I know Joss Whedon is busy working on The Avengers movie. (Just the sheer idea of it is giving most of geekdom multiple nerdgasms.) However, since he's the one who likes to claim that this run of Buffy comics are the actual continuation of the story after the TV series ended, you'd think the Joss-man would have cleared his calendar enough to write a critical piece to this so-called 'Season 8' arc of Buffy. 
 Instead, he handed over the reins to Brad Metzler, who does an OK job, but the story probably would have been better served if The Man himself would have taken the time to do it himself, just as he usually wrote and directed the big episodes of his various TV shows. 
 Following the monumentally stupid decision Buffy and her gang made in the last volume Retreat to try and magically hide all the Slayers by voluntarily giving up their powers, the ensuing battle has left Buffy's little army in bad shape. However, Buffy suddenly starts becoming more powerful and displays a Superman-like array of abilities. As Willow tries to track down the friends who have gone missing following the latest attack, the final showdown with the mysterious figure called Twilight (hee) occurs and his identity is revealed. 
 Oh, and in a trivial note, Whedon finally got the comic rights for Angel back and the brooding vampire and Buffy are reunited. I doubt any of the Buffy fans will care about that.... 
 I've had mixed feelings about these Buffy comics. While I love the idea of Whedon continuing the official story, since he's no longer constrained by the budget provided by a minor TV network, he and the other writers have gone a bit overboard with the big sci-fi concepts. The comic has been at it's best when it's focused on the characters and the smaller scale stories. When they do trippy stuff like time-travel or alternate dimensions, it hasn't been particularly well-explained and has been confusing at times. This volume has a lot of that kind of stuff, so I just didn't enjoy it all that much. Even the return of Angel got wrapped up in a bunch of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that left me scratching my head and wondering what he hell just happened. Whatever happened to the old Buffy-fights-vampire-Buffy-stakes-vampire-while-dealing-with-her-responsibilities-and-fear stories? 
 Plus, the artwork seems a little on the cartoony side for what should be a more serious and scary story featuring vampires and demons. 
 Still nice to read the continuing adventures of Buffy and her friends, but I'd like it more if they'd return to the basics and use the 'real world' as a setting more than they have been.