By Samuel Scott
For those who have not already stormed their local comic-book stores, Dark Horse has released the first issue of “Buffy” Season 10! Amazon is scheduled to release the first trade paperback in November.
Entitled, “New Rules,” the first part of the new season begins where Season Nine left off:
- Maloker, the Old One that sired the first vampire, and Illyria, a character from “Angel,” were killed during an explosion in the final battle.
- Magic was restored to the world, and Willow used that fact to save Dawn — who had been dying since her existence was caused by magic.
- A newly-sired vampire is seen as still maintaining her human level of intelligence (in Season Nine, vampires had become half-zombie “zompires”) as well as able to withstand sunlight and change form. Buffy’s “Vampyr” book is now blank.
- In the concurrent “Angel & Faith” comic book series, Giles was restored to life after his death in Season 8 — but as a 12-year-old boy with his memories intact. Faith decides to go back to the United States and work with Kennedy’s slayer-bodyguard corporation. Giles wants to reunite with Buffy.
In the beginning of Season Ten:
- The Scoobies try to find out what the new form of vampire means
- Xander’s relationship with Dawn is deteriorating
- The ghost of Anya begins haunting Xander
“Buffy Season 10” writer Christos Gage tells Comic Book Resources in part:
[“Buffy” creator] Joss [Whedon] did reiterate [at a summit meeting] what he said prior to Season 9, which was that in Season 8, they had really leaned into the freedom of the comic book format and scaled things super-big, and in Season 9 we’d brought the focus more back to the characters. He wanted to continue that focus, even increase it. There was a general agreement that we didn’t want another looming apocalypse — we were kind of apocalypsed out for a bit… Through the magic of comic book timing, the characters aren’t the same ages as the actors, they are mostly in their early to mid-twenties. They have left college, or the immediate post-high school phase of their lives, and are entering adulthood. Season 9 examined that to a point, and I plan to keep doing so.
For more information on the season (again, spoilers!), you can also read a Q&A with Gage here and another with “Buffy” artist Rebekah Isaacs here. (They were “promoted” from “Angel & Faith” to “Buffy”!)
In other news, Nicholas Brendon, who played Xander in the television series, will be writing one arc of Season Ten. James Marsters, who played Spike, is also writing a graphic novel that features the character.
Samuel Scott is the founder and publisher of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Online. You can follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter as well as on his personal website.