Nicholas Brendon (1971–2026)

4.5

*Book source ~ Library

From Goodreads:
While slaying the zompires that have overrun a small California town, Buffy and her pals are shocked to discover a new kind of vampire: harder to kill, able to transform and walk in the light of day-like Dracula… If that weren't enough, the rules of magic are literally being rewritten. While the crew attempts to find out exactly what this means and restore the status quo, Xander is the victim of a haunting as his relationship with Dawn crumbles. show more Collects Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #1-#5.

Totally digging this new season of Buffy. There’s fighting, bad guys, a mystery, Spike, and Dracula. I don’t really care about Dawn and Xander and I’m not sure why Anya is back in ghost form or how exactly Giles is back. I think I need to get caught up in the other comics for things to make sense. I wish I had won the lottery. Then I could buy them all instead of relying on the library who, while very generous in purchasing my many suggestions, has yet to get more of the Buffyverse like Angel & Faith. Loving the artwork except for Andrew. I didn’t know who he was until he was addressed by name. He looks a lot like Riley. I’m liking where this season is heading with the wild magic back and the book. show less

4 and a half stars. completely charming. Christos Gage does a fabulous job: nicely paced, spritely written, plenty of quippage, knows and uses every little detail of the whole backstory. collects all the core characters into one house, snapshots the current state of Buffy & Spike, gives everyone plenty to do that furthers the whole story in this season. plus: Harmony, Clem, ghost Anya, D'Hoffryn (all with actual roles to play), a trip to the Sunnydale Hellmouth, a lovely chapter of just show more Xander and Spike roommating again, and Giles as a grownup kid gets played just right. Richard Corben draws a lovely little segment in his own style detailing the backstory of the current bigbad demon here introduced. Steve Morris draws them all perfectly in Jo Chen style. my only quibble is Rebekah Isaacs' panel art: she's fine with drawing monsters, panel blocking, action, but she cannot seem to make any of the characters look even recognizable, let alone right (their noses in particular are so wrong. it's a mite distracting). but this is actually a very minor quibble in a book that brings the whole canon to life in the proper spirit: older, but indomitable, loving, kickassed, and busy reshaping the magic of the Vampyres book in a world where magic is back and coexistence becomes possible. show less

We're going back to Buffy's roots, save one little snag... the breaking of the fourth wall! Sort-of. Then again, having the book of Vampyrs get all erased and then start to redefine the magic of the whole world just means that nothing is sacred and rulebound. Then again, that's kinda what I love about the series. It eventually manages to redefine itself repeatedly, only to smash it to pieces once more. I don't know of any other series that has the courage to do this so regularly with a cast show more of misfits so well loved by so many ubergeeks. show less

The more I read of season 10, the more I think Christos Gage is the perfect successor to Joss Whedon for writing Buffy books. It doesn't hurt that Spike and Andrew, both favorites of mine, are featured heavily this season. I was excited to see that Xander himself, Nicholas Brendan,co-wrote the first 3 chapters.
There was a lot of therapy in this volume, which I'm pretty sure I complained about when reviewing a different Buffy comic, but darned if these guys don't need to be knocked over the show more head with some relationship therapy, and maybe, just maybe, some happiness will come out of it.
One of the villains was super gross. I'm hoping his little stint is over.
This may just be my favorite season yet, since they moved from TV to comic. show less