Horror

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #25

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #25Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine comes to a close with Buffy and the Scoobies fighting for their lives inside The Deeper Well against Simone and the demon Maloker. With the new seed ready to burst, and return magic back into the world, Buffy’s friends are able to make it to safety leaving the Slayer one-on-one with the turned Simone for control of the Scythe.

There’s plenty of action in this final issue as Buffy is finally able to stake the bitch and make it out of The Deeper Well and rejoin her friends. With magic returned, Willow and the Scoobies are able to bring Dawn back and set everything right with the world. Well… almost everything.

The issue’s final panels show us the rules have changed as the laws of magic, vampires, and possibly much more are all different under the new seed than the old. Although Buffy and her companions survive (sadly without Illyria who doesn’t make it out of the Well), the world they return to may be far different than the one they left. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #24

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #24There’s action aplenty in the latest issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine as various factions battle miles below the surface of the Earth inside The Deeper Well for Dawn‘s life, the future of magic, and the lives of everyone on Earth.

Leaving Willow to find the magic needed to save Dawn (which she discovers in the form of a new seed slowly growing near the center of the Well), Buffy heads after the now turned Simone (now twice as strong and dangerous), which leaves the rest of the group of defenders to deal with the awakened Maloker, and the most unlikely person of all to talk Severin down from his mad quest to reset all of reality by sharing her own pain and loss.

The season is certainly going out with a bang as this issue is packed with characters, actions, and even a couple of nice surprises. Aside from Willow looking decidedly Joker-like (seriously, what’s up with that?) this not much for me to complain about other than how sad I am to only have one issue left to wrap-up the season. Must-read.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Fatale #16

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Fatale #16The latest issue continues the storyline of Josephine still suffering from amnesia in Seattle during the 1990’s. Fatale #16 works well in explaining why Josephine has so many rules with men by foreshadowing dark outcomes for the house mates who she begins effecting, especially after sleeping with two separate members of the band.

Fatale #16 also fills in the past of the serial killer cop obsessed with killing women who look like Josephine since first meeting her more than two decades ago as a child. The realization that she’s still alive, and looks exactly the same as the last time he saw her, is quite enough to drive the already less-than-sane an completely over the edge.

Although this issue is mostly set-up for the death and pain we can see coming, writer Ed Brubaker teases us with an oppressive foreboding that’s contradictory the the sunny nature of “Jane Doe” who doesn’t even realize how effortlessly she’s going to ruin the lives of everyone in the house. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #23

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #23Season Nine‘s final arc continues to heat up as Buffy and the demon council head into the depths of The Deeper Well to stop Severin from stealing enough power from the sarcophagi of the Old Ones to tear a hole in reality in order to bring his girlfriend back to life. Buffy also searches desperately for the magic which will stop Dawn from disappearing and must stop Simone‘s whose dark plans which involve an army of Slayer Zompires and the demon who created the first vampire – Maloker.

There’s quite a bit of action here balanced by some tough choices for the Slayer as she must abandon her mission to save her sister in order to once again save the world and a tender moment between Dawn and Xander who tries desperately to get the woman he loves to fight against disappearing into nothingness.

Despite some ups and downs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine is looking as if it will end on a high note as well as the possibility that some form of magic will be returned to world helping to set up a new storyline when the characters move on to Season Ten. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Fatale #15

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Fatale #15After loosing his leg and spending nearly a year in jail the latest issue of Fatale finally picks up the thread of Nicholas Lash‘s storyline. Combing over the edited pages of his uncle’s manuscript in search of answers to the secret of Josephine, the obsessed Lash is finally let out of prison and taken to the courthouse where a madman kills his lawyer and helps him escape, all for her. It appears she hasn’t forgotten him after all.

The rest of the issue takes place years earlier when a member of a struggling band turned bank robber discovers a nude and bloodied Josephine on the side of the road. We get glimpses of what she escaped from, and at least one man still on her trail, but Josephine herself seems lost and confused as to how she ended up naked running through the woods.

I’m happy to see Lash’s return but the length of his story cuts into the opening of Josephine’s new arc which has to spend several pages introducing Lance as well. This means the crux behind the new arc is teased but not really shown. Still, fans of Fatale should enjoy themselves here. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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