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After the end of the Bad Blood saga, Dark Horse gave us Double Cross, a single issue story from Doug Petrie that dealt with the aftermath of Graduation Day. Haunted, a four-part mini-series also taps into this area of the television series' continuity and is also written by a Buffy TV series writer.

The cover pretty tells us what to expect, with the Mayor Richard Wilkins III looking over Faith and Buffy. Of course, that just leaves Jane Espenson to deal with the fact that the Mayor is dead and Faith is in a coma...

It's a bit of a cliche, but being dead is no barrier to a character's continued existence in the Buffyverse, as the Mayor's first-person narrative shows. Having a dead character possess another body is hardly original, although unlike, say, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the Mayor possesses dead bodies, and we see his revulsion at doing it for the first time.

Buffy doesn't know that the Mayor has managed to survive in one form, but she is haunted by Faith, as the rogue Slayer taunts her in her dreams. And she's not the only one haunted by what happened as we meet another student who survived the Mayor's attempted ascension. We also get to see Cordelia's departure for Los Angeles.

For the opening installment of a four-parter, the story is well-paced, as in classic Doctor Who style, the cliff-hanger sees the Mayor's new body ready to attack Buffy from behind.

Artwise, I generally liked it, with a couple of minor criticisms. A couple of panels of Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow in a graveyard seem to have a different inking style to the rest of a book, while a conversation between Buffy and Willow has the speech bubbles the wrong way wrong (okay, that's a lettering problem not an artwork one).

Overall, a good opener, and one that leaves me wanting to find out how the rest of the story pans out. BACK TO THE TOP

HAUNTED, PART ONE

Written by JANE ESPENSON

Pencils by CLIFF RICHARD

Inks by JULIO FERREIRA

Colours by JEREMY COX

Letters by CLEM ROBINS

DARK HORSE COMICS


RATING: 7/10


NEXT:
PART TWO