New Rules, Part Two is the second issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten comic series. It was written by Christos Gage and illustrated by Rebekah Isaacs. Joss Whedon is the executive producer.
Synopsis
The Scoobies are back — including li’l Giles! Revelations about a new kind of vampire menace and the blank “Vampyr” book have only just begun. Everyone has a job to do, and for Buffy, it’s treading the road of past relationships! Lucky girl…[1]
Summary
The Scoobies are fighting Vicki and her gang of new vampires, when Vicki suddenly pushes a car and calls a retreat. The Scoobies are happy that Giles has returned once more to the Scoobies, even as a child. Faith and the rest of Deepscan are leaving, but Giles asks Faith if this is what she wants, but she says she’s ok with it. Eldre Koh retreats as well. Anaheed and Billy Lane returned prepared for the vampires, while Andrew believes that there are new rules for the new Seed of Wonder, Giles explains he thinks its ridiculous. Buffy opens the van to get the Slayer Handbook to show Giles how it is completely blank. However, when he suddenly opens it, it has newly written pages.
The Scooby Gang takes off on a plane, while Giles observes the newly written pages, when he seemingly tells Buffy that the tome was originally written to create the rules of magic. When they return home, Giles is annoyed buy everyone’s questions, when Buffy suddenly realizes Dowling is in the hospital and that they must find the being giving these shapeshifting power to these New Vampires, when she believes it is Dracula. Buffy asks Xander if he can visit him; when Xander says yes, he also asks Buffy for Dawn to come with him.
Buffy and Spike are walking to Dowling’s home, when he answers, he talks alone with Buffy; he explains they must just stay friends and not see each other for now. While Buffy is telling Spike about what he said, he enlightens her to feel good.
Meanwhile, Xander and Dawn are flying to Transylvania. Xander enters the bathroom, telling himself that Dawn will break up with him soon as she finds out he betrayed Buffy. Anya appears, reminding him of his situations and their marriage ending. When she says she is sorry, she asks Xander to talk to her. Dawn and Xander arrive at the doors of Dracula’s castle, and he stops her to explain he do love her, until Dracula suddenly opens the door. When Xander rushes in acting as Bad Cop, Dracula smiles knowingly, and Xander calls him: “Master”.
Continuity
- Faith questions Buffy who would turn a job at Deepscan, who agrees awkwardly, in reference to Buffy herself quitting Deepscan in Guarded, Part Three.
- Giles stays with the Scooby Gang in the United States, as he expressed his wishes to Faith in What You Want, Not What You Need, Part Five.
- Issue Where the River Meets the Sea, Part Two shares the scene of the farewell between Faith and Giles, from Faith’s perspective.
- Buffy introduces Koh, Anaheed, Billy Lane, and Devon to Giles, as she had only met them while he was dead.
- Buffy recalls Illyria’s sacrifice, from The Core, Part Five.
- Koh mentions Illyria’s capacity to survive her death, as it’s eventually revealed she’d returned in United, Part One.
- Koh discovers the responsible for his family’s death only in United, Part Three.
- Buffy compares new vampires’ abilities to Toru's pack, seen in “Wolves at the Gate”.
- Giles declares himself the last of the Watchers Council, destroyed in “Never Leave Me”.
- Andrew expresses knowledge about Billy’s vision of Sineya (Love vs. Life).
- Giles describes the “Vampyr” to Buffy as “the book I left you,” as she inherited it in Last Gleaming, Part Five.
- Buffy mentions finding the “Vampyr” with blank pages after returning from the Deeper Well, as seen in The Core, Part Five.
- Buffy recalls not reading the Slayer Handbook when Giles wanted her to, as mentioned in “What's My Line, Part Two”.
- Buffy recalls her “slay-date” with Dowling and not seen him since then (Welcome to the Team, Part One).
- Buffy says that Xander and Dawn haven’t a quiet time since the Scooby Gang saved her, which happened in The Core, Part Five.
- Dowling reveals Billy told him about Dawn’s sickness and Santa Rosita’s zompire crisis, which he witnesses in The Core, Part One and Love vs. Life.
- Buffy tells Dowling about her relationship with Riley, ended in “Into the Woods”.
- Buffy mentions her relationship with Spike, ended in “As You Were”.
- Dracula appears for the first time since Wolves at the Gate, Part Four.
- Anya mentions Xander abandoning her (“Hell's Bells”) and getting her killed (“Chosen”).
- Dracula recalls Xander’s request on not being called “manservant” anymore (Wolves at the Gate, Part Four).
- Xander and Dracula’s reunion mimics their scene in Wolves at the Gate, Part One, in which Dracula opens the door, interrupting Xander’s conversation with his love interest (Renee and Dawn), greets him “Hello, manservant” and “Hello, peasant”), until finally Xander doesn’t resist calling him “Master”.
Appearances
Individuals
- Anaheed
- Anya
- Billy Lane
- Devon
- Robert Dowling
- Dracula
- Riley Finn (Only mentioned)
- Rupert Giles
- Xander Harris
- Holly
- Illyria (Only mentioned)
- Anya Jenkins (Only mentioned)
- Kennedy
- Eldre Koh
- Leah
- Faith Lehane
- Willow Rosenberg
- Sineya (Only mentioned)
- Spike
- Buffy Summers
- Dawn Summers
- Vicki
- Andrew Wells
Organization and Titles
- Deepscan
- San Francisco Police Department (Only mentioned)
- Scooby Gang
- Slayer
- Three Sisters (Only mentioned)
- Toru's pack (Only mentioned)
- Watcher
- Watchers Council (Only mentioned)
- Witch
Species
Locations
- London, England (Only mentioned)
- Deeper Well (Only mentioned)
- Japan (Only mentioned)
- San Francisco, USA
- Santa Rosita, USA
- Santa Rosita Regional Airport
- Transylvania, Romania
Weapons and Objects
- Crossbow
- Gun
- Knife
- Molotov cocktail
- Mʔ
- Seed of Wonder (Only mentioned)
- Slayer Handbook
- Stake
- Sword
Death Count
- Unknown number of zompires, dusted by the Scooby Gang.
Behind the Scenes
Production
- This issue has an exclusive cover for Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo 2014, by artist Aly Fell.
- This issue is a crossover with Angel & Faith Season Ten issue Where the River Meets the Sea, Part Two.
Distribution
- New Rules, Part Two was the 114º best selling comic issue in its publishing month, with 21,804 sales in April 2014 at comic specialty stores.[2]
Collections
Pop Culture References
- Faith calls Giles “Mr. Freaky Friday” in reference to the Freaky Friday story about mother and daughter changing bodies.
- Xander mentions that the vampires were morphing like the T-1000, from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Andrew calls Giles the “Charlie” to their “Angels”, referencing the television show Charlie's Angels.
- Xander calls Giles the “Gandalf” to their “hobbits”, referencing The Lord of the Rings.
- Dowling has a fridge magnet with the logo of the band Nirvana.
- Xander wears his coat with a patch of the fictional organization Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
- At Dracula’s castle, Dawn refers to the original novel “Dracula”.
Gallery
Cover Artwork
Add a photo to this galleryPreview
Quotes
| Giles - “They’re still vulnerable to stakes and fire! Their bodies just seem a bit sturdier. Extra effort is called for.” |
| Xander - “Yeah — zits and squeaky voice aside, that some vintage Giles exposition.” |
| Vicki - “We’re losing too many. And there aren’t enough of us yet. I’m calling a retreat.” |
| Buffy - “Hey. Vicki the Vampire. You don’t get to start a rumble, then run when it goes our way.” |
| Andrew - “Um, alternate suggestion? Let her run.” |
| Willow - “I can’t believe Angel pulled it off. There’s always so much that can go wrong with a resurrection.” |
| Giles - “It was hardly without complications, but yes… I’m back. And, if you’ll have me… back to stay.” |
| Buffy - “Say ‘if’ again and I’ll take you over my knee.” |
| Giles - “That’s ridiculous, Andrew. Only Slayers may commune with the primitive, and only females can be Slayers.” |
| Devon - “Oh yeah? Well, I’m his Watcher, and I say Billy broke the mold. Who are you, kid?” |
| Giles - “I am Rupert Giles, young man. The last of the Watchers’ Council. And you sir, are no Watcher.” |
| Giles - “Buffy, the book I left you — Vampyr. I trust you still have it. I’d like to see if there’s precedent for this.” |
| Buffy - “Yeah, uh… that’s kind of a funny story. When we got back from the deeper well, I figured maybe it was time I actually read the thing. All the pages were blank.” |
| Giles - “All? Are you certain?” |
| Buffy - “I triple checked. Every single one.” |
| Giles - “How odd. Because some no longer remain so.” |
| Anya - “Gee, that must be horrible, the person you love deciding they don’t want to be with you anymore. And could there be a worse time and place to tell someone than this…? Wait. Yes.” |
| Xander - “Okay! I get it. There’s some karmic scale-balancing going on. I guess you haunting me and reminding me of my sins every two seconds wasn’t in your face enough.” |
References
- ↑ “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 #2 (Steve Morris cover)”. Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
- ↑ “Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2014.” ICv2, May 12, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
