Last Gleaming

"Last Gleaming" is the eighth and final story arc that spreads from the thirty-sixth to the fortieth issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight series of comic books, a continuation from the television series of the same name. Issue thirty-six was released on Sep. 1, 2010.

Last Gleaming, Part 1 (Issue #36)
The Big Bad finally stands revealed—-Angel is Twilight, and it's tearing the Scoobies apart, testing the limits of their friendship. Seems like a perfect time for Spike to come back. Joss Whedon writes the final five issues of Buffy Season 8, taking his greatest characters to places only he can take them! Teamed with series artist Georges Jeanty, Joss counts down to the biggest Buffy finale ever—-and it starts right here!

Last Gleaming begins some time ago...

As Angel comes crashing out of the sky directly into the Hollywood sign. Thinking about L.A and how it’s hard to believe that they didn't win, that they lost the war. Getting up he surveys the lights of L.A, just as a dog comes and sits down beside him and begins to talk. Angel guesses he's here to tell him that he has a higher purpose, to which the dog says it's true. Angel asks if it involves killing people and it does. The Dog says he is only a Vessel talking through the dog and he is a power without name and comes from a higher plane... but stops to scratch his balls. The Vessel tells him it's complicated but he is chosen. Which brings up the subject of Buffy. The Vessel continues that he's just waiting for Angel to feel it and he better get started. Just as a plane wing breaks off above.

Screaming, NO!!!! He begins to unexpectedly rise from the ground so fast he breaks through the falling wing and carries the 747 to the airport with the passengers unharmed. Angel is now talking to a flight attendant who is the new vessel possessed by the same one possessing the dog. She- while hitting on Angel- tell him that he becoming super just then was not a trial or a trick, it's a reward and it makes Shanshu look like a bunch of crap.

Some other time ago...

As Spike comes bursting through a portal on his machine, talking to his minions who are evidently giant bugs, telling him they lost the wankers who were chasing them and that they are heading for a big clock- Big Ben. And Spike allows them to crash thinking it'll be funny.

Cut to Spike sitting in a cafe with Big Ben smoking in the background, as he is reading the paper, reading the headlines: "TERRORIST BUFFY SUMMERS," "SLAYER JIHAD," "HARMONY'S F@#%KING BEAUTY TIPS"!?!

ANGEL

Angel is in the park and is told- by several vessels- that Buffy did a marvelous thing but enemies will be coming for her unless they all stand behind Angel.

SPIKE

Spike is told by a spectator at a Twilight rally, that it is a symbol of resistance and some of the slayer's victims had it on them and that the slayers are a bunch of fascists against vampire rights.

ANGEL

A possessed old man who is making his Twilight costume tells Angel that there is inevitable bloodshed coming and he cannot reveal himself to Buffy until it is time because she cannot be conflicted with her feelings for him, until it is time. Instead he tells him to focus her anger.

SPIKE

Spike begins to watch the only footage they have currently gotten of Twilight, shot on a guy's phone.

ANGEL

Angel fits his mask on as he is told "no one can know" (who he is)

SPIKE Spike watches the footage, and as soon as he sees Angel in his costume he says, "Ooh, that'd be Angel, then."

Now...

INCOMING... the slayer army evacuates onto Spike's ship, as giants fall out of the sky ad Buffy begins to through them back.

Angel and Buffy rip apart demons and talk about Spike, Angel says that he doesn't trust him and it's all very convenient that he turned up when he did, but Buffy says she doesn't trust him-Angel- either.

Angel says he has an agenda but Buffy says that it’s got to be less complicated then Angels and the last time she saw him- Spike- he died saving her people and his timing may have been bad but would he have preferred he had showed up when Buffy and Angel had been occupied.

Continuing to fight... Buffy says that with both of them here this is the weirdest, bestest, weirdest day of her life and Angel guesses she's gonna tell him to leave, which Buffy says is true and Spike isn't gonna reveal his agenda with Angel around, just as Willow's spell misses and hits Angel temporarily turning him into a frog. Buffy says this is their fault they released these demons everywhere and Angel should help save as many people, because these demon's will be targeting slayers and he flies off taking a bunch of demons with them.

Back on the ship Buffy walks through towards Spike stating, 1. Thanks for saving them from the Uber-Vamps, and sorry they lost touch. 2. Tell me what you know and how you can help, no jokes, no snarks, no dirty British slang.

To which Spike replies 1. Even under all that demon viscera she still stinks of Angel, but it wouldn't be Buffy if she didn't bonk the bad guy. 2. under no circumstances trust Angel. Spike says he knows about the higher plane, how when they ascended they created it- the plane- and abandoned it. And he's not talking about the demons that came pouring through the great space-hymen but the universe. DITCHED AT BIRTH. Spike says Buffy better hope the universe doesn't come looking for its mummy.

Buffy asks what Spike says everyone's looking for, to which he replies that this thing can stop everything, the seed. "We're digging up The Seed Of Wonder."

Spike speaks over the monitor to his minions telling them to set a course for the heart of all magic on earth, and sorry tree-huggers it ain't Stone Henge.

''There was, one time, a house of worship... swallowed up by the earth.''

Over which they built a city... Also swallowed by the earth.

Spike says, "We're heading to the heart, my friends, and where the heart is... is home."

SUNNYDALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a shot of a glowing red seed, with a voice saying, "Kids, they only visit when they need something."

The shot pans out and we see that the voice belongs to THE MASTER, underground with his hands held on either side of the seed.



Last Gleaming, Part 2 (Issue #37)
Spike and Buffy are finally reunited (*sigh*) and lucky him—he’s discovered the source of all her problems, and it’s not Angel. Now Buffy must revisit the place where love was indiscriminate, the Scoobies were formed, and Hell’s mouth was closed for good.

Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty launch readers into the finale of Buffy Season Eight, promising more adventure, twists, and turns. Bonds are tested, lives altered, and oh!—the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.



Last Gleaming, Part 3 (Issue #38)
While Super Buffy is fighting side by side with Spike in Sunnydale, Angel is on the other side of world fighting demons of his own. As Twilight he was given a clear mission in regard to Buffy - help her reach the next plane, together create a new world, and end all suffering. But Buffy doesn't play by the rules, and this "higher plane" and a lifetime of happiness with Angel wasn't gonna cut it-not if she had to sacrifice her family to keep it. And now Angel has to answer for his failings as Twilight-willingly or not.

Back in Sunnydale everyone is fighting for their lives against a horde of demons, and someone close to Buffy joins forces with a villain from the past (The Master) to strive for a common goal-protect the seed.

Last Gleaming, Part 4 (Issue #39)
It's war, and there will be casualties not soon forgotten as Buffy faces her most fearsome enemy. Buffy creator Joss Whedon and series artist Georges Jeanty join forces for the most emotional issue to date as they approach the finale of Season Eight.

Continuity
"Last Gleaming" more directly addresses continuity from the Angel TV series and comic books than any other Buffy episode of comic book prior. For example, allusions are made to the Shanshu Prophecy for the first time in Buffy, and what's more the events of IDW Publishing's Angel: After the Fall miniseries are directly referenced, specifically a mention of Angel's pet dragon, Cordelia.

Canonical issues

 * See also: canon

This series has been described as 'canon' by both Whedon and various commentators. As the creator of Buffy, Joss Whedon's association with Buffyverse story is often linked to how canonical the various stories are. Since Whedon is writing this story, it will be seen as a continuation of the official continuity established by Buffy and Angel.

This may mean it contradicts information given in the previously released Expanded Universe Queen of the Slayers, and Dark Congress, which are described as being set in an unofficial "parallel continuity".

Timing
Intended to be set a year and a half after Buffy ' s seventh season and thus after Angel ' s fifth and also after Angel: After the Fall''. More specifically this arc occurs after the Buffy Season Eight story arc, ''Twilight.

Trivia

 * Part 1's variant cover is a parody of the DVD cover for Twilight: New Moon, matching its background and character positioning. This may hint that the Season Finale arc will delve into the long-standing romantic entanglements between Buffy and the two vampires.