Buffy and Spike compete in a trial by combat with old school and the new breed of vampire representatives. Could this lead to anything but disaster? This review contains spoilers.
WRITTEN BY: Christos Gage
PENCILS: Rebekah Isaacs
INKS: Dan Jackson
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: November 18
Spike and Buffy are spending a somewhat relaxed day in bed watching the news, when Buffy’s old lover-friend-slayer Satsu shows up. Satsu is working for the army, who Buffy aren’t overly keen on, declaring Slayers to be terrorists may well have something to do with that. The army seems to be working very hard to keep the supernatural forces at bay, Satsu informs them. There is apparently an awful lot of baddies creeping through the portal thingy that Buffy and co managed to forget to close off properly. But now they have sent Satsu to enlist Buffy’s help in befriending the two different fractions of vampires (old and new) against the fight against these portal monsters. Buffy agrees, and goes to meet the two representatives of the different groups. These two of course turn out Harmony and Vicki. The gruesome twosome tell Buffy that they might help her and the army if her and Spike take part in trail by combat, to which Buffy rather hilariously asks if that is actually a real thing outside of Games of Thrones, to which Spike says yes, it was that slow writing prat that stole it from us.
So the battling starts, Whilst Buffy is beating up a very large chunky vampire, Harmony is try to mess with Spike’s head. She tells him that him and Buffy won’t last, that Buffy was a long time fantasy and that reality of it is not living up to the dream. Buffy squashes the big vamp and comes backstage, Spike tags her out and it is Buffy’s turn to be talked at by Vicki. Her plan is very similar to Harmony, she tells Buffy that she won’t be able to handle the monster that Spike truly is bla bla bla. Spike wins his fight and comes back and the atmosphere is  tad bit frosty. The vampire girlies say thanks for that, we’ll let you know if we will help the army, you can head back. Afterwards the two tell each other that they make a great team. Spike and Buffy travel back and both seem a bit embarrassed. Later on we see Spike meeting up with Dylan, a flame from the past, saying he wasn’t sure he should have come, but it is good to see her.
So…sigh..when Buffy and Spike finally got it together, you knew with it being Whedonverse and all, that it wouldn’t last, an in all fairness they have already been through a lot of tests including Angel coming back. But it still saddens me to see that they may already be falling apart. I hope they won’t be over just yet, as I think they both deserve some happiness, plus they are great together.
Storyvise nothing much new happened apart from the army showing there presence and of course Harmony and Vicki joining forces. As Archeus is now over in Magic Town something new big bad should be heading Buffy’s way and I guess it will make sense soon what that will be. Most likely something to do with the portal and the joining of the two vampire groups. Not quite clear yet which direction we are going, but the journey there is still good.
