Buffy the Vampire Slayer/The Long Way Home (2)

The Long Way Home (2)
Season 8, Issue 2
Published	April 4, 2007
Available	Comic Shops
Writer(s)	Joss Whedon
Artist(s)	George Jeanty (pencils) Andy Owens (inking) Dave Stewart (colors) Richard Starkings (lettering)
Page Count	32
Issue 1 The Long Way Home (1)	Issue 3 The Long Way Home (3)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Eight

The Long Way Home (2) is the second issue of the "eighth season" and first arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Slayer training continues when Amy Madison makes her dramatic return to hinder their progress in the name of the United States Military.

Main Cast: Rupert Giles, Buffy Summers, Andrew Wells, Xander Harris, Dawn Summers, Willow Rosenberg

Supporting Cast: Amy Madison, General Voll, Leah, Satsu, Rowena

Plot Overview

The slayers-in-training are still being worked into finely tuned fighting machines by Giles, Andrew and Buffy, but all of them are running into significant barriers. Many of the slayers are failing to rely on the strength of the group and instead are attempting to fight solo. Andrew's group resents the fact that they have to use weapons that aren't modern, on the other hand. Meanwhile, Xander questions Dawn's abandonment complex and feels like she may have grown to giant size on purpose in order to get some attention from Buffy.

Back in America, the military organization which has devoted its time to the Slayer conflict has already sent Amy in as their operative and expect her to be in and out by the end of the night. General Voll suggests that they nuke the whole place and be done with it, but the suit he's with reminds him that nuking Scotland would get their plot noticed. When he's finally alone, away from the suit, General Voll takes off his uniform to reveal the scar from the previous issue on his chest.

During the time of this conversation, Buffy is caught by Amy, who places her under a spell. A look into Buffy's dreams reveal a possible avenue of her fate, which is a bloody, unpleasant future at the hands of a giant monster that she somehow recognizes. The "big bad" who was floating above the cemetery is once again seen from the neck down as well. Before Amy can kill the unconscious Buffy, she's interrupted by Xander and a slayer squad. She attempts to plunge her knife into Buffy's chest, but the protections around Buffy destroy the knife without a scratch of damage done. Amy explains that the spell that Buffy is under requires the kiss of true love to wake her and that they may not have enough time to find such a thing with a horde of the living dead crawling up their castle.

Xander attempts to organize the slayers battling the zombies, but traditional zombie rules of killing the head doesn't seem to be slowing them down. With all of the slayers in the field, there's no one left in the castle to stop Amy... until Willow shows up.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Big Bad: Unless it's simple misdirection, the Big Bad may be someone that Buffy has met before and appears in her fevered, magic-induced dreams.

Characters

• General Voll: The general in charge of American opposition to the slayer community is somehow connected to the men who were killed in the previous issue. He has the same scar on his chest as those men.

Referbacks

• 6x21 - Two to Go (1): Willow's first lines are a reference to opposition to her sudden turn to the side of evil. At the time that she was wrecking havoc in the magic store, Giles made a dramatic reappearance after she gave the line "And there's no one in the world with the power to stop me now." She was then suddenly hit with a blast of green energy by Giles, who retorted "I'd like to test that theory."

Willow: As a friend of mine once said... I'd like to test that theory.