Are you ready for Buffy SEASON 10? Check out our catch up of the past nine seasons!

Buffy Season 10 has finally arrived at Dark Horse Comics, and to celebrate, and really get ready for the newest season we’re looking back over the past nine seasons of the beloved show. Yep, that’s right, we’re starting back at season one, that’s back to 1997 for us!

Okay sure, there was that little movie in 1992, but we’re talking the series that eventually spawned the comic. From March 10, 1997 to May 20, 2003 Buffy the Vampire Slayer captured the heart and imaginations of many over seven seasons and 144 episodes before continuing in comic book form. If you're new to Buffy there will be spoilers!

Season One

A fresh faced Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), was introduced as the latest in a line of young women known as "Vampire Slayers" or simply "Slayers" moves to Sunnydale after a little incident that involved burning down her previous school. She hopes for a fresh start, but her plans are complicated by Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), her new Watcher, who reminds her of her duties and the fact that her new school just happens to be built atop a Hellmouth. It takes the concept of “High school is hell” to a whole new level.

Buffy becomes fast friends with schoolmates Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), who quickly become her confidents and help her fight evil as her “Scooby Gang.” She meets and falls in love with the mysterious and very handsome vampire with a soul, Angel, and gains a frenemy in Cordelia Chase, the popular girl who gets caught up in the supernatural world much to her dismay. Together they all band together to prevent The Master, an ancient and especially threatening vampire, from opening the Hellmouth and taking over Sunnydale.

Buffy and her gang race to stop The Master before he ascends but they all have to pay a high price for it, with Buffy paying the highest price of all with her life. Although Angel tries to save her, he lacks the breath required to complete the task, but Xander has what it takes, and with that saving dynamics are changed that have repercussions felt into the second season.

Season Two

The emotional stakes are raised in season two. After spending the summer away from her friends following her death, Buffy returns. Her new self-centered attitude nearly gets her Scoobies killed, but she manages to pull herself together and get over her Master filled trauma as a new pair of vampires, Spike (James Marsters) and a weak Drusilla (Juliet Landau), roll into town. They pair intend to use Drusilla’s sire, Angel or rather his evil, soulless form Angelus, to restore her to her full health when the time is right, but until then Spike takes out the anointed one and control of the Sunnydale vampires. Also new in town is a new Slayer, Kendra (Bianca Lawson), who is sent to Sunnydale by her Watcher after Buffy’s death. They team up to save Angel, but not before Drusilla’s rejuvenation is complete, and Spike is crippled.

Love plays a big part of this season as Buffy and Angel fall deeply in love, Xander and Cordelia start an unlikely and hidden relationship, Willow falls for a guitarist Daniel "Oz" Osbourne (Seth Green) who ends up being a werewolf and even Giles has a relationship with computer science teacher and techno-pagan Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). But nothing lasts forever, and on this show it implodes fantastically. Jenny distances herself from Giles after a blast from his past scares her, and Buffy and Angels relationship completely dissolves after a moment of perfect happiness causes him to lose his soul transforming him back into the evil and sadistic Angelus.

Buffy prepares to destroy the love of her life as he continues to threaten the people she loves, and tries to open a portal that will destroy the world. Jenny works to save his soul, and Willow takes up her efforts upon her death. After torturing Giles, Angelus has all the information he needs to bring the world into Hell, and Buffy loses everything. Her mother has discovered her secret and tells her to never come back, and she is expelled from Sunnydale High. Even with the help of an unlikely source she fails to stop Angelus from reawakening Acathla who begins to swallow the Earth. Willow successfully performs with a little mystical energy assistance a spell to save Angel’s soul, that leads to devastating choices for Buffy. She saves the world, again, and loses herself. Not only does this season produce an epic sword fight, but it produced more than one tear inducing episode.

Season Three

After attempting to start a new life in Los Angeles and still getting caught up in slayeresque business, Buffy returns home to Sunnydale, and is reunited with her friends and her mother but it’s a very rocky reunion with feelings of betrayal and abandonment all around. Buffy’s criminal record is cleared but her expulsion from school is not until Giles steps forward. This fatherly feeling Giles has towards prompts the watcher’s council to fire him.

Angel is resurrected by the Powers That Be, soul and all but the time he spent in hell takes a toll on is sanity. While the Scooby gang distrusts Angel, Buffy can’t help but to stand by his side and help him recover. His recovery is nearly derailed by something called the First Evil, who tries to goad him into killing himself, but the Powers That Be intervene and convince him of a higher purpose.

With the death of yet another slayer, Kendra this time, a new one is called forth. Faith (Eliza Dushku), proves early on to be unstable, and attempts to pull Buffy down a path of chaos that she narrowly escapes, Faith though isn’t so lucky. She soon joins the darkside and becomes the right hand of Mayor Wilkins who wishes to turn into an Olvikan, a giant snake-like demon on Graduation Day. After poisoning Angel, Buffy needs the blood of a slayer to save him, and attempts to feed Faith to him. Things don’t work out as planned, and Buffy is forced to put her life in Angel’s hands to save his own, both slayers end up comatose. Buffy recovers in time to thwart the Mayor’s plans, but Angel chooses to leave as the dust settles convinced that Buffy's love for him will be her undoing. Off to Los Angeles he goes with a shiny new spinoff.

Season Four

With high school behind them, Buffy and Willow enroll at UC Sunnydale and Xander joins the workforce. After a dust-up with Drusilla, Spike returns to Sunnydale and is abducted by The Initiative, a top-secret military installation based beneath the UC Sunnydale campus, led by Maggie Walsh. They implant a microchip in his head which prevents him from harming humans. He becomes a reluctant member of the Scooby Gang, though only Willow trusts him and he eventually betrays them for a period.

Oz leaves town realizing that as a werewolf he’s too dangerous, and after a horrific encounter with The Initiative. Willow falls in love with Tara Maclay (Amber Benson), another witch, and they begin dating. Xander begins dating former vengeance demon Anya Jenkins (Emma Caulfield) who is infatuated and frustrated by the human he instills in her. Buffy too begins a new relationship, dating Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) who she later discovers is a member of The Initiative. After failing to get her recruited, Walsh tries to have Buffy killed, which causes Riley to sever his ties with The Initiative.

But The Initiative doesn’t go away. It’s secret project “Adam” not only wrecks havoc on the town, but plots to create a cyborg demonoid race to overthrow humanity. Buffy must band together with not only her Scoobies but the demons and other supernatural creatures that have been captured by The Initiative to take down Adam. The government realizes their failure, and terminates the project. The Scoobies later encounter the spirit of The First Slayer, with Buffy receives a cryptic cheese filled message.

Season five

The season kicks off with a famous figure when Count Dracula shows up in Sunnydale in search of Buffy. But he breaks his own spell when he mistakenly bites her in the same place where she was bitten by The Master and Angel and she stakes him. Buffy gets a younger sister, Dawn, who suddenly appears but everyone remembers her always being there. Glorificus aka Glory (Claire Kramer) arrives on the scene in search of “the Key.” She remains on earth by her human form, Ben. In her Hell Goddess form she’s bat shit crazy, maintaining her strength by draining people of their sanity. Glory’s “key” will allow her to return to her Hell dimension by blurring the lines between dimensions, and in the process unleashing Hell on Earth. Of course that key just happens to be in the Summers’ home in the form of Buffy's new sister Dawn. The Key protectors need to make it something they knew she would protect with her life. The Watchers' Council, reinstates both Buffy and Giles and assists them in the research of Glory.

Riley realizes Buffy does not love him, and leaves joining a military demon-hunting operation. Spike, still neutered with the Initiative chip, realizes he is in love with Buffy and joins the Scoobies in earnest, but Buffy continually refuses his advances and alienates him. Spike has a Buffybot built to her disgust, but he earns a place in her life after he refuses to spill Dawn’s secret during one of Glory’s torture sessions. Anya delves deeper in human emotions, becoming obsessed with money and works in Giles’ shop. Xander eventually proposes. Tara becomes one of Glory’s victims, and Willow turns to dark magic to go up against Glory. Though she becomes significantly more powerful, her dependency on magic increases, her personality turns more sinister and she’s still no match for Glory.

Buffy’s mother’s health goes into decline, which she suspects is being caused by Dawn, but its actually a brain tumor. Buffy leaves her dorm to take care of her mother. Near the end of the season, Joyce dies of an aneurysm, devastating Dawn and Buffy. Glory discovers that Dawn is the Key and uses her to open the portal between dimensions. Buffy finally realizes the meaning of the First Slayer's message—"Death is your gift"—and sacrifices her own life to save Dawn's and close the portal. Buffy dies again and her headstone reads "She saved the world a lot".

Season Six

Willow resurrects Buffy with a powerful spell. They believe that they’ve saved her from Hell, but they later learn in the iconic musical episode “Once More With Feeling” that she was in fact in heaven, which explains her resurrection trauma and subsequent depression.  Giles leaves to allow Buffy to spread her wings, but instead she settles for a fast-food job for money and a secret, mutually abusive relationship with Spike. Dawn’s happiness to have her sister back is short-lived with Buffy's depression and Dawn begins acting out. It takes a demon trapping everyone in the Summers' house, for Buffy to realize Dawn's feelings and begin to mend their relationship.

Xander and Anya’s wedding turns disastrous when a magician intent on vengeance against Anya, tricks Xander into calling off the wedding by showing him a future of misery with her. Anya reverts to a vengeance demon but cannot find anyone who wishes vengeance on Xander. She turns to Spike in a moment of weakness and the two have a one night stand, which endangering Spike's unstable relationship with Buffy. Willow becomes addicted to magic which concerns Tara. Although they break up, she remains devoted to helping Willow with her addiction, leading to their reconciliation.

They group takes on The Trio, a group of nerds who use their technological and magical proficiency to attempt to kill or neutralize Buffy and take over Sunnydale. But after Buffy thwarts their plans multiple times and the Trio breaks apart, the leader, Warren then attacks Buffy with a gun but accidentally kills Tara with a stray bullet. Willow tries to resurrect Tara but fails. Tara's death causes Willow to descend into darkness and unleash all of her dark magical powers. Driven by grief, Willow fights against Buffy and even Giles when he returns.  They try using light magic, tapping into her remaining humanity, but it backfires. Xander’s love and friendship pulls Willow back from the darkness, and Buffy comes to terms with being alive again. The season closes with Spike traveling to Africa see a demon to "make him to what he used to be" so that he can "give Buffy what she deserves." After passing a series of tests, Spike is rewarded with the restoration of his soul.

Season Seven

With Buffy's resurrection last season, an instability formed allowing The First Evil, a spiritual entity that Buffy encountered in the third season, to begin tipping the balance between good and evil. Caleb (Nathan Fillion), a sinister and misogynistic preacher turned serial killer heads a cult called Bringers, who worship The First as a god. He is given the task of killing the Potential Slayers, normal girls around the world who are candidates to succeed the Slayer upon her death, and destroying the Watchers Council. With the Watcher’s Council gone, Willow helps track the Potentials in Sunnydale and a number of them, brought by Giles, take refuge in Buffy's house. Dawn at first believes herself to be a Potential, but she finds she isn’t.

Dawn starts sophomore year and Buffy gets a job at the rebuilt Sunnydale High. The new principal, Robin Wood, happens to be a vampire hunter and son of deceased Slayer Nikki Wood. Spike is driven mad by The First, and it gains control of him for a time. Spike is revealed to have killed Robin's mother, sparking a vendetta. Robin attempt to repay the favor, which allows Spike to regain insanity.Willow begins to emotionally heal from Tara's death and finds solace with a Potential Slayer Kennedy. They immediately hook up, before Kennedy can fully understand Willow. Their relationship is strained when Willow drains a significant portion of her life force to reopen a portal for Buffy, but they soon reconcile. Anya and Xander break up for good after a demon named Halfrek gets her to kill a group of frat boys. Buffy and Anya but after Anya requests that her latest vengeance be reversed she is turned human once more.The two remaining members of the Trio return. The First convinces Andrew to help open the Seal of Danzalthar, which leaves Levinson dead. Andrew is captured by the Scoobies, who have residual resentment towards him but he becomes a committed ally of the Scoobies.

Also returned is a reformed Faith to help fight The First. Buffy leads the Potentials against Caleb which causes several deaths, Xander to lose an eye and everyone to question Buffy's leadership skill. Faith leads a mutiny, and Xander takes Dawn out of Sunnydale, only Spike remains loyal. He tells her of an ancient weapon, known as the Scythe, that was designed for the Slayer. While Buffy fights Caleb and finds the Scythe, Faith leads the Potentials on a mission, only to find they've been tricked as a time bomb explodes followed by a Turok-Han ambush.  It’s up to Buffy to save everyone’s lives, including Faith’s.

As the Hellmouth becomes more active, nearly everyone and everything flees Sunnydale. Buffy and her allies stay behind in an effort to defeat The First. Dawn returns to help fight the First. Even Angel comes back with an amulet, that Buffy gives to Spike. Buffy manages to kill Caleb, before moving to stop The First once and for all. Willow uses a spell that activates all the Potential Slayers, granting them some Slayer powers. Heavy losses are felt all around. Spike's amulet channels the power of the sun and kills all of the Turok-Han in the Hellmouth, but Spike sacrifices himself to defeat the enemy. Buffy tells Spike she loves him; he tells her to run as The Hellmouth collapses, and Sunnydale is swallowed. The survivors gather on the rim of Sunnydale's crater but its not the end, it’s the beginning of something more.

Season Eight

Buffy the Vampire Slayer crosses over to comics at Dark Horse Comics with Season Eight which spanned 2007 to 2011.

A year after the destruction of Sunnydale, Buffy and Xander now lead command-central, in a citadel in Scotland. They lead a team of psychics, seers, witches and slayers. Of the 1,800 Slayers worldwide, 500 of them work with Buffy across the globe, split into 10 squads. The US government views Buffy and her Scooby gang as terrorists. An Initiative like branch of the government, lead by General Voll, teams with Sunnydale witch Amy Madison and Season 6 villain Warren Mears in the hopes of bringing Buffy down. Meanwhile, an evil British socialite Slayer, Lady Genevieve Savidge, plots to usurp Buffy's place amongst the Slayers, and a shrewd cabal of Japanese vampires scheme to reverse the global activation of Potential Slayers. They are all tied to “Twilight,” a masked villain who sees the Slayers as a threat to humanity and wants to destroy them, and bring about an end to all magic on Earth.

Buffy is romantically drawn to another woman, Slayer Satsu, and Xander to Slayer Renée. Willow's power grows under the tutelage a powerful demon called Saga Vasuki, but she becomes estranged from her friends, and struggles to keep Kennedy away from them, ultimately breaking up with her. Giles and Buffy have a falling out, and Giles sets out to work with Faith to prevent other Slayers from going rogue, leaving her everything upon his death. Buffy turns to Xander, but finds he loves another. Angel returns and attempts to explain his predicament, and the two lovers reunite for a short time. After yet another tragic turn of events for them, Buffy is forced to smash the seed of magic destroying everything that she knows. She becomes a pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches and moves to San Francisco to get away from it all and back to her former duties as Slayer.

Season Nine

The world is still without magic, and Buffy while fighting vampires on the streets of San Francisco learns of a new threat. Without magic, demons can no longer possess the dead, so when a new vampire is made it becomes a mindless zombie like creature. New threats rise in the form of yet another rogue slayer, Simone Doffler, and Severin who has a unique ability to drain demons and Slayers of their magic, the only magic left in the world.

Xander and Buffy's sister Dawn have settled into quiet domesticity, but as the product of magic and it being gone from the world Dawn soon sickens and begins to die, which Xander blames on Buffy and he’s easily led to betraying her in his anger. Willow desperately works to restore magic, going as far as to team up with Severin to further her cause. Buffy lives with two seemingly normal roommates, Tumble and Anaheed, but Anaheed turns out to be more than she seems. Spike, comes and goes as the season progresses, still in love with Buffy. And Buffy finds an unlikely ally in the ancient demon, Illyria (from the Angel TV series), unfortunately Illyria becomes one of Severin’s victims when a plan goes arry, giving him the ability to travel in time.

With  power too great Severin sacrifices himself to create a new seed, and Buffy is forced in an ultimate showdown against Simone and a newly awakened Maloker, the Old One responsible for siring the first vampire. More lives are sacrificed and Buffy is burdened with all new regrets over empowering the other Slayers. Magic is restored, but the aftershocks are far felt when a new kind of vampire rises, and Buffy’s wealth of knowledge disappears.  

And that my friends brings us to Season 10!

New season. New rules. The age-old battle of Slayer vs. vampire is the focus of Buffy’s life once again—it’s downright nostalgic! But with all the toying with magic she’s done lately, this girl should know it’s time for another game change . . . Shouldn’t she?

Check out a preview of the first issue below which you can purchase at Dark Horse Comics here.