Well this is different. I must say, when I began reviewing Buffy I never thought it would lead to reviewing a comic book! I'm going to fully admit that I am not a comic/cartoon/anime fan in the slightest. I hold no malice towards the medium or people who enjoy it, but in my eyes this form of art is inherently inferior to their live action equivalents of similar quality. To me, comics live in this space between a novel and a television show. Rather than be the best of both worlds, I think you end up with something far too diluted from either camp. With a book you have free reign to imagine the characters, locations, and drama in any way you choose. With film, it's the complete opposite, but there's a lot more opportunity to refine character and a particular mood, setting, or image the creator wants the viewer to see. Each medium has its positives and negatives. I find comics to just be a washed out middle ground where I don't get much fun from either side.

I want to be up front about my perceptions coming into reading "The Long Way Home Pt. 1" so some of my comments have a more relatable context. I would clearly rather have some form of live action continuation than a comic any day. Even after reading this issue it's clear that the comic medium is very limited in its capabilities to inspire me (lack of actors and music being just a couple biggies) in many of the ways the television series did. I also found this first issue to be surprisingly short, which is something that limits an individual issue's capabilities. With that said, I'd still take this comic season over never seeing any form of continuation of the Buffyverse.

I see Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a seven season complete story and am completely satisfied where it ended, but that's not to say I'm not interested in having a smaller continuation of the show which is what we get here. I'm going to view this as not a part of the series but rather as an add-on... a prologue of sorts to the already complete story. In this light, I can love it much more than if I was constantly trying to compare it to the series and treat it like a real new televised season. I feel that, in the end, that's the wrong approach and will simply lead to me being severely disappointed.

So it was with great skepticism and anticipation that, during my lunch break, I drove from Redmond, WA to Kenmore and walked into Corner Comics (seemingly the only comic book store on the entire East Side). I walked in and saw a bunch of copies of Buffy #1 sitting on a rack that you face as you enter the door. I then walked up to the counter and told the lady my name (I'd placed one on hold a couple days earlier) and she kindly jumped up, grabbed my issues, and plopped them on the counter. She asked me, "Did you also want the alternate cover?" How cool! She even took the liberty to put the alternate cover version on hold for me even though I didn't ask for it! Of course, I bought it as well. This comic series looks to be fairly big in the comic world, and the alternate cover might be worth something someday. For $2.99, I'd call it a steal for that chance. Plus, I felt like I was giving extra thanks to Joss Whedon for giving me more brand new Buffy, of which I unfortunately experienced none of in the time the show was on air. With my new comic in hand, I had to wait until after work to read it. Finally I got home, turned on Robert Duncan's "Final Fight" score from "Chosen" (7x22), and opened up S8.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the inherent differences in my analysis as compared to the episode reviews, and I'm not just referring to the fact that this is a comic book. These reviews are no longer retrospective like my episode reviews are. I don't know what's going to happen and don't read spoilers that go beyond the next comic's synopsis and the new cover art that comes out. So replacing much of the foreshadowing I enjoy oh so much will come much speculating. In light of all this, I plan to add foreshadowing bits to all my reviews when the season is complete and also do mini re-reviews of all the issues, re-grading some of them, in my Season 8 Review. Additionally, although my grading can largely be transferred over to comic book form, it will not be the same. I have a feeling it'll be a while before I settle into a confident scoring scheme. What a 100 will look like in this season I have no clue of, but I do know that I'm going to follow my gut: if it feels and reads like a 100, it'll get a 100. Now, with all this one-time preface stuff out of the way, let Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer begin!!

Before I jump into the story, I just wanted to take a moment to praise Georges Jeanty's art. I did not expect it to be this good and this close the actual actors. Although early in the issue it's a bit off (although still good), the last half of it really starts to finally click with me. My favorite page of the entire issue is easily the one where Buffy is thinking to herself outside the castle. That's some beautiful art and great writing working together there. If this is where the season is headed, art-wise, count me as excited.

"The Long Way Home," as a title, gives me some hints about where this initial arc is headed. I think it will likely end with Buffy returning to Sunnydale in some capacity and, in tradition Whedon fashion, it won't be simple; at least from an emotional standpoint. As Buffy will say later, "I miss home."

The opening sequence does a pretty solid job at getting us back into the series. I'll admit I am a bit surprised to see Buffy jumping out of a helicopter though. Her 'gun' expands like a crossbow but seems to shoot something that breaks through a magical force field. Is this some kind of imbued crossbow? This is all very new stuff for Buffy and will take a bit of getting used to. I'm also particularly curious how she all the sudden got a bunch of funding. The dialogue, though, is thankfully snappy as ever. The bit about "The Immortal" is hilarious and manages to makes me enjoy "That Girl in Question" (AtS 5x20) a whole lot more -- I couldn't stand being forced to convince myself the obvious double for Sarah Michelle Gellar was actually Buffy. Go Andrew! I also love seeing Buffy still kicking down doors and charging in. "Oh, I just suck at undercover" ("Anne" [3x01]).

Something new to notice is a whole lot of voiceovers, and not just from Buffy herself. The television series very rarely needed to do this largely because of the combination of phenomenal writing and acting. Without the actors playing their parts, though, I think the voiceovers help fill that void a bit in giving us some insight into the characters' heads. Buffy's voiceovers here are very welcome. Through them, we can tell that she feels and is in completely new territory controlling around 500 slayers. That's a much bigger number than the thirty or so potentials she struggled commanding in S7. It's also interesting to think about how her group has only managed to gather less than 27% of the new Slayers to work with them. What are all these other slayers up to? Buffy says of her new status, "Here at command central, not so much with the hilarious. More with the 'what the hell am I doing?' It's not all that different though. Still got my demons. And I still got my Watcher."

The first fight sequence is drawn very well and proved to be fairly cool. What's most important, though, is that it contains the very first moment where I fully realized that this is really Buffy. A demon tells her, "You think I fear the cross?" Buffy responds by first cramming that cross into its head and then replying, "Might wanna start." That's definitely my Buffy! Welcome back!!

Some character moments I particularly enjoyed involved the updates on Buffy's relationships with Xander and Dawn. I got a warm feeling inside when I saw Buffy and Xander working close together and read Xander say "Okay Buf. Game on." It made me feel like I was watching a new episode of the show, which is something this issue does in brief flashes and is what I consider an amazing achievement for a comic book. Another sequence I absolutely adore is the casual Buffy/Xander sequence after the fight. They are so warm, jovial, and even a little touching here. I honestly have some hopes for their massively strong friendship, one of which they've worked out many issues in, to slowly develop into something more. I'm not saying this necessarily must happen for me to be happy, but rather that it'd be a direction I'd be very happy with and have been since the functional almost married-like aspect of their interaction back in "Lessons" (7x01).

Xander tells Buffy that she really needs to talk with Dawn, as there are some new problems in that relationship. It's discovered that Buffy and Dawn really haven't been very close since the events of "Chosen" (7x22). This doesn't come as a terrible surprise to me because ever since Buffy was resurrected in "Bargaining Pt. 1" (6x01) their relationship has never been the same. An entire year of neglect couldn't have rubbed off well on Dawn and, although Dawn herself gained a bit of maturity, Buffy was far too busy to spend much time re-bonding with Dawn in S7. I can only imagine that 'busyness' has increased tenfold since then.

It looks like Dawn hasn't quite matured enough yet though, as it appears as that she pulled a S2 Buffy. It's interesting to note that Dawn is likely the exact same age as Buffy (17) was when she slept with Angel in "Surprise" (2x13), causing him to lose his soul. I'm definitely with Buffy in thinking 'why talk to only Willow' about her 'giant' situation. Dawn says Willow taught her something when Buffy was dead. I find this particularly curious as I've always wanted more details about the events between S5 and S6.

As I mentioned earlier, my favorite part of the entire issue is easily the two pages outside the castle. I pretty much love all of Buffy's thoughts here: missing home, missing her mom, missing the Scoobies, missing some food, and "great muppety Odin, I miss that sex." I guess she actually does miss something that happened to her in S6. That must have been some phenomenal sex. Even more than all that, I adore Buffy's rant to herself in which I can so easily hear Sarah Michelle Gellar speaking. Buffy simultaneously relates to and doesn't understand Dawn, which fits as her unique role as Dawn's surrogate mother and actual (well, sort of) sister. It's good to see that Buffy's still struggling with the loneliness issues ever so succinctly summed up in "Conversations with Dead People" (7x07). In fact, I think that episode is actually a really fantastic primer to where she's at, emotionally, now. In the end, she sums it all up for us and herself: "Outstanding. I can't even feel sorry for myself in a linear fashion. Suck it up Summers. You're a big girl now." Once again, welcome back Buffy!

Besides Buffy herself, I've got to say that Xander translates extremely well into comic form. I can also easily hear Nicholas Brendon's voice and see his gestures in the subtleties of the art. Great work. The frames where he and Renee have a discussion about Nick Fury is very fun and highlight that feeling of these events really happening rather than just being a collection of pages. Xander really seems to have movement here, and is very cool to witness.

As you can see by now, I was very entertained and somewhat intrigued by this opening issue. There are several plot pieces already being set into motion. This is some pretty good setup, but is also limited by the very fact it is only setup. We've got the men with the self-inflicted wounds and the symbol, the person dressed in black hovering over the castle Buffy raided, the crazy General, and a very bitter Amy. Although this issue mostly succeeds at its goals I can tell, as with most Buffy season openers, that the best is most certainly yet to come.

If there's one thing that really annoyed me in the midst of all this solid writing, it's General Voll. I really don't like how he's just an over-the-top, hokey, and cliche radical military commander. I'm sick of seeing the entire American military vilified like this in entertainment. I'm sure there's a few crazy military commanders out there, but most of them, believe it or not, aren't completely one dimensional, pig-headed, and dumbfounded in their analysis of complex situations. I desparately hope Whedon doesn't leave us with a very bland military villain to deal with and let his politics cloud reasonable characterization. If you want to make a political point, please be sensical about it. Either Voll's got to get some much, much better writing and depth or Whedon had better kill him off quickly. His line about "American interests" is cringe-worthy.

The issue ends on a very cool note: Amy's alive, in need of cheese, and very bitter. I'm really glad Whedon brought Amy back as I feel she was severely underused in S7 and severely misused in her final appearance ("The Killer in Me" [7x13]). The art is, once again, excellent. That looks very much like Amy -- a very, very vengeful Amy. So to sum everything up, I'm pretty much a happy camper. I enjoyed this experience much more than I expected to, the art eventually won me over, I heard the actors speak the written words in my head, and there's plenty of intriguing potential development laid out before us. While I'm very concerned about the stupidity of the General, I'm going to have faith that Whedon can turn even that character into somebody interesting. Although the material didn't blow me away as a season opener, like only "Bargaining Pt. 1" (6x01) has, I find this to be solid setup and quite fun to boot. Bring on more S8!!