A digression: ten years ago almost to the day, my best friend and I got into her car and drove six hours to Chicago in order to flee our college's annual "It's St. Patrick's Day so everyone must drink!" festivities. We crashed with some fannish friends who plied us with coffee and takeout and fanvids, and all was well and good. Then Tara asked, "Did you get a chance to see that new show Buffy last week?" And we said, "What's that?" And lo, there was "Welcome to the Hellmouth."

This is all Tara's fault. Many things are.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an amazing series, funny and sharp, romantic and painful, echoing pop culture and creating it. Joss Whedon and his merry band gave us seven seasons of *ahem* biting wit and characters we knew like our best friends. Whatever your opinion of the last two years, when the show finally ended something extraordinary and magical passed from the Earth. Even much-loved spinoff Angel wasn't the same after the departure of Buffy, and folded after just one more season. The sets were struck, the cast members moved on, the story-- it seemed -- was finished.

It's back.

With Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Joss Whedon is resurrecting his most beloved creation. On the written page, the characters are free to live again, quipping and backflipping their way through their world, at last free from network suits and ratings fights. At the end of the television series, Buffy and her friends managed to activate all the potential Slayers in the world, putting aside the artificial reasoning, as they saw it, of the men who created the First Slayer but only allowed one at a time. Now every girl who ever had within her the power to become a Slayer is one. According to the new book, that's about eighteen hundred that they've counted so far, all new to this power but needing to be trained, and yes, watched.

Enter Buffy and her friends. No longer in Sunnydale (something survived the ending of "Chosen," but not much), the Slayers have formed a sort of paramilitary group, with state of the art tech and cutting-edge magic at their command, and a matured but still lovably geeky Xander deploying the troops. One would think that the demons and vamps wouldn't have a chance, but it wouldn't be Buffy if something wasn't already brewing. Plus, they've attracted more notice from the government, personified by gritty General Voll, who doesn't like the idea of a superpowered army running around unsupervised on his turf. (If you're having flashbacks to Marvel's "Civil War," you already know what role Joss played in crafting it. If you're having flashbacks to the Cadmus arc on Justice League Unlimited, you should come sit by me.)

Not all the characters are in place yet. Willow is mysteriously absent, and this is mentioned by the characters; Faith is also missing and this is not mentioned at all; Giles is available by phone; Dawn has big problems of her own. The characters who do appear are on-voice, and the new characters, while not sharply defined yet (except for the General) are at least pretty to look at (Georges Jeanty pencils, Andy Owens inks). Plus, there's a brief shoutout to Angel episode "The Girl in Question," which made me squeal with fannish joy.

The story in #1 feels like the first act of an episode, and is no doubt designed that way, so those looking for a more satisfying fix might want to wait until "The Long Way Home" is complete, and read the full arc. If you're like me, though, you'll want to follow this story to see where Joss goes, but more importantly, where you'll want to see where the characters go. They lost a lot at the end of "Chosen," and they gained much more, and it's been a long time since these old friends have told us what they're up to. Dark Horse has already started a second printing of #1 with a variant cover, so you'll have time to go by your local comic shop to pick it up.

Tell the clerk it's Tara's fault you're there.