BtVS Season 8 issue #12

For loyal readers of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic, Season 8, you'll know that in last month's issue, #11, Buffy addressed Satsu's love for her and how this placed Satsu in danger... not to mention that Buffy is, uh, straight.
Well, guess who isn't all straight after all? Initially I thought, what in the hell is Buffy doing? Did she learn nothing from her time with Spike? Spike who loved Buffy beyond all reason and Buffy who didn't return his feelings. Buffy who couldn't love Riley enough. Buffy who probably only will ever love Angel. That Buffy. That Buffy who is all nuded up with Satsu in the sack. I have to say that I figured that if Buffy ever, EVER crossed over into lesbionic goodness with another slayer it would be with Faith. Call me a dreamer, call me a delusional Fuffy -shipper, but doesn't a pairing between Buffy and Faith make perfect sense? Doesn't it?
Maybe it doesn't. Given what we know of Satsu's adoration of Buffy I suppose it makes perfect sense that Buffy, in classic egotistically Buffy mode, would inevitably respond to the attention. I'm not being critical of Buffy, everyone at that age is still hyper-self aware/self obsessed. Sure, Buffy is willing to sacrifice her life to save all of humanity from unspeakable horror and suffering, but that doesn't mean that she's immune to the Big Head that comes when someone blindly loves you.

I could be way off base, but ever since Buffy realized that it was Satsu who woke her from the Sleeping Beauty-esque spell that Amy had cast on her with that 'true love kiss', she's pointedly spent more time with Satsu, singling her out as her 'favorite' amongst all of the other slayers. Clearly Buffy has manipulated the situation to this sextastic outcome. It couldn't have happened any other way. I don't believe that it's something that 'just happened'. I mean, how was this not an inevitable outcome? Had Buffy been sincere about what she said to Satsu in issue #11 at some point since the cinnamon lip balmed kiss of issue #2 (or #3, I don't remember and I don't feel like looking it up this instant) she would have distanced herself, become more professional, not more personal. But Buffy did become more personal.

No matter what turn Buffy's sexuality takes after this encounter with Satsu, I don't believe that it can be argued that on some level Buffy didn't steer the situation, whether consciously or unconsciously. It's got Buffy's fingerprints all over it.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8

My fondness for comic books borders on the obsessive and I'm ok with that. And when it was first announced that Joss Whedon was resurrecting Buffy and the Scoobies for a season 8 comic book series I took notice, and heart. Of course I'm a HUGE BtVS fan. I don't trust anyone who isn't. It's the finest show ever conceptualized and rendered, perfectly structured and brilliantly written. The manner in which the characters were fleshed out and fully realized, while at the same time remaining true to their own mythologies (think Anya, and of course Faith) and still remaining infinitely complex and embodying any myriad of human failings (even Spike the vampire), rivals Shakespeare. Yes, I really did just say that. And mean it.

When the show ended after season 7 and the gang slouched toward an uncertain future, a part of me fell into the blackhole that was Sunnydale. Apparently I wasn't alone, either literally or figuratively, as the Buffy comic can attest. It's impossible to heap enough praise on the comic. You absolutely have to read it for yourself. But be forewarned, it demands a lot from you. What might otherwise seem like a throw away line, in typical Whedon fashion, isn't. And now with the Brian K. Vaughn-penned Faith arc hitting it's stride, BKV proves to be an apt pupil of all things Buffy. He perfectly grasps the inherent problematic nature of Faith, Faith easily being the most complex *hero* ever imagined, and writes her dialog with an eye, and an ear, toward the pragmatic smarty pants that Faith has always been. But more importantly, BKV delves into the Buffy-Faith dynamic from Faith's perspective. In the upcoming issue #7 Faith muses about finally meeting someone (Buffy) that she digs. Wha? Huh? Are we getting subtexty here? I believe so, yes indeedy. Legions of B/F fan fiction writers the blogoshpere over are tattooing "I told you so" on their foreheads. I'm not entirely convinced that Faith does have a sexual crush on Buffy, it could just be idle idol worship, but how exciting is it to entertain the possibilities? Very. Way very exciting!