My Review of Buffy The Vampire Slayer's: "Always Darkest"

Written by Joss Whedon
Artwork by Jo Chen

Buffy (to Xander): “Everybody dies always.”

I know there has been MySpace comics for both “Harmonic Divergence” and “Swell” that further delved into things (more clips from Harmony’s reality TV series, Vampy Cat adverts, etc) but this I had to review.

It’s three pages long but after the deeply boring “Tales Of The Vampires: The Thrill” and the fact that I don’t have “Retreat Part 1” yet in my possession, I thought I should write a review for this.

Okay, from what I can tell, its Season Eight based and it’s another visit into Buffy’s dream space. Seeing as I enjoyed the looks into Buffy’s mind in many issues of the eighth season so far, another peek wasn’t going to hurt, was it?

And it didn’t but instead of Ethan Rayne, this time around it was Caleb leading proceedings. No epic battles between slayer and formerly decapitated woman hating preacher but we did have Caleb taunt her a bit.

Buffy’s got a darkness inside her as the slayer, which is something we’ve been reminded about more than enough times than I could care about. This darkness has been thematic a little in the current comics and its part of a reason why humankind have been more accepting to vampires than slayers. Probably.

The funniest part was seeing Angel and Spike together. Buffy’s two main squeezes entered her head yet again (what no Satsu or Riley?) and in slashy goodness, they actually made out with each other, even possibly having sex with each other in a church as well. It’s almost weirdly comforting that Caleb isn’t a homophobe. Also surprising too considering the kind of Nutjob he is.

The bigger surprise however was seeing Buffy marrying Warren, in all his flayed glory as Tara the miserable bridesmaid looked on in obvious seething resentment. I think I’d wake up in more than a cold sweat if I had been Buffy. Actually I’d probably be puking my guts out. However any form of seeing Tara in this comic verse is going to be a win for me. How about bringing her back for an issue Joss, if not full time?

The last scene with her telling Xander that everyone dies could just be Buffy being typically gloomy or it could foreshadow something much worse. Besides, it’s not like Joss Whedon is afraid to hurt viewers with the death of a much loved character, now is he?

- The guests at Buffy and Warren’s wedding included Xander Regular and Dark Willow, Clem, Sweet, the Swell, Gentlemen, Smile Time puppet, the Judge, Ratio, Elvis and um, some aliens. They looked alien.
- Tara had her bullet wound and was wearing the same outfit she died in.
- The panel didn’t explicitly show the Angel/Spike kiss or implied sex scene but that won’t stop slashers from writing steamy Fanfiction to compensate.
- You can actually read the comic here … http://www.darkhorse.com/Features/eComics/1087/Dark-Horse-Presents-No-24?part_num=1&page=2

Favourite Quotes

Caleb (to Buffy): “It’s the one lesson you always forget, girl. You can’t kill what’s inside you.”

Spike: “But I’m a clean boy.”
Angel: “Maybe you need to be cleaner.”

Buffy (to Angel/Spike): “What in the slashy heck? I’m the love of your lives. Could this possibly get worse?”
Caleb: “Let’s continue, shall we?”

Warren: “Can you see my tear ducts filling up?”
Buffy: “I’m a bride.”
Tara: “I still blame you for my death.”

Who would’ve thought that three pages would’ve been sheer entertainment? “Always Darkest” is a nice little short piece by Joss Whedon himself but I wish that it had been included in an upcoming issue. Oh, well.

Rating: 9 out of 10.