#boom! buffy

[buffythecomicslayer]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summer

Publication date: May 3, 2023

The new story is set within the continuity of the Buffy television series and follows the fan-favorite heroes on a new adventure full of peril and abnormal occurrences.

Spike is determined to keep the last copy of his embarrassing poetry from being discovered, sending Buffy and the Gang on a faux-supernatural goose chase to New Orleans to cover his tracks. While at an antiques fair along the way, the group is captivated by some Casquette Girls clothes on display. Dawn utters a wish she most likely should’ve kept to herself, and the gang experiences a first hand account of the sisters’ identities… beyond what they could have ever imagined!

Script: Casey Gilly; illustration: Lauren Knight; colors: Francesco Segala; covers: Mirka Andolfo, Veronica Fish, Paulina Ganucheau.

[cooolmonsterfighter]

“First of all, I’m engaged. To a woman”

“I promised Tara we’d have the night to OURSELVES”

[superheroes-or-whatever]

Buffy ‘97 (2022) one-shot art by Marianna Ignazzi 

[extraordinary-heroes]

Artist Showcase: Matt Smith

[geekynerfherder]

'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' by Justine Frany.

Variant cover art for 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' issue #34, published February 2022 by BOOM! Studios.

[alfapratt]

THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #6 | Boom! Studios (2022)

Spike teaches Xander how to kill vampires

[co-mixed]

Why Boom Still Can’t Get Buffy Right

My love for the Buffyverse is concrete but it has its limits. Yesterday I had a very unpleasant experience finishing yet another unimpressive Buffy run, courtesy of Boom Comics. It’s always disappointing to me because Buffyverse has so much potential and untold stories. It’s a goldmine that is constantly held back and simply can’t find its footing in the comics medium. Why is that? 

Boom’s been rather relentless in trying to make Buffy work. Several years and runs later, there’s still no big WOW story that can attract readers and viewers alike. Not just that, but even seasoned buffy fans don’t seem very interested in continuous attempts at rebooting the Slayer tale. You can blame the word reboot (it does tend to scare people) but the real reason is still Boom’s inability to deliver a good captivating story.

Boom had tried reinventing Buffy, sending her back to school, developing alternate realities and futures. But in every iteration, Buffy and the Scooby Gang were plagued with the same mistakes over and over again. 

Hey, I’m not sure what I am, so bear with me here 

The characters from Buffy are some of the most well-developed characters out there. Each one has a point of origin, a story, and a final form. We love them because we know them. And we know them extremely well. 

Let’s take the fan-favorite, Spike. We’ve seen his whole afterlife and even bits of his life. We know how he became William the Bloody, then Spike, a neutered vampire, and finally, an ensouled champion. We know how, and more importantly, we know why. 

I’d hate to throw in one more why but there is a reason Spike exists in the show, and we know it. 

When you read Boom comics, it feels like writers stick him into every arc just because they like him. He brings nothing to the story, he has no soul or chip yet chooses to join the scoobies. That does not look like the Spike we know. That guy was in s2-s4, not s5-s7. That’s the guy from School Hard or the one who got the Gem of Amara and happily marched to kill Buffy. 

But there’s nothing stronger than the author’s desire to make things ‘right’. Hence this spike lookalike joining the team every time. 

The funny part is, I can very well imagine a soulless chipless Spike who’s not a monster. If Dru sires him and never sees him again, if she never introduces him to Angelus, if he keeps on writing his bloody awful poetry only forever. He probably would’ve turned out like that poor librarian guy whose glasses Dru broke or like Harmony who still tried to be decent. But it’s the writer’s job to explain it, to write it into the story, not just throw a character into a book and see whether they swim or go down. They will always go down. 

Spike is only one of the issues here. In the show, both Kendra and Faith exist to show us the perfect (according to the council) and the fallen slayer. Two possible realities for Buffy. They have their own arcs (well, Faith does) but the show is strong because supporting characters serve a purpose. Just like the people we meet in real life always serve a purpose for us. You might believe that one character pushing the development of another is cruel, but that’s still how good stories are made. That’s still why Buffy is popular 20 years after the show’s finale. 

Kendra and Faith did that for Buffy in the show. In the Boom comics they just exist. They show up for no reason and they just hang around. You can take them out of the story and nothing will change. At one point in the initial reboot there were three slayers at the same time, and that felt more like a fix-it fanfic than a quality comic book. Unfortunately, some slayers have to die and some have to turn evil. Besides, without her rebellious personality, Faith is meaningless.

I have one more bone to pick. I know that Buffy and Angel (still the OTP of the show!) are a complicated matter to many modern writers. And readers, and viewers. There’s no place to hide from the creep factor and even though I will defend this ship till the day everyone finally agrees with me, I can’t deny its presence. But that doesn’t mean you get to discard this ship and separate Buffy and Angel into different books. One doesn’t exist or grow without the other. There is no Buffy in love with a vampire without Angel. There is only Vampire. Slayer. Dead vampire. 

Without Buffy, Angel is not in LA helping the helpless. He’s in New York eating low rats. Before trying to launch two separate books, how about Boom launches one good one, that provides background, even if revised and adapted to the modern days? 

I always worried what would happen when that b*tch got some funding

All this chaotic mess with the characters determines the stories Boom puts out. They tend to have an interesting start but by the time issue 3 comes out, it’s either Camazotz flying around Sunnydale, a giant crab taking over the main street, or whatever the hell Silas was (a soul eater?) Didn’t care for him much. Not even when we were evil. 

More often than not Boom writers suffer from the same disease that plagued Dark Horse comics – scale. Just because you can do anything doesn’t mean you should. Comics allow you to draw literally any kind of baddie but you are playing within a specific world, and suspense of disbelief only goes so far. Besides, in the show, it all grows gradually. You go from the Master to the First evil. In the comics… seriously, what the hell was Silas? 

From what I’ve read so far, Boom knows how to ask interesting questions: 

What if Buffy went to school today?

What if Willow took over as the slayer? 

What if Buffy was older? 

Those are all good what ifs but Boom has a problem following through. They don’t know the answer to this question and it feels like they’re making it up as they go along. If I’m being honest, it even feels like they wrote random ideas on pieces of paper, through them in a hat, and started pulling each time they hit a wall. 

Characters show up for now reason (hi, Tara from the latest run), they don’t feel like themselves, and the saddest part – none of it feels like you are getting your favorite show back. 

These characters deserve better than that. 

And there’s not a one who can say this ended well

At this point, I don’t know if Boom wants Buffy comics to succeed. I don’t mean to be this dramatic but every time someone mentions comics, fans think Dark Horse. Not because they are still considered canon, but because they had a connection to the beloved show. Boom comics don’t give you that, so you can’t look the other way when writers don’t deliver. It’s just how it works. 

I keep thinking what Boom can do to get out of this vicious circle. And I do believe there If they want to successfully play in the Buffyverse, they have to seriously up their game. It’s not impossible either. I mean, Something is Killing the Children is being released by the same studio. And what is that if not a more gruesome version of Buffy? So it’s not exactly magic. It’s doable. 

Personally, I still hold out hope that someone would dare explore the terrifying bloody past of the Whirlwind. Wouldn’t that be fun and gory? I’d like to see deep well-thought-through stories of past slayers. I’d happily read a well-illustrated comic run based on In Every Generation. And if we have to go back to Buffy variants, why not reinvent her story? But before we get to that, we’d have to work through every step of every character. Get them to where we want them, and start with a story that we want to tell, from start to finish. From her first day as a slayer to her last one (she didn’t have to empower the potentials after all).

That, of course, requires a lot of work. And if Boom isn’t ready to put in that kinda effort, they could just move from season 5, introduce a new slayer, and watch how her adventures unravel.  

Buffyverse is a hell of a property and there are too many stories waiting to be written. I’m probably still gonna give it a shot whenever Boom comes up with something new. I just hope I won’t have to write yet another long read complaining about it. 

[slightlymessier]

well, at least i know what rarepair to draw fanart of for his next birthday now

[wickedlehane]

//ooc; I wanted to draw Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned Women, Head Vengeance Demon, AKA Queen Hellbeast from Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer #5 (Boom Studios). I wanted to give her a more demonic design, paying tribute to her TV series makeup with some light Hellboy inspo.

I made the canvas too small (RIP image resolution) but I'm really happy with how this turned out and really recommend checking out all 11 issues of BLVS (spread across 2 volumes and 1 special oneshot) if you've never read them before. Lots of vindication for the ladies of Buffy who deserved much better (especially Tara and Anya).

[towritecomicsonherarms]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Hellmouth #4

[buffythecomicslayer]

Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer (vol. 2) #1

Publication date: August 2, 2023

Thess is all grown up, having taken up the mantle as the new Slayer. But with new responsibilities come new enemies and a mysterious clan that will do anything to get to her…even if it means using her friends as bait!

Script: Casey Gilly; illustration: Oriol Roig; covers: Ario Anindito, Suspiria Vilchez, Francesco Francavilla.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

You know an issue I feel like a majority of the Boom Buffyverse comics have?

I feel like they drop you into the middle of the story, and just expect you to know what's going on.

Like, whenever I've read them I've felt like, "Well, I guess I mostly get it, kind of. But if they would just have some flashbacks, maybe... Or have someone have exposition about this thing(s) that happened before, then I'd really be on the same page."

And it's like, "Shanna, you idiot, this clearly means they started in the middle of the story and should have started it with these things I'm needing to see to really understand the story--that they're somewhat alluding to--but for some reason they're not doing that? And over and over again they're doing this?"

I feel like maybe it's because they're expecting only Buffyverse fans to read these comics and already know what's the what.

But these are AU Buffyverse stories: where people and places are different--and rules are different--and we don't know what these things are! We don't know what's the same and what's not: they just drop us into the middle of the story, expecting us to know these things, and then just pick things up through exposition instead of unfolding naturally, and it's infuriating!

Maybe they think everyone would be sick of a Buffy (and/or Angel) origin story at this point, but this is a different Buffy origin story: So by the very nature of the fact it's different, you kind of need to show it. Especially since new fans very easily could be coming into these comics.

[extraordinary-heroes]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summer | Unlockable Variant (Cover art by Veronica Fish)

[superheroes-or-whatever]

Angel (2022) #8

[alfapratt]

THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #6 | Boom! Studios (2022)

Spike finally meets the gang

[cooolmonsterfighter]

There she is! There’s my girl!