Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 3 - Wolves at the Gate

When a clan of Japanese vampires with shapeshifting abilities invade Buffy’s Scotland stronghold, she and her allies fail miserably against these vamps’ unusual powers. In order to gain insight into her new enemies, she seeks out the aid of an unlikely ally in her one-time opponent Dracula. With Dracula and a bevy of slayers in tow, Buffy heads to Tokyo in order to stop a plot to de-power every slayer on the planet.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 3: Wolves at the Gate collects Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #11-15, written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard with art by Georges Jeanty.

Wolves at the Gate is a thoroughly entertaining read. It begins with a one-off issue penned by Joss Whedon titled “A Beautiful Sunset.” It functions largely as a prelude to the main events in this book, but it also ties up some loose ends and elaborates on the relationships between the characters. We learn that Satsu was the one who broke Buffy out of the spell Amy had placed on her, which subsequently leads into a rather surprising twist of Buffy and Satsu sleeping together.  It’s wholly unexpected and mildly out of character for Buffy, but it somehow works. I really like Satsu as a character and she seems more stable than the usual love interests written for Buffy. This issue also gives us a glimpse of the Big Bad Twilight, who admittedly looks like he could be a Batman villain. He’s not quite as menacing as I’d prefer, but it’s evident that he’s a real threat to Buffy seeing as he thrashes her pretty thoroughly in this issue.

The main story, “Wolves at the Gate,” is superb. Writer Drew Goddard plots a cohesive four part narrative that takes us from Scotland to the neon-coloured streets of Tokyo. He keeps the focus tight by concentrating on a smaller cast, but makes good use of guest star Dracula in that he injects plenty of hilarious homoerotic innuendo between the Xander and the iconic vampire. As a former writer of the television series, he already has the experience necessary for penning incredible dialogue with plenty of Buffyisms and punchiness. Beyond that, his ability to balance the interpersonal relationships with action is absolutely impressive. The primary conflict is Buffy’s struggle to prevent the Tokyo-based super vamps from taking away all of the slayers’ powers, but Goddard supplements this with Buffy’s somewhat awkward treatment of Satsu post-sex and with Xander’s blossoming relationship with the slayer Renee. It’s really engaging and it gives this storyline depth.

Wolves at the Gate is another strong offering from the season eight comics. Whedon and Goddard really put in the care to develop relationships that readers can relate to and root for, while also penning some incredibly funny dialogue. Goddard especially shines with the Xander/Dracula moments, as well as the hilarious and self-aware Dawn vs. Mechadawn battle. Georges Jeanty’s art remains perfectly suited to this title and helps maintain the high quality of this series.

RATING: A-