Whoa! There’s some big news to pass along to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 today … at long last, the identity of the shadowy Big Bad villain known as “Twilight“ has been revealed leading up to the end of the comic book series. As some of you may be aware, Joss Whedon launched a new comic book series titled Season 8 which picked up the storyline left off by the season 7 finale of the long-running TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For the past couple of years, Buffy and co. have been battling a previously unknown Big Bad villain leading up to the penultimate issue #40 final issue. Today, we know the identity of the villain known as “Twilight“, revealed in upcoming issue #33:

With Dark Horse’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8″ nearing its fortieth and final issue, it’s time for the Big Bad to reveal himself. Throughout the comic series, a direct continuation of the “Buffy” television show, a mystery villain named Twilight has worked in the shadows, orchestrating complex and nefarious schemes to topple Buffy and her organization of Slayers. In the Jane Espenson-penned arc that wrapped with issue #30, now on sale, Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Willow, and their paramilitary team of Slayers and Wiccans retreated to the mountains of Tibet, where they reunited with Oz and hatched a plan to go under the radar by shedding their powers. This gambit proved to be for naught, however, as Twilight’s forces found them anyway, putting Team Slayer at a significant disadvantage. Redirecting their discarded Slayer and Wiccan energies to summon the help of some old gods, Buffy’s crew thought they might even the odds, but instead their actions seem to have forced both sides into retreat.

So as to keep the identity a secret for those of you wishing to remain unspoiled, I’ll keep the reveal behind the cut. I think it’s safe to say that those of you who have been reading the Season 8 comic book series all along are in for a BIG surprise. I, for one, could not contain myself and had to be spoiled … and I’m glad that I did. This Big Bad opens up a HOST of ways for the series to end. I’m dying. If you so desire, read on to find out who Buffy‘s ultimate nemesis is in this Season 8 series …

HOLY CRAP!!! It’s Angel!!!

Now, those of you who don’t read the comics may not be too shocked to learn that Angel is the Big Bad (much like he was in Season 2 of the TV series when he had sex with Buffy and became Angelus). But to the comic book readers, this is a big shock because Angel has his own comic book series titled Season 6 (which, as you may imagine, picks up where the season 5 finale of the TV series ended) so it never occurred to me (at least) that he would be the baddie in Buffy‘s comic book world. Here is some info about Angel‘s reveal as “Twilight” and what it may mean for the series overall:

Twilight is none other than Buffy’s former love, the vampire known as Angel. “We knew from the get go. It was back in January of four years ago when I found out that Angel was Twilight,” “Buffy” editor Scott Allie explained to CBR in an exclusive first interview. “It sounds funny saying that. I’ve kept that secret for four years, so it feels funny saying out loud to a reporter from CBR that Angel is Twilight. I’ve tried so hard not to let those words slip!” And while one day in the reveal certainly has Buffy fans worked up across message boards and on Twitter under the hashtag #twilightisangel, Allie is more than happy to breath a sigh of relief that he doesn’t have to sit on the secret any longer. “At the Baltimore convention this past year, I had driven there overnight and hadn’t slept in like 36 hours. Then I did a panel with [artists] Jo [Chen] and Georges [Jeanty,] and somebody asked a question about Twilight. I replied by saying, ‘Yeah, well An…’ and then I caught myself! Instead of saying ‘Angel’ I said ‘Another’ and just started vamping and trying to come up with a sentence to cover the fact that I just spilled that Angel was Twilight. But I covered and was able to conceal the secret. Georges looked at me like he was going to kill me. That was the closest I came to blowing it.” Though the editor was quick to note that while the secret was out there, plenty more twists and turns lie ahead for superstar novelist and comic writer Brad Meltzer’s superhero-centric arc on the series (starting in February’s #32) and right on into Buffy creator Joss Whedon’s return to the series after that. In fact, Allie stressed that assuming a flat out battle between Buffy and Angel was the next step in the story would be wrong. “‘The Big Bad’ is a phrase that originated from Joss in ‘Buffy’ – this idea that in a season you might have a whole lot of people to fight, but there’s one Big Bad, one major villain that you have to defeat at the end. But this is not like that,” he explained. “Right now it feels to everybody on the outside like, ‘Oh, the cat’s out of the bag! Twilight is Angel!’ but the question [of how the end game rolls out that] all the fans are asking is not really the right question. If this was any other book and Twilight was any other villain, that would be the question to ask. But the question right now is ‘How does Buffy react to the fact that Twilight is Angel?’ It’s not as simple anymore as ‘Now we’ve got to deal with the bad guy.’

Fans of the Season 8 series *must* read THIS full article on the Angel reveal, it’s crazy fascinating and well worth your time. I, for one, LOVE this idea and am super anxious to see how it all plays out. While it’s not entirely the same as having a TV show to watch, the Season 8 comic book series really has kept the Buffyverse going strong in a very entertaining way. All of our fave characters are featured (Tara, Willow‘s love who was killed at the end of season 6 of the TV series even showed up in ghost form in a recent issue) and the story is an engaging one. I’m gonna have to go back and re-read a few issues to prepare for Angel‘s reveal. I’m also happy that the Buffy series and the Angel series will be melded into one Buffyverse series. Buffy and Angel together again … as they should be. If you are not reading these comic books and you are a Buffy fan, you are missing out. Issues can be ordered from Things From Another World or can be found at your local bookshop … you need to be reading these comics. They are amazing!

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