It’s been a few months now since Dark Horse Comics ended their last post television “season” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and aside from a miniseries focusing on Buffy’s mentor, Giles, we had not heard a peep about the future. Now, the publisher has officially announced, via CBR, that season 12 of Buffy is set to start publishing in June.
But there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is this season will only be four issues long. The good news is that Buffy creator Joss Whedon is returning to write the series for the first time since season 9. Christos Gage remains co-writer, and Season 8 artist Georges Jeanty is returning to illustrate.
According to the official synopsis, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 12: The Reckoning follows the world-altering finale of Season 11, with Buffy and the Scoobies having had a laid-back year in the saving-the-world department. But as they’ve learned over their years of fighting the forces of darkness and thwarting many an apocalypse, nothing stays quiet for long. When Dawn and Xander’s housewarming party is crashed by some familiar faces with news of an amassing force that must be reckoned with—Wolfram & Hart, a legion of demons, and Harth, a vampire from the future—Buffy finds herself in a time warp that could alter the fate of the world and could spell the end for Buffy, her friends, and the Slayers, forever.
Season 12 will also see the return of Angel and Ilyria from Angel’s spin-off series, fan favorite slayer Faith, and Fray—the future slayer Joss Whedon first introduced in a miniseries way back in 2001. Interesting to note that on one of the three covers for issue #1, which you can see above, Rupert Giles is an adult. Last time we checked on him, he had been transformed into an adolescent, and his upcoming mini-series will feature him going back to high school. It seems he will get to return to middle age before that series is over if that cover image is correct.
Also, one of these covers has Buffy holding an infant. Since this series picks up a year later…is Buffy now a mom?? If so, who is the father? Because last time we saw her, she was dating Spike, and vampires aren’t supposed to have kids. (But then again, Angel had a kid, so what do I know?) All I know is, if it’s a little girl, I hope her name is Joyce.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning #1 goes on sale on June 20 and will be available with three variant covers from artists Stephanie Hans, Georges Jeanty with Karl Story and Dan Jackson, and Karl Moline. You can check out the Stephanie Hans cover down below.
Are you excited for the return of Buffy and the Scoobies? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.
Need More Buffy? Of Course You Do!
- Here are the 10 essential episodes from the show.
- Have you bought the Buffy Funko set yet?
- And finally, we’re super-obsessed with this fan art.
Images: Dark Horse Comics / Twentieth Century Fox
