Buffy The Vampire Slayer #26

So is this going to be the "last" story of Season 8?

That's what they say.

Has there been any word on a season 9 or is this it??

There's three more stories in season eight. This one (five issues), the next one (Meltzer, also five issues), and the last one (Joss, five issues) bringing season eight to an end at issue forty.

Season nine has been announced and confirmed, but we're at least eighteen months away from it coming out. More talk will be coming in the next year, I'm sure.

Yay, we're finally done with one shots!

im hoping this is a return to form as the book has been a bit dissapointing recently

I just want to finally find out who the big bad is

Hopefully having a 5 issue arc will put this book back on track. Normally I love one and dones, but the only one that's really struck home was the  "Tales of the Vampires" one-shot. I'm just excited to see that Oz is coming back. He's always been one of my favorite characters.

@Gunga Din    Whoops, you are right about season 8.  Not sure where I got my info from.

@RoiVampire  I think that the big bad is the masked Twilight guy.  They really need to build him up or tie him in to make him effective.  He has just been on the sidelines for the most part.

@MisterJ i know he's the big bad but i want to know who he actually is. all the hints are that he's someone we've met before, he seems to know buffy and have something personal against her

I wonder if Josh will have as much of a hand in Season 9 since Dollhouse got picked up for the next season.

@RoiVampire  Ah, gotcha.  Agreed.

I was really considering dropping this title, but if meltzer and Joss are comin on for 2 arcs, then I'm going to have to reconsider. I really enjoyed this series through the first 15 issues, but the last ten haven't done anything for me and I've simply kept reading because I love the world.

@CGPO He'll probably have about as much hand as he has now. The one-shots were major exceptions to the general goodness of this book. Whenever Buffy went and did a one-off or a one-shot the show tended to suffer. Now we're back (apparently hardcore) into the real meat of the Big Bad, it'll excel again.

@Ruo21 You didn't like the Jeph Loeb one-shot that was surprisingly good? Stick with it. I'm major hoping on this arc too.

I must be the only one who really LIKED the one-shots -- except the Jane Espenson Harmony book, ironically.  I'm hoping this is more in form for Espenson, but in any case I'm ready to get back to a long arc story.

This book is in danger of being dropped by me and I'm a huge Buffy fan.  It's been off for a while and it's not because of one shots.  Frankly Comics could stand to do with more one shots instead of everyone trying for a padded out story arc.

I've been disappointed in a lot of what's come out with this title for the past few months... Though, I did enjoy "Tales of the Vampires" which was pretty cool...

Ok so i guess i have to be the first one. This issue was really good. It really feels like we're heading for an impressive finish and it's nice to have the whole gang back in the same place.

@ohcaroline I didn't mind the one-shots too much, but they started to grate on me. I actually rather liked the Espenson-Harmony one in a weird way. But the Faith/Giles one was INSANELY mediocre. The rest were fun. I'm just ready for some back-to-story issues.

This was the best issue of this series in almost a year.  Seems like the sprint to the end is beginning.

That was some old school Buffy goodness, IMO. Oz's dialog was spot-on, and it's great to see the gang back together.
I also feel that we'll know who Twilight is by the end of the arc. I get the feeling that this is the end of the second act in the story of Season 8, and that we should know whom the Scoobies are up against in the third one.
Plus: Awesome cover!

Just got done reading this and I thought it was a solid issue, a great return to form.

Definitely getting better after a long hiatus.

A nice return to quality storytelling. 4/5.

love it love it love it! I enjoyed the one shots for what they were, but am super glad we're back to the big stuff. loved the Oz scene.

Good issue, but it felt really, really rushed. 

This was great.

I didn't mind this comic but, up until the last page, it really seemed like everybody was at EXACTLY the same place where the series started with issue 1 more than 2 years ago.  Dawn's not a giant, and I guess you have that nonsensical outside-world-loves-vampires thing going on that seems more like thumbing a nose at 'Twilight' than storytelling. 

I'll give the Oz thing a chance, though!

It felt like Jeanty was very rushed.  I was having a hard time telling people apart at times.