Meanwhile, Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans were given a reason to care about Buffy : Season Eight issue #12, which—as reported in The New York Times ( !), among other places, features Buffy in a steamy lesbian tryst. Or more accurately, finds Buffy saying "wow" after an offscreen steamy lesbian tryst. The media hype predictably blew things out of proportion, in a familiar "Oh my God, Superman has died ? Northstar is gay ? Wait, now Captain America has died too ?" kind of way, while the predictable fan backlash kicked in, largely of the eye-roll-inducing "It isn’t out yet, so I haven’t read it, but I’m sure it’s gonna suck, how dare they ?" variety. But the reality feels like old familiar ground, with Buffy having a brief intimate moment, then angsting about it, then winding up in a big slapsticky comic sequence, then fighting some monsters. It’s really just another day in Buffyworld ; only the sexually repressed and the terminally naïve should be flailing around over where she got her last orgasm. The rest of the new storyline that launched in issue 12, with shape-shifters infiltrating Slayer Central, is far more interesting. New guest scripter Drew Goddard (the screenwriter behind Cloverfield) seems to have a solid grip on what makes Buffy work : strong characterization, a sense of comic timing, a healthy dose of the unexpected, and some sexual titillation for spice… Issue #12 : B ; inane media hype : D-
