Buffy The Vampire Slayer #5

After its initial four-issue arc, Buffy's "Season Eight" in comics form slows down for a stand-alone issue by creator Joss Whedon and penciler Paul Lee, filling in for regular artist Georges Jeanty.

Lee acquits himself admirably, which is saying something, since Jeanty has fit into a square peg with round aplomb, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Jeanty has delivered an ideal mix of comic book skill and photo-reference craft that makes the characters look like themselves, but still live and breathe on the page in a way that licensed comics usually don't.

For his part, Lee tackles this story of a "body double" for Buffy Summers without having to deal much with the series' regular players, which gives him the freedom to run a bit wilder. He takes full advantage in his character designs for the denizens of the "under-community," a world beneath the world where demons and wood sprites and slime creatures of indeterminate origin reside. One especially gripping moment is a partial-page spread that visualizes "the chain," an interconnected tapestry of history and experience that defines the Slayer mythos.

Whedon is on pretty familiar ground here, with a story that plays right into his strengths in dealing with damaged, smart-ass young girls gifted with powers they can't control or understand. His slayer stand-in becomes a hero in the book's final pages, but it's the accrued impact of the story's entire flow that gives the last image its power. Whether he's writing TV or comics or movies, Whedon is the kind of writer that is sometimes easy to take for granted; he's just that good. When you sit back, as this issue closes, and really take in what you've just plowed through, it's staggering just how great whedon is at what he does. Economy, humor, emotional impact that swerves left and hits you right where it counts--man, he's something.