Comic Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15

[jakebe]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15
Wolves at the Gate, Conclusion


This has probably been the most controversial arc of the eighth ‘season’ thus far; Buffy gets to dip her toes into the tempestuous waters of bisexuality while Xander is revealed to still have his man-crush on Dracula. While Buffy’s latest relationship ends with very typical results, Xander at least turns an important corner.

The Slayers come to a climactic battle with the Japanese vampires for the Scythe. Despite the “cheap shot” that ended the last issue, this one holds up really well. Everyone gets their licks in, and writer Drew Goddard does a great job capturing both the epic scale that Buffy has come into and the little, personal moments that make it so affecting.

Buffy’s relationship with Satsu is put on hiatus at the end of this arc, with her latest squeeze opting to stay behind in Tokyo. This makes sense; the organization in the city is nowhere near where it should be, especially since they’ve got Dracula’s power of shapeshifting and you know, doing that fog thing. It also enables Buffy to clear her head just a little bit and focus on the coming battle with Twilight.

The lesbian angle doesn’t tweak me as much as some people, and I’m not really sure why it does. I’m far more annoyed by the fact that we have to endure another relationship that spins in circles between two people who aren’t well defined enough to be really interesting. One of the biggest problems I’ve come to have with the Buffyverse is Joss’ handling of romantic entanglements; for him they seem to be some kind of necessary evil that’s part of being (super-)human. Your friends are the biggest asset Buffy has in the world, but anything more and you’re a villain waiting to happen or a never-ending source of angst.

Xander’s relationship with Renee is a perfect example. If season 8 were actually aired on television, both Satsu and Renee would have been given a few episodes to gel with the Scoobies, to click with the fans, to become a part of the team. Here, they’re only given a few issues, so the impact of their sudden departure and peril comes across as much more manipulative than it might have otherwise. Still, Xander’s reaction and where it propels him saves the decision; his last exchange with Dracula is immensely gratifying. Though I hope this isn’t the last we see of the Ancient One.

Other folks come up big, too. Dawn’s refusal to let the Slayers retreat was the most backbone she’s ever shown, and a nice little moment. Perhaps the heady rush of wrestling around Tokyo with a MechaDawn (I kid you not) got to her head a little bit. And why shouldn’t it? It’s *far* past time our little Dawnie took matters into her own hands. Willow fights off a goth Japanese witch, and we learn just a little bit more about where her arc is going. Of all the mysterious happenings we’ve been teased about so far, the ones surrounding Willow are the most interesting. Perhaps this is mostly because of the nebulous nature of magic in the Whedonverse, but it’d be cool to really define what Willow is, what she can and can’t do.

Overall, the arc fills us in on the importance of the Scythe, puts Satsu in a backburner position to come up big later, and allows Xander and Dawn to grow a little bit in fairly important ways. Oh, and it also introduces Buffy to same-sex relationships. In a lot of ways I think it’s the weakest arc so far, but mostly because it exposes the weaknesses in trying to tell a story of this scope in comic book form. The plot is clearly going somewhere, but in many ways it feels like it’s railroading the characters a bit.

Rating: 7/10