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Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summers

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New adventures for Buffy fans to sink their fangs into!

In the first of two collected one-shot specials, Golden Rage artist Lauren Knight joins Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer writer Casey Gilly for a historically fun and frightful side-story! At an antiques fair, the group is fascinated by The Casquette Girls’ (who may or may not have been vampires) clothes on display. When Dawn utters a wish she most likely should have kept to herself, the gang gains a firsthand account of the sisters’ identities… beyond what they could have imagined. Meanwhile, it’s been 4 years, and Buffy, Spike and Thess have been living in relative peace as a dysfunctionally cozy family. But nothing can last forever… Strange new vampires have been sighted, and to get to the bottom of these unfolding horrors, our gang will have to head underground… and face the horrifying true cause of the decline in vampire activity! Collects Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer Special #1 and Buffy: The Lost Summer #1.

112 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2023

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Casey Gilly

75 books22 followers

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5 stars
19 (17%)
4 stars
35 (31%)
3 stars
47 (42%)
2 stars
8 (7%)
1 star
2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Donna.
113 reviews14 followers
May 17, 2024
Interesting return to the Buffyverse. I preferred the first story, but the historical background could have had more development to enrich the plot beyond Dawn and Buffy bickering. The second story is quite messy and has a lot of whining. I thought Iris might actually be the demon and going to America would take them further away from the problem. The actual conclusion was just a bit anticlimactic. Enjoyable enough, and nice to see a near future and distant one brought together, but both stories could be better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Samantha.
765 reviews17 followers
March 6, 2024
I reread the first volume of the last vampire slayer, which was good, because I read it a year ago and remembered pretty much nothing. this one has two stories - one with dawn being annoying and causing trouble and one with thessaly (willow and tara's kid and a witch + slayer) being even more annoying and causing even more trouble. I'm here for the buffy/spike romance. not really here for the tara is dead but not really dead bit. one minute thessaly seems cute and buffy seems bitchy, the next minute, vice versa. really not clear what tara is doing or why she would have been chosen for that - or why the daughter of two witches who were close to a slayer would be a slayer. but it was nice to round out the first standalone volume.
Profile Image for Immy V.
31 reviews2 followers
September 5, 2024
I preferred the second story to the first. Artwork same.
Profile Image for Christian.
547 reviews25 followers
April 19, 2025
Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer: The Lost Summers collects Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer Special #1 and Buffy: The Lost Summer #1.

Buffy: The Lost Summer #1 takes place during late season 6 (more on that in a second) during the summer. Spike realizes his last book of poetry is sold at an antiques auction and brings Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and Giles to the auction to find it.

This was announced as taking place in the canonical timeline of the show.

I think that this is supposed to take place between "Older and Far Away" and "As You Were." Dawn is repaying Anya for shoplifting and references her learning her lesson about wishes, and Spike and Buffy are dating.

Okay, so Spike and Buffy never dated in the show. They just had a lot of sex. They definitely were never this cute. Also, why and how is Giles here? And why is Willow casting magic? And how is this summer, considering the period between those two episodes was set in February?

So, then I thought that maybe it takes place after the series except Anya is alive.

I guess I have to look at it like Tea Time which felt like it could be in the show except Willow was engaged and they were hanging out in the high school. But that was presented as an alternate universe story, and this was not. And that one was good.

This is such a weirdly common problem in the Boom Era, like the writers are just going from vague memory of watching the show 20 years ago. I wondered reading Tea Time if it was only an alternate universe because of all the mistakes the writer made, but perhaps that's not fair. Still, If you're going to write a comic taking place during season 6 I don't think it's unreasonable to ask you to watch season 6 first.

Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer Special #1 returns us to the alternate future of Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer. Buffy isn't the slayer anymore (it's never clear if she's lost all her powers, although she's pretty capable at this point regardless) and she's now living with Spike and taking up the role of watcher to Thess. They hear of an evil in America and travel there, which really annoys Thess who didn't want to go to America. This is essentially a generational story about a young girl not understanding what it was like for those who came before, assuming things were always easy for Buffy. It's good, I liked it, but I wish it was longer. It easily could have been a full arc instead of an annual, but overall I still enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Danji.
33 reviews7 followers
August 8, 2025
I didn’t really appreciate the first story (the lost Summers). I mean, it’s a nice comic but I expected something else since it’s placed in the “Last vampire slayer” universe… but that could be placed in every Buffy universe, even the canon one (except some details that differ) and so I wasn’t pleased because I would have preferred a flashback of this universe background, for example how Buffy managed the deaths of Xander and the potentials as seen in the previous miniseries…

The Special otherwise was nicer but confusing in some parts of the story… the new status quo isn’t well presented, it’s not clear the status of Buffy: she lost her powers at the end of the previous volume, right? But I didn’t find it very clear… the loss of her powers activated Thessaly? How and why? We don’t exactly know what differs from the tv series but we can say that the end of S7 never occurred since there’s still only one slayer that is active… so Faith is still around? It would have been interesting to focus more on Buffy and Spike.. in the previous volume we saw a certificate of marriage between Buffy and Angel… when it happened and then what happened after? I was curious…
Despite all these things unanswered, the story wasn’t bad, but as I said, I think it was not very clear in some parts…
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books124 followers
October 28, 2023
Only half of this book is actually Last Vampire stuff, which makes the labelling a bit of a misnomer, but I digress.

Lost Summers collects, surprising no one, The Lost Summer one-shot, and the Last Vampire Slayer Special. Both of these are decent stories, but they don't really go together very well.

Lost Summer is a road trip story at an antiques fare, with some amusing motivation from one William The Bloody to track across the state, but relies a little too hard on drama that the Scoobies really should be over at this point in their lives together.

And the Last Vampire Slayer Special is both an epilogue to the last Last Vampire Slayer series and a prologue for more, as Thess, Spike, and Buffy head out into the desert to investigate some mysterious goings-on, only to find a little more than they bargained for in both the good and bad columns. The better of the two stories, for sure, which is probably a good thing given the title of the collection will attract Last Vampire Slayer fans more than anything.

Worth a look, but your mileage may vary depending on what you're actually looking for. Will tide us over between Buffy ongoings, at least.
Profile Image for Khurram.
2,477 reviews6,692 followers
January 10, 2024
This book reminds me of all the reasons I stopped watching the Buffy series. It is just drama on top of drama without the action to back it up. I would only recommend this book if you are a fan of reality TV style soft scipted drama.

Something from Spike's past has resurfaced. So he is taking the whole gang with him. The usual game of who does not like who, and who did what.

The second story was slightly (I do mean only slightly) better and was the reason I gave this two stars instead of one. The sad part is I really liked the Last Slayer book before this one, this this was also turned into a teenage temper tantrum of a book. With Buffy and Spike finding out how much trouble watching over a teenage Slayer can be.

I think I am finally done with giving these books. I keep hoping the change of format will get back yo its winning formula. This will be the last Buffy book I will be getting. The book finishes with two varient cover galleries, and a sketchbook with commentary.
101 reviews2 followers
January 17, 2024
If your a fan of Buffy in general the first story is worth a read. The Scooby gang goes on a mission/vacation to New Orleans to retrieve a book Spike claims is evil but is really his poetry journal from when he was alive. The story is a bit light, tongue-in-cheek, but enjoyable.

The second story is hard to follow if you haven't read the rest of the series. It centers on the strained family dynamic with Watcher Buffy, Spike and Slayer Thess (Willow and Tara's daughter). Willow and Tara are gone or dead so Buffy and Spike are raising Thess. She's 16 years old with a chip on her shoulder.
Profile Image for Malcolm Cox.
Author 1 book4 followers
April 3, 2024
Having really enjoyed book one of this series I was delighted to discover book 2. However, this is more of a collection of stories, the first one set during the standard Buffyverse with a road trip. It was okay, but not what I was hoping for. The second story was a continuation of the Last Vampire Slayer but was so disjointed and messy, I didn't really follow what was going on. Disappointed more that anything else.
Profile Image for Aubrey.
428 reviews26 followers
April 5, 2024
Soooo ... as it turns out, I read this book without realizing there was a Last Vampire Slayer series to read prior. Ooopsie. I still enjoyed it. I loved the first story (a sort of missing summer moment set back when there was Dawn and Buffy was dating Spike) and loved seeing an older Buffy in the second story. Was just an overall fun dive back into a world I hold dear. I look forward to reading the ones prior. :P
Profile Image for Robert.
4,843 reviews33 followers
August 1, 2025
Every female character (so everyone except Giles and Spike) is a snarky, unfeminine, arrogant, woke, manhater. Yawn. Not really a surprise, but certainly not entertaining either.

If you like your comics with heaping sides of climate change, interracial underage lesbians, and misandry, read on. Otherwise, skip.
Profile Image for Rachel.
441 reviews7 followers
September 28, 2025
Not sure it all where the first one falls into any kind of timeline, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Spike and Anya were absolutely hilarious and bonus points knows Xander to be found.

Main story, not sure how I feel about Thess still, but my girl Anya continues to be the best and I love everything with Buffy and Spike.
Profile Image for Zoe.
205 reviews
June 26, 2024
2 stars - Boom ruined what was a promising start with Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer.
The Lost Summers extra was ok, but I hated Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer special. I think I'm done with the Boom Buffy comics.
Profile Image for Buffy.
205 reviews
August 8, 2024
BTVS similar, kinda fun teen girl comics.
Profile Image for Katharama.
124 reviews
September 2, 2024
The first story was a delightful treat! The second story was neither.
Profile Image for Shane Kali Meyer.
196 reviews5 followers
June 4, 2025
This is definitely my favorite out of The Last Slayer series, and any Buffy from BOOM! Comics, period. Spike and Buffy being actual partners in her later years gave me LIFE. I also deeply empathize with her struggle to attempt to feel normal in a post-apocalyptic world with PTSD.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews