Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Haunted # 4 [COMICS]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Haunted # 4 (Dark Horse) (Limited Series, 2001)

Creators:  Jane Espenson (story), Cliff Richards (pencils), Julio Ferreira (inks), Jeromy Cox (colors), Clem Robins (letters)

Setting:  After Season Three

T.V./Movie Character Appearances:  The Mayor (ghost), Professor Walsh, Adam, Forrest, Graham, Willow, Giles, Buffy, Xander

Major Original Characters:  None

Summary:  In the Initiative, doctors do a physical dissection of the vampire body that The Mayor is inhabiting.  The Mayor decides to shift over to the body of a massive, one-eyed monster corpse, brings it to life, and lashes out!  Adam is mortally wounded, and The Mayor escapes.  Meanwhile, Willow begins to suspect that they've been fighting the same foe in multiple forms.  Buffy has another dream, and sleepwalks over to Faith's apartment--where The Mayor attacks!  Willow and Xander arrive, and they help Buffy perform a ritual to exorcise the spirit that is possessing the monster--not realising that it has been The Mayor all along.  In the epilogue, a determined Professor Walsh decides she'll ensure that Adam survives--whatever it takes.

Review

Another great issue.  It was enormously clever to have The Mayor's rampage throughout the halls of the Initiative be the cause of Adam's near-fatal injuries that then resulted in Walsh turning him into a cybernetic zombie-thing.  I love a good continuity full-in, and this one was handled skilfully.  The rest of the story is also good, as we further hints of the Scoobies starting to drift apart--a major theme in Season Four.  If someone is only sorta into comics but loves Buffy, this would be a good storyline to have them read.