The inaugural arc of Buffy Season Eight closes this week with issue #4. As with most of the premiere episodes of most of the seasons of the show, I ultimately found myself underwhelmed... and that's no problem by me. I always find the kickoff story relatively tame until I see what it's feeding into; I'm looking crazy forward to the stand-alone issue 5, and the BKV arc with Faith, that are coming up. And [spoilers begin now] Buffy at war with the entire human race? At least we know now why Joss was saying "big."

Let's break it down...

Bitch and butch
Depending on their usage, one of the problems I'm going to have with this series will be Amy and Warren. As said previously, I don't consider Amy half as interesting as everyone else seems to, while Warren icks me out to such a degree that I really don't get any enjoyment out of him as a character - he's more of an ordeal to be withstood. Hopefully they're the Boba Fetts of this storyline, and not the Vaders.

Xander is the best
character Joss has resurrected here. He has absolutely nailed the voice for Xander on every single line, while simultaneously moving the character to a genuinely new place where has actually, you know, gone somewhere as a person based on the things he's experienced. It puts Xander an inch ahead of Buffy, a pace ahead of Dawn and Willow, and a solid yardstick past Giles and Andrew. It'll be interesting to see where Faith is at under Vaughan's guidance in three months.

Satsu the Vampire Slayer
Oh yeah. Oh hells yeah.

Enough with the riddles
Being as that this is the closing issue and all, it was nice to see way less ambiguity and a lot more straightforward we're-a'-gonna-do-this action plotting. Makes the issue feel a bit slight when compared to the others but significantly more digestible and entertaining than any since issue #1.

Inner Willow
Did not see that coming. Love the lake of fire that lives inside Willow's brain at all times, constantly threatening to come out; it harmonizes the post-Phoenix character in a way that Season Seven was never able to do. But as for the inner chorus... well I'm just not sure. Need to see a lot more to get an opinion on that one.

The end of the Rayne
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

You lying general, you
The general's response to Buffy's assertion that this has nothing to do with demons and everything to do with women having power - "You think it's only men want to bring you down?" - is like the proverbial racist who spouts "look at all my black friends" to denounce claims of his bigotry. Who gives a funk if Evil McMilitary has women on-side? Scores of women have willfully been used as tools in their own oppression for ten thousand years. Nope, dissembling brass aside, Buffy hit it in one: if it was America's boys in Iraq who were all demoned up and powerful, we wouldn't be having conversations about the judicious use of their power. Not gonna make the war any easier, but it's always nice to know the hero's got her head on straight.