Template:BuffyComicBooks A Stake to the Heart is a trade paperback collecting comic stories based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series.
Story description
General synopsis
Although new to being a slayer, Buffy Summers has already faced vampires and a series of dark forces, but must now try to cope with the collapse of her parents' marriage. Vampires fear for their safety as Buffy takes out her anger on the streets of L.A. The mysterious vampire with a soul, known as Angel, watches over her.
Hoping to ease her pain with magic, Angel unintentionally releases malignancy demons upon the Summers family. Each of the four demons draws from a particular bad feeling.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #60
- Comic title: "A Stake to the Heart, act 1"
- Buffy is struggling to cope with the lack of guidance from a Watcher about her role as slayer, and faces the likely upcoming divorce between her parents. Feeling sorry for Buffy, Angel performs a spell that he hopes will make the pressures of life easier on her.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #61
- Comic title: "A Stake to the Heart, act 2"
- Buffy Summers's life isn't going as she might have hoped, as her parents' marriage comes to an end. A string of emotion demons are released upon her, that feed off of her negative emotions. Buffy faces the malignancy demons of deceit and guilt.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #62
- Comic title: "A Stake to the Heart, act 3"
- The malignancy demons continue to feed from the Summers women, expanding the negative emotions within them. Buffy unknowingly faces the abandonment demon.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #63
- Comic title: "A Stake to the Heart, act 4"
- Buffy arrives in Sunnydale along with the malignancy demons. The trepidation demon hopes to make Buffy give up on life, and maybe even the whole of Sunnydale might just follow suit. Other members of Sunnydale begin to feel the effects of the demon.
Cast
- Characters include Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn, Joyce, Hank, Angel, Whistler, and Lilah.
Continuity
Canonical issues
Buffy comics such as this one are not usually considered by fans as canonical. Some fans consider them to be stories from the imaginations of authors and artists, while other fans consider them as taking place in an alternate fictional reality. However unlike fan fiction, overviews summarizing their story, written early in the writing process, were approved by both Fox and Joss Whedon (or his office), and the books were therefore later published as official Buffy merchandise. As well, the writers, Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Paul Lee made a strong effort to offer a non-contradictory continuity which fills the gap between the events of Buffy burning down her school gym (seen in The Origin), and "Welcome to the Hellmouth".
Timing
- Supposed to be set in Summer of 1996, before Buffy starts school at Sunnydale in "Welcome to the Hellmouth". The story continues on from The Origin, Viva Las Buffy!, and Slayer, Interrupted.
Trivia
- Characters include: Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn, Joyce, Hank, Angel, Whistler, and Lilah
- Writers Lobdell and Nicieza had formerly written for X-Men.
Collected in
- Omnibus: Volume 2