This is it, the finale of The Vampire Slayer. With Drusilla’s plan in full swing, the Slayers need to stop her, free Baby Crab, and escape with their lives. All in a night’s work for a Slayer. Oh, and Spike has seemingly switched allegiances, so that’s not great for the Scoobies.
In general, the conclusion bears much of the same pros and cons of this run: some good character work, but with uneven pacing that, at times, felt really rushed. I do wonder if this was initially planned to be a longer run, with a change of plans coming in late, since the final arc could’ve been much more fleshed out than what we got. Sarah Gailey packs in as much finale material as 22 pages will hold, but the climax felt rushed in order to give us a lovely denouement scene. Gailey keeps the banter quippy, and the characters do have the kind of chemistry that makes them feel familiar to the reader.
A general quibble of mine: We really need to stop with the whole “opening up the Hellmouth” angle… The show did it. BOOM!’s original run did it. And now another version of that here… it’s old hat now.
Artwise, the duties are split pretty clearly, with Kath Lobo taking on most of book, with Roberta Ingranata taking on the denouement, and with Lea Caballero assisting on inks. While their styles are clearly different, dividing up the book the way that they did makes sense, as there isn’t the issue of styles changing from page to page. Ingranata offers up some lovely character moments in the denouement, while Lobo gives us some pretty dynamic panels throughout the climax. The colors by Valentina Pinto and Riccardo Giardina look great, with some amazing lighting effects when it comes to magic use. Ed Dukeshire wraps up another stellar run with his usual strong lettering.
Overall, while there’s an impressive light show at the end of the issue, it feels like this run ended on a less-than-explosive note.
Creative Team: Sarah Gailey (writer), Kath Lobo, Lea Caballero, Roberta Ingranata (artists), Valentina Pinto, Riccardo Giardina (colorists), Ed Dukeshire (letterer)
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
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