Will Spike ever show up in the comics?

Note that the respective licenses only cover the titles themselves, not the characters. IDW has the exclusive license for Angel comics and Dark Horse for Buffy ones, but the characters can cross over as much as Joss wants them to. Fox owns both shows and no contract would prevent them (and Joss) from using their characters as they see fit.

I can't find a specific link, but I know for a fact Dark Horse has confirmed that any of the Angel characters can appear in the Buffy comics. I think that question was also dealt with in the letters column of one of the season 8 issues.
 
EveryNiteISaveU said:
Hey everyone,
have a quick question-
Im not too into the comics, I tried to read a few but didnt really catch my interest. At any rate, I just wanted to check with all you comic-loving Buffy fans and see if Spike has shown up in any of the issues yet? Or any foreshadowing that he might be at some point? Let me know!
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This question is getting discussed a lot around the fandom at the moment...there's like a vibe or something, maybe its some kind of premonition 🙂
I do think Spike will turn up, and i'm inclined to think sooner rather than later. I don't know what form it will take, I mean I don't think it will necessarily be shippy but i do think it will happen.

I highly recommend the links Enisy gave earlier too.
 
Tranquillity said:
This question is getting discussed a lot around the fandom at the moment...there's like a vibe or something, maybe its some kind of premonition 🙂
I do think Spike will turn up, and i'm inclined to think sooner rather than later. I don't know what form it will take, I mean I don't think it will necessarily be shippy but i do think it will happen.

I highly recommend the links Enisy gave earlier too.
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As much as I love Buffy and Spike together, I still think that it would make a great stand alone or arc to team him up with Faith, whether it be in some kind of romantic situation or not. I think that the two of them would work well together, and Giles' reaction to losing yet another Slayer to Spike's charm could lead to some quite interesting scenes.
 
I'd love spike to come into the Buffy season 8 story line...After reading all the comments on the Legal issues from what i've gathered it seems ok on that side of things.

All that i've heard is that Oz will definately be making an appearence in the comics.

Faith and spike...that's a weird couple... Buffy and Spike are so much better 😀 Espescially towards the end of season 7. Soo cute together!
 
E
EveryNiteISaveU
yay! spuffy!
May be too late?

It's too bad that this has not been satisfactorily addressed in Angel S5. We were given plenty of excuses to keep Spike and Buffy apart in S5 but at this point it just makes no sense. It's been a year and a half since Chosen and Spike has not even attempted to call Buffy?! The way Spike is being written at IDW, I'm not so sure if he even wants to be with Buffy anymore; but, he at least went to find Drusilla after she left him (see Fool For Love).

I hope they at least address whether Buffy knows he's alive. You would then have to explain why she wouldn't call and ask Spike how he was doing, even if there was no love there. I'm a Spike/Buffy fan but at this point, I'm fine with Spike moving on. I like the characters who seem to be his new crew over at IDW; Beta George, Beck, Tok and Illyria. I just need the writers to clear up this huge loose end.
 
About the rights:

20th Century Fox owns BtVS and AtS and all the characters that originated/appeared in either show.

Dark Horse bought a license to publish comics based on BtVS and its characters. Later they also bought the license to AtS. Because they owned both licenses they were able to have any Angel character appear in BtVS comics and vice-versa. When interest declined Dark Horse decided not to renew the license for AtS. (A decision that Scott Alie (Editor of Buffy S8) sees as his biggest mistake.) Couple years later IDW bought the rights to publish comics based on AtS and its characters. There's a bit of a gray area regarding characters that appeared on both shows. Supposedly Angel could turn up in Buffy, but couldn't play a mayor role. Dark Horse certainly couldn't publish a comic entitled Wesley, just because he was a character on Buffy once.

There is however a often overlooked Q&A session with Scott Allie on ********* that reveals that FOX took all this confusion away:

4. pablo: We know cross-overs are kind of complex to set up, but have you ever discussed the hypotetical chance of referencing Team Angel and Hell-A? We know how far the two stories are now, but we're still talking about the same universe, and furthermore, they're on the same side against evil. And since Joss is behind both comics, has he ever expressed interest in bringing the two stories together for a one-off?

Scott Allie: The main reason Joss provided the outline for After the Fall was so Fox would give us unlimited permission to use any Angel character we wanted in Season Eight. We just haven't had cause to use those characters yet, but we will use some at some point. You wouldn't call it a crossover, though, I don't think.
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Source: *********: A Buffy Forum - Scott Allie Q&A for #20 *Complete*

Shocking conclusion: FOX asked Joss to help IDW make a canon Angel-series, in return for allowing access to the characters. This obviously, would not have been necessary if Joss hadn't planned on using a character (for instance, like
Spike - who is surprisingly absent from any of the covers of Aftermath
). As to what this means for After the Fall. It may not have been Joss' idea to do this series, but it's canonicity and that is undeniable, as disregarding it could possibly make the planned future storylines of Season 8 impossible. In fact, I think this is strong proof that Aftermath and any comics following thereafter from IDW's main Angel-line will also be canon, because I think FOX sees potential in it. Anyway, I'm digressing.

Case close, Spike could be used.
 
So it's pretty much definite that Angel and/or Spike will be turning up in Season 8... at Buffy's side during the final battle, I'm guessing.

It just kills me to know that Fox owns every aspect of the Buffyverse, and could go right ahead and do any Buffy or Angel-related projects they liked, with or without Joss's permission or cooperation.

Hopefully they know that the fans will never, ever get behind any project they do that shuts him out, and that people look to him, and not Fox, for canon. They seem to realize that for now, but we know the kind of turnover they have at networks, and how little respect new execs have for the policies of their predecessors.

I just fear the day that there's some huge falling-out between Joss and Fox and he loses all control of his creation. Is this why he's back at Fox for Dollhouse, despite the royal screwing he took from them in the past? To stay on good terms with them so he can keep creative control over Buffy?
 
AndrewCrossett said:
Hopefully they know that the fans will never, ever get behind any project they do that shuts him out, and that people look to him, and not Fox, for canon.
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As much as I wish that was true, I'm afraid that quite a few of us would watch the show as long as the quality remained acceptable, even if Joss weren't involved.
 
white avenger said:
As much as I wish that was true, I'm afraid that quite a few of us would watch the show as long as the quality remained acceptable, even if Joss weren't involved.
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But most of us would call such a project exactly by the name it deserves: Corporate fanfic, not even remotely canonical. Anti-canonical, in fact, and to be actively avoided.

Enough of us would feel that way to prevent such a project from having any chance of commercial success, I'm sure, and possibly leading to a fandom-wide boycott of all things Fox. (Companies really don't usually care about boycott threats anymore, but Buffyverse fans are an unusually devoted and coherent bunch, and we come from an attractive demographic.)

I can't imagine many of the Jossverse actors would be willing to participate in such a thing, unless they were really hurting for coin. Unless Joss's lack of participation was voluntary and not a result of being shut out.
 
I agree with you Andrew. If Fox does anything without Joss, I think it will fail. I would love to see a Buffy movie on the big screen or a series of movies similar to what was done with Farscape, Stargate and B5 that went straight to DVD. That said, looking at the age of cast members, I'm not sure if time will permit the same cast coming back for a movie. I mean a big screen movie. It takes money to make movies and I'm sure Fox will want to expand the audience by bringing in some new hot cast members.

As far as the topic is concerned. The Spike from ATF doesn't appear to be pining after Buffy. He was screwing around with this Spider chick and taking care of Illyria. He may appear as a one shot but I doubt he will stay on as a regular.
 
Okay here's a question: has anybody bothered asking Joss Whedon directly itself why Buffy is still unaware of Spike's resurrection for the past one and a half-2 years, and why this issue hasn't been dealt with in season 8 yet?

I'm really eager to know, because I'm a BIG Spike fan, and I just keep drowning myself in my own pessimistic attitude that Joss and his co. might just screw up the whole issue by making it look like Spike's resurrection meant nothing to Buffy/or that it had no impact on her.

I want it to be just as intense for Buffy as it was for Spike (when he came to know that Buffy was bought back from the dead in BTVS season 6). I don't necessarily mean that Buffy has to hook up with him romantically or sexually. But I just want to be reassured by Joss himself that he has something up his sleeve and that's the reason he has been delaying the issue and NOT because Buffy knows it already but him coming back from the dead meant nothing to her. Even if Buffy has moved on it should not diminish the friendship that the both of them shared and the sacrifices that spike did not just for her and the Scoobies, but also for the battle against the first. It would be VERY unfair if Spike's resurrection did not have any impact on her. Indeed it would make Buffy look VERY selfish.

I just can't help thinking that Joss and his co. are going to end up screwing it up somehow by making his resurrection look insignificant to Buffy 🙁
 
passions1989 said:
Okay here's a question: has anybody bothered asking Joss Whedon directly itself why Buffy is still unaware of Spike's resurrection for the past one and a half-2 years, and why this issue hasn't been dealt with in season 8 yet?

🙁
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The thing is, we don't actually know whether Buffy knows that Spike is back or not. We've all pretty much assumed that she didn't, but since the events in Season 8 are actually a year or two AFTER the events of "After The Fall," Buffy might know all about it. They might have met face to face, talked on the phone, exchanged e-mail, spent a steamy weekend together in Paris, or any of a hundred other things between the end of "After The Fall" and the beginning of Season 8, and Joss just hasn't bothered to write the story yet. The only thing that we know for certain is that, up until now, Buffy hasn't mentioned it.
 
Well, I think we're going to see some sort of convergence between After the Fall and Season 8, which is why Joss is keeping mum about what (if anything) the team knows about Angel and Spike right now.

First of all, the presence of time slips in both series seems to me like a huge indication not only that something similar is going on in both series but also that some syncing up of the two different timelines is possible. I'm not saying it's inevitable, but I think it's possible. I even think it is highly likely, as it would seem sort of sloppy to me if both stories involved time slips but had no common factor driving or enabling those time slips. Joss is not normally known to be sloppy, especially not when he's dealing with large, overarching plot elements like these.

Second, I'm seeing a lot of connections to Fray within those time slips -- and again, I'm seeing that in both series. During one slip, Spike was seen holding the scythe in Fray's timeline. Similarly, a much aged Angel was seen driving a car in that timeline. Obviously, Buffy went to Fray's time for the duration of an arc. I'm not sure how Fray is going to play into all of this and I've never read the Fray comics, but I'm getting the feeling that both our slayer army might and our HelL-A apocalypse play into the whole banishment of magic from this realm that sets Fray up as the kind of half chosen one. At any rate, Fray is yet another of the things that season 8 and After the Fall seem to have in common.

Finally, we know from Beta George's attempt to seek help from the world beyond LA that HelL-A exists in an alternate dimension separate from the "normal" world of the Buffyverse. Similarly, we know from the fact that -- despite Willow's warnings -- Fray's world and timeline exist even after the events of the Time of Your Life arc, that they, too, may exist in an alternate dimension separate from the Buffyverse. This existence of multiple separate, yet interrelated dimensions and timelines suggest to me the possibility that Buffy and co. may know nothing of what goes on in Hell-A until or unless a time slip or other convergence occurs.

So, in a nutshell: I think the two series are currently operating in different timelines in different dimensions, so I don't think she knows yet. Given the instability of these multiple timelines and dimensions and their tendency toward convergence in Fray's timeline and dimension, I think Buffy's going to find out. I think both series are headed toward a conclusion (or, at least, a climax) involving Fray, and I think that is when the Hell-A arc (as well as Spike's resurrection) will be revealed to Buffy. Wherever Joss is taking us, I think there are larger things at work here than a simple revelation of Spike's resurrection.
 
A
Allycat
we can only hope
All indications are that Spike is going to get his own series in the comics. That's likely going to cut into any great Buffy/Spike reunion. I kind of feel like passion1989 in that I don't see how they are going to give any justice to the sacrifice Spike made in Season 8. I can now see what Spike meant in Damages when he was speaking to Andrew. How do you top the ending of Chosen? I think that no matter what the writers do, Spike fans or Spike/Buffy fans are going to be disappointed. I went back and watch Angel S5 this weekend, hoping to get a better outlook on Angel the comic. I can now understand Spike's hesitancy in contacting Buffy.

But back to my point. It's possible that the writers could ruin the Spike/Buffy moment in Chosen if people are taking the comics as canon seriously. In a way, the Willow storyline means absolutely nothing now that Warren is alive in the comics. They are basically saying that Willow did not kill Warren. That negates her entire story in S6 and S7. Now you can go back and say, she really didn't kill him. I think you will get the same fallout with the Spike return to S8. We know that anything they do with Spike can't be permanent because he's going to have to go back to his own book. It would be different if Spike were under the Darkhorse label because you could let him have his own book and still be in the S8. Would be like Wolverine having his own comic but still showing up in the X-Men comics.
 
^ But hasn't it been established that the fact that After the Fall and Season 8 belong to two different companies has no bearing on whether or not Joss can use crossover characters? I thought he said that somewhere, but I don't have a link. At any rate, both Angel and Spike have appeared in Season 8, if only in Buffy's dream sequence. I don't see why Spike having his own book (if he gets one) would negate the chances for a resurrection reveal.
 
palabravampiress said:
^ But hasn't it been established that the fact that After the Fall and Season 8 belong to two different companies has no bearing on whether or not Joss can use crossover characters? I thought he said that somewhere, but I don't have a link. At any rate, both Angel and Spike have appeared in Season 8, if only in Buffy's dream sequence. I don't see why Spike having his own book (if he gets one) would negate the chances for a resurrection reveal.
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Spike getting his own series doesn't necessarily rule out a reunion. But it does make it slightly more complicated, as the reunion now needs to have a place in both series' stories.
 
Allycat said:
Spike getting his own series doesn't necessarily rule out a reunion. But it does make it slightly more complicated, as the reunion now needs to have a place in both series' stories.
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Thank you Alleycat. That's what I meant. I do know they can appear. But as we see now, the timelines are not even the same. Season 8 is a year and a half after Chosen (AC). The events in After the Fall appear to take place less than year after Chosen. I think they will have to bring the timelines together or do a flashback in S8. I just don't think the writers will want to tie Spike down to Buffy if he is doing his own book. But hey, I'm only speculating.
 
Manipulating the two series members into the same timeline wouldn't have to be all that difficult. We have a witch who is capable of causing ripples in time in one series and a hell god who's pretty much able to do the same thing in the other. A viable "hook" for the story could be that Illyria, thanks to Fred's memories of Willow in Angel Season 4, attempts to get the witch to in some way help her adjust. Once the two teams are together, the expectedly unexpected happens and all hell, perhaps literally, breaks loose, requiring everybody to pitch in and set things straight. That should be good for at least one good double issue, if not a full 4 to 6 issue crossover arc.
 
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