Geek Syndicate

 It’s nice to see Buffy getting back to basics after the theatrics of Season 8 and this issue is bringing the fun in to the series after a very intense previous story arc, which saw Buffy wrestle with the controversial topic of abortion and then having to deal with the inconvenience of finding out she’s actually a robot. Now back in her body Buffy’s taking control of her life again, trying to make it on her own and act like a responsible bill paying adult.

This issue is part 2 of the Guarded arc and it sees Buffy tasked with shutting down TINCAN, which is basically Facebook for Demons stuck in the hell dimensions and on our side. They’re not using it to post adorable picture of their spawn that’s for sure.

Old favourites Wolfram and Hart have ordered a hit on TINCAN founder, Theo Daniels, who’s hired Buffy’s new employers Deepscan to shut down the servers and stop the evil law firm in their tracks. The only thing standing between them and the servers is a Teuth demon and they’re pretty big and seem to have never ending tentacles … so she calls on Eldre Koh for help bringing it down.

This is an entertaining issue with lots of amusing little artistic touches in the first few pages (see if you can spot Joss Whedon’s avatar) but I still find Georges Jeanty’s art inconsistent. There are panels where Buffy & Kennedy’s faces look so similar that it takes me a while to figure out which character is actually talking, but the fun story and Andrew Chambliss’ peppy dialogue more than makes up for the varying quality of the artwork.

With magic gone and no way of moving between realms the demons need to get creative and that’s what this issue addresses, while poking fun at social networking. Plus the big bonus is that Wolfram and Hart are back, I hope we see more of them in upcoming issues because if any demons can get over the hurdle of having to cause mischief with no magic in the world it’ll be this lot.