Until now, the Scooby Gang never thought that the greatest force they’d have to face came from their own ranks. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24, the Gang takes on a darkness out of their control. This issue is written and illustrated by long-time contributes Jeremy Lambert and Ramon Bachs, respectively. Also returning are colorist Raul Angulo and letterer Ed Dukeshire.

The Ring of Fire arc has turned multiple friends into foes. Anya, the former Watcher, continues her secret plot against the Watcher Council. Meanwhile, Xander’s a vampire hell-bent on trapping Willow with him. Now, through the magic of a mysterious gift from issue #20, Willow has been taken over by an eerie sort of doppelganger.

Dark Willow was one of the biggest twists in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow spent seasons of the original series learning about magic and perfecting spell-crafting in her own right. But by Season 6, her ambitions and appetite for magic had grown to a dangerous level.

“It was very intended to have me show up in that fashion,” she explains. “Calculate is not the right word but it’s purposeful. You’re not going to have me show up, and immediately think there’s nothing to my being there. It’s obviously going to pull in a similar fan bas [to Buffy]. That was intended.” Part of that plan required keeping Caulfield’s casting a complete secret until she emerged as queen bee of the neighborhood in Episode 2.

I want to be honest here. Although I do enjoy Boom! Studios Buffy-verse which has excelled with titles such as Angel & Spike. Willow and even the recent Faith revival, the titular book continues to fall short of what it tries to offer us.

We expect death on a show like Buffy, but we expect it by way of vampires, demons and major climactic battles. That Joyce dies from a normal-body failing is shocking. It feels incredibly poignant that the two biggest deaths of the series – excluding the series finale or the death of a certain character who comes back to life – happen in the most mundane, human ways possible. (The other one is Tara, who’s killed by a gun.) Usually a loud and dramatic show, this episode is quieter with sparse background noise and little dialogue, allowing it to slow down and focus on the minute details of the different ways people grieve.

I think that there are plenty of mainstream examples of narrative meeting games, there’s a whole subgenre of anime dedicated to it in fact. But I do think having indie people driving the market is going to help formalize the genre in an innovative way. It’s always those first creators who pioneer and set the tone and the rules for others to later to create within.

“I am always like ‘I will believe it when I see it’ but always open and optimistic someone is going to do something,” says Hannigan, in an interview that took place just before the drama unfolded. “I’ll definitely be the first one at my set watching and it’s cool there is an audience that wants it to happen. So hopefully it does take off. “

I can’t mention the Buffy series without talking about the ability of the artists. Spanning several different books across the studio line, each entry manages to deliver the characters consistently. Faith is drawn with the same look and appeal as when she was introduced in Buffy a few issues back.

Sarah Michelle Gellar recently appeared on the On With Mario Podcast, hosted by Mario Lopez. Watch below to hear talk about her work with Feeding…