Buffy Season 9 #1

Publication Date: September 14, 2011

Format: FC, 40 pages

Price: $2.99

UPC: 7 61568 18159 3 00111

 

Buffy is back for another season. This is the second comic volume for Joss Whedon’s TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer which saw the end of its series run at season seven in 2003.

Season Nine picks up where season eight left off, magic is gone, the slayer line nonexistent, but that doesn’t mean that Buffy’s problems are gone. In fact, Buffy may have made it all worse.

“Freefall, Part One,” written by Whedon, and penciled by Georges Jeanty finds Buffy in the aftermath of a house party, which seems like the normal thing a girl her age would do, which is kinda cute as she’s never really been a normal girl. And still even trying to be normal, things get pretty screwy.

Xander and Dawn are playing house, Willow seems to be avoiding her girlfriend, Spike is Spike and a little lurky, and Buffy is still making passes at Riley. As much fun as the party is the unfolding of two other arcs are much more interesting. The story is cut up, and pieced together of the happenings of that night as it slowly comes back to Buffy, which kind of distract from where the bigger action is happening.

Whedon’s brilliance shines through with the tidbits that he doesn’t quite reveal, one arc seems to be a carry over from Season 8, and the ending was classic Whedon. Secrets and hints are very blink and you miss them, but that subtext has always worked for the series.

There is a lot in this one issue, and it’s a fantastic way to start the season. Magic may be gone, but trouble, and student loans are definitely not.