giles buffy the vampire slayer

Joss Whedon is returning to the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ universe with a new comic for Dark Horse Comics titled ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles’! This four-issue miniseries is being co-written with Erika Alexander (‘Concrete Park’) with art by Jon Lam (‘Gotham Academy: Second Semester’) and coloring handled by Dan Jackson (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 11’). The book takes us back to Rupert Giles who has to return to high school now that he has been brought back to life and de-aged. His mission? Investigate an inner-city high school where teachers are mysteriously disappearing.

When talking about the project, Whedon says that:

giles by joss whedon“Sunnydale was, apart from being on a hellmouth, a pretty privileged place. Giles has never really dealt with the public school system as it exists for most kids. He’s never been to the city. Giles has always had the advantage of being a part of the system that educated him. He was taught to be a watcher in a family of watchers. His education was, in the grand British public school tradition, both expansive and parochial. In-depth views of tiny portions of the world. Of course, he walked over the awkward hormonal coals of adolescence—but now he knows more, and expects better of himself. His once-more 15-year-old body, however, is oblivious to his wisdom/cynicism/impatience.”

While the humor aspect of Giles having to deal with just the students in a high school these days sounds entertaining, it was Alexander who helped sell the idea:

“Giles will meet characters he’s familiar with. Characters loafing around at any high school: shy girls, bullies, crazy principals, mysterious janitors, loony students posing as a teachers’ aides, as well as a few surprises. But the most important character he’ll meet is himself. A version of himself he thought, hoped, he left long ago, will be there to greet him. And that Giles gives our Giles anxiety.”

It looks as if diversity of the cast will be an important part of the book as well as according to Lam:

“For Giles, I think this is the first time I’ve been working on characters that have diverse body types. It’s a new challenge that I’ve been having a lot of fun with. I think it’s also important to represent people of all sizes and backgrounds, especially in such a great universe.”

I’m interested in seeing how this will play out for the character though I’m still on the fence as to how accurate this will be both to the pre-existing stories and mixing it with a modern take on how society is today.

Are you looking forward to seeing a new take on this iconic character from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’? How do you think the age change will come into play in the story? Share your thoughts below!

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles’ will be at your local comic shop on February 28th, 2018!

Source: CBR