Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Volume 7: Twilight

The art for this is more cartoonish than I prefer. It's not terrible except that there are a couple characters that are hard to tell apart sometimes.The story is face paced and racing towards the end and for the most part a lot of fun.Then we find out about what Twilight is and what it wants and... It was kind of a let down for me. It didn't totally suck, but it felt derivative.So, for the most part I really liked this volume.

I loved so much about Twilight, the next-to-last volume in Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I loved Xander and the way he dealt with Buffy's untimely over-sharing. I loved Buffy's powers ramped up to superhero levels and the reason behind it. I loved the arrival of Angel, even if I didn't completely love why he was there. I loved, in an extreme fashion, the arrival of the surprise Buffy alum at the end of the volume. I just didn't love where the overall series story arc ended up.Who is Twilight? We've wondered through 6 previous volumes. The answer, well, is disappointing to say the least. The reveal will be a shock, followed by a groan. Because, really, haven't we already faced this villain before in another form? Sure, this is different. It always is. The person behind the Twilight mask isn't the actual evil Buffy and the gang face anyway. It's all leading up to an event. An event that changes the world. I find myself groaning again.I don't like where the story went here and I'm very afraid of where it's going to take us in the last volume of Season 8. Everything was coming along nicely and then this is what we get. What the hell? This is one of those rare instances where I wish everyone wakes up realizing it was all a dream. I want a do-over. Continuing on this path, all that's left for the next volume is cleaning up the mess they made while Buffy struggles with her love life. I desperately hope Whedon has something amazing up his sleeve.Twilight is so close to perfect while managing to allow for a large amount of wrong to work its way into the story. I couldn't help but love this volume, while simultaneously hating everything Twilight related.

No spoilers, but sometimes story writers work so hard to find a dramatic twist that they fail to consider what it takes to make a twist work. It should be, in hindsight, something that was always there but you just didn't see. It should be something that, in the end, was logical in retrospect. This one just blew it badly.

I'm guessing most people who are thinking of buying this have bought the previous Season 8 books, and, like me, have watched a slow decline in the story and art quality. This release maintains the decline. The artwork is dodgy, and the story is really pretty lame. The big reveal makes very little sense. Given how meticulous Joss Whedon has been in the past with details, I am very surprised as it feels very much like something the writers thought up two days before the comic was due.I assume season 8 will finish soon (given the motion comic is on the way). I really hope the comic picks itself up and finishes well. So far I am not that confident.

This was a great story arc! Buffy Season 8 is amazing! Anyone who loved the tv show will love the comics. The writers have done an amazing job of keeping the heart of the characters the same through the transition of mediums. When I read the comics, I can hear all of the dialogue being spoken in the voices of the show's actors.

Looks great

I would say average. I'm not an avid comic book reader though so I'm not experienced in reading them. I picked this up because I'm A HUGE angel fan. Not bad, but not great either.

Great series!

This review contains strong language [Except not on Amazon]. It's strong language which is basicly in the comic itself and I've mostly hidden behind spoiler warnings (which also contain spoilers). But it is absolutely necessary to give this volume its due.A lot of bad things are said about Season 8 which are perhaps unfair. It's true that, in many ways, it's over-the-top lack of budget overwhelms the heart which drove the television series forwards, that it fails to keep the characters in perspective, and this it doesn't entirely seem feasible that this is the direction we would have seen these characters take had the series continued on television (or if <i>Angel</i> had lasted any longer). That being said, there's a lot in the preceding volumes of this series which I'd overlooked, which takes the characters into places which work well, and which really develop the characters. I have, in many ways, enjoyed this re-read far more than I expected to and certainly more than I did the first time through.That being said, "Twilight" is without a doubt the worst canonical <i>Buffy</i> story ever told and the low-point even of Season 8.It's getting a little ahead of myself to talk about "Twilight". First we have "Turbulence", an enjoyable little story where Buffy tries to come to terms with what happened to her in the closing moments of "Retreat". It also calmly shrugs off Oz and Riley, who subsequently disappear from the narrative. Which is tricky, because what's happened to Oz? Can he still prevent himself from turning into a wolf? Where are his wife and child, the former of whom was badly injured and the latter completely absent from the battle which just took place right outside his house. There's some good character-building, emotional stuff between Xander, Dawn, and Buffy, which in part seems to just be getting rid of the overhanging plot before the next story, but "Turbulence" is largely a servicable joiner between two bigger storylines.At the end of this volume there's the Willow one-shot "Goddesses and Monsters" which deals with the journey Willow goes on before the start of Season 8 which explains her vastly greater powers in the comics than in the television series. There's little in the way of actual plot, but the art is great (I do wish Karl Moline were the main artist for this series) and it does add some background to Willow's choices and actions in Season 8 so far. It's also important set up for the subsequent volume. It's good enough, alongside "Turbulence" to raise this volume from one star (which "Twilight" deserves) to two.As for "Twilight" itself, dear lord. It's difficult to know quite who to blame for this travesty. On the one hand, it's quite clear that Brad Meltzer is a terrible writer. The language use is all wrong for the characters and all out of sync with the television show. Part three is perhaps the worst offender, which builds upon the ridiculous cosmic ideas alongside a ridiculous sex scene. But on the other hand, the cosmic nonsense and overall plot must have come from the head of Joss Whedon. This is the big finale, what Twlight has been leading up to, so it's not just the fault of the terrible writer who had the responsibility to make it work. And, let's be fair, the television show had an awful lot of cosmic nonsense in it which worked perfectly well (although in the television show it was usually easier to see the point of the nonsense as it was clearly metaphorical). But better writers made that work.Let's start with some things I don't mind. I don't mind Twilight itself (THERE WAS A SPOILER HERE). Oh wait, I think I reached the limit of the things I don't mind. I also don't mind how that spoiler is revealed, either. It fits with what we've seen so far in Season 8, I think. And I think it's actually justified pretty well.So - the bad things. It takes an extrordinarily short period of time for Twilight to convince Buffy about his schemes. And, while it is a fairly apt word to describe what happens, it seems completely out of character to use the f-word to describe a sex-scene in <i>Buffy</i>, especially when it's Willow saying it. There are also dubious consent issues at work here. It's difficult to understand what we're supposed to think about this. Is it being played for laughs? It's really not funny. But it's impossible to take it seriously. It's completely the wrong tone to have something erotic in the middle of a war like this, which is probably not the intention as it isn't erotic anyway. It just <i>is</i>.The worst part of the whole volume, though, the thing I hate the most is the ending. OBVIOUSLY THERE WAS A SPOILER HERE.To be honest, I think that <i>Twilight</i> is probably the most appropriate title for this volume not because of the apparently independently named villan of the series, but because it reduces Buffy's story to her sexual relationships with vampires. It's no longer about a self-actualized female taking control of her own life, it's about the universe being based around who she f-words. That, personally, would be how I'd interpret Buffy being betrayed by someone close to her in this battle. She was supposed to be cookie dough, Joss. What the **** is this?If this volume had come any earlier in the series, it would have been the point at which I would have abandoned it. As it stands, there was only one volume left. And it is, just about, worth it to finish off. This is the lowest possible point for <i>Buffy</i>, so it actually only can get better from here.[Edit] I forgot to complain about all the fuss being made over Buffy having superpowers. So what, guys? She's had superpowers since she was fifteen! She's the best superhero, because her powers weren't what defined her. Gahh!! [/Edit]The full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/900560560?book_show_action=false

One of the better GN of season 8. We find out more about twilight and where this season has been going. Takes an interesting direction & uses comic medium to its full. There is no way this could have worked on tv, the world was changed after s7 and its an interesting that they used a comic to bring Buffy back and explore this, instead of making it just a tv show in comic form as it where. Looking forward to the finale!

Great item at a great price well worth it

I enjoyed reading this series of Buffy comics, as at the time I was just getting over the fact that one of my favourite series had come to an end.Generally the series lets you stay in contact with your favourite characters, although the ending, in this volume, is not as good as what followed it.

Nice continuation of the tv series, and great illustration, but I am a bit disappointed with the story. It's a bit difficult to read at times, but otherwise ok.