We all know Buffy, the vampire slayer. Well, fast forward ahead to an older, wiser, more advanced-in-skin-care-needs Buffy. It’s the first issue of Buffy The LAST Vampire Slayer.
This new incarnation (reincarnation??) starts off with Buffy entering a bar. Why the long face, Buffy? Wait, no time for jokes. Buffy is tired and needs a cup of joe. But now that the earth’s sun has been blocked by clouds and humans and vampires can live together in a complicated state of uneasy truce, vampires are all around. And with Buffy being the last slayer, 50 years in, how is the England pub life at night, anyway mate? Nice legs, shame about the teeth.
Writer Casey Gilly (colour by Joana Lafuente, letters by Ed Dukeshire) presents us with the world-weary, bloody-nosed Buffy. She’s fatigued, worried, and sporting a lot less sass in her step. Joe Garo illustrates the older Buffy in a betwixt and bewildering way. Not entirely on model, not entirely recognizable to the usual TV show viewer, Buffy has a rounder face, shorter nose, and mousey hair. And loads of age lines, seriously. But maybe she’s now 67ish? She’s also not so visibly expressive, which could be a good thing when you’re running under the radar, avoiding evil vampires. Unfortunately for the reader, this translates however as ‘Buffy of poker face’, or ‘masked expression’. We ache to see some extremes, more passion.
It’s a story that ultimately works in the long run, due to the concept of how good and evil have become more tightly enmeshed in each other’s business in the post-sun era. Who is “good’, and what of the accord? If the comic creators can amp up the energy for Buffy’s own good and our own good reading, it will be a brighter title in the moons to come!
BOOM! Buffy, The Last Vampire Slayer #1, $3.99 for 24 pages of content
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