Buffy the Vampire Slayer Has an All-New Universe
The world is in more peril than ever before in Angel #8, causing the Angel Investigations team to look to the past for a hero in their time of need.
warning
The following contains major spoilers form Angel #8, available now from BOOM! Studios
For the past 25 years, Buffy Summers has been a stalwart force for good against the never-ending forces of things that go bump in the night. Unfortunately for the alternate world of BOOM! Studios’ latest Angel series, the iconic Slayer never even got a chance to become the hero she was destined to be. At least, Buffy didn’t get that opportunity when it was first afforded to her, although that has all just changed in the most impossible manner imaginable. Of course, just because Buffy is back, doesn’t mean she’s prepared for what comes next, and neither is anyone else.
Angel #8 (by Christopher Cantwell, Daniel Bayliss, Patricio Delpeche, Maria Augustina Vallejo, and Becca Carey) sees the titular vampire and his allies joining forces for one final confrontation against his soulless doppelganger from another reality. Despite the impossible power of heroes such as the dimensionally displaced werewolf Oz, the odds are still overwhelmingly in the evil Angel’s favor. Thankfully, there is still one person who might be able to help turn the tide of the battle, even if calling up her isn’t an easy task. As it turns out, the only reason Buffy hasn’t already joined in the fight is that she already lost hers almost as soon as it started.
As Cordelia explains, the Buffy of this world died only weeks after answering her call to action as the Slayer. As such, the fight against the forces of evil here feel on the shoulders of other heroes. The likes of Angel and Fred, the latter of whom is now a Slayer herself, have managed to keep things relatively calm compared to other iterations of the Buffy-Verse until recently. Now that Buffy is back, however, a whole new era is emerging, and she has wasted n time ushering it in.
Not only is Buffy back in action withing moments of stepping out of her own grave, but she is filled with just as much potential as ever. The gap in time between her original demise and the present day is sure to be a minor hurdle, though it ultimately isn’t much of an obstacle for someone who is back to being a superpowered teenager. Buffy’s resurrection is a literal new lease on life for her and a figurative one for the world at large. The presence of any new Slayer is always undoubtedly a good thing, although the reemergence of Buffy, does come with some especially complicated concerns of its own.
That Buffy has come back in such a manner, not to mention so late in the surrounding story compared to almost every other version of her, means that there are a whole host of events and relationships that she will never know. The romances between her and Spike, as well as every other paramour the Slayer has had over the years, are immediately off the table. This doesn’t mean she won’t be able to connect with them, but rather that the basis for their relationships will be entirely different.
Buffy won’t have any opportunities to find romantic partners in Angel or Spike, but she will discover the best allies she could have possibly asked for as she steps back into her destined role. Buffy’s usual Watcher Giles and friends in the Scooby Gang such as Willow have always been an important part of her life, but without them, she is left relying on the people she can. Luckily, Angel Investigations is stacked with other Slayers, monster hunters, and people who know what it is like to go to Hell and back. If anything, Buffy is doing better than ever, even if she had to die to get where she is now.
Original article at CBR.
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