Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #1

Magic has been restored to the world and Buffy and her Scoobies are working with vampires to put an end to the last of the zompires, but that's only the beginning of the first issue kicking off a brand-new season which will reunite Buffy with her long-lost mentor and showcase that the rules have very much changed (again).

The death of the army of zompires ends the truce between Buffy and Vicki's vampires who it turns out aren't so much afraid of sunlight any more and have the ability turn into mists and giant bats (although Spike is still limited to wise-cracking and looking cool in his black trench coat with a heroic backstory - as Andrew points out).

Thankfully Buffy and her team are saved with the timely arrival of Faith, Kennedy's soldiers, and the adolescent Giles who shows up casting magic in Latin to everyone's surprise. Giles and Faith aren't the only familiar faces to make an appearance as Xander appears to be haunted by the ghost of Anya. (Ghost? Hallucination? Or possibly The First?)

The reunion of Buffy and Giles is alone worth picking up Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #1, but the first issue of Season Ten has other strengths as well such as artist Rebekah Isaacs capturing the right feel for each of the characters and Christos Gage putting a new, and more adult, spin on Buffy and Spike's relationship. Even though Joss Whedon's personal touch is missing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #1 kicks off the new season right, and I'm interested to see where things will go from here. Best of the week.

[Dark Horse, $3.50]