Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning #4

Here’s where it all ends. (At least, I assume, for a while.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning #4 is the last Dark Horse Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic after a twenty-year run. And, as expected, it’s a lovely finale. The slayer legacy is in danger from a crazed boy from the future who’s assembled a demon army. There’s a huge battle, full of characters from all over the Whedonverse (Fray, Angel, Faith, Illyria, throwbacks to classic TV seasons), and then there are glimpses of what would make for a happy ending for many of them.

No spoilers here, but Georges Jeanty pencils and Karl Story, Andy Owens, and Dexter Vines ink a whole bunch of beloved characters, doing a great job from the supernatural to the mundane. This is the kind of thing that justifies the comic adaptation, since staging all this with real actors and special effects would be insane and expensive. And writer Christos Gage (sharing story credit with Joss Whedon himself) is terrific at conveying what I liked about the series: determination, sacrifice, great friendships, dramatic relationships, tear-jerking moments, beating up idiots, and giving us hope for the future.

Cover by Stephanie Hans

Cover by Georges Jeanty and Karl Story

Ultra variant cover by Steve Morris

If you want to read the whole story at once, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 12: The Reckoning collection will be available on Christmas Eve in bookstores, December 12 in comic shops. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)