I am – Hercules!! The first eight issues of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight” make up for the continued absence of “Buffy: The Animated Series.” They even almost make up for the continued absence of those proposed straight-to-DVD Buffiverse movies. Buffy 8.8, which came out Wednesday, is titled “No Future For You Part III.” It is the third part of a four-issue storyline scripted by “Lost” writer Brian K. Vaughn, and it rocks so very hard. Because this Faith-centric arc was borrowed in part on material developed for an aborted “Faith” TV-movie (one that would have starred Eliza Dushku but not Sarah Michelle Gellar), I was thinking this stretch would play like a supersized “Tales of the Slayers” saga, which is to say set in the Buffiverse but not having a lot to do with Buffy herself. I was thinking wrong! Buffy comes off the sidelines in a big way with 8.8, and plunges us deep into the overarching twilight story stewing since issue one. Spoiler-cloaking invisotext on!! It turns out snotty, rich, young, gorgeous, sexy, Winehouse-loving rogue slayer Lady Genevieve Savidge wants to slay Buffy, take Buffy’s place as leader of Buffy’s “brainwashed” slayers, and use their collective superpower to enslave the rest of us. What’s more, she wants to install Hope (actually the undercover Faith) as the planet’s co-ruler. “Buffy has forced our kind to be the serfs of this world,” she grins within kissing distance of Faith’s very kissable lips, “when we should have been lording over the masses.” And the perennially disenfranchised Faith, already bonding harder with Genevieve than she ever bonded with the Sunnydale crowd, is starting to see a bigger picture. What’s great: * The appraisal of the situation offered by Trafalgar, Giles’ “freelancer.” * The bad girls cavorting nakedly in the same bubble bath. * The bad girls’ continued bonding over musical selections. * Two pages of Buffy/Willow banter. * A reference to the “anonymous donors” financing Buffy’s operations. (Interesting! From which wealthy individuals is Ms. Summers comfortable taking huge amounts of money?) * The timely return of Dark Willow. * And more. Herc’s rating for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer 8.8”: ***** If you need additional incentive to visit your local comic store this week, note that the new issue of the Joss Whedon-scripted Astonishing X-Men hit shelves the same day.

The First Five Issues of Season Eight!!

TALES OF THE SLAYERS by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, David Fury, Rebecca Rand Kirschner and Amber Benson

TALES OF THE VAMPIRES By Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard and Ben Edlund