Analog's Pick of the Week - Buffy Twilight Revealed!

I’ve been a little light on Pick of the Week here at Analog lately, nothing as really grabbed me lately despite all the goings on of Blackest Night and Siege. Fortunately this was a great week to be a comic book fan, since your getting two picks of the week to make up for it. We’ll get to the second one Cry for Justice tomorrow, even the Justice League with it’s shocking ending must take a back seat to Buffy season eight number 33 and it’s equally if not more shocking reveal. We now know who Twilight is and I was dead wrong in my guess. For the record with all the nerdiness of the Star Trek bridge and the kidnap of Andrew I was convinced it was Jonathan back for the dead somehow with a mad on wanting the Terrible Trio to reunite to wreak havoc on the Scoobies. WRONG. Dead wrong. (Pun intended). I unfortunately didn’t make it out of the comics shop before Brain the owner blew it for me and blabbed. Thanks Brian! Seems there was a leak three months ago and a big blowup online about the reveal in this issue, but somehow I had managed to miss that. I’m sure some of you are like where have you been Mr. Analog? It has been known for quite awhile that Twilight it is... No wait. I’m not telling. The surprise is that good, I refuse to ruin it for you as it was ruined for me. So I’ll discuss part of this issue up to the big reveal and then stop there. YOU MUST BUY THIS ISSUE IF YOU ARE A BUFFY FAN! So small spoiler alert but I won’t talk about Twilight’s identity until next month.

We picked up things with a very bummed out Buffy. She didn’t get her new man Xander last issue and worse than that she found out she is getting her Superman like powers from all the slayers girls who have been killed by Twilight. He’s killed 206 slayers now, and every time a slayer dies Buffy’s power’s increase. Xander is trying to give Buffy a pep talk and cheer her up but Buffy reminds him “she hates pep talks” Xander is quick to retort “That some of Buffy and Xander’s “best moments have been pep talks.” So true Xander, so true. I’ve been rewatching Buffy re-runs on Logo and I must say Xander doesn’t get enough credit for his kick-assness in fights. Willow gets a lot of credit for being all her magical powered back up but I’ve been surprised how much old Xander holds his own in a scrap. Of course Spike and the vamps sometimes to get the drop him but he gives as good and he gets and he really is Buffy’s rock.

Once again Xander gets to prove this as Buffy worries that she has by sucking all the girls’ powers that she has become the very thing she hates the most a “vampire.” Xander is having none of it and freely admits to stealing directly from Pa Kent in Superman I “that if the universe is giving you that power, it’s got to be for a reason.” He continues “That why you were chosen in the first place, don’t you see?” Buffy agrees, “That was a better pep talk” and seems ready to kick ass again. Willow arrives via giant hologram head (really channeling Superman I here a la Marlon Brando) telling them to hurry up time is a wasting.

Meanwhile the kidnapped trio of Giles, Faith, and Andrew has recognized the voice behind the mask since Twilight no longer has Amy on his side to cloak it. Giles is shocked and Faith tries to take out the super power big bad but is quickly taken out of commission almost fatally with a head injury. It seems Twilight is leveling up in power along with Buffy. These two seem to be perfectly matched and that might be a clue but that’s all I’ll say.

It is master plan time for the good guys; Willow and Amy have united to combine their magic to find the Twilight headquarters. As they bicker about who is the better witch, Amy reveals that they couldn’t find Twilight’s headquarter because she had hidden it three second in the future from whatever the current time is. Brilliant I must say Amy, I’ll remember that if I ever get magic powers and need to hide my secret headquarters. The combined chanting of two powerful witches begins and we cut back to Twilight as Giles realizes what they are up against. Twilight scolds Giles for not telling Buffy that there is something about the one certain slayer’s destiny that has been foretold. Buffy appears to be that slayer but Giles has not told her nor has he prepared her for what she has become. That doesn’t sound like Giles so whatever it must be big, and we still don’t have a clue at the end of this issue. Andrew steps in to provide some comedy relief as he has geared up to a Super nerd combining Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and DC into a really silly but funny superhero outfit. He’s even got Captain America shield. How Dark Horse got away with these borrowed images, I don’t know but it is quite amusing.

Along about this time Twilight’s castle or fortress appears and it’s go time. Up, Up and Away Super Buff! She crashes right though Twilight ceiling to save Andrew’s ass from the pounding he was about to get. Buffy has caught Twilight off guard she thinks and flies him and herself away from everybody for safety. There is a really bad pun here that Buffy makes which causes Twilight to unmask much to Buffy and our horror. OMG, it a crap your pants moment when Twilight stands revealed as...

Nope, not going to do it. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy the shock if you don’t already know. I never saw it coming, and not sure how I could have. This is not the end of the issue as the revealed Twilight and Buffy fight it out and Twilight explains his master plan. They both have a destiny and Giles says that Buffy is in a fight that there is no winning. That doesn’t sound good. My money is on the Scoobies to come though in the end but this is Josh Whedon we are talking about and he has a tendency to bad things to his female characters. He wouldn’t do the unthinkable, would he? Let’s hope not because Season 8 has been a slice of heaven, if we can’t have the show at least we have the comic. Buffy is like Batman, Superman, and Captain America. You might think you can stop them but the characters have a life of their own and will endure no matter what due to their fans. As long as there are writers and people who read I will borrow a different phrase than Andrew did this issue “the adventure continues!”