"Buffy" Season Eight Big Bad Revealed

If you’re reading season eight of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from Dark Horse and don’t want to know the identity of the big bad, please stop reading this article immediately.

SPOILERS ahead…

For the past four years, editor Scott Allie has been sitting on a secret–just who exactly is the person behind Twilight, the big bad for the current comic book season eight run for “Buffy.”

With the identity set to be revealed in issue 33, soliticitation materials for the upcoming issue have revealed the person behind the mask.

And in keeping with typical Joss Whedon fashion, it’s a doozy.

The identity of Twilight is….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”  Allie tells Comic Book Resources. “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!”

The deal to include Angel in the current story arc was decided years ago and was made possible by a deal with IDW publishing.  IDW has the rights to use Angel as a character and has been continuing the series in comic book form as well.  The two series will not contradict each other or create continuity errors acording to reports.

Four years ago, Whedon wrote out a “Buffy Manifesto” which included the identity of Twilight and was circulated under strictest confidence to Dark Horse editorial and the various comic and TV writers who would be contributing to the series. Still, the outline didn’t specify exactly how each piece of the story would roll out, much like Whedon runs a TV series. “There was a lot of room for the writers to do their own thing and contribute their own ideas, but it was always being managed by Joss to keep it steered towards the ultimate goal,” Allie said. “He knew all the major points and all the major bits, but he wanted to give each writer some individual freedom on their arcs. Like, when Drew Goddard wrote the third arc, Joss would say, ‘Here are the big things we’re going to hit, but what do you feel like doing?’ And Drew said, ‘I’d love to do Japan, and I like Godzilla.’ So the fact that Buffy went to Japan in the third arc was Drew’s idea, but the major points in the story were from Joss’ outline. Then they’d get together and figure out how to use Japan to further the story of Twilight and the building of the Slayer army and all of that.”

But does knowing that Angel is Twilight ruin some of the fun for the end run of issues in season eight?

Allie doesn’t think so.

“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,” he said.  “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.’”

“In the early days of my working with Joss, there was something he said to me about working in this field, and that is ‘It’s all about relationships.’ I remembered that, and it’s been a guiding principal in my career. That line jumped back at me this morning thinking about this spoiler being out there. Because it is all about relationships – if it was any other villain, it’d just be a question of who kills who, but it’s a much bigger question than that. Who’s going to ally themselves with Angel and Twilight? There are still some big surprises in store. It’s not as clear as it appears to be with those covers slipped out.”

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