The Vampire Slayer Vol. 2

The Vampire Slayer #5-8

by Sarah Gailey, Sonia Liao (Illustrator), Claudia Balboni (Illustrator)

A New Slew of Monsters Faces the Gang and Our New Slayer!

The WILLOWVERSE continues with Willow Rosenberg, now not only a powerful witch but also the Chosen One. While Buffy still struggles with her powerless predicament, feeling envy and frustration as her sense of purpose is lost with the existence of the new Slayer. But there are more pressing problems…

Both separately and together, the gang will face strange and monstrous enemies, including a restaurant-owning demon with hunger for human bodies, and an even more menacing demon with a speciality in feasting on Slayers! Will Buffy be able to escape from her web without help?

Writer Sarah Gailey (Eat the Rich, Magic For Liars) along with artists Sonia Liao (A Spark Within the Forge) and Claudia Balboni (Fairlady) continue the journey of a new Vampire Slayer!

 

Collects The Vampire Slayer #5-8.

 

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Horror, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires, Magic

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2023

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 1 out of 5]

Continued mediocre writing and artwork that was pushed out too quickly. I don't see the point of this series other than generating money for the publisher. Maybe the writer had a story they really wanted to tell; maybe it was just any old gig. I don't see any content that indicates a love of the source material.

[kory. · Rating 3 out of 5]

#1 the vampire slayer, vol. 1 ★★★☆☆
#2 the vampire slayer, vol. 2 ★★★☆☆
#3 the vampire slayer, vol. 3 ★★☆☆☆
#4 the vampire slayer, vol. 4 ★★☆☆☆

for a “willowverse” series, the author sure did a lot to make willow entirely unsympathetic

content/trigger warnings; physical violence, trauma, ableism, gaslighting, kidnapping,

rep; willow (mc) is a lesbian. xander (mc) is queer. spike (mc) is queer. faith (mc) is queer. buffy (mc) is queer.

[Jaime Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! Desperately need the next one!

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overly altered - without apparent purpose or forethought or plan beyond 'more woke'. A giant disappointment after the quality of Buffy The Last Vampire Slayer.

* Why is this review identical to volume 1s? Because every flaw is repeated, none is corrected, and no virtue is added.

[Preethi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty bad :))

[Rach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still love the idea of Willow taking on the powers of the Slayer but I hate how they’ve essentially isolated Buffy at her weakest, both physically and emotionally, all because they’re embarrassed and don’t know what to say. She was missing for 5 days and no one noticed?? Willow didn’t listen to the voicemail she left her screaming for help? Like, does she just not check her voicemails at all or just the ones from Buffy? It’s shocking to see them treat her this way.

If they would actually be honest with Buffy about what happened, instead of trying to hide it, I think they’d actually be able to figure out a way to help her. There’s something with those dreams she’s having as the slayer that show she’s still connected to her slayer powers, especially since they tend to energize her. Hopefully when they rescue her from the slayer-eating spider, they will finally tell her the truth

The only part that continues to amuse me is Spike and Xander’s bromance/romance - I don’t know what’s going on with them expect Spike was truly trying to trick Xander into exposing the Slayer’s weaknesses and now they are playing MarioKart all night and annoying Buffy’s breakfast invites. 👀

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Willowverse marches to its midway point, as tensions run higher and things start to spiral out of control on all fronts.

Sarah Gailey has managed to introduce a lot of characters here without falling into the trap of the previous series where they were all kind of milling about with nothing to do. Faith's got a role, Spike's got a role, and our usual Scoobies are still doing their best, be it against spaghetti demons or giant spider monsters.

Again, the art here is by two different artists, but I honestly didn't notice when reading it in single issues, so they presumably have fairly similar styles. I don't think Buffy comics have ever really gone for anything spectacular artwise (the Dark Horse books always skewed towards more accurate depictions of the characters over anything else, and Boom!'s earlier ones were fairly unremarkable artwise aside from Dan Mora's opening arc), so as long as I can tell who's who, I'm good.

Still an intriguing premise, with some fun character dynamics unfolding.

[Jeff Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I’ve said about volume one: this is fine. It’s not Whedon Buffy but that’s okay. If you read this it’s because you loved the TV show. If you haven’t watched the show, what I’m the actual hell is wrong with you? Go do that like right now.

Having appropriate expectations when going into any media is important and I feel like many people giving this bad ratings have inappropriate expectations. This is a continuation of Gailey’s take on Buffy. It’s fun.

I’ve seen, on a few of the Boom! Studios work for Buffy that it’s too “woke”. I’ll just eye roll here as calling something “woke” is just code for “I’m angry because I’m a straight white person and I hate non straight white people” and it’s hilarious that Xander is gay in this series because he was meant to be in the show, but I’m sure people actively choose to ignore that. Let’s be real though. He wears Hawaiian shirts. To quote Homer Simpson, “There's only two kinds of guys who wear Hawaiian shirts: gay guys and big fat party animals. And” Xander “doesn't look like a big fat party animal to me!”

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok, now the monsters are getting ridiculous. a pasta demon? made of sentient bucatini? come on. also suddenly there is a slayer eater? who only eats vampire slayers and only wakes up every 169 years? that giles wasn't tracking? like, why wouldn't he know, ok, the last time this demon woke up was in this year, so she will be coming for my slayer this year? and why did they let xander hatch the crab god egg???

I am there for spike, though, always appreciate spike being around. and I do like the way that they all feel a little guilty and therefore avoidant about buffy so she drops off their radar for days. and it's interesting that willow is slaying through being a witch rather than her slayer powers. so I'm willing to forgive the lapses.

[Highland G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story is fun and feels very close to the original show but the art is barely okay at best and the only reason I could follow it was by following the characters hair colour or outfit as they have very little consistency between artists and have very little likeness to the actors they are supposed to be based on.
Its the usual licensed boom affair, they just pump it out with little care about consistency or reading experience.
I will continue only because I am really enjoying the personalities shown in this version of Buffy.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fine. The dialogue is good and I like that the cast are all twenty-somethings with jobs now. This moves too slowly though. Part of it is Boom's dependence on collecting stories in 4 issue chunks even when the story is longer. I think this will probably read better digesting it all at once. That being said this probably could have been half as many issues as it is and have told the same story.

[SpookyxSpice · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5) Okay Pasta demon aside... I'm getting into the swing of this run...or I was...a giant freakin' spider demon appeared 😭
I do think characters are not the characters we all know and love. There are pros and cons to this (such as gay Xander is a delight, however everyone else comes off better as an original character and not who they're supposed to be).

We'll see what I think in the next volumes. (I have all of this run 😅.)

[Andrew Alvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying this storyline but still not wholly keen on it, though I am impressed with the direction Xander has been taken in and of course the re-introduction of Faith previously is still one of imo standout moments.
I felt this was better drawn but likely because I am enjoying this more now after getting over my initial reservations I'm appreciating the artist more.

[Nicole Thorn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flavorless. Feels like every opportunity is wasted and I feel like willow and Giles especially are being so cruel to Buffy, but it’s not really called out that much. Feels like the narrative is on slayer willows side as if she’s not deeply selfish in everything she does.

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a step up from Vol 1 but the plot still doesn’t sit quite right with me. Art style was all over the place, Faith looked like two different people depending on who was drawing her. Spike was an absolute highlight, as always.

[Hells · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little better than the first volume 1. Not a huge fan of the art in the early issues though.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger...I just don't think I can continue. I don't enjoy it enough to pay for it and only the first two volumes were free with Comixology Unlimited. This is not one I would recommend.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just here for the crab

[Sophy Evelynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

They’ve done Xander so dirty here- I hate how stupid he comes across and in this comic he’s now gay and obsessed over a baby crab.
Faith’s tattoo keeps appearing and disappearing that’s distracting.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buffy needs better friends.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad art. Bad writing. Bad use of an iconic license.