Buffy Season Twelve Comic Reviews
To read a synopsis of Season 12, click HERE.
Dark Horse’s Season 12 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is without a doubt an unprecedented event. It gives an ending of sorts to the Buffy saga that began back in 1997, although it was clearly rushed due to Dark Horse losing the license to Buffy (Fox decided to give the license to Boom Studios in which it holds a significant minority stake).
Joss Whedon wrote Season 12 and promised the fans “some closure” but was only given 4 issues to do so. Strangely, what we get is a story that at the start moves too quickly and yet has an ending that drags on longer than it needs to. While there is certainly a lot to like in Season 12, the story unfortunately takes a number of wrong turns, especially at the end.
Now, the hardest part of writing any story is the ending. There have been so many great sagas that have had poor endings. The original Star Wars saga, The Matrix, The Hunger Games, The Stand and many more.
Part of the problem is that Season 12 doesn’t give us full closure. The ending appears to have been written with the intent of leaving some open threads that might be explored later.
I always imagined that the Buffy saga would end with Buffy finally choosing between Angel and Spike, and that most likely she would wind up with Angel. And yet she chooses neither. Also, Angel and Spike are still alive when it’s over. I always imagined that if Buffy chose Angel then Spike would be killed off (or vice versa). It just seemed like a really wasted opportunity if this was truly supposed to be the end.
So Angel is still alive, but the ShanShu prophecy (that he would become human one day) still remains unfulfilled. This is a big disappointment if this story is truly the end for Angel. If there was any battle would fulfill the prophecy and make Angel human, you would think it would be this one, but no such luck.
We’re told that Angel will stick around San Francisco rather than go back to England. But why tell us this? What’s the point if there is nothing more to the story? It feels like something you would throw out there if there was a Season 13 planned, but we know there isn’t.
Dark Horse’s Season 12 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is without a doubt an unprecedented event. It gives an ending of sorts to the Buffy saga that began back in 1997, although it was clearly rushed due to Dark Horse losing the license to Buffy (Fox decided to give the license to Boom Studios in which it holds a significant minority stake).
Joss Whedon wrote Season 12 and promised the fans “some closure” but was only given 4 issues to do so. Strangely, what we get is a story that at the start moves too quickly and yet has an ending that drags on longer than it needs to. While there is certainly a lot to like in Season 12, the story unfortunately takes a number of wrong turns, especially at the end.
Now, the hardest part of writing any story is the ending. There have been so many great sagas that have had poor endings. The original Star Wars saga, The Matrix, The Hunger Games, The Stand and many more.
Part of the problem is that Season 12 doesn’t give us full closure. The ending appears to have been written with the intent of leaving some open threads that might be explored later.
I always imagined that the Buffy saga would end with Buffy finally choosing between Angel and Spike, and that most likely she would wind up with Angel. And yet she chooses neither. Also, Angel and Spike are still alive when it’s over. I always imagined that if Buffy chose Angel then Spike would be killed off (or vice versa). It just seemed like a really wasted opportunity if this was truly supposed to be the end.
So Angel is still alive, but the ShanShu prophecy (that he would become human one day) still remains unfulfilled. This is a big disappointment if this story is truly the end for Angel. If there was any battle would fulfill the prophecy and make Angel human, you would think it would be this one, but no such luck.
We’re told that Angel will stick around San Francisco rather than go back to England. But why tell us this? What’s the point if there is nothing more to the story? It feels like something you would throw out there if there was a Season 13 planned, but we know there isn’t.
Also, we learn that Buffy and Faith are in training to be police officers. But, again, did we really need to know this? Some things are just better off left open ended.
The only significant thing we learn after the battle is that Fray’s future has been changed and now appears to be a golden age. But aren’t there still vampires and demons around? I don’t think every demon in the world was shoved into the portal, so it feels like there should be more to the story than what we were told.
The ending to the battle was also disappointing. At first, we get a great swerve in that it appears Buffy will banish both herself and the demons into a hell dimension as foretold, but Harth then decides to change history, and he steals all the Slayers’ powers for himself. The ending to issue #3 is without question one of the best cliffhangers ever.
But just as Harth is about to win, he suddenly is overcome by the power that he has stolen, and this allows Buffy to kill him. We are told that he couldn’t handle the power, but I don’t get the reason why. Harth is a vampire, so he has no soul. I don’t see how he could have been affected in a negative way by the power and the Slayer memories because having no soul means he is incapable of compassion or empathy.
But even if you buy this explanation, it’s still disappointing because it allows Buffy to triumph through no effort of her own, similar to how she defeated D’Hoffryn at the end of Season Ten. Imagine if the first Star Wars movie had ended with the Death Star exploding not because Luke shoots the thermal exhaust port but because the Death Star’s laser gets jammed. Yes, it might be plausible that this could happen, but it’s certainly not satisfying. The best endings are when the hero finds a believable way to defeat the villain on his own. If the hero wins because the villain trips and falls on his own sword, what fun is that?
I was also bummed to learn in the first issue that Buffy and Spike broke up. And why did this happen? Buffy says they didn’t work as a couple when nothing is going wrong. To me, this makes both of them seem incredibly shallow. Why not have the reason be that Spike doesn’t age yet Buffy does and so it could never have worked out in the long run? At least this explanation would have some actual logic behind it.
The only significant thing we learn after the battle is that Fray’s future has been changed and now appears to be a golden age. But aren’t there still vampires and demons around? I don’t think every demon in the world was shoved into the portal, so it feels like there should be more to the story than what we were told.
The ending to the battle was also disappointing. At first, we get a great swerve in that it appears Buffy will banish both herself and the demons into a hell dimension as foretold, but Harth then decides to change history, and he steals all the Slayers’ powers for himself. The ending to issue #3 is without question one of the best cliffhangers ever.
But just as Harth is about to win, he suddenly is overcome by the power that he has stolen, and this allows Buffy to kill him. We are told that he couldn’t handle the power, but I don’t get the reason why. Harth is a vampire, so he has no soul. I don’t see how he could have been affected in a negative way by the power and the Slayer memories because having no soul means he is incapable of compassion or empathy.
But even if you buy this explanation, it’s still disappointing because it allows Buffy to triumph through no effort of her own, similar to how she defeated D’Hoffryn at the end of Season Ten. Imagine if the first Star Wars movie had ended with the Death Star exploding not because Luke shoots the thermal exhaust port but because the Death Star’s laser gets jammed. Yes, it might be plausible that this could happen, but it’s certainly not satisfying. The best endings are when the hero finds a believable way to defeat the villain on his own. If the hero wins because the villain trips and falls on his own sword, what fun is that?
I was also bummed to learn in the first issue that Buffy and Spike broke up. And why did this happen? Buffy says they didn’t work as a couple when nothing is going wrong. To me, this makes both of them seem incredibly shallow. Why not have the reason be that Spike doesn’t age yet Buffy does and so it could never have worked out in the long run? At least this explanation would have some actual logic behind it.
When I first learned that Buffy and Spike broke up, I naturally assumed it was because Whedon wanted to set up an ending in which Buffy and Angel get together. When this didn’t happen, I was really scratching my head. What then was the point of breaking them up?
Giles has been restored to the age he was at when he died in Season 8. This is another element that was rushed due to the four-issue limit, but I always thought that the younger Giles was a more interesting character and making him older for this story doesn’t really serve any purpose.
However, one thing that really works is that the final battle reflects what was hinted in Fray #4 in 2001. We were told that the Slayer (presumably Buffy) fought a final battle in which she banished all demons from our dimension but disappeared along with them. To Whedon’s credit, he doesn’t ignore this but instead incorporates it into the story. It’s called the Reckoning.
In a nice twist, Buffy and the gang time warp into the future to find Melaka Fray and learn what will happen during the final battle with Harth. As soon as they arrive, they run into Fray and her sister, and of course there is an obligatory fight scene in which Buffy and Fray fall into a deep plummet, but it’s pretty well done. Still, it’s odd to see Fray drawn by someone other than Karl Moline as she and her future world just don’t look as good even when Georges Jeanty is the artist.
Buffy and friends are told to go see “The Queen” who delightfully turns out to be Harmony! She gives us a very humorous rendition of what happened, and we learn that Buffy indeed does wind up sacrificing herself in order to force the demons into a hell dimension. Willow made herself immortal in order to make sure that the demons don’t return but apparently couldn’t undo it. Eventually, she went dark again. She knew when Buffy would come to the future, and she knew that Buffy would kill her, so she went along with it because she wanted to die and also likely because she knew it was fated.
The final battle against Harth and the monsters is really well done until the very end. Faith’s fight with the giant snake Mayor is especially good. Normally, I don’t like it when dead characters are resurrected, but with the exception of Harth the Mayor is the only interesting demon character and he adds a lot of fun to the story, really elevating it in the process.
Illyria says Angel is her lover. The two hooked up at the end of Angel Season 11 (which I enjoyed much more than Buffy Season 11). This opened up what surely would have been a very intriguing storyline since Illyria and Fred share the same body, but it winds up never being explored since Illyria sacrifices herself to push the demons into the portal.
There isn’t much else for me to comment on. This article probably comes across as overly negative, but I actually think the positives outweigh the negatives for Season 12. It’s just that it’s hard to find interesting ways to praise all the things you like. It’s much easier to criticize the things you don’t like.
Am I sad that Buffy has ended? Not really. It probably has to do with the fact that I was very disappointed with Season 11 and lost faith that the writers had any truly interesting ideas for the characters going forward. To be fair, characters can only grow and evolve so much, and the longer the story goes on the harder it is to keep things fresh and exciting. And 12 seasons is a long, long time.
Also, the Buffy/Spike dynamic had become the heart of the comic since Season 9. It was the main thing that kept Buffy interesting. With Season 11, it seemed pretty clear that the Buffy/Spike relationship had gone as far as it could go. So maybe this really was the right time to end the story.
I apologize that this article is not as long or detailed as you’ve been accustomed to in the past, but I’m just not as interested in doing this as I was when I first started this site. These comic review guides were done partially as a nod to the Buffy TV episode guides done by Spectrum Magazine, and hopefully my reviews managed to live up to that magazine’s incredible quality. If I got you to actually read all of my comic reviews despite their length, then I must have done something right. While I’m sure you didn’t always agree with my opinions, hopefully you found them interesting enough.
In closing, thank you for coming to this site. It’s been an honor to have you.
Giles has been restored to the age he was at when he died in Season 8. This is another element that was rushed due to the four-issue limit, but I always thought that the younger Giles was a more interesting character and making him older for this story doesn’t really serve any purpose.
However, one thing that really works is that the final battle reflects what was hinted in Fray #4 in 2001. We were told that the Slayer (presumably Buffy) fought a final battle in which she banished all demons from our dimension but disappeared along with them. To Whedon’s credit, he doesn’t ignore this but instead incorporates it into the story. It’s called the Reckoning.
In a nice twist, Buffy and the gang time warp into the future to find Melaka Fray and learn what will happen during the final battle with Harth. As soon as they arrive, they run into Fray and her sister, and of course there is an obligatory fight scene in which Buffy and Fray fall into a deep plummet, but it’s pretty well done. Still, it’s odd to see Fray drawn by someone other than Karl Moline as she and her future world just don’t look as good even when Georges Jeanty is the artist.
Buffy and friends are told to go see “The Queen” who delightfully turns out to be Harmony! She gives us a very humorous rendition of what happened, and we learn that Buffy indeed does wind up sacrificing herself in order to force the demons into a hell dimension. Willow made herself immortal in order to make sure that the demons don’t return but apparently couldn’t undo it. Eventually, she went dark again. She knew when Buffy would come to the future, and she knew that Buffy would kill her, so she went along with it because she wanted to die and also likely because she knew it was fated.
The final battle against Harth and the monsters is really well done until the very end. Faith’s fight with the giant snake Mayor is especially good. Normally, I don’t like it when dead characters are resurrected, but with the exception of Harth the Mayor is the only interesting demon character and he adds a lot of fun to the story, really elevating it in the process.
Illyria says Angel is her lover. The two hooked up at the end of Angel Season 11 (which I enjoyed much more than Buffy Season 11). This opened up what surely would have been a very intriguing storyline since Illyria and Fred share the same body, but it winds up never being explored since Illyria sacrifices herself to push the demons into the portal.
There isn’t much else for me to comment on. This article probably comes across as overly negative, but I actually think the positives outweigh the negatives for Season 12. It’s just that it’s hard to find interesting ways to praise all the things you like. It’s much easier to criticize the things you don’t like.
Am I sad that Buffy has ended? Not really. It probably has to do with the fact that I was very disappointed with Season 11 and lost faith that the writers had any truly interesting ideas for the characters going forward. To be fair, characters can only grow and evolve so much, and the longer the story goes on the harder it is to keep things fresh and exciting. And 12 seasons is a long, long time.
Also, the Buffy/Spike dynamic had become the heart of the comic since Season 9. It was the main thing that kept Buffy interesting. With Season 11, it seemed pretty clear that the Buffy/Spike relationship had gone as far as it could go. So maybe this really was the right time to end the story.
I apologize that this article is not as long or detailed as you’ve been accustomed to in the past, but I’m just not as interested in doing this as I was when I first started this site. These comic review guides were done partially as a nod to the Buffy TV episode guides done by Spectrum Magazine, and hopefully my reviews managed to live up to that magazine’s incredible quality. If I got you to actually read all of my comic reviews despite their length, then I must have done something right. While I’m sure you didn’t always agree with my opinions, hopefully you found them interesting enough.
In closing, thank you for coming to this site. It’s been an honor to have you.