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Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Volume One: High School Is Hell collects the first four issues of the new Buffy comic by Jordie Bellaire. This is not to be confused with Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight – Twelve, a series published by Dark Horse that continued the story past the TV show’s finale. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a reimagining of Buffy with the same characters set in the present day. There are a lot of significant changes: Willow is much more confident that her TV counterpart and is openly dating a girl, Buffy’s mom has a lovely boyfriend who shows no signs of being a killer robot, Anya is an adult who runs the Magic Shop, and Cordy is popular but also quite nice.

I was prepared to loathe this (my loyalty to the TV Show knows no bounds) but I found it to be wonderful. Everyone is different but they feel right at the same time. The tone, both verbal and otherwise, is spot on. Everyone feels familiar and comforting even though they may be doing different things. It feels just like watching the original actors in the original show instead of watching a reboot or a replacement. At the same time, the things that have changed (such as having more diversity, and introducing some characters at different places in their character arcs than we saw on TV) feels like a relief instead of a rip off. It feels fresh, and corrects some of the more problematic aspects of the TV show (lack of racial diversity and an astounding amount of slut-shaming) while retaining the humor, action, and emotionality.

Buffy wearing a shirt that says "SLAY" — I ran this picture by my teenage daughter to see if it resonated with the youth of today and she squeed at such a high pitch that only dogs could hear it.

You can buy Issues #1-4 as a collected volume or Buffy Issue #4 ends on a huge cliffhanger. Issue #5 comes out on June 5. I usually wait for the trades (the collected volumes) but I think I’m going to have to snap up Issue #5 the minute it comes out. It’s that good!

– Carrie S

This is the Buffy Summers you know, who wants what every average teenager wants: friends at her new school, decent grades, and to escape her imposed destiny as the next in a long line of vampire slayers tasked with defeating the forces of evil…only this time around, her world looks a lot more like the one outside your window. Eisner Award-Winner Jordie Bellaire (Redlands), along with series creator Joss Whedon (Marvel’s The Avengers), bring Buffy into a new era with new challenges, new friends, and a few enemies you might already recognize. But the more things change, the more they stay the same as the Gang faces brand-new Big Bads, and the threat lurking beneath the perfectly manicured exterior of Sunnydale High confirms what every teenager has always known: high school truly is hell.