The boyfriend and I just finished Buffy and it was decidedly bittersweet - we really felt that the show had lost touch with so much of what made it good in the last few seasons. We’re still texting each other at odd moments, “You know why else it was bad?” So. Do we want to read the comics? Are the comics more of the same? Are they more the Buffy I miss or the Buffy that can take her whiny ass to hell?
Definitely read them. They have a whole new arc, and everybody gets to shine. They are available in trade paperback versions. There is a new Big Bad, lots of characters return, Xander’s sporting a snazzy eyepatch, Dawn boned a Thricewise…lots of action.
There is one issue in particular (Issue #5 “The Chain”, written by Joss) that will make you cry.
Buffy is distinctly less annoying in “season eight” ( the comic books ) than in season seven. I have my quibbles, but they’re decent enough, acknowledging my general dislike of where the characters and metaplot had been led to up to that point ( i.e. they do the best with a bad situation from my POV ). Certainly there is a bit more humor.
But note that the “season” is not yet finished - it’s up to #29 out of expected run of 40 ( with a tentative “season nine” to follow ). Might be safest to go with the trades and wait for them to be completed that way, rather than wading into the murky waters of collecting them issue by issue.
I’d say yes, read them. Just be aware that a lot of different people are writing the stories so in some places they can be hit or miss. If Joss Whedon or Brian K. Vaughn is writing them they’ve been uniformly good. The most recent volume I felt was a bit of a roller coaster in terms of quality.
The comic series that’s supposed to be season 8 isn’t very good at all. The villains are retreads of past villains (and not particularly good ones at that), the army of Buffies radically changes the tone of the series, and I found the over all plot to be rather dull. Part of the problem is that the writers are no longer constrained by a television budget so everything has become bigger (literally in one case) and I don’t think it’s an improvement. I thought Buffy really went the wrong direction starting with season 6, season 7 managed to make a partial recovery, and season 8 in the form of a comic doesn’t really improve the series.
They would have been better off ending it in season 5.
Odesio