The Return of Buffy!

SPIKE: Watch your mouth, little girl. You should know better than to tempt the fates that way.'Cause the Big Bad is back, and this time it's . . . urgh . . . aaaaahh!!

That's right, folks, Buffy is returning! (Let's hope it's better than Spike's return in season 4 just before he's zapped by the truly annoying Initiative.) Unfortunately, it's not Sarah Michelle Gellar and Co.: it's in comic book form. And yes, I can hear you saying that Buffy's been in comic book form for almost a decade, but this is different: Joss Whedon is at the helm, and says the 4-issue comic book series will comprise the "pilot" of what would have happened in season 8 of Buffy, had the show continued. The complete Scooby gang will be there, as will Spike and Angel, though the WB sold off the rights to Spike and Angel out of Joss's hands (???) and so he will be using them "sparingly," and says he won't reveal what would have happened after the season 5 cliffhanger. So, presumably this will be happening concurrently with season 5 of Angel. Or something.

DRUSILLA: Angel.
ANGELUS: Yeah baby, I'm back.
SPIKE: Is it really true?
ANGELUS: It's really true.
DRUSILLA: You've come home.

According to Joss Whedon in an interview he did with EW, things won't be as cozy and liberating as they appeared to be at the end of "Chosen," Buffy's series finale. ''Not that everything is dire and angsty and season six-y, But she's dealing with the consequences of having empowered thousands of girls around the world. She may have closed the Hellmouth under Sunnydale and defeated The First. But evil? Still rampant!''

After the 4 issue start, which will be completely written by Joss, the remaining issues in the projected 30-issue series will be written by others, but Joss will oversee it (kinda like every season of Buffy, when the episodes were written by his other writers). I'm praying he can lure back writers like Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, and Drew Z. Greenberg.

And maybe... just maybe... he'll be able to lure back his stars for some sort of Buffy movie. With lots of Spike in it, WB be damned.

GILES: Can you forgive me?
BUFFY: For what?
GILES: I never should have left.
BUFFY: No, you were right to leave. We're just . . . stupid.
GILES: I know you're all stupid. But I never should have abandoned you.