We are really excited about Buffy Season 9 comics arriving on comic shop shelves Sept. 14th and wanted to reach out to fans and get their thoughts about Season 9 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in general. Whedon fans are legion and probably some of the most generous and passionate we've ever encountered. We're excited to share their enthusiasm for Buffy here on our Blog.
I’m going to assume that if you are reading this blog post, then you are an avid fan of Buffy and have been following the plight of the chosen one in the comic pages of Season 8, so I won’t recap the last season. I will instead focus on the questions and story lines we hope to see covered in the upcoming Season 9. We should start with the smaller questions and work our way up. I’m going to do my best; I always try to be my best.
The end of the season left the readers and Buffy with a massive hole in their lives. Giles is dead. Her mentor, her friend, her teacher—the only real father figure she has ever known—is gone. We imagine Giles thought of the gang as his children: shy Willow, goofy Xander, problem child Faith, and his favorite daughter, Buffy. We were all surprised, as I think Buffy was, that his estate was bequeathed to Faith, the child he didn’t bond with until later in life. The only thing he left to Buffy was the first thing he ever gave her: the old leather-bound book with the gilded word Vampyre on the cover. We are left with questions about Faith’s role in this new world without Giles. He was her redeemer. She finds herself taking on the responsibility of caring for his murderer, which, due to mystical influences, was Angel. Angel looked like a broken and shattered reflection of himself (if he had a reflection), cowering in a closet. I would hope these two broken people find ways to forgive themselves for their pasts and move forward, in a strictly platonic way. I also imagine they will have a role, perhaps a peripheral one, in the upcoming season.
We also are left with Dawn and Xander as a couple. We got hints over the years that Buffy’s little sister had a crush on Xander, but we never thought it was grown-up love. I guess in the end it would make sense: both of them dated the supernatural set and it ended badly, and for the only two non-superpowered people to end up together seems appropriate. The role of the lovebirds may be relegated to a simpler support role for Buffy, as they try to achieve some sort of normalcy. I just hope they are happy and Joss doesn’t throw a monkey wrench in it like he tends to do. I think he just hates happy endings.
Spike is flying around in a rocket-powered dirigible manned by alien bugs. I haven’t got a clue and refuse to take the mind-altering drugs that might help me get one.
Buffy goes from general of an army and literally queen of the castle, where she was living, to sleeping on Dawn and Xander’s couch. She pours coffee by day, fighting demons and rogue Slayers by night. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. She is to many in the supernatural community a pariah. In Willow’s eyes she killed the heart of the earth. It is only because of Willow’s longtime trust and friendship that she too isn’t trying, at least at the moment, to kill Buffy.
Angel betrays Buffy and he goes all grrr and Buffy ends up waiting tables; where have we seen this before? I guess that’s all the work you can get without a college education. Buffy seems like she is going to be isolated again. She still has her support system—Dawn, Xander, and Willow—but with the worlds both mystical and nonmystical seemingly turned against her, she seems to once again be forced to bear the burden of her birthright by herself. It’s like she going to be a Batman with bangs.
The biggest questions all surround our favorite computer geek turned Wiccan turned lesbian, Willow. The most powerful witch on earth is now powerless because of the actions of her best friend. I believe that this is the main plot arc because we have been given a glimpse of the future in Fray, and a trip through time by Buffy to Fray’s world, where Willow tries to kill her. So, Willow must at some point in the future get her powers back. We also understand that Willow loves her connection with the mystical goddess, and her magic might feel conflicted if the result of Buffy’s war means an end to magic on earth. I really feel the journey of Willow to rekindle the magic in the world will come into direct conflict with Buffy, and if you’ve ever seen sisters fight, watch out.
I know that Joss said at the end of Season 8 that he intended to get Buffy back to the bread and butter of what made her such a great heroine: patrolling the streets and dusting vamps. But I have trouble believing that he will leave these questions unanswered as Buffy and Willow fight for the future. Whose version of the future wins out only Joss knows.