Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 # 12 - Wolves at the Gate, Part One

The fans, the media, and even those in the biz were shocked by Season 8’s issue #12. No one saw it coming. Sure, plenty wondered if this would ever happen but with Buffy Summer’s history of ill-fated boyfriends, she was at least consistent. Since Season 8 began, there was not much of anyone’s love life in the stories. Fans got to see a little bit about the Willow/Kennedy relationship which has somehow managed to survive; but that’s Willow: she’s committed for the long haul when it comes to her love life. Xander, it seemed would finally get Buffy but nothing happened and his eye wondered to the way of another slayer named Renee. Poor Dawn is a giant which had something to do with a curse from her ex-boyfriend. Buffy was just out of luck and seemed to consider love out of her grasp since she had to dedicate her entire existence to slaying and training other slayers.

Buffy ended up in a sleep much like Sleeping Beauty; only true love’s kiss could wake her. It was cliché – or so it seemed when it was likely that Xander, being the only male in the room and in love with her since high school, was the one responsible for waking her. Readers later found out it was a slayer named Satsu who planted the miraculous kiss on her. Buffy acknowledged this and explained that it’s good to love even if it can’t be reciprocated the same way. Yet – despite her own explanation – issue #12 brings us a Buffy and Satsu romp in the sack much to everyone’s surprise.

The light-heartedness of Goddard’s story about love has really brought out Jeanty’s artwork better than any issue so far in Season 8. Jeanty’s interiors have always been great but Goddard’s words compliment it the best. Someone has topped Brian K. Vaughn in the script department. Who’da thunk it?