"Spike and I are starting a band."
Season Nine is finally here and it feels like Buffy! Freefall Part One's storytelling is a little different than we normally see. It starts with Buffy waking up and then throughout the day she remembers events from the party the night before. The issue has a lot of great interaction with the Scooby Gang (Everyone's here! Well except for Oz). We get to see Buffy having a good time with her friends, new and old. We are introduced to two new characters. Buffy's roommates: Anaheed and Tumble. Tumble reminded me of Oz. Mainly because of the hair and beard, the not talking a lot, and the humor.
The main issue is Buffy and the gang, but there are a couple pages with demons trying to contain a sphere that has the same glow-y greenness as Twilight had. I'm not going to speculate who this person is or the connection with Twilight (mainly because Twilight was confusing), but I do like this direction and slow build-up.
The dialog throughout the issue is perfect. It had me cracking up at points. And everybody gets decent page time: Riley, Willow, Spike, Xander, Dawn, and even Andrew!
There are three elements that could easily be the "gun" shown in Act I that goes off in Act III: the demons, two detectives in a single page with no names given, and Simone shown headed to San Francisco. These are shown very little and are the most interesting (That's how foreshadowing works!). I'm going to enjoy watching these elements coming together.
There is more foreshadowing such as Spike telling Buffy that something is coming this way and three panels showing what seems to be a hit being put out on Buffy. That comes together at the end which is hilarious.
This issue is more like Season Eight's epilogue which most fans said was more "Buffy" than the rest of Season Eight. So, if you enjoyed that issue then this is good for you as well.
