Issue: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Nine #11
Release Date: July 2012
Writer: Andrew Chambliss
Pencils: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Nathan Massengill
Colors: Michelle Madsen
Letters: Richard Starkings and COMICRAFT’S Jimmy Betancourt
Cover A: Phil Noto
Cover B: Georges Jeanty and Michelle Madsen
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
As one chapter closes in Buffy’s life, another one begins. Without magic in the world and no need for Slayers to protect the innocents from the monsters that lurk in the shadows, Buffy’s looking for a new purpose in her life. Or, she’s attempting to, but the call of her destiny seems a little too hard to ignore.
We kick off this arc with Buffy working a new job, thanks to Kennedy’s ingenuity. She and other Slayers have become bodyguards for the world’s elite. It’s a nice gig, considering they can use their abilities for good and profit. Unfortunately, Buffy’s still too headstrong to be taking orders from anyone. It’s been a culture shock for Buffy, I think, to go from being the Chosen One to being a girl who works at a coffee shop, dealing with the changing reality of what the world is like after magic has ceased to be. Kennedy and the other Slayers are trying to move on and make a life for themselves, but in many ways Buffy’s still stuck in the past. When given what we later learn is a training mission, Buffy decides to go after a demon as a perceived threat while leaving her client wide open and in danger. Until she can change her mindset, she’s never going to be successful at this job. The company’s clients don’t need to be saved from supernatural creatures, but instead the very human threats around them. It’s going to be hard for Buffy to try and turn off that part of her brain.
And it’s not like the outside world is making it easy for her to do it, either. Eldre Koh of the Nitobe shows up in the breakroom to have a talk with Buffy and try to get her to aid in his mission. He still hasn’t found the demon who imprisoned him and wants Buffy to help him track down the scoundrel. Buffy flip-flops on what we expect her to say. She puts up a token argument about how she’s changed now, how that’s not her life anymore, but she doesn’t even believe it herself. It’s like she’s torn in two directions, lost and unsure of which path her life should take from here. Spike’s already washed his hands of her indecision and Kennedy’s about to do it as well, giving Buffy an ultimatum: either stay and do the job or leave and consider herself fired. This is Buffy’s chance at a new life and she’s willing to let it slip away, perhaps out of fear of the unknown. Slaying was all she ever knew, all she ever was, so when that’s taken away, who is Buffy?
It’s not like the world needs the Chosen One anymore, not when the authorities are training their cops to take out zompires on their own. It’s a new world, and the chance at a new direction for Buffy when she finally accepts the truth. Decision made, it’s bodyguard time. Too bad her first real assignment is going to drag her right back into the middle of demon drama. The founder of the TinCan social networking site, Theo Daniels, believes he’s in danger. No, not from a person. Buffy’s client is sure that Wolfram and Hart is trying to kill him. Cue the cliffhanger and the knowledge that even when Buffy tries to walk away, the supernatural is going to drag her right back in.
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
