Product Description

Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers - newly legion - have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the "Buffy" decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own. Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues #1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3634 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Customer Reviews

Must read
The Long Way Home collects the first 5 issues of the new series of Buffy comics, continuing where the television series ended. If you're a Buffy fan that misses the show but you think comic books are silly: still buy this anyway. It's not expensive and if you don't like it you don't need to buy the next one, but chances are you'll be converted.

The individual comics that you won't find on Amazon are released on a monthly schedule. Issue 10 is coming in January 2008 and the series is currently planned to run a few more years. Joss Whedon is back writing the characters he created, along with several of his trusted writer friends. Issues keep selling out and going back to print - it's that good.

Ok, story. The TV show ended with the collapse of Sunnydale and several hundred girls around the world receiving slayer-strength. We now join the Buffy gang at their new base of operations in Scotland, which is also home to many of the newly activated slayers. They saved the world but there are still demons out there, and not every slayer is on the side of good. Worse, an army is after Buffy, seeing her as the leader of a terrorist group. Is she ready to fight human beings?

Not disastrous, but a little disappointing.
Whilst I'm happy to see the revival of one of my all time favourite TV shows in any form, I'm afraid I can't wholly endorse this comic book incarnation. One of the strengths of the original series was that it rarely ventured outside the small town of Sunnydale, which put an intense focus on the extraordinary events it depicted and provided an intimate setting for us to get to know, identify with and care for the central characters.

The broadening of the franchise onto a world stage with multiple slayers may make for some spectacular "episodes", but it also sheds a good deal of its old warmth and shifts it into more conventional superhero territory, to the extent that at one point Willow literally flies in to the action. The old meeting places in the high school library, the magic shop and the Summers residence have been supplanted by a high tech headquarters replete with giant TV screens and movie style military trappings, and for me it is a far from satisfying substitute. It's as if Buffy has set up her own version of the Initiative.

Maybe Joss Whedon's long term plan has to do with Buffy and the Scoobies breaking loose from the unwieldy monster of an organisation they've created and finding places to belong elsewhere, as the subtitle Long Way Home implies. I certainly hope so, but at the moment it's too early to tell for sure and for me this has been a faltering start to the journey.

Disasterous premise, awful drawing and completely un-buffylike!
i just finished watching the entire series (all 144 episodes) and was having withdrawal symptoms and decided to pick up and read Buffy Season 8 in comic form.
i wish i hadn't!
within these first few issues the entire premise of Buffy is subverted.
the comic is advertised as not being constrained by a small screen budget, but i think Whedon needs to realise that that is part of the reason buffy was soo good - it wasn't relying on money - it relied on great writing.
the story is totally warped - buffy and the gang have relocated to scotland - why?
they own and operate out of a castle - how did they get the money for that - Buffy is minimum wage!
they also have way way too many enemies - small budget meant few enemies per episode - but now there r zombie hoards - just as normal daily life and a t-rex demon and its just not right. it doesn't make sense - they destroy the hellmouth and now there's MORE enemies? wtf? i no there r more hellmouths but its silly and backwards
Xander and Buffy have a weird relationship starting - with no explanation
and the worst part is that in only these first 5 issues about 4 old enemies come back pointlessly. - ethan raine! Warren - with no skin! and amy - suddenly more powerful than willow!?
has joss run out of ideas? - does he have to keep rehashing old stuff?

its also very un buffy like
its all military styled - the 500 or so slayers sorted in regiments etc - it is almost like the awful 'initiative' of season 4
willow comes in to deal with amy - and she is un willow like in the extreme! - no concern for using her powers or going evil again - she jumps in to the fray - flying and pulsing magic and its totally un credible.
the silly general hunting buffy down is tragic - 'lets nuc her' in a city?! its just absurd

the structure of the story and comic itself is also incoherent - there is very little explanation for the odd things that happen - scenes change without any exposition - and the drawings are very unhelpful - amy and buffy look the same. in short it made me angry reading it.

i now cant remember buffy as ending on the highway - now it has stupid military insensible stuff added on after
the only reason this didnt get 1 star is that it has one redeeming feature - the script - just the words that appear in the bubbles - it is funny and buffylike and the comics only plus point

in short - avoid! if you enjoyed everything buffy was on TV then you will be disappointed - maybe even angry like i am.
2/5