With Jane Espenson’s ‘Retreat’ coming to a close, Season Eight finds itself as that rarest of animals: a comic that reads better in trade form for plot rather than scheduling issues. It’s hard to think of any other story which has flipped on its head with such regularly, as each instalment quickly demolishes the themes of the episode which preceded it.

As the issue opens, the Slayers have the advantage in the long delayed clash with the Twilight forces from the book’s first arc. This triumph doesn’t last long, however, as it soon emerges that the forces they’ve unleashed acknowledge no distinctions between the creatures that they encounter. This event makes clear the feminist metaphor which has obviously lain at the heart of the arc- whereas it unexpectedly appeared that the slayers would find salvation through suppressing their identities, Espenson now shows such a situation as benefiting neither party, with the resulting rage working to the detriment of society as a whole. In abstract, it sounds like an overtly moralistic message, but the writer skilfully distracts the reader with an impressive number of character threads, as the supporting figures begin to fall before Twilight’s army. The decimation of the book’s cast is one of those rare plot developments which makes perfect sense in hindsight, with the main character having had far to little face time in recent months- the “next time” teaser makes clear that she’s now ready to reclaim the centre stage.

Odd as it sounds, it’s impossible to talk about the issue without at least a mention of the couple of pages of text tucked away after the story’s conclusion. I’m aware that I’ve had a go at the book’s extensive letters page on this site before, as the twelve issue gap between the professional content and the fan reaction affective drained the exercise of any purpose. Here, however, the write-in feature justifies its entire decision with a genuine intelligent debate between reader Ryan Sattler and the books editor about the approach taken to plotting Season 8, with the point made receiving a rather cheeky nod during the actual dialogue of the book. It’s a fascinating little exchange, which unfortunately leaves a clearer impression in the reader’s mind than some of the action which preceded it.

Although the slayer’s adventures currently lack quite the high profile of this week’s ‘event’ book, there are distinct parallels between Buffy’s eighth season and the ongoing Death of Captain America epic. Both see a focused lead writer with a strong cast of characters experimenting with a much more long-form mode of storytelling than is usually found in mainstream comics. While there’s no shortage of quality is either case, both seem to be in danger of being undone by their most novel aspect, with the structuring of the epic letting the side down somewhat.

Joss Whedon’s instalments of this series tend to favour slightly opaque titles, but the first part of Jane Espenson’s ‘Retreat’ does exactly what it says on the tin. The splintered white hat survivors of previous story arcs pool their resources, only for Buffy and co to be confronted by yet another massed body of Twilight’s demonic forces. Another rearguard action is called for, but the slayers are rapidly running out of places to turn…

Espenson proves that the superb work she did in ‘Harmony Bites’ was no fluke, managing to strike a good balance between characterisation and plot. Given the number of favourite figures at work here, the latter is sensible kept to the bare minimum, with moments such as Buffy filling in Giles on the ongoing backstory and Warren leading the offensive on the Italian squad placed centre stage. Regular artist Georges Jeanty has never really lived up to the “horror” billing that Dark Horse give the book at event opportunity, but this issue plays to his strength, with plenty of massed crowd scenes and the opportunity to draw most of the regular cast.

The difficulty is that this issue has already had its bolt shot by a previous arc, with the offensive on Buffy’s new HQ a near re-run of the attack which forced the slayers out of their Scottish castle. This duplication was probably intended to underline the depletion of the heroines’ resources, but the events are a little too close together to avoid the feeling that the reader is being asked to pay for the same tale twice. It’s hard to begrudge the book’s willingness to vary its approach, but the set of five stand-alone tales that preceded ‘Retreat’ is starting to look like something of a cop-out, progressing elements which should have been included in the more normal stories. The book is still a compelling read, but is starting to look like a prototype for Season Nine…

After the last issue’s charming but pointless tribute to an undead cartoon series, “Season Eight” continues its preoccupation with it’s parent medium, focussing on the much-trailed “Harmony Bites” vampire reality TV show. Jane Espenson presents an unexpectedly complex single-issue story, managing to subtly re-write the franchise’s rules while keeping a light-hearted air to proceedings.

After four rigidly defined arcs, the decision to let the book’s various plotlines breath more organically is welcome. With the regular cast largely negated to cameos, the writer focuses her tale on the vampire’s conquest of MTV and the slayer who takes it upon herself to bring her down. What initially takes the reader aback is that the story isn’t an out and out satire of reality TV. There’s no particular punch lines or moments when events descend into a new level of farce. This is simply the means by which Espenson chooses to tell her story, with the only moment of socio-political commentary being subtly conveyed through the media’s willingness to cast the black girl who attacks the horrific Harmony as a villain. Rather than borrowing one of X-Men’s crusading politicians or resorting to the unconvincing military figures from Whedon’s first arc, the story uses this event to polarise public opinion against the slayer army, setting up an interesting, if less-than original, dynamic for future issues.

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Espenson occasionally betrays a lack of comics experience, with an early piece of innuendo from Harmony negated by the fact that the readers’ eyes have been immediately drawn to the next panel, which reveals the punch line. On the whole however, the writer succeeds in telling a very offbeat story, with the issue’s deficiencies coming from a creator with far more familiarity with comics. Despite having effectively had the previous five issues off, regular artist Georges Jeanty delivers some uncharacteristically weak work, with backgrounds frequently discarded and some very oddly proportioned figures. To be fair, his quirky style is better suited to close-ups than the massed crowd scenes the issue frequently calls for, with little demand for his charming trademark dot faces. However, when compared to a cover that sees Jo Chen exceeding even her high standards, its hard not to wish for a guest artist better suited to the subject matter. Despite these art issues and the slightly stereotypical doomed slayer, this story manages to entertain and confound the reader’s expectations.