Type of bind: Comic
Label: Dark Horse Publications
Manufacturer: Dark Horse Publications
Printing Date: 2007
Publishing house: Dark Horse Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 571214
Studio: Dark Horse Publications
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Rated by buyers 
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The subsequent best thing to the TV show itself. You can actually hear the characters in your head as you read it. Great artwork. The characters are spot-on. Definitely recommend it.
Rated by buyers 
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On this very first read-through, the issue was unsatisfying: lots of yammering but not much funniness, lots of action but not much danger, lots of exposition but not much was revealed. It was clearly the point to leave us with questions for what will come later, but there seemed to be much annoying filler for now. (Oh, by the way, the cover has NOTHING to do with the issue. To totally spoil the Dawn-related plot: she punches a wall. In frustration. It crumbles a little. I guess we should say "yay!" - after all, she did sort of win the fight against the wall. Go team!)
The content of this issue:
(a) pages of confusingly written exposition explaining the tv show history of the "big bad" revealed at the end of issue #3. In spite of spending much time with the big bads revealed in issues #1 and #3, we still don't really learn about their real agenda or why they're suddenly all up with the torture. It felt like a tease!
(b) Disappointingly, our heroes are still fighting the initiative-y guys pretty much the same way they would've in Season 4, even though the slayers have now been "Wolfram-and-Harted" (they've got a whole powerful organization with high tech stuff at their disposal).
(c) On the other hand, they didn't need to do anything high tech, as the looong action sequences where Buffy and another slayer fight hand-to-hand against weak, weak armies of humans demonstrated in painstaking detail. three guesses as to how that fight turns out! (to give you some hints: Buffy did bring along her super cool ultimate slayer weapon, she had no hands tied behind her back, and she wasn't even possessed or anything.)
(c) they (gasp) save Willow, who was sort of in trouble. Thankfully, there was coolness here and a callback to the show: this is the redeeming scene that kept this issue from an even lower rating.
(d) there was one plot element that was a "shock" and was very upsetting, but it didn't really seem earned. I think they relied too much on the shock value of this "climax". It was probably there to make us actually fear and respect the big big bads...but I'm not sure that the timing really worked. Plus, I feel like Giles really aught to have been there.
(e) we DO learn the agenda of the initiative-y guys. But it's hard to care about them, really, because of (1) their aforementioned humany lameness (which was maybe the point of those boooorring fight scenes), (2) the way in which their agenda was just flat-out told to us, (3) they're too new-to-us to care about yet, and (4) because I have anxiety that we're treading dangerously close to X-men themes (who's a mutant now?!) Meh.
I'll keep reading - I have both unanswered questions and faith that I'll understand this issue's place in the larger story later on. And, on realizing the greatness of how this installment works into the big picture season arc, I'll update the review. And also eat my words, if necessary.
For now, though, this issue was anticlimactic compared to the very first 3 issues, which were comparatively phenomenal. Sadly, this issue did not "feel" like the tv show. I'm not sure if this effort convinced our creators to take a breather in July or not, but I wouldn't be surprised!
Rated by buyers 
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It is truly incredibly how far a guy can go after assembling a devoted fanbase of sycophants. He can- and has- and will- produce utter drivel, devoid of any kind of imagination, interest, thoughtfulness, and entertainment... yet the fans will lap it up like beaten dogs just because a cult of personality has developed around Joss Whedon.
The fact of the matter is that Joss Whedon is out of ideas, and has been for some time. While his Astonishing X-Men is b-movie "fun bad", Buffy "season eight" is BAD bad. The interesting character interaction and catchy dialogue that made Buffy the Vampire Slayer what it was is completely absent, replaced with stock, half-hearted kitsch. While Buffy the television show frequently overcame its linear (and at times insipid) story arcs with good acting and cast chemistry, Buffy the comic must rely completely on the storytelling. But bad writing cannot, obviously, overcome bad writing, nor can decent comic book art.
The very first story arc of this work is one of the most complete and all-encompassing failures one can experience in any entertainment medium. It- along with the film Serenity and Astonishing X-Men- is more importantly a chilling, brutal example of just how rich a man can get by developing a cult of personality around himself and exploiting fan loyalty.
Bottom line: Enjoy Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. Avoid the comic books- regardless of whose name is on the cover.
Rated by buyers 
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Having watched seven seasons of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" fans are familiar with the way Joss Whedon structures a season, which affects are expectations for his comic book series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight." We know that whatever gets set up in the very first half of the "season" on "BtVS"" (e.g., Spike and Drusilla, the Initiaive, the Trio), will merge with something else in the second half (Angelus, Adam, Wicked Willow respectively). So, here we are with issue #4 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8," and the final part of the opening story-arc, "The Long Way Home," and by the final page we appear to know what is up for the very first "half" of this particular season.
All of this is qualified, of course, because we do not really know how many issues there will be in "Season 8," let alone how long Whedon will do the writing. I have heard that originally there were going to be about two dozen issues, but editor Scott Allie has confirmed that there are at least double that number planned to work out Whedon's master plan here. But then I have also heard that the second arc is going to be about Faith in England, to be written by Brian K. Vaughan (presumably a tradeoff because Whedon is currently scripting "Runaways"). As long as Whedon is still functioning as creator, letting others write stories here the same way he never found time to write every episode of the television series, that will be okay.
I was happy to see that "The Long Way Home" ends with the "Big Bad" coming from what I thought was the most interesting sub-plot from everything Whedon was laying out in these very first four issues, even though it was a relatively minor part of these early festivities. At this point the idea that Amy the bad witch has paired up with the flayed Warren seems like a second-rate version of Spike and Dru as a tag team, but then I am still not really clear on the how and why behind his apparent resurrection, let alone why Amy likes Warren now that he is skinless. Actually, I am not totally clear on what Warren did or did not do to Willow in this issue, so while I understood the rescue mission that Buffy and Xander launched to get Will back I was not exactly sure what they were rescuing her from. Consequently, I got to the payoff for the rescue mission and I am not sure why Willow looks the way she does.
All things considered, I would have liked this better if it was not the final part of "The Long Way Home" story-arc because there is a sense that everything that has happened in these very first four issues is but the prelude to what is to come. I have to think that down the road I will look back at this initial story-arc and it will make more sense to me than it does today. I know that my expectations for this title are sky high, but at this point from my perspective things are going good and not great. Now we just have to wait until August 1st when "Buffy: The Chain" #5 comes out, not just to find out what the title signifies but why the cover art has Buffy apparently about to peel off her face from the neck up. Given what I said above I suppose it could be Faith, even though there are no tats to be seen on those arms, but we just have to wait and see, which, in the end, is part of the fun.
Rated by buyers -
This issue, more than any of the others, needs a second reading to appreciate it. In the very first read, the story is way too fast paced, too many things are happening, and it is a bit confusing. By the second read, everything should fall into place. But that still doesn't make up for the very first read. While this is a good conclusion to the very first arc of season eight, I felt that Joss could have kept it a bit more straight forward.
However, the set ups for the Big Bad are amazing, as is Buffy's reaction to the reveal in the end. The shocking death of an established character only causes the action to heat up, and subtle reveal of who kissed Buffy is Issue #3 was well worth all the fan debate.
On the negative side, the scene-cuts are awkward at best in this issue, and it became apparent on page six. This is how the page is set up.
Panel 1: Warren comes down on Willow.
Panel 2: Buffy calls the name of a slayer.
Panel 3: Five new characters (elements) who've never been seen before, appear with no explaination and say "For goodness sake, yes. Grant her access." It is unknown at this point where they are, and it throws the story off majorly.
Panel 4: Buffy, off screen, tells Satsu what to do.
Panel 5: General Voll's assistant tells him that he hears screaming.
Later on, the switches between scenes get better because there are less scenes to switch to. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm pleased that Giles or Andrew weren't in this issue. Things would have been way too crammed.
Don't get me wrong. It's Buffy, it's canon, and it's Joss, so you can't really go wrong. It's almost as good as issues #2 and 3, and as good as #1. The fight with Buffy/Amy, short as it was, was stellar and revealed something about Buffy that I never suspected. The final four pages make for a more shocking conclusion than I expected, and really make the whole arc make a lot more sense than it might have initially seemed.
Petty gripes aside, the only real problem I have with this issue is waiting for two whole months for the 40 page Issue #5: The Chain to come out.
9/10
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