Buffy Season 8’s Big Bad Revealed, and…
?Do not hit the jump if you don’t want to be spoiled, like so many people were spoiled when this news erupted over the weekend. Also, if you don’t want to be spoiled about last Friday’s episode of Dollhouse, don’t read this either. You’ve been warned.
For the entirety of Dark Horse’s in-canon, Joss Whedon-approved Buffy season 8 comics, there has been one Big Bad terrorizing Buffy’s army of Ones — Twilight, a masked dude who has nothing to do with sparkly vampires of any any sort. He’s recruited most of Buffy’s living enemies to fuck with her, including the witch Amy and the skinless Warren. Well, Twilight’s identity was leaked, and it turns out…
?…he’s Angel.
What. The Fuck. I was still trying to wrap my head around Boyd being the head of Rossum in Dollhouse, and now this? Good lord. Comic Book Resources has a great interview with Dark Horse editor Scott Alie, explaining how Whedon planned Twilight’s identity from the beginning, and that Alie even worked with IDW to make sure this meshed up with their ongoing Angel season 6 comics (how it meshes up, I have no clue, but they say it does). You know, for all Joss Whedon’s popularity, he really knows how to emotionally abuse his fans by fucking up the most beloved characters — usually by brutally killing them, but nowadays by turning them evil. It drives me crazy, because it’s less about a strong plot than about provoking the audience, and he does it every fucking time. Still, I admit, I’ll be buying these issues the first goddamn minute they’re available. Sigh.