Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Rebakah Isaacs
Colourist: Dan Jackson
Release date: May 13, 2015
Price: $3.50

Look how far Buffy has come since her TV days: Willow can fly and wield power bolts, Giles is a child and, oh, Spike is a bad guy again. Or rather, the lord of Hell, Archaeus, controls him. But may be, the $64,000 dollar question this time round is: Will love save him? Yet, more importantly, do we still care enough? And that seems like a very priceless question to ask here.

Fans will like Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 10 No. 15, because it revolves around Buffy and little ole Giles. But compared to the earlier comic book entries, this series seems to be losing its way and this feels like a miss-step in the wrong direction. There’s nothing fresh here, we’ve seen it all before. The mini-Giles plotline comes across like a gimmick (unlike the earlier giant Dawn storyline which rose above it—pun intended—and had interest and, oh, bite).

The script and art fall short of the heady days of Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty, but at least Christos Gage continues the clever banter Buffy stories excel in. Xander says he’s not in a hurry to date because “they always turn out to be giant bugs or fish ladies of something.” And Spike’s first words to Angel are “Hello, wanker.” A word American society seems to be embracing more and then these days; who says there is no cultural exchange between our two great nations?

The best you can say about Rebakah Isaacs art is that it’s serviceable, gets the reader from A to Z fair enough, but it’s also unattractive and fails to make a big enough impression; likewise Jackson’s coloring which looks blurry around the edges and rushed.

For many readers the negatives will not matter. To them, it would seem, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is like pizza, even when it’s not great, half-baked, missing a topping or three, and nowhere near as warm as it could be, it’s still, in the bitter end, pizza.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker