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Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 Review
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 sees events come to a head as the Scooby Gang faces both Willow and Xander. Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 is written by Jeremy Lambert, illustrated by Ramon Bachs, coloured by Raúl Angulo, and lettered by Ed Dukeshire.
Buffy does her best to save Willow, who falls deeper into the darkness. Meanwhile, Faith faces vampire Xander alone, and she has absolutely no desire to let him live longer than necessary. The Gang may end up losing both of them, unless they find another way.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 is published by BOOM! Studios, and is available from April 7, 2021.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #23 Story
This issue is immediately into the action as it picks up from where the last left off. The majority of the Scooby Gang faces Willow as Buffy is desperate to find a way to save her, even if others are not so sure she can be. This leads to some nice conflict within Willow as she struggles to regain herself. At the same time, Faith battles vampire Xander, and proving once more that she is far more ruthless than Buffy will let herself be.
Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the pacing in this issue. This definitely felt to me like trying to cram in a bunch of moments and conclusions to plot arcs in order to be ready to move into the next thing. It could also just be me but, I had some issue with the way events at the start of the issue were laid out. They felt rather disjointed with no real flow.
Perhaps this was deliberate to show the chaos of the moment, and within Willow, but it just didn’t feel necessary to me. It felt like an issue trying to do a lot within a limited page count, and some moments could have used more time to actually breathe.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #23 Art
Bachs art is pretty good again. I did notice that this issue has an incredibly minimalist approach to backgrounds for the majority of panels, often being built of simple shapes and designs. This helped put focus on the characters in these moments, which is impactful given the amount of action and emotional beats.
Angulo continues some great colouring, which works in tandem with Bachs’ art to highlight the characters in the panels. I also love the way the colour of the lighting in scenes shifts in certain moments.
I was surprised to find myself a little disappointed in Dukeshire’s lettering, given he usually gives stellar work. It doesn’t ruin the book, and a lot of it is still great, it just isn’t quite the standard I would expect at points, especially after the work he did on the more dialogue-heavy issue prior. It just isn’t his best work for me.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #24 Conclusion
In my review of issue #23 I stated that it wasn’t a good issue to jump into, and that goes doubly for this one. Even knowing what’s happening going in the issues in pacing and overall rushed nature make it a rather unsatisfying read. Emotional beats just aren’t given the room they need to really impact.
Even though some fairly major things occur, I don’t expect this issue to be particularly remembered by Buffy fans. Without those moments being given the space they need they simply don’t hook themselves in the brain as they should. The end of this issue does set up the next arc though, and perhaps it will make up for some of the problems in this issue by expanding on those moments as they deserve.
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