By popular demand… The long awaited review of Wolves at the Gate (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Volume 3)!
A lot of people have been asking me about “that Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel [I] talked about on the Top 8 Magic Podcast.” Most of them were pretty nice about it (even if I didn’t answer them in anything resembling a timely fashion). Some of them, though, like Tim Gillam…
 Let’s be honest. I had it coming from Tim after that Consuming Vortex slow roll (though to be honest it never registered to me that I was slow rolling him… I just didn’t want to screw up). Well here it is!
… The name of the aforementioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel is Wolves at the Gate (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 3)
Wolves at the Gate is actually the third “Season Eight” tale (the show concluded after seven seasons, but the story continues!); the first arc was written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, number two focused on Faith and was written by my old pal Brian K. Vaughan, and Wolves at the Gate comes to us from Lost / Alias / Cloverfield / Angel / and of course Buffy writer Drew Goddard.
As I said in the podcast, Wolves at the Gate is one of the ten best graphic novels I have ever read. No, you don’t need to know very much about Buffy’s universe to enjoy this story. All you really need to know is that there is a super powered girl named Buffy who, you know, slays vampires and that she is currently training a stack of other super powered girls to fight the good fight.
The other major character in this story is Dracula, the vampire of legend, who opposed Buffy at one point on her television program but fights on the side of the slayers in Wolves at the Gate thanks to his friendship with Buffy’s lieutenant Xander.
Dracula is scary and capable… and hilariously racist in this volume.
I think that one of the things that I really liked about Wolves at the Gate is how successfully Drew Goddard maintained the witty banter of the television Buffy in his storytelling. Here is an example of racist Dracula meeting up with his “manservant” Xander before the good guys go to war:
<Dracula> You’ve lost weight.
<Xander> Can you tell? I’ve been trying to exercise more.
<Dracula>Â Yes. It suits you.
<Xander>Â Thanks you look good too
<Dracula>Â Oh, you’re just saying that because I complimented you.
<Xander> No — I’m not! I promise.
<Dracula>Â I can’t see myself in mirrors. I fear my best days are behind me.
<Xander>Â No — you’re more handsome than ever.
I can’t see myself in mirrors. Are you kidding me? The writing is great.
One of the principles that I have adopted into my literature analysis algorithm over about the last two or three years (since reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) is whether or not a writer breaks your heart at any point. So books like Anathem, Zodiac, and countless others that successfully break your heart (which, remember, requires you to fall in love with one of the characters) all get points under the new system.
Drew crushes your poor heart like an ant underneat a toddler’s filthy sneaker about 4/5 of the way into the story. The moment is perfectly perfect, appropriate, all of it. Just great.
Oh yeah. There is one more thing that makes this book really Really REALLY worth buying, but I am not going to tell you unless you scroll way down.
Trust me you probably want to buy Wolves at the Gate without my telling you this crowd pleasing crowd pleaser. Here let me interrupt you with a cleverly disguised affiliate link so that you don’t spoil it for yourself.
I wasn’t kidding.
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Â
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Okay!
Buffy joins the friends of Sappho and hooks up with a fine young Japanese slayer!
I warned you!
Now are you convinced?
Wolves at the Gate really is one of the ten best graphic stories I’ve ever read. I don’t think you need to be a fan of Miss Vampire Slayer to love this story, just great dialogue, wonderful storytelling, Slayer-on-Slayer shenanigans, and, you know, racist Dracula.
LOVE
MIKE
4 comments ↓
Thanks, Mike!
Now tell me what to play for Regionals.
Well, I can say that this a pretty solid buy, though since I tend to buy issues of comics, I don’t really know what the technical differences between trades and issues are. I’d just like to say that for me, the Jo Chen covers alone(of these issues and in general) are worth the price of admission for me. Also, I can’t get over the fact that Brian K. Vaughan is randomly Mike’s old friend. There must have been “something in the water.”
Now I’m curious what the other 9 are. C’mon Mike, you know you wanna tell us! (any Invincible in there?)
The primary technical issues between trades and issues are the sales models. Single issues don’t populate normal bookstore shelves well, don’t carry an ISBN, and, progressively more and more these days, don’t sell as well (probably as a result of these mechanical factors and the desire for more “all in one” complete stories).
I stopped buying single issues several years ago.
Also, I second Mike’s recommendation of Wolves, although it’s not on my top-ten GN list. It’s still quite good, and hasn’t been recycled back to the used book store, which is a good sign.
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