From 1998-2003 Dark Horse comics published Buffy the Vampire Slayer: there were 63 issues in the series, plus numerous mini-series and one-shots featuring other characters in the “Buffyverse” for a total of well over 100 issues. Most of the material has been reprinted in various trade paperbacks over the years, but now with the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer omnibuses, Dark Horse is taking all the issues and publishing them in chronological order — but not in the way you think, for some brilliant person at Dark Horse thought that the omnibuses should reprint the stories in the order they happened. For example in 2003 the final four issues, 60-63 “A Stake to the Heart,” were published, however they took place before Season 1 of the TV series and so they are in the second omnibus.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Omnibus Volume 7 contains tales of the fifth and sixth seasons. The stories are:
* “Ugly Little Monsters” Following the death of Buffy’s mother Joyce, Buffy is having a hard time coping, and so are her friends; so of course something must cause trouble to make matters worse. That something are Avendshrook demons, these impish creatures that feed on anger and jealousy of which there is plenty within the Scooby gang and set them at odds with each other, before defeating the demons.
* “Death of Buffy” The name is slightly misleading as Buffy is already dead since this story takes place after the fifth season finale. This arc shows what Buffy’s friends and family were doing in the time between her death in season five and her resurrection in season six.
Writers Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe do a good job of dealing with grief and filling in some gaps of the show. Artist Cliff Richards does a good job of capturing the actors' likeness, which was crucial since star Sarah Michelle Gellar had to have artist approval for her likeness. What’s also great is that these stories occur in issues 39-46 of the ongoing series and had a consistent writer/artist team which isn’t always the case in a monthly title.
While Richards stays on for the next arc, there’s a new pair of writers who are no strangers to action/adventure stories. Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza who wrote a number of X-Men and X-Men spinoffs during the 1990’s, become the titles new writers.
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