incredibly sensitive handling of the subject matter. This month the gloves are off and Gilly is swinging for the fences as both Buffy and Thessaly have a head on collision with this biggest traumas. Once again that delicacy in the writing makes Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer both an emotional and effective read. Having both characters confronting their issues concurrently is certainly poetic. It also brings the series to an emotional crescendo which sets us up for an exciting endgame.
The series has rightly focussed more on Thessaly in its last pair of issues. The story needed this focus in order to setup the coming confrontation with Soren and his crew. Allowing this part of the storyline to percolate more has certainly added much needed context. It’s also ensured that there’s enough connection between reader and Thess that when Cora’s truth is revealed, it has the requisite impact. Of course as a Buffy fan it’s also great to see Gilly tying in the legacy of the vengeance demons to the story, though this does make me wonder if there isn’t more going on than meets the eye…
Any self respecting fan reading this book is already clued in enough to know the kind of trauma that Buffy herself is carrying around. So it’s sensible that rather than have her presence dominating the book, Buffy is instead a key but very much secondary player. Gilly is capably able to pull from all of her Last Vampire Slayer stories to really force Buffy in to facing up to her own shortcomings as a watcher. There’s a striking moment as Buffy literally casts of the shackles of her past, namely the weapons of previous slayers. It’s a huge turning point for the character but one that was required and artist Oriol Roig does a great job rendering it on the page.
I’ve said this before and I will no doubt say it again but Gilly has tapped perfectly in to what Buffy should be for a contemporary audience. Whilst Whedon’s BTVS was a zippy, pop culture juggernaut that could tug at the heartstrings. Under BOOM! Studios we’ve seen plenty of experimentation with the license. Both Gilly and The Vampire Slayer writer Sarah Gailey have really injected the lived experience of women in the 21st century and explored what that means against the backdrop of the supernatural. Teen angst has been replaced by middle-age angst without ever losing sight of what made the franchise great.
But now, with seemingly all the cards on the table, both slayers old and young have a new outlook and Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer appears to be read to bring this latest chapter to an explosive conclusion.
Verdict
Another incredible issue from Gilly and Roig. Issue #4 is a huge emotional release and turning point for both of our heroines and with such a capable creative team it’s a moment no Buffy fan should miss.
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